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diff --git a/29258.txt b/29258.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d64962 --- /dev/null +++ b/29258.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4595 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Enclosures in England, by Harriett Bradley + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Enclosures in England + An Economic Reconstruction + +Author: Harriett Bradley + +Release Date: June 27, 2009 [EBook #29258] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ENCLOSURES IN ENGLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Stephanie Eason, Joseph Cooper +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + 2 + THE ENCLOSURES IN ENGLAND + + + + + STUDIES IN HISTORY, ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC LAW + + EDITED BY THE FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE OF + COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY + + Volume LXXX] [Number 2 + + Whole Number 186 + + + + + THE ENCLOSURES IN ENGLAND + AN ECONOMIC RECONSTRUCTION + + BY + HARRIETT BRADLEY, Ph.D. + + _Assistant Professor of Economics, Vassar College + Sometime University Fellow in Economics_ + + New York + COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY + + LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., AGENTS + LONDON: P.S. KING & SON, LTD. + 1918 + + + + + "It fareth with the earth as with + other creatures that through + continual labour grow faint and + feeble-hearted." + _From speech made in the House of Commons, 1597_ + + + + To + EMILIE LOUISE WELLS + + + + + CONTENTS + + PAGE + + INTRODUCTION 11 + The subject of inquiry--No attempt hitherto made to verify the + different hypothetical explanations of the enclosures--Nature of the + evidence. + + CHAPTER I + THE PRICE OF WOOL 18 + Accepted theory of enclosure movement based on price of + wool--Enclosures began independently of Black Death and before + expansion of woollen industry--Price of wool low as compared with that + of wheat in enclosure period--Seventeenth-century conversions of + pasture to arable--Of arable to pasture--Conversion not explained by + change in prices or wages--Double conversion movement due to condition + of soil--Summary. + + CHAPTER II + THE FERTILITY OF THE COMMON FIELDS 51 + Dr. Russell on soil fertility--Insufficient manure--Statistical + indications of yield--Compulsory land-holding--Desertion of + villains--Commutation of services on terms advantageous to serf--Low + rent obtained when bond land was leased--Remission of + services--Changes due to economic need, not desired for improved + social status--Poverty of villains--Cultivation of demesne + unprofitable. + + CHAPTER III + THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE OPEN FIELDS 73 + Growing irregularity of holdings--Consolidation of holdings--Turf + boundaries plowed under--Lea land--Restoration of fertility--Enclosure + by tenants--Land used alternately as pasture and arable--Summary of + changes. + + CHAPTER IV + ENCLOSURE FOR SHEEP PASTURE 86 + Enclosure by small tenants difficult--Open-field tenants + unprofitable--Low rents--Neglect of land--High cost of + living--Enclosure even of demesne a hardship to small + holders--Intermixture of holdings a reason for dispossessing + tenants--Higher rents from enclosed land another reason--Poverty of + tenants where no enclosures were made--Exhaustion of open fields + recognised by Parliament--Restoration of fertility and reconversion to + tillage--New forage crops in eighteenth century--Recapitulation and + conclusion. + + INDEX 109 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +The enclosure movement--the process by which the common-field system +was broken down and replaced by a system of unrestricted private +use--involved economic and social changes which make it one of the +important subjects in English economic history. When it began, the +arable fields of a community lay divided in a multitude of strips +separated from each other only by borders of unplowed turf. Each +landholder was in possession of a number of these strips, widely +separated from each other, and scattered all over the open fields, so +that he had a share in each of the various grades of land.[1] But his +private use of the land was restricted to the period when it was being +prepared for crop or was under crop. After harvest the land was grazed +in common by the village flocks; and each year a half or a third of +the land was not plowed at all, but lay fallow and formed part of the +common pasture. Under this system there was no opportunity for +individual initiative in varying the rotation of crops or the dates of +plowing and seed time; the use of the land in common for a part of the +time restricted its use even during the time when it was not in +common. The process by which this system was replaced by modern +private ownership with unrestricted individual use is called the +enclosure movement, because it involved the rearrangement of holdings +into separate, compact plots, divided from each other by enclosing +hedges and ditches. The most notable feature of this process is the +conversion of the open fields into sheep pasture. This involved the +eviction of the tenants who had been engaged in cultivating these +fields and the amalgamation of many holdings of arable to form a few +large enclosures for sheep. The enclosure movement was not merely the +displacement of one system of tillage by another system of tillage; it +involved the temporary displacement of tillage itself in favor of +grazing. + +In this monograph two things are undertaken: first, an analysis of the +usually accepted version of the enclosure movement in the light of +contemporary evidence; and, secondly, the presentation of another +account of the nature and causes of the movement, consistent with +itself and with the available evidence. The popular account of the +enclosure movement turns upon a supposed advance in the price of wool, +due to the expansion of the woollen industry in the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries. Landlords at this period (we are told) were +increasingly eager for pecuniary gain and, because of the greater +profit to be made from grazing, were willing to evict the tenants on +their land and convert the arable fields to sheep pasture. About the +end of the sixteenth century, it is said, this first enclosure +movement came to an end, for there are evidences of the reconversion +of pastures formerly laid to grass. An inquiry into the evidence shows +that the price of wool fell during the fifteenth century and failed to +rise as rapidly as that of wheat during the sixteenth century. +Moreover, the conversion of arable land to pasture did not cease when +the contrary process set in, but continued throughout the seventeenth +century with apparently unabated vigor. These facts make it impossible +to accept the current theory of the enclosure movement. There is, on +the other hand, abundant evidence that the fertility of much of the +common-field land had been exhausted by centuries of cultivation. Some +of it was allowed to run to waste; some was laid to grass, enclosed, +and used as pasture. Productivity was gradually restored after some +years of rest, and it became possible to resume cultivation. The +enclosure movement is explained not by a change in the price of wool, +but by the gradual loss of productivity of common-field land. + +This explanation is not made here for the first time. It is advanced +in Denton's _England in the Fifteenth Century_[2] and Gardiner, in +his _Student's History of England_,[3] accepts it. Prothero[4] and +Gonner[5] give it some place in their works. Dr. Simkhovitch, at whose +suggestion this inquiry was undertaken, has for some time been of the +opinion that deterioration of the soil was the fundamental cause of +the displacement of arable farming by grazing.[6] This explanation, +however, stands at the present time as an unverified hypothesis, which +has been specifically rejected by Gibbins, in his widely used +text-book,[7] and by Hasbach,[8] who objects that Denton does not +prove his case. In this respect the theory is no more to be criticised +than the theory which these authorities accept, for that does not rest +upon proof, but upon the prestige gained through frequent repetition. +But the matter need not rest here. It is unnecessary to accept any +hypothetical account of events which are, after all, comparatively +recent, and for which the evidence is available. + +Of the various sources accessible for the study of the English +enclosure movement, one type only has been extensively used by +historians. The whole story of this movement as it is usually told is +based upon tracts, sermons, verses, proclamations, etc. of the +sixteenth century--upon the literature of protest called forth by the +social distress caused by enclosure. Until very recently the similar +literature of the seventeenth century has been neglected, although it +destroys the basis of assumptions which are fundamental to the +orthodox account of the movement. Much of significance even in the +literature of the sixteenth century has been passed over--notably +certain striking passages in statutes of the latter half of the +century, and in books on husbandry of the first half. Details of +manorial history derived from the account rolls of the manors +themselves, and contemporary manorial maps and surveys, as well as the +records of the actual market prices of grain and wool, have been +ignored in the construction of an hypothetical account of the movement +which breaks down whenever verification by contemporary evidence is +attempted. + +The evidence is in many respects imperfect. It would be of great +value, for instance, to have access to records of grain production +over an area extensive enough, and for a long enough period, to +furnish reliable statistical indications of the trend of productivity. +It would be helpful to have exact information about the amount of land +converted from arable to pasture in each decade of the period under +consideration, and to know to what extent and at what dates land was +reconverted to tillage after having been laid to grass. There are no +records to supply most of this information. It is possible that the +materials for a statistical study of soil productivity are in +existence, but up to the present time they have not been published, +and it is doubtful if this deficiency will be supplied. It is even +more doubtful whether more can be learned about the rate of conversion +of arable land to pasture than is now known, and this is little. +Professor Gay has made a careful study of the evidence on this +question, and has analysed the reports of the government commissions +for enforcing the husbandry statutes before 1600,[9] and Miss Leonard +has made the returns of the commission of 1630 for Leicestershire +available.