| 1 The Brehon-law Land Tenure | 2 Celtic Landlords | 3 The Rise of Individualism |
| 4 Gavelkind | 5 Rundale | 6 Celtic Currency |
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Most land was held by kinship groups, called Fine (pronounce "Finna"). Nineteenth century translations rendered "Fine" as "Tribe", and this led to the incorrect interpretation that the land was held in commonage by the population of the Tuath. The Fine was, in fact, a group of descendants of a common ancestor. The head of the kin, known as the Ágae Fine (pronounce "Eye Finna") or Cenn Fine was chosen on the basis of his superior wealth, rank and good sense. Each member of the kin held an individual division of the land, but on his death, his division returned to the kinship group. An owner of such land could not dispose of it without the consent of all the members of the Fine. A successful farmer, however, could accumulate wealth with which to buy land in his own right, and a proportion of such land was held independently of the Fine.
For the purpose of inheritance, males were preferred over females, who only succeeded when there was no male heir. There was no such thing as illegitimacy, any child of a parent being entitled to succeed, whether born to a first wife, a concubine or a lover. Certain classes of offspring were, however, excluded; for example, a son conceived in the bushes (there being a doubt as to his paternity), the son of a prostitute, a waif taken in but not formally adopted by the kin, and a putative son who has not got the Fine-guth (Kin-voice), Fine-chruth (Kin-appearance) or Fine-bés (Kin-behaviour peculiarities).
In every Tuath, a certain amount of land was set aside for the king. In respect of this land the king was a landlord. He could let it either to free clients or to base clients, the free client paying a higher rent, but having less personal services to render, and participating in the oenach or conference of freemen. It was said that, while a lord advanced land and cattle to a free client, he, in addition, advanced to a base client that client's honour price, so that the lord was entitled to sue for his own benefit in respect of a wrong committed against his base client.
Any land owner could become a landlord. Usually land was let to one's own kin. The Church, which received grants of land from kings and, also, benefitted from bequests, became a significant landlord.
The decline of the local kings (Ri Tuaithe) in favour of regional kings and the development in the wealth of the church, (whose property was, obviously, not redistributed to the "kin" on the death of an owner), led to a concentration of wealth in certain families and institutions. In addition, the fact that political alliances were forged by weddings between royal families gave rise to a dynastic political structure gradually replacing the tribal structure.
On the death of an owner, his property was distributed among his nearest kin, males being preferred over females. This usually meant that a man's property was divided among his sons. In that case, the youngest son was given the task of dividing the land into several distinct portions, following which the eldest had the first choice and the rest of the sons then chose their portion in order of seniority. Where some families in a kinship group had more male children than others, a redistribution of the kin-lands often occurred whereby more land was given to the more prolific branches.
This system of distribution of land reminded the Norman settlors of a local feudal system in Kent in England, called gavelkind. While feudal tenure did not, in fact, exist in Ireland, the Normans, and, subsequently, the Engish-law courts of Ireland came to refer to the Irish system of individual land tenure as "gavelkind".
While fertile land was usually farmed by individuals, mountain land, particularly in the west of Ireland, was grazed in common by a kinship group. The families lived together in a cluster of houses called a "clachán" (pronounce "klackawn"). The Agae Finne (i.e., head of the kinship group) would assign particular fields near the homesteads to individuals for cultivation. These would be periodically redistributed for the purpose of crop rotation as well as being reassigned in accordance with needs and politics.
This kind of arrangement was called "Rundale" by the newcomers.
There was no coinage in early Celtic times, significant wealth being measured in:
Another important measure of wealth was the Cumal (pronounce: cool). This term originally meant a female bond-servant. It later became a measure of land area or land value, depending on the context, deriving from the amount, or value, of land that would be equivalent in value to a female bond-servant.
While some sources indicate the relative values of these various units of currency, such values obviously fluctuated, for example, the value of cattle increased relative to the value of silver in time of cattle shortages.
Coinage was first introduced by the Norsemen who set up and settled in coastal towns around Ireland.
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