Excerpt from The Old English Manor, Vol. 12: A Study in English Economic HistoryThe theory Of the Mark, or as it is more generally called in its later form, the free village community, has been an accepted hypothesis for the historical and economic world for more than half a century. Elaborated and expanded by the writings Of Kemble in England and v. Maurer in Germany, taken up by later English writers and given wide currency through the works Of Sir Henry Maine, Green and Freeman, it has been accepted and extended by scores Of historical writers on this side of the Atlantic as well as the other until it has become a commonplace in literature. Firm as has been its hold and important as has been its work, it is almost universally con ceded that further modification or entire rejection must be the next step to be taken in the presence Of the more thorough and scholarly research which is becoming prominent, and before all questions can be answered which this study brings to light. A change has taken place in the thought upon this subject, a reaction against the idealism of the political thinkers of half a century ago. The history of the hypothesis forms an inter esting chapter in the relation between modern thought and the interpretation of past history, and shows that in the formation Of an Opinion both writer and reader are unconsciously dependent upon the spirit of the age in which they communi t is commonly understood, standing at the dawn.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.