[10] The conditions under which these commissions worked +make the returns somewhat unreliable even for the years covered by +their reports, and much interpolation is necessary, as there are +serious gaps in the series of years for which returns are made. For +dates outside of the period 1485-1630 we must rely entirely on +literary references. Unsatisfactory as our statistical information is +on this important question, it is far more complete than the evidence +on the subject of the reconversion to tillage of arable land which had +been turned into pasture. + +It is to the unfortunate social consequences of enclosure that we owe +the abundance of historical material on this subject. Undoubtedly much +land was converted to pasture in a piece-meal fashion, as small +holders saw the possibility of making the change quietly, and without +disturbing the rest of the community. If enclosure had taken no other +form than this, no storm of public protest would have risen, to +express itself in pamphlets, sermons, statutes and government reports. +Enclosure on a large scale involved dispossession of the inhabitants, +and a complete break with traditional usage. For this reason the +literature of the subject is abundant. When, however, the process was +reversed, and the land again brought under cultivation, there was +involved no interference with the rights of common holders. It was to +the interest of no one to oppose this change, and no protest was made +to call the attention of the historian to what was being done. +References to the process are numerous enough only to prove that +reconversion of land formerly laid to grass took place during the +fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries--to an extent of which +not even an approximate estimate can be made. + +Imperfect as the evidence is from some points of view, it is +nevertheless complete for the purposes of this monograph. It would be +impossible, with the material at hand, to reconstruct the progress of +the enclosure movement, decade by decade, and county by county, +throughout England. My intention, however, is not so much to describe +the movement in detail as it is to give a consistent account of its +nature and causes. Even a few sixteenth-century instances of the +plowing up of pasture land should be enough to arrest the attention of +historians who believe that the conversion of arable land to pasture +during this period is sufficiently explained by an assertion that the +price of wool was high. What especial circumstances made it +advantageous to cultivate land which had been under grass, while other +land was being withdrawn from cultivation? Contemporary writers speak +of the need of worn land for rest for a long period of years, and +remark that it will bear well again at the end of the period. Evidence +such as this is significant without the further information which +would enable us to estimate the amount of land affected. For our +purposes, also, the notice of enclosure of arable land for pasture on +one group of manors in the early thirteenth century is important as an +indication that the fundamental cause of the enclosure movement was at +work long before the Black Death, which is usually taken as the event +in which the movement had its beginning. Low rents, pauperism, and +abandonment of land are facts which indicate declining productivity of +the soil, and statistical records of the harvests reaped are not +needed when statutes, proclamations, and books of husbandry describe +the exhausted condition of the common fields. The fact that the +enclosure movement continued vigorously in the seventeenth century is +conclusively established, and when this fact is known the +impossibility of estimating the comparative rate of progress of the +movement in the preceding century is of no importance. Upon one point +at least, the evidence is almost all that could be desired. The +material for a comparison of the prices of wheat and wool throughout +the most critical portion of the period has been made accessible by +Thorold Rogers.[11] It is to this material that the defenders of the +theory that enclosures are explained by the price of wool should turn, +for they will find a fall of price where they assume that a rise took +place. Instead of an increase in the supply of wool due to a rise in +its price, there is indicated a fall in the price of wool due to an +increase in the supply. The cause of the increase of the supply of +wool must be sought outside of the price conditions. + +Acknowledgment should here be made of my indebtedness to Dr. V. G. +Simkhovitch of Columbia University, without whose generous help this +study would not have been planned, and whose criticism and advice have +been invaluable in bringing it to completion. Professor Seager also +has given helpful criticism. Professor Seligman has allowed me the use +of books from his library which I should otherwise have been unable to +obtain. For material which could not be found in American libraries I +am indebted to my mother and father, who obtained it for me in +England. + + +Footnotes: + +[1] V. G. Simkovitch, _Political Science Quarterly_, vol. xxvii, p. 398. + +[2] (London, 1888), pp. 153-154. Denton refers here to Gisborne's _Ag. +Essays_, as does Curtler, in his _Short Hist. of Eng. Ag._ (Oxford, +1909), p. 77. + +[3] Vol. i, p. 321. + +[4] _English Farming Past and Present_ (London, 1912), p. 64. + +[5] _Common Land and Enclosure_, p. 121. + +[6] See _Political Science Quarterly_, vol. xxxi, p. 214. + +[7] _Industry in England_ (New York, 1897), p. 181. + +[8] _Hist. of the Eng. Ag. Laborer_ (London, 1908), p. 31. + +[9] _Pub. Am. Ec. Assoc._, Third Series (1905), vol vi, no. 2, pp. +146-160: "Inclosure Movement in England." + +[10] _Royal Hist. Soc. Trans._, New Series (1905), vol. xix, pp. +101-146: "Inclosure of Common Fields." + +[11] _Cf. infra_, p. 26. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE PRICE OF WOOL + + +The generally accepted version of the enclosure movement turns upon +supposed changes in the relative prices of wool and grain. The +conversion of arable land to pasture in the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries is accounted for by the hypothesis that the price of wool +was rising more rapidly than that of grain. The beginning of the +enclosure movement, according to this theory, dates from the time when +a rise in the price of wool became marked, and the movement ended when +there was a relative rise in the price of agricultural products. +Before the price of wool began to rise, it is supposed that tillage +was profitable enough, and that nothing but the higher profits to be +made from grazing induced landholders to abandon agriculture. The +agrarian readjustments of the fourteenth century are regarded as due +simply to the temporary shortage of labor caused by the Black Death. +High wages at this time caused the conversion of some land to pasture, +according to the orthodox theory, and from time to time during the +next two centuries high wages were a contributing factor influencing +the withdrawal of land from tillage; but the great and effective cause +of the enclosure movement, the one fundamental fact which is insisted +upon, is that constant advances in the price of wool made grazing +relatively profitable. It is usually accepted without debate that the +withdrawal of arable land from tillage did not begin until after the +Black Death, that the enclosures of the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries were caused by a rise in the price of wool, and that the +conversion of arable land to pasture ceased when this cause ceased to +operate. + +Against this general explanation of the enclosure movement, it is +urged, first, that the withdrawal of land from cultivation began long +before the date at which the enclosure movement, caused by an alleged +rise in the price of wool, is ordinarily said to have begun. The +fourteenth century was marked by agrarian readjustments which have a +direct relation to the enclosure movement, and which cannot be +explained by the Black Death or the price of wool. Even in the +thirteenth century the causes leading to the enclosure movement were +well marked. Secondly, the cause of the substitution of sheep-farming +for agriculture in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries cannot have +been a rise in the price of wool relatively to that of grain, because +statistics show that the price of wool fell during the fifteenth +century, and failed to rise as rapidly as that of wheat in the +sixteenth century. Thirdly, a mere comparison of the relative prices +of grazing and agricultural products cannot explain the fact that +conversion of open-field land