CHAPTER VIII
THE LAND POLICY
An individualistic civilization calls lor a high mobilization of property rights in land, for clearly defined principles of ownership, and for perfect power of disposition. Yet even with the Western nations the assimilation of land to movable property is a recent development. In mediaeval law, land was neither freely alienable by the person occupying it, nor could it be taken on execution for his debts. Among none of the peoples with whom we have to deal in colonial administration had landed property passed beyond this stage when they came into contact with Europeans. Property ideas were not at all developed with logical precision, but ordinarily a rather complex system of occupation rights had grown up, with no clear theory as to the exact location of the right of ultimate disposal. Generally the king or chief claimed the ultimate property in the soil. From the code of Brihaspati, in which the king is spoken of as the “owner of all,” to the laws of the Madagascan ruler, Adrianimpoinimerina, who declares, “the land belongs to me, and I divide it up as pleases myself,” the rulers have made more or less sweeping claims of ultimate or direct 314