With the publication of all Catalan documents prior to the year 1000 in Catalunya carolíngia, the research into this period is now set to move forward on many fronts. This article shows this via a study of legal documents which shed light on social groups and their conflicts and reveal how the rulers used the villas and control over the public properties and rights in them to organise the government, capture the surplus and create the great domain that was the forerunner to the seigneuries.

Keywords: villa, public properties and rights, servitium, fiscum, allodium, domain, aprisio