The Consolidated Rail Corporation, commonly known as Conrail (reporting mark CR), was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeast U.S. between 1976 and 1999. Conrail is a portmanteau of consolidated and rail from the name of the company.
Feudalism was a combination of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.
Feudalism developed from the weakness of government in late Roman and early mediaeval Europe and the need of small landowners for protection against enemies, invaders and other, more powerful, landowners. This need invoked the aid of two institutions already recognized in law, the patrocinium ... and the precarium....