to pasture continued throughout the +seventeenth century in spite of prices which made it profitable for +landowners at the same time to convert a large amount of grass-land to +tillage, including enclosures which had formerly been taken from the +common fields. If these facts are accepted the explanation of the +enclosure movement which is based upon a comparison of the prices of +wheat and wool must be rejected, and the story must be told from a +different point of view. + +Taking up these points in order, we shall inquire first into the +causes of the agrarian readjustments of the fourteenth century. A +generation after the Black Death, the commutation of villain services +and the introduction of the leasehold system had made notable +progress. The leasing of the demesne has been attributed to the +direct influence of the pestilence, which by reducing the serf +population made it impossible to secure enough villain labor to +cultivate the lord's land. The substitution of money rents in place of +the labor services owed by the villains has been explained on the +supposition that the serfs who had survived the pestilence took +advantage of the opportunity afforded by their reduction in numbers to +free themselves from servile labor and thus improve their social +status. The connection between the Black Death and the changes in +manorial management which are usually attributed to it could be more +convincingly established had not several decades elapsed after the +Black Death before these changes became marked. A recent intensive +study of the manors of the Bishopric of Winchester during this period +confirms the view of those who have protested against assigning to the +Black Death the revolutionary importance which is given it by many +historians. On these estates the Black Death "produced severe +evanescent effects and temporary changes, with a rapid return to the +_status quo_ of 1348."[12] The great changes which are usually +attributed to the plague of 1348-1350 were under way before 1348, and +were not greatly accelerated until 1360, possibly not before 1370, and +cannot, therefore, have been due to the Black Death. + +Levett and Ballard devote especial attention to the effect of the +Black Death upon the substitution of money payments for labor services +and rents in kind, but their study also brings out the fact that the +difficulty in persuading tenants to take up land on the old terms +(usually ascribed to the Black Death) began before the pestilence, and +continued long after its effects had ceased to exert any influence. +Before the Black Death landowners were unable to secure holders for +bond land without the use of force. A generation after the Black Death +they were still contending with this problem, and it had become more +serious than at any previous time. Whatever the significance of the +Black Death, it must not be advanced as the explanation of a condition +which arose before its occurrence, nor of events which took place long +after its effects were forgotten. One result of the pestilence was, +indeed, to place villains in a stronger position than before, but the +changes which took place on this account must not be allowed to +obscure the fact that landowners were already facing serious +difficulties before 1348. Holders of land were already deserting, and +the tenements of those who died or deserted could frequently be filled +only by compulsion. Villains were refusing to perform their services +_on account of poverty_, and they were already securing reductions in +their rents and services. The temporary reduction of the population by +the Black Death has been advanced as the reason for the ability of the +villains of the decade 1350-1360 to enforce their demands; but without +the help of any such cause, villains of an earlier period were +obtaining concessions from their lords, and after the natural growth +of the population had had ample time to replace those who had died of +the pestilence, the villains were in a stronger position than ever +before, if we are to estimate their strength by their success in +lightening their economic burdens. The Black Death at the most did no +more than accelerate changes in the tenure of land which were already +under way. Villain services were being reduced, and the size of +villain holdings increased. The strength of the position of the serfs +lay not so much in the absence of competition due to a temporary +reduction in their numbers as in their poverty. Tenants could not be +held at the accustomed rents and services because it was impossible to +make a living from their holdings. The absence of competition for +holdings was no temporary thing, due to the high mortality of the +years 1348-1350, but was chronic, and was based upon the worthlessness +of the land. The vacant tenements of the fourteenth century, the +reduction in the area of demesne land planted, the complaints that no +profit could be made from tillage, the reduction of rents on account +of the poverty of whole villages, all point in the same direction. +These matters will be taken up more fully in a later chapter. Here it +need only be pointed out that the withdrawal of land from cultivation +was under way because tillage was unprofitable. + +If tillage was unprofitable in the fourteenth century, so unprofitable +that heirs were anxious to buy themselves free of the obligation to +enter upon their inheritance, while established landholders deserted +their tenements, the enclosure of arable land for pasture in the +fifteenth century is seen in a new light. When there was no question +of desiring the land for sheep pasture, it was voluntarily abandoned +by cultivators. Displacement of tillage due to an internal cause +precedes displacement of tillage for sheep pasture. The process of +withdrawing land from cultivation began independently of the scarcity +of labor caused by the Black Death and independently of any change in +the price of wool; the continuation of this process in the fifteenth +century is not likely to depend entirely upon a rise in the price of +wool. That the enclosures of the fifteenth century were in reality +merely a further step in the readjustments under way in the fourteenth +century cannot be doubted. And that the whole process was independent +of the especial external influence upon agriculture exerted in the +fourteenth century by the Black Death and in the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries by the growth of the woollen industry is shown in +the case of a group of manors where the essential features of the +enclosure movement appeared in the thirteenth century. More than a +hundred years before the Black Death the Lord of Berkeley found it +impossible to obtain tenants for bond land at the accustomed rents. +Villains were giving up their holdings because they could not pay the +rent and perform the services. The land which had in earlier times +been sufficient for the maintenance of a villain and his family and +had produced a surplus for rent had lost its fertility, and the +holdings fell vacant. The land which reverted to the lord on this +account was split up and leased at nominal rents, when leaseholders +could be found, just as so much land was leased at reduced rents by +landowners generally in the fourteenth century. Moreover, some of the +land was unfit for cultivation at all and was converted to pasture +under the direction of the lord.[13] + +If the disintegration of manorial organization observed in the +fourteenth century and earlier was not due to the Black Death; if this +disintegration was under way before the pestilence reduced the +population, and was not checked when the ravages of the plague had +been made good; if tillage was already unprofitable before the +fifteenth century with its growth of the woollen industry; and if land +was being converted to pasture at a time when neither the price of +wool nor the Black Death can be offered as the explanation of this +conversion; then there is suggested the possibility that the whole +enclosure movement can be sufficiently accounted for without especial +reference to the prices of wool and grain. If the enclosure movement +began before the fifteenth century and originated in causes other than +the Black Death, the discovery of these original causes may also +furnish the explanation of the continuance of the movement in the +fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The amount of land under +cultivation was being reduced before the date at which the price of +wool is supposed to have risen sufficiently to displace agriculture +for the sake of wool growing, and this early reduction in the arable +cannot, clearly, be accounted for by reference to the prices of wool +and grain. But it also happens that, in the very period when an +increase in the demand for wool is usually alleged as the cause of the +enclosures, the price of wool fell relatively to that of grain. The +increase in sheep-farming in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, +together with the fact that the domestic cloth manufacture was being +improved at this time, has been the basis of the assumption that the +price of wool was rising. The causal sequence has been supposed to be: +(1) an increase in the manufacture of woollens; (2) an increase in the +demand for wool; (3) an increase in the price of wool; (4) an increase +in wool-growing at the expense of tillage, and the enclosure of common +lands. If, as a matter of fact, the price of wool fell during this +period, the causal sequence is reversed. If the price of wool fell, +the increase in the manufacture of woollens has no relation to the +enclosure movement, unless it is its result, and we are forced to look +elsewhere for the cause of the increase of sheep-farming. + +The accompanying tables and chart, showing the changes in the price of +wool and of wheat from the middle of the thirteenth century through +the first quarter of the sixteenth century, have been prepared from +the materials given by Thorold Rogers in his _History of Agriculture +and Prices in England_.