Land Ownership on the Blessed Isle
The Empress owns the Blessed Isle: it is her personal property. No one, from Dynast to peasant, actually owns any land, instead having been granted leases by the Empress to use it, which she might change or revoke at any time.
Leases were not granted in a stable manner, varying from being assigned to a specific House, family, individual, or organization. Usually when larger groups received a lease, they would assign an individual to administer the lands on their behalf, or offer ‘sub-leases’ to individuals from within the leased territory.
Buying and Selling Land
The Empress rarely involved herself in petty land commerce: while no one actually owned any land under her rule, they engaged in a widespread trade of the leases that granted usage rights. The Empress might sometimes cause a certain plot to crumble by revoking the leases held by one trading partner, but at present even that danger has been removed, allowing property transactions to proceed in relative stability.
The lease trade created a system of property values: land with a developed industry is more valuable than open fields, land with a manse varies by the power of that manse, land with peasant villages varies based on average agricultural production. Urban leases are valued higher than rural leases, especially in the Imperial City (where a manor and small grounds in the Scarlet Prefecture holds the same value as a city villa a third or less its size). Access to rivers, coastline, or road systems, general extent of infrastructure, and possession of Exploitation Writs, all increase the value of a lease.
The land market works much like other Realm commerce: the most basic transaction involves exchange of a lease for large amounts of jade coinage, but more often there is a system of barter which comes into play, seeing leases traded for artefacts, other leases, and even favours. However, there are few individual property traders: the value of most leases means that the coffers of the Great Houses can corner the market, outbidding and acquiring individual holdings (a particular trademark of House Ragara).
Writs of Exploitation
As an added control on her subjects, the Empress instituted a law governing the development of her lands. In order to operate any sort of mineral extraction (mining) on the Blessed Isle, a lease had to be amended with a Writ of Extraction, granting permission to dig out buried mineral wealth. Like the leases themselves, these Writs could be revoked at any time, and without a Writ, all mining in a leased territory would be forced to cease.
Unlike property leasing, which is a personal activity of the Empress as a private citizen, the Writs have been claimed by the Deliberative in her absence, and the issue or retraction of them is put to the vote.
Property in the Threshold
The Empress does not own the Threshold… she does not claim to. Satraps or Great Houses likewise do not ‘own’ their satrapies. But, the Great Houses and individual Dynasts can (and do) own property in the Threshold, which can be bought, sold, and exploited according to their whims.
