The property could now be disposed of like the other property of the domain; and except in Sicily, where the system of emphyteusis was adopted, the church lands began to be sold by auction.
The government ceased to cultivate sugar in 1891, but coffee, and to some extent cinchona, are cultivated on government plantations, though not in equal quantity to that grown on land held on emphyteusis.
The Portuguese form of emphyteusis is called aforamento; the landlord parts with the user of his property in exchange for a quit-rent (foro or canon).
In Roman Law, the relationship of landlord and tenant arose from the contract of letting and hiring (locatio conductio), and existed also with special incidents, under the forms of tenure known as emphyteusis - the long lease of Roman law - and precarium, or tenancy at will (see Roman Law).
In the north, where the land is much subdivided, peasant proprietorship and a kind of emphyteusis (see Roman Law) are the most usual tenures.