[14] The averages given in his tables are based +upon records of actual sales. They furnish, therefore, the exact +information needed in connection with the theory that a rise in the +price of wool relatively to that of wheat was the cause of the +enclosure movement in England. In the century and a half before 1400, +there were wide fluctuations in the prices of both commodities, but +the price of wool rose and fell with that of wheat. The first quarter +of the fourteenth century was a period of falling prices. The fall +continued in the case of wool until about the middle of the century, +when a recovery began, culminating about 1380. A rise in the price of +wheat occurred sooner than that of wool and reached its climax about +1375. In the last quarter of the century the prices of both wool and +wheat fell, with a slight recovery in the last decade of the century. + + + TABLE I + + PRICES OF WHEAT AND WOOL, 1261-1582. DECENNIAL AVERAGES + + Wheat, per Wool, per + quarter tod (28 lbs.) + s. d. s. d. + + 1261-1270 4 8-5/8 9 - + 1271-1280 5 7-3/4 9 2 + 1281-1290 5 0-7/8 8 10 + 1291-1300 6 1-1/8 7 10 + 1301-1310 5 7-1/4 9 - + 1311-1320 7 10-1/4 9 11 + 1321-1330 6 11-5/8 9 7 + 1331-1340 4 8-3/4 7 3 + 1341-1350 5 3-1/8 6 10 + 1351-1360 6 10-5/8 6 7 + 1361-1370 7 3-1/4 9 3 + 1371-1380 6 1-1/4 10 11 + 1381-1390 5 2 8 - + 1391-1400 5 3 8 4 + 1401-1410 5 8-1/4 9 2-1/2 + 1411-1420 5 6-3/4 7 8-1/4 + 1421-1430 5 4-3/4 7 5-1/2 + 1431-1440 6 11 5 9 + 1441-1450 5 5-3/4 4 10-1/2 + 1451-1460 5 6-1/2 4 3-3/4 + 1461-1470 5 4-1/2 4 11-1/2 + 1471-1480 5 4-1/4 5 4 + 1481-1490 6 3-1/2 4 8-1/2 + 1491-1500 5 0-3/4 6 0-1/2 + 1501-1510 5 5-1/2 4 5-3/4 + 1511-1520 6 8-3/4 6 7-1/4 + 1521-1530 7 6 5 4-1/4 + 1531-1540 7 8-1/2 6 8-3/4 + 1541-1550 10 8 20 8 + 1551-1560 15 3-3/4 15 8 + 1561-1570 12 10-1/4 16 - + 1571-1582 16 8 17 - + + + TABLE II + + PRICES OF WHEAT AND WOOL. LONG PERIOD AVERAGES + + Wheat, per Wool, per + Date quarter tod + + s. d. s. d. + + 1261-1400 5 11 8 7 + + 1351-1400 6 1-3/4 8 7 + 1401-1460 5 9 6 2-1/2 + 1461-1500 5 6-1/2 5 3 + 1501-1540 6 10-1/4 5 9-1/2 + + + [Illustration: Graph] + + +After 1400 the price of wheat held at about the average price of the +previous period, but for sixty years the price of wool fell, without a +check in its downward movement. It is in this period that the woollen +industry entered upon the period of expansion which is supposed to +have been the cause of the enclosure movement, but there was no rise +in the price of wool. Instead, there was a decided fall.[15] The +average price for the decade 1451-1460 was just about one-half of the +average price for the period 1261-1400. (The average price of wool in +the last fifty years of the fourteenth century happens to be the same +as the average for the period 1261-1400. Either the longer or the +shorter period may be used indifferently as the basis for comparison). +The average price for the period 1401-1460 was 25 per cent lower than +the average for the preceding half-century. A comparatively slight +depression in the price of wheat in the same period is shown in the +tables. The average for 1401-1461 is only three per cent lower than +that for 1265-1400 (seven per cent lower than the average for +1351-1400). Before 1460, then, there was nothing in market conditions +to favor the extension of sheep farming, but there is reason to +believe that the withdrawal of land from tillage had already begun. +Leaving aside the enclosure and conversion of common-field land by the +Berkeleys in the thirteenth century, we may yet note that "An early +complaint of illegal enclosure occurs in 1414 where the inhabitants of +Parleton and Ragenell in Notts petition against Richard Stanhope, who +had inclosed the lands there by force of arms." Miss Leonard, who is +authority for this statement, also refers to the statute of 1402 in +which "depopulatores agrorum" are mentioned.[16] In a grant of Edward +V the complaint is made that "this body falleth daily to decay by +closures and emparking, by driving away of tenants and letting down of +tenantries."[17] It is strange, if these enclosures are to be +explained by increasing demand for wool, that this heightened demand +was not already reflected in rising prices. + +But, it may be urged, the true enclosure movement did not begin until +after 1460. If a marked rise in the price of wool occurred after 1460, +it might be argued that enclosures spread and the price of wool rose +together, and that the latter was the cause of the former. Turning +again to the record of prices, we see that although the low level of +the decade 1451-1460 marks the end of the period of falling prices, no +rise took place for several decades after 1460. Rous gives a list of +54 places "which, within a circuit of thirteen miles about Warwick +had been wholly or partially depopulated before about 1486."[18] Two +or three years later acts were passed against depopulation in whose +preambles the agrarian situation is described: The Isle of Wight "is +late decayed of people, by reason that many townes and vilages been +lete downe and the feldes dyked and made pastures for bestis and +cattalles." In other parts of England there is "desolacion and pulling +downe and wylfull wast of houses and towns ... and leying to pasture +londes whiche custumably haue ben used in tylthe, wherby ydlenesse is +growde and begynnyng of all myschevous dayly doth encrease. For where +in some townes ii hundred persones were occupied and lived by their +lawfull labours, now ben there occupied ii or iii herdemen, and the +residue falle in ydlenes."[19] It may be remarked that while the price +records show conclusively that no rise in the profits of wool-growing +caused these enclosures, the language of the statutes shows also that +scarcity of labor was not their cause, since one of the chief +objections to the increase of pasture is the unemployment caused. + +It would seem hardly necessary to push the comparison of the prices of +wool and wheat beyond 1490. In order to establish the contention that +the enclosure movement was caused by an advance in the price of wool, +it would be necessary to show that this advance took place before the +date at which the enclosure problem had become so serious as to be the +subject of legislation. By 1490 statesmen were already alarmed at the +progress made by enclosure. The movement was well under way. Yet it +has been shown that the price of wool had been falling for over a +century, instead of rising, and that the price of wheat held its own. +Even if it could be established that the price of wheat fell as +compared with that of wool after this date, the usually accepted +version of the enclosure movement would still be inadequate. But as a +matter of fact the price of wheat rose steadily after 1490, reaching a +higher average in each succeeding decade, while the price of wool +wavered about an average which rose very slowly until 1535. The +entries on which these wool averages are based are few, and greater +uncertainty therefore attaches to their representativeness than in the +case of the prices of earlier decades, but the evidence, such as it +is, points to a more rapid rise in the price of wheat than in the +price of wool. Between 1500 and 1540 the average price of wheat was +nearly 24 per cent above that of the previous forty years, but the +average price of wool rose only ten per cent. There are only nine +entries of wool prices for the forty-six years after 1536, but these +are enough to show that the price of wool, like that of wheat and all +other commodities, was rising rapidly at this time. The lack of +material upon which to base a comparison of the actual rate of +increase of price for the two commodities makes further statistical +analysis impossible, but a knowledge of prices after the date at which +the material ceases would add nothing to the evidence on the subject +under consideration. + +Sir Thomas More's _Utopia_ was written in 1516, with its well-known +passage describing contemporary enclosures in terms similar to those +used in the statutes of thirty years before, and complaining that the +sheep + + that were wont to be so meke and tame, and so smal eaters, now, + as I heare saye, be become so great devowerers and so wylde, that + they eate up, and swallow downe the very men them selfes. They + consume, destroye, and devoure whole fields, howses, and cities. + For looke in what partes of the realme doth growe the fynest, and + therfore dearest woll, there noblemen, and gentlemen: yea and + certeyn Abbottes ... leave no grounde for tillage, thei inclose + al into pastures: thei throw doune houses: they plucke downe + townes, and leave nothing standynge, but only the churche to be + made a shepe-howse.[20] + +These enclosures were not caused by an advance in the price of wool +relatively to that of wheat, as the rise in the price of wool in the +decade 1510-1520 was no greater than that of corn. Nor does sheep +farming seem to have been especially profitable at this time, as More +himself attributes the high price of wool in part to a "pestiferous +morrein." Again, the complaint is also made that unemployment was +caused, showing that scarcity of labor was not the reason for the +conversion of arable to pasture: + + The husbandmen be thrust owte of their owne, ... whom no man wyl + set a worke, though thei never so willyngly profre themselves + therto. For one Shephearde or Heardman is ynoughe to eate up that + grounde with cattel, to the occupiyng wherof aboute husbandrye + manye handes were requisite.