"Eric Flint - [Grantville 04] - 1634 The Ram Rebellion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Eric)

Birdie nodded. He and Willie Ray had walked the fields with Ernst and defined what was needed where.
Willie Ray headed back to town and Birdie got to work harvesting and thinking. His farm was just over
the Ring Wall, less than a mile away. If he could cut some sort of gap in the Ring Wall this would be the
perfect farm for him. He didn’t want to put anyone out of their homes but it looked like they needed him
as much as he needed the land. Maybe he could buy this place or most of it anyway. Once he got done
here he’d go see if Willie Ray would support him with the bank.



July 1631



Willie Ray had agreed that buying a farm outside the Ring of Fire and near Birdie’s place, what was left
of it, was a good idea. However; he didn’t know much of anything about how Birdie would go about
buying a farm here. Birdie had talked to MacKay, who had recommended one of his troops who spoke
English and German and knew a bit about farming.

Danny McTavish was willing enough to act as translator and guide, for a fair payment. Fair payment, in
McTavish’s eyes, was five one-liter plastic soda bottles, complete with their lids, and a gutting knife.
Birdie threw dinner into the deal, so they could eat while they talked over the plan. Birdie liked
McTavish, anyway. The scruffy Scot sure could use some dental work, but he spoke German and knew
the area fairly well.

“Won’t work, what you’re saying,” McTavish said. “You won’t be able to buy a farm for the working.
Farmers around here are mostly tenants. They don’t own their farms the way you up-timers do.”

“I didn’t really expect them to,” Birdie answered. “I was just glad to find out that things aren’t as bad as
I thought they would be. I never paid much attention to history, back in school. I figured that just because
they didn’t own their farms, there was no reason I couldn’t buy one though.”

“You understand, I’m no expert.” Danny tugged his goatee, apparently to help organize his thoughts.
“You don’t exactly buy land here, at least not to use it yourself. What you do is rent a piece of a farming
village. Along with the rent you pay, you get some specific rights, all of them written down proper, in the
contract. You get a house, or the right to build a house. You get the right to gather or cut a given amount
of firewood, and to pasture so many head of cattle or sheep or whatever. It’s all specified in the contract.
Finally, you get a strip of field to plant.

“Mostly you lease a piece of land for ninety-nine years or three generations, whichever comes first.
Now, you don’t always go to the laird for this. The laird might have sold off some part, or all of the rents.
When that’s happened, and I’m told it happens most of the time, there might be a whole bunch of
different people, and each one of them owns a part of the rent.”

“What does the lord own after he’s sold the rents?” Birdie asked “Mining rights?”
 “Mining rights belong to the ruler. The laird never had those. Timber rights, probably. Maybe hunting
rights. It could be. It depends on how he sold the rents. Sometimes, a laird would even give the rents to
someone, like as a dowry or for the support of a relative. Sometimes, all that’s left to the laird is the right
to control who cuts down how much of the forest. Or, other times, he might have nothing much. It could
just be a leftover from when the ‘von Somewheres’ really were lairds with rights and duties to the folk
under them. Back when only a ‘von Somewhere’ could own land and owning land meant you were a