ent, owned by the state; in practice, it was held by the Moslem
_begs_ or _beys_ (nobles) and _agas_ (landlords), who let it to the
peasantry. The landlord received from his tenant (_kmet_) a fixed
percentage, usually one third (_tretina_), of the annual produce; and,
of the remaining two thirds, the cash equivalent of one tenth
(_desetina_) went to the state. The amount of the _desetina_ was always
fixed first, and served as a basis for the assessment of the _tretina_,
which, however, was generally paid in kind. At any time the tenant could
relinquish his holding; but he could only be evicted for refusing to pay
his _tretina_, for wilful neglect of his land or for damage done to it.
The landlord was bound to keep his tenants' dwellings and outhouses in
repair. Should he desire to sell his estates, the right of pre-emption
belonged to the tenants, or, in default, to the neighbours. Thus foreign
speculators in land were excluded, while a class of peasant proprietors
was created; its numbers being increased by the custom that, if any man
reclaimed a piece of waste land, it became his own property after ten
years. The Turkish land-system remained in force during the entire
period of the occupation (1878-1908). It had worked, on the whole,
satisfactorily; and between 1885 and 1895 the number of peasants farming
their own land rose from 117,000 to 200,000. One conspicuous feature of
the Bosnian land-system is the Moslem _Vakuf_, or ecclesiastical
property, consisting of estates dedicated to such charitable purposes as
poor-relief, and the endowment of mosques, schools, hospitals,
cemeteries and baths. It is administered by a central board of Moslem
officials, who meet in Sarajevo, under state supervision. Its income
rose to L25,000 in 1895, having quadrupled itself in ten years. The
_Vakuf_ tenants were at that time extremely prosperous, for their rent
had been fixed for ten years in advance on the basis of the year's
harvest, and so had not risen proportionately to the value of their
holdings.
8. _Industries and Commerce._--Beside agriculture, which employed over
88% of the whole population in 1895, the other industries are
insignificant. Chief among them are weaving and leather and metal work,
carried on by the workmen in their own houses. There are also government
workshops, opened with a view to a higher technical and artistic
development of the house industry. More particularly, chased and inlaid
metallic wares, _bez_
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