[21] + + +In 1514 a new husbandry statute was passed, penalising the conversion +of tillage to pasture, and requiring the restoration of the land to +tillage. It was repeated and made perpetual in the following year. In +1517 a commission was ordered to enquire into the destruction of +houses since 1488 and the conversion of arable to pasture. In 1518 a +fresh commission was issued and the prosecution of offenders was +begun. These facts are cited as a further reminder of the fact that +the period for which the prices of wool and wheat are both known is +the critical period in the enclosure movement. It is the enclosures +covered by these acts and those referred to by Sir Thomas More which +historians have explained by alleging that the price of wool was +high. As a matter of record, the course of prices was such as to +encourage the extension of tillage rather than of pasture. + +After an examination of these price statistics it hardly seems +necessary to advance further objections to the accepted account of the +enclosure movement, based as it is upon the assumption that price +movements in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were exactly +opposite to those which have been shown to take place. There is no +reason to doubt the accuracy of Rogers' figures within the limits +required for our purpose, and the evidence based on these figures is +in itself conclusive. Even without this evidence, however, there is +sufficient reason for rejecting the theory that changes in the prices +of grain and wool account for the facts of the enclosure movement. For +one thing, if the price of wool actually did rise (in spite of the +statistical evidence to the contrary) and if this is actually the +cause of the enclosure movement, the movement should have come to an +end when sufficient time had elapsed for an adjustment of the wool +supply to the increasing demand. If the movement did not come to an +end within a reasonable period, there would be reason for suspecting +the adequacy of the explanation advanced. As a matter of fact, it is +usually thought that the enclosure movement did end about 1600. Much +land which had not been affected by the changes of the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries (it is usually asserted) escaped enclosure +altogether until the need for better agriculture in the eighteenth +century ushered in the so-called second enclosure movement, which did +not involve the conversion of tilled land to pasture. This alleged +check in the progress of the enclosure movement is inferred from the +fact that new land, and even some of the land formerly withdrawn from +the common-fields to be converted to pasture, was being tilled. This +is interpreted by economic historians as evidence that arable land +was no longer being converted to pasture. We are told by Meredith, for +instance, that "Moneyed men at the end of Elizabeth's reign were +beginning to find it profitable to sink money in arable farming, a +fact which points to the conclusion that there was no longer any +differential advantage in sheep-raising."[22] Cunningham is also of +the opinion that "So far as such a movement can be definitely dated, +it may be said that enclosure for the sake of increasing sheep-farming +almost entirely ceased with the reign of Elizabeth."[23] Innes gives +as the cause of this supposed check in the reduction of arable land to +pasture that "The expansion of pasturage appears to have reached the +limit beyond which it would have ceased to be profitable."[24] It is +indeed reasonable that the high prices which are supposed to have been +the cause of the sudden increase in wool production should be +gradually lowered as the supply increased, and that thus the +inducement to the conversion of arable to pasture would in time +disappear. The theory that the enclosure movement was due to an +increase in the price of wool would be seriously weakened if the +movement continued for a time longer than that required to bring about +an adjustment of the supply to the increased demand. + +For the sake of consistency, then, this point in the account of the +enclosure movement is necessary. It would follow naturally from the +original explanation of the movement as the response to an increased +demand for wool, as reflected in high prices. With the decrease in +prices to be expected as the supply increased, the incentive for +converting arable to pasture would be removed. Historians sometimes +speak of other considerations which might have contributed to the +cessation of the enclosure movement. Ashley, for instance, suggests +that landowners found that to "devote their lands continuously to +sheep-breeding did not turn out quite so profitable as was at first +expected."[25] Others refer to the contemporary complaints of the bad +effect of enclosure upon the quality of wool. The breed of sheep which +could be kept in enclosed pastures was said to produce coarser wool +than those grazing on the hilly pastures, and this deterioration in +the quality of wool so cut down the profits from enclosures that men +now preferred to plow them up again, and resume tillage. The extent to +which the plowing up of pasture can be attributed to this cause must +be very slight, however, as even contemporaries disagreed as to the +existence of any deterioration in the quality of the wool. Some +authorities even state that the quality was improved by the use of +enclosed pasture: when Cornwall, + + through want of good manurance lay waste and open, the sheep had + generally little bodies and coarse fleeces, so as their wool bare + no better name than Cornish hair ... but since the grounds began + to receive enclosure and dressing for tillage, the nature of the + soil hath altered to a better grain and yieldeth nourishment in + greater abundance to the beasts that pasture thereupon; so as, by + this means ... Cornish sheep come but little behind the eastern + flocks for bigness of mould, _fineness of wool, etc._[26] + +The plowing up of pasture land for tillage cannot, then, be explained +by the effect of enclosure upon the quality of wool. It has been +ordinarily taken as an indication that the price of grain was now +rising more rapidly than that of wool, partly because a relaxation of +the corn-laws permitted greater freedom of export, and partly because +the home demand was increasing on account of the growth of the +population. Graziers were as willing to convert pastures to +corn-fields for the sake of greater profits as their predecessors had +been to carry out the contrary process. The deciding factor in the +situation, according to the orthodox account, was the relative price +of wool and grain. When the price of wool rose more rapidly than that +of grain, arable land was enclosed and used for grazing. When the +price of grain rose more rapidly than that of wool, pastures were +plowed up and cultivated. + +Up to this point, the account is consistent. If the price of wool was +rising more rapidly than that of grain during the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries (in spite of the statistical evidence to the +contrary) it is reasonable that the differential advantage in grazing +should finally come to an end when a new balance between tillage and +grazing was established. It is not even surprising that the conversion +of arable to pasture should have continued beyond the proper point, +and that a contrary movement should set in. Bacon, in 1592, remarked +that men had of late been enticed by the good yield of corn and the +increased freedom of export to "break up more ground and convert it to +tillage than all the penal laws for that purpose made and enacted +could ever by compulsion effect."[27] In 1650 Lord Monson plowed up +100 acres of Grafton Park, which had formerly been pasture, and there +are many other records showing a tendency to convert pasture to arable +in the seventeenth century.[28] It is true that men were able to make +a profit from agriculture by the end of the sixteenth century. But +there is one difficulty which has been overlooked: the withdrawal +from agriculture of common-field land did _not_ cease. The protests +against depopulating enclosure continue, and government reports and +surveys show that enclosure for pasture was proceeding at as rapid a +rate as in the sixteenth century. Miss Leonard's article on "Inclosure +of Common Fields in the Seventeenth Century"[29] contains a mass of +evidence which is conclusive. A few quotations will indicate its +character: + + "In Leicestershire the enclosures of Cottesbach in 1602, of Enderby + about 1605, of Thornby about 1616, were all accomplished by a + lessening of the land under the plough. Moore, writing in 1656, + says: 'Surely they may make men as soon believe there is no sun in + the firmament as that usually depopulation and decay of tillage will + not follow inclosure in our inland countyes.'" (p. 117). Letters + from the Council were written in 1630 complaining of "'enclosures + and convercons tending as they generallie doe unto depopulation.... + There appeares many great inclosures ... all wch are or are lyke to + turne to the conversion of much ground from errable to pasture and + be very hurtfull to the commonwealth.... We well know wth all what + ye consequence will be, and in conclusion all turne to + depopulation!'" (p. 128). Forster, writing in 1664, says, "there + hath been of late years divers whole lordships and towns enclosed + and their earable land converted into pasture!" (p. 142). + + +Frequently the same proprietor in the same year plowed up pasture land +for corn and laid arable to pasture. Tawney cites a case in which +ninety-five acres of ancient pasture were brought under cultivation +while thirty-five acres of arable were laid to grass.[30] In 1630 the +Countess of Westmoreland enclosed and converted arable, but tilled +other land instead.[31] The enclosure movement, then, did not end at +the time when it is usually thought to have ended. Since it is +difficult to suppose that the price of wool could have been advancing +constantly throughout two centuries, without causing such a +readjustment in the use of land that no further withdrawal of land +from tillage for pasture would be necessary, the continuance of the +conversion of arable to pasture in the seventeenth century throws +suspicion upon the whole explanation of the enclosure movement as due +to the increased demand for wool. + +Miss Leonard, indeed, advances the hypothesis that the price of wool +ceased to be the cause of enclosure during the seventeenth century, +but that other price changes had the same effect: + + The increase in pasture in the sixteenth century was rendered + profitable by the rapid increase in the price of wool, but, in + the seventeenth century, this cause ceases to operate. The change + to pasture, however, continued, partly owing to a great rise in + the price of cattle, and partly because the increase in wages + made it less profitable to employ the greater number of men + necessary for tilling the fields.[32] + +The assumption that wages and the price of cattle advanced +sufficiently in the seventeenth century to account for the change to +pasture are no better justified than the assumption of the rapid rise +in the price of wool in the sixteenth century. If the price of meat +and dairy products rose in the seventeenth century, so did the price +of grain and other foods. The relative rate of increase is the only +point significant for the present discussion. No statistics are +available to show whether the price of cattle rose more rapidly than +that of grain, and the evidence afforded by the reduction of arable +land to pasture is counterbalanced by the equally well-established +fact that much pasture land was plowed and planted in this period. It +is equally probable on the basis of this evidence that the prices of +wheat and barley advanced more rapidly than those of meat and butter +and cheese. The same difficulty is met in the suggestion that the +increase in pasturage was due partly to higher wages for farm labor. +The extension of tillage over much land formerly laid to pasture as +well as that which had never been plowed at all is sufficient cause +for doubting a prohibitive increase in wages. Moreover, in modern +times, wages lag in general rise of prices. Unless conclusive evidence +is presented to show that this was not the case in the seventeenth +century, it must be assumed to be inherently probable that the +increased wages of the time were more than offset by the rapidly +advancing prices. + +During the seventeenth century, then, when it is admitted that the +high price of wool was not the cause which induced landowners to +convert arable to pasture, it cannot be shown that the high price of +cattle or exorbitant wages will account for the withdrawal of land +from cultivation. This is an important point, for historians +frequently support their main contention with regard to the enclosure +movement (_i. e._, that it was caused by an increase in the price of +wool), by the statement that increasing wages made landlords abandon +tillage for sheep-farming, with its smaller labor charges. It has been +shown that the conversion of arable to pasture in the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries cannot be explained by the price of wool, but it +may still be urged that agriculture was rendered unprofitable by high +wages. Indeed, it is usually stated that the withdrawal of land from +cultivation which took place in the fourteenth century was due to the +scarcity of labor caused by the Black Death. In the fifteenth century +population was reduced by the Wars of the Roses; and throughout the +period under consideration, agriculture had to meet the competition of +the growing town industries for labor. Is it not possible that these +influences caused an exorbitant rise in wages which would alone +account for the substitution of sheep-farming for tillage? + +The obvious character of the enclosure movement makes it impossible to +accept this hypothesis. The conversion of arable land to pasture was +caused by no demand for higher wages, which made tillage unprofitable. +The unemployment and pauperism caused by the enclosure of the open +fields are notorious, and it is to these features of the enclosure +movement that we owe the mass of literature on the subject. Enclosures +called forth a storm of protest, because they took away the living of +poor husbandry families. The acute distress undergone by those who +were evicted from their holdings is sufficient indication of the +difficulty of finding employment, and it is impossible that wages +could remain at an exorbitant level when the enclosure of the lands of +one open-field township made enough men homeless to supply any +existing dearth of labor in all of the surrounding villages. If +agriculture was unprofitable, it was not because laborers demanded +excessive wages, but because of the low productivity of the land. The +significance of contemporary complaints of high wages is missed if +they are interpreted as an indication of an exorbitant increase in +wages. The facts are, rather, that land was so unproductive that +farmers could not afford to pay even a low wage. + +If it were necessary to argue the point further, it could be pointed +out that wages even in industry were not subject to that steady rise +which would have to be assumed, if high wages are to furnish the +explanation of the substitution of pasture for tillage from the +thirteenth century to the eighteenth. The statistical data on this +subject are fragmentary, but Thorold Rogers' calculations for the +period 1540-1582 are significant. In this period wages rose 60 per +cent above the average of the previous century and a half; but the +market prices of farm produce rose 170 per cent.[33] The rise in wages +was far from keeping pace with the rise in selling prices, and the +displacement of agriculture for grazing at this time must be due to +some cause other than the greater number of laborers needed in +agriculture. If, during certain periods within the four centuries +under consideration wages advanced more rapidly than the prices of +produce (statistical information on this subject is lacking) the +continuous withdrawal of land from tillage during periods when wages +fell remains to be explained by some cause other than high wages. Nor +can high wages account for the conversion of tilled land to pasture +simultaneously with the conversion of pasture land to tillage in the +seventeenth century. + +If wages were exorbitantly high in the seventeenth century, and if +this is the reason for the laying to pasture of so much arable, how +could farmers afford to cultivate the large amount of fresh land which +they were bringing under the plow? Is this accounted for not by any +expectation of profit from this land but by the statutory requirement +that no arable should be laid to pasture unless an equal amount of +grass land were plowed in its stead? Pasture in excess of the legal +requirements was plowed up, and persons who did not wish to convert +any arable to pasture are found increasing their tilled land by +bringing grass land under cultivation. The movement cannot be +explained, therefore, merely on the basis of the husbandry statutes. +Nor is the law itself to be dismissed without further examination, for +in it we find the explicit statement that fresh land could be +substituted for that then under cultivation, because common-field land +was in many cases exhausted; it was therefore better to allow this to +be laid to grass while better land was cultivated in its place.[34] +Here then, is the simple explanation of the whole problem. The land +which was converted from arable to pasture was worn out; but there was +fresh land available for tillage, and some of this was brought under +cultivation. + +No alternative explanation can be worked out on the basis of +hypothetical wage or price movements. The historian is indeed at +liberty to form his own theories as to the trend of prices in the +seventeenth century, for he is unhampered by the existence of known +records such as those for the sixteenth century; but it is impossible +to construct any theory of prices which will explain why the +conversion of arable land to pasture continued at a time when much +pasture land was being plowed up. It is necessary to choose a theory +of prices which will explain either the extension of tillage or the +extension of pasture; both cannot be explained by the same prices. If, +as some historians assume, the increase of population or some such +factor was causing a comparatively rapid increase in the price of +grain in this period, the continued conversion of arable to pasture +requires explanation. If, as Miss Leonard supposes, the contrary +assumption is true, and the products of arable land could be sold to +less advantage than those of pasture, then the cause of the conversion +of pasture to arable must be sought. + +It is not only in the seventeenth century that this double conversion +movement took place. In the second half of the fourteenth century +pastures were being plowed up. At Holway, 1376-1377, three plots of +land which had been pasture were converted to arable.