THE EARLY ERAS OF HISTORY
with the dictates of his own judgment. He also possessed the power of expelling a profligate son from the paternal home, and such expulsion carried with it disinheritance.
The "serfs," to whom several allusions have already been made, had certain exceptional rights. A public serf was entitled to receive from the State as much maintenance land as a free-man, and a private serf received one-third of that amount. But a difference existed in the nature of the tenure; for whereas a free-man might let or even sell his land with official consent, a serf was obliged to cultivate it himself. On the other hand, the serf paid no taxes and enjoyed exemption from forced labour.
The Government exercised no scrutiny into any transactions of sale unless lands or serfs were concerned. But it endeavoured to control transactions of borrowing. Priests and nuns were forbidden to lend money or goods on interest; officials to borrow from any one in their own department; and imperial relatives, of or above the fifth grade, to make loans in the districts of their residence. Interest was to be collected every 60 days, the rate not exceeding one-eighth of the principal; but after 480 days had elapsed, the interest might become cent per cent, though no accumulation exceeding twice the principal was recognised. Loans of rice and millet must not run for more than a year. If, at the expiration of that time, the debtor could not discharge
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