The firm enforcement of debt contracts through the courts led to the expansion of large estates under the control of the Judean oligarchy. After default on debt obligations, traditional village lands were added to these estates (as discussed in chapter 4), while tenancy and landlessness increased to significant levels in the period before the First Judean Revolt. The elites, as increasingly big merchants with interests in local commerce and interurban trade (Engle 1977), came to develop cash cropping