[35] In this +period much land was withdrawn from cultivation. The explanation +usually advanced by historians for the conversion of arable to pasture +at this time is that the scarcity of labor since the Black Death (a +quarter of a century before) made it impossible to cultivate the land +as extensively as when wages were low, or when serf labor was +available. If this is the whole case, it is difficult to account for +the conversion to arable of land already pasture. Other factors than +the supposed scarcity of labor were involved; land in good condition, +such as the plots of pasture at Holway, repaid cultivation, but the +yield was too low on land exhausted by centuries of cultivation to +make tillage profitable. + +In the sixteenth century, also, the restoration of cultivation on land +which had formerly been converted from arable to pasture was going on. +Fitzherbert devotes several chapters of his treatise on surveying to a +discussion of the methods of amending "ley grounde, the whiche hath +ben errable lande of late," (ch. 27) and "bushy ground and mossy that +hath ben errable lande of olde time" (ch. 28). This land should be +plowed and sown, and it will produce much grain, "with littell +dongynge, and sow it no lengar tha it will beare plentye of corne, +withoute donge", and then lay it down to grass again. Tusser also +describes this use of land alternately as pasture and arable.[36] A +farmer on one of the manors of William, First Earl of Pembroke, had an +enclosed field in 1567, which afforded pasture for 900 sheep as well +as an unspecified number of cattle, "_qui aliquando seminatur, +aliquando iacet ad pasturam_."[37] The motives of this alternating use +of the land would be clear enough, even though they were not +explicitly stated by contemporaries; arable land which would produce +only scant crops unless heavily manured made good pasture, and after a +longer or shorter period under grass, was so improved by the manure of +the sheep pasturing on it and by the heavy sod which formed that it +could be tilled profitably, and was therefore restored to tillage. + +The fact of two opposite but simultaneous conversion movements is +unaccountable under the accepted hypothesis of the causes of the +enclosure movement, which turns upon assumptions as to the relative +prices of grain and wool or cattle or wages. The authorities for this +theory have necessarily neglected the evidence that pasture land was +converted to arable in the sixteenth century and that arable land was +converted to pasture in the seventeenth, and have separated in time +two tendencies which were simultaneous. They have described the +increase in pasturage at the expense of arable in the early period, +and the increase of arable at the expense of pasture in the later +period, and have explained a difference between the two periods which +did not exist by a change in the ratio between the prices of wool and +grain for which no proof is given. + +It has been shown in this chapter that the conversion of arable to +pasture in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries cannot have been +caused by increased demand for wool, since the price of wool +relatively to that of grain fell, and the extension of tillage rather +than of pasture would have taken place had price movements been the +chief factor influencing the conversion of land from one use to the +other. It has also been shown that the conversion of arable to +pasture did not cease at the beginning of the seventeenth century. If +the principal cause of the enclosure movement had been the increasing +demand for wool, this cause would have ceased to operate when time had +elapsed for the shifting of enough land from tillage to pasture to +increase the supply of wool. That the conversion of arable to pasture +did not cease after a reasonable time had passed is an indication that +its cause was not the demand for wool. When it is found that pasture +was being converted to arable at the same time that other land was +withdrawn from cultivation and laid to grass, the insufficiency of the +accepted explanation of the enclosure movement is made even more +apparent. A change in the price of wool could at best explain the +conversion in one direction only. The theory that the cause of the +enclosure movement was the high price of wool must be rejected, and a +more critical study must be made of the readjustments in the use of +land which became conspicuous in the fourteenth century, but which are +overlooked in the orthodox account of the enclosure movement. + + +Footnotes: + +[12] Levett and Ballard, _The Black Death on the Estates of the See of +Winchester_ (Oxford, 1916), p. 142. + +[13] Smyth, _Lives of the Berkeleys_ (Gloucester, 1883), vol. i, pp. +113-160. + +[14] (Oxford, 1866-1902), vols. i, iv. + +[15] Increase in manufacture of woollen cloth constituted no increase +in the demand for wool in so far as exports of raw wool were reduced. + +[16] _Royal Historical Soc. Trans._, N. S. (1905), vol. ix, p. 101, note 2. + +[17] Denton, _England in the Fifteenth Century_, p. 159. + +[18] Gay, _Quarterly Journal of Economics_ (1902-1903), vol. xvii, p. 587. + +[19] Pollard, _Reign of Henry VII_ (London, 1913), vol. ii, pp. 235-237. + +[20] More, _Utopia_ (Everyman edition), p. 23. + +[21] _Ibid._, p. 24. + +[22] _Outlines of the Economic History of England_ (London, 1908), p. 118. + +[23] _Growth of Eng. Ind. and Commerce_ (Cambridge, 1892), p. 180. + +[24] _England's Industrial Development_ (London, 1912), p. 247. + +[25] _English Economic History_ (New York, 1893), part ii, p. 262. + +[26] Carew, _Survey of Cornwall_ (London, 1814), p. 77. + +[27] Cunningham, _Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Modern +Times_, 1903, part i, p. 101. + +[28] Lennard, _Rural Northamptonshire_ (Oxford, 1916), p. 87. For +other examples, _cf. infra_, pp. 84, 99-101. + +[29] Leonard, _Royal Hist. Soc. Trans._, 1905. Gonner in _Common Land +and Inclosure_ covers much the same ground, but does not bring out as +clearly the extent to which the seventeenth century enclosures were +accompanied by conversion of tilled land to pasture. + +[30] Tawney, _Agrarian Problem in the Sixteenth Cen._ (London, 1912), p. +391. + +[31] _Royal Hist. Soc. Trans._ (1905), vol xix, note 1, p. 113. + +[32] _Ibid._, pp. 116-117. + +[33] Rogers, _History of Agriculture and Prices_, vol. iv, p. 757. + +[34] _Cf. infra_, p. 98. + +[35] Levett and Ballard, _The Black Death_, p. 129. + +[36] _Cf. infra_, p. 82. + +[37] Tawney, _op. cit._, p. 220, note 1. + +[38] _Infra_, p. 78, 81, 98-9. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE FERTILITY OF THE COMMON FIELDS + + +Up to this point attention has been given chiefly to the theory that +the enclosure movement waxed and waned in response to supposed +fluctuations in the relative prices of wool and grain, and it has been +found that this theory is untenable. It is now necessary to consider +more closely the true cause of the conversion of arable land to +pasture--the declining productivity of the soil--and the cause of the +restoration of this land to cultivation--the restoration of its +fertility. + +The connection between soil fertility and the system of husbandry has +been explained by Dr. Russell, of the Rothamsted Experiment Station: + + Virgin land covered with its native vegetation appears to alter + very little and very slowly in composition. Plants spring up, + assimilate the soil nitrates, phosphates, potassium salts, etc., + and make considerable quantities of nitrogenous and other organic + compounds: then they die and all this material is added to the + soil. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria also add to the stores of nitrogen + compounds. But, on the other hand, there are losses: some of the + added substances are dissipated as gas by the decomposition + bacteria, others are washed away in the drainage water. These + losses are small in poor soils, but they become greater in rich + soils, and they set a limit beyond which accumulation of material + cannot go. Thus a virgin soil does not become indefinitely rich + in nitrogenous and other organic compounds, but reaches an + equilibrium level where the annual gains are offset by the + annual losses so that no net change results. This equilibrium + level depends on the composition of the soil, its position, the + climate, etc, and it undergoes a change if any of these factors + alter. But for practical purposes it may be regarded as fairly + stationary. + + When, however, the virgin soil is broken up by the plough and + brought into cultivation the native vegetation and the crop are + alike removed, and therefore the sources of gain are considerably + reduced. The losses, on the other hand, are much intensified. + Rain water more readily penetrates, carrying dissolved substances + with it: biochemical decompositions also proceed. In consequence + the soil becomes poorer, and finally it is reduced to the same + level as the rate of gain of nitrogenous matter. A new and lower + equilibrium level is now reached about which the composition of + the soil remains fairly constant; this is determined by the same + factors as the first, _i. e._ the composition of the soil, + climate, etc. + + Thus each soil may vary in composition and therefore in fertility + between two limits: a higher limit if it is kept permanently + covered with vegetation such as grass, and a lower limit if it is + kept permanently under the plough. These limits are set by the + nature of the soil and the climate, but the cultivator can attain + any level he likes between them simply by changing his mode of + husbandry. The lower equilibrium level is spoken of as the + inherent fertility of the soil because it represents the part of + the fertility due to the soil and its surroundings, whilst the + level actually reached in any particular case is called its + condition or "heart", the land being in "good heart "or "bad + heart", according as the cultivator has pushed the actual level + up or not; this part of the fertility is due to the cultivator's + efforts. + + The difference between the higher and lower fertility level is + not wholly a question of percentage of nitrogen, carbon, etc. At + its highest