The objects of lease

Both movables and immovables could be the object of locatio conductio rei;^[1785] thus, in our texts we find, for instance, the hire of slaves^[1786] and animals,^[1787] of barns and stores (horrea),^[1788] as well as the lease of residential accommodation and of agricultural land, the latter usually in the form of "usufructuary lease", i.e.

During the first two centuries A.D. a process of concentration of landed property took place.^[1789] "Latifundia perdidere Italiani" warned Plinius (Secundus),^[1790] whose own nephew, however, owned big estates scattered over the whole of Italy. Seneca, who seems to have owned a private fortune to the value of 300 million sesterces, became one of the greatest landowners of his time. Agricultural investment^[1791] yielded an annual return of around 5-6 % and was much more popular than investment in urban properties. Most of the landed aristocracy, however, preferred to reside in town and also found it inconvenient to run their estates, from a distance, by using slaves.^[1792] Strict discipline and control was necessary, and in addition, the owner had to carry the risk of crop failures and sluggish demand. Hence it became more and more common for the landed proprietors to leave the management and cultivation of their estates to free farmers and smallholders (coloni).^[1793] Their lot was generally a sorry one, for the economic conditions during the Imperial age were not favourable to the agricultural community.^{[1794] [1795] [1796] Most tenants found it very difficult, if not impossible, to draw the kind of profit from the soil which they needed to be able to pay their rent and to maintain their family. Lamentations of poor coloni abound; very often they ran into debts vis-a-vis their lessors, which further increased their dependence and made them even more susceptible to exploitation.}