at epoch present to the consideration, not only of
political economists, but of all who regard the welfare of the race, a
subject of the utmost interest and importance.

The population it must be remembered had been steadily increasing,
and under the government of the Adept emperors it had reached the very
large figure already quoted; nevertheless poverty and want were things
undreamt of in those days, and this social well-being was no doubt
partly due to the system of land tenure.

Not only was all the land and its produce regarded as belonging to the
emperor, but all the flocks and herds upon it were his as well. The
country was divided into different provinces or districts, each
province having at its head one of the subsidiary kings or viceroys
appointed by the emperor. Each of these viceroys was held responsible
for the government and well-being of all the inhabitants under his
rule. The tillage of the land, the harvesting of the crops, and the
pasturage of the herds lay within his sphere of superintendence, as
well as the conducting of such agricultural experiments as have been
already referred to.

Each viceroy had round him a council of agricultural advisers and
coadjutors, who had amongst their other duties to be well versed in
astronomy, for it was not a barren science in those days. The occult
influences on plant and animal life were then studied and taken
advantage of. The power, too, of producing rain at will was not
uncommon then, while the effects of a glacial epoch were on more than
one occasion partly neutralized in the northern parts of the continent
by occult science. The right day for beginning every agricultural
operation was of course duly calculated, and the work carried into
effect by the officials whose duty it was to supervise every detail.

The produce raised in each district or kingdom was as a rule consumed
in it, but an exchange of agricultural commodities was sometimes
arranged between the rulers.

After a small share had been put aside for the emperor and the central
government at the "City of the Golden Gates," the produce of the whole
district or kingdom was divided among the inhabitants--the local
viceroy and his retinue of officials naturally receiving the larger
portions, but the meanest agricultural labourer getting enough to
secure him competence and comfort. Any increase in the productive
capacity of the land, or in the mineral wealth which it yielded, was
divided proportion