level the soil possesses a good physical texture + owing to the flocculation of the clay and the arrangement of the + particles: it can readily be got into the fine tilth needed for a + seed bed. But when it has run down the texture becomes very + unsatisfactory. Much calcium carbonate is also lost during the + process: and when this constituent falls too low, the soil + becomes "sour" and unsuited for crops. + + The simplest system of husbandry is that of continuous wheat + cultivation, practiced under modern conditions in new countries. + When the virgin land is first broken up its fertility is high; so + long as it remains under cultivation this level can no longer be + maintained, but rapidly runs down. During this degradation + process considerable quantities of plant food become available + and a succession of crops can be raised without any substitution + of manure ... After a time the unstable period is over and the + new equilibrium level is reached at which the soil will stop if + the old husbandry continues. In this final state the soil is + often not fertile enough to allow of the profitable raising of + crops; it is now starving for want of those very nutrients that + were so prodigally dissipated in the first days of its + cultivation, and the cultivator starves with it or moves on. + + Fortunately recovery is by no means impossible, though it may be + prolonged. It is only necessary to leave the land covered with + vegetation for a period of years when it will once again regain + much of the nitrogenous organic matter it has lost.[39] + + +Dr. Russell adds that soil-exhaustion is essentially a modern +phenomenon, however, and gives the following reasons for supposing +that the medieval system conserved the fertility of the soil. First, +the cattle grazed over a wide area and the arable land all received +some dung. Thus elements of fertility were transferred from the +pasture land to the smaller area of tilled land. This process, he +admits, involved the impoverishment of the pasture land, but only very +slowly, and the fertility of the arable was in the meanwhile +maintained. Secondly, the processes of liming and marling the soil +were known, and by these means the necessary calcium carbonate was +supplied. Thirdly, although there was insufficient replacement of the +phosphates taken from the soil, the yield of wheat was so low that the +amount of phosphoric acid removed was small, and the system was +permanent for all practical purposes. One of the facts given in +substantiation of this view is that the yield after enclosure +increased considerably.[40] + +In discussing these points, it will be well to begin with the evidence +as to exhaustion afforded by the increased yield under enclosure. The +improvement in yield took place because of the long period of fallow +obtained when the land was used as pasture; or, in the eighteenth +century, with the increase in nitrogenous organic matter made possible +when hay and turnips were introduced as field forage crops. That is, +the increase in yield depended either upon that prolonged period of +recuperation which will _restore fertility_, or upon an actual +increase in the amount of manure used. Apparently, then, open-field +land had become exhausted, since an increase in yield could be +obtained by giving it a rest, without improving the methods of +cultivation, etc., or by adding more manure. + +There was not, as Dr. Russell supposes, enough manure under the +medieval system of husbandry to maintain the fertility of the soil. It +is true that the husbandman understood the value of manure, and took +care that the land should receive as much as possible, and that he +knew also of the value of lime and marl. But, as Dr. Simkhovitch says: + + It is not within our province to go into agrotechnical details + and describe what the medieval farmer knew, but seldom practiced + for lack of time and poor means of communication, in the way of + liming sour clay ground, etc. Plant production is determined by + the one of the necessary elements that is available in the least + quantity. It is a matter of record that the medieval farmer had + not enough and could not have quite enough manure, to maintain + the productivity of the soil.[41] + + +The knowledge of the means of maintaining and increasing the +productivity of the soil is one thing, but the ability to use this +knowledge is another. The very origin and persistence of the +cumbersome common-field system in so many parts of the world is +sufficient testimony as to the impossibility of improving the quality +of the soil in the Middle Ages. The only way in which these men could +divide the land into portions of equal value was to divide it first +into plots of different qualities and then to give a share in each of +these plots to each member of the community. They never dreamed of +being able to bring the poor plots up to a high level of productivity +by the use of plentiful manuring, etc., but had to accept the +differences in quality as they found them. The inconvenience and +confusion of the common-field system were endured because, under the +circumstances, it was the only possible system. + +Very few cattle were kept. No more were kept because there was no way +of keeping them. In the fields wheat, rye, oats, barley and beans were +raised, but no hay and no turnips. Field grasses and clover which +could be introduced in the course of field crops were unknown. What +hay they had came entirely from the permanent meadows, the low-lying +land bordering the banks of streams. "Meadow grass," writes Dr. +Simkhovitch, "could grow only in very definite places on low and moist +land that followed as a rule the course of a stream. This gave the +meadow a monopolistic value, which it lost after the introduction of +grass and clover in the rotation of crops."[42] The number of cattle +and sheep kept by the community was limited by the amount of forage +available for winter feeding. Often no limitation upon the number +pastured in summer in the common pastures was necessary other than +that no man should exceed the number which he was able to keep during +the winter. The meadow hay was supplemented by such poor fodder as +straw and the loppings of trees, and the cattle were got through the +winter with the smallest amount of forage which would keep them alive, +but even with this economy it was impossible to keep a sufficient +number. + +The amount of stall manure produced in the winter was of course small, +on account of the scant feed, and even the more plentiful manure of +the summer months was the property of the lord, so that the villain +holdings received practically no dung. The villains were required to +send their cattle and sheep at night to a fold which was moved at +frequent intervals over the demesne land, and their own land received +ordinarily no dressing of manure excepting the scant amount produced +when the village flocks pastured on the fallow fields. + +The supply of manure, insufficient in any case to maintain the +fertility of the arable land, was diminishing rather than increasing. +As Dr. Russell suggested in the passage referred to above, the +continuous use of pastures and meadows causes a deterioration in their +quality. The quantity of fodder was decreasing for this reason, almost +imperceptibly, but none the less seriously. Fewer cattle could be kept +as the grass land deteriorated, and the small quantity of manure which +was available for restoring the productivity of the open fields was +gradually decreasing for this reason. + +Soil exhaustion went on during the Middle Ages not because the +cultivators were careless or ignorant of the fact that manure is +needed to maintain fertility, but because this means of improving the +soil was not within their reach. They used what manure they had and +marled the soil when they had the time and could afford it, but, as +the centuries passed, the virgin richness of the soil was exhausted +and crops diminished. + +The only crops which are a matter of statistical record are those +raised on the demesne land of those manors managed for their owners by +bailiffs who made reports of the number of acres sown and the size of +the harvest. These crops were probably greater than those reaped from +average land, as it is reasonable to suppose that the demesne land was +superior to that held by villains in the first place, and as it +received better care, having the benefit of the sheep fold and of such +stall manure as could be collected. Even if it were possible to form +an accurate estimate of the average yield of demesne land, then, we +should have an over-estimate for the average yield of ordinary +common-field land. No accurate estimate of the average yield even of +demesne land can be made, however, on the basis of the few entries +regarding the yield of land which have been printed. Variations in +yield from season to season and from manor to manor in the same season +are so great that nothing can be inferred as to the general average in +any one season, nor as to the comparative productivity in different +periods, from the materials at hand. For instance, at Downton, one of +the Winchester manors, the average yield of wheat between 1346 and +1353 was 6.5 bushels per acre, but this average includes a yield of +3.5 bushels in 1347 and one of 14 bushels in 1352,[43] showing that no +single year gives a fair indication of the average yield of the +period. For the most part the data available apply to areas too small +and to periods too brief to give more than the general impression that +the yield of land was very low. + +In the thirteenth century Walter of Henley and the writer of the +anonymous _Husbandry_ are authorities for the opinion that the average +yield of wheat land should be about ten bushels per acre.[44] At +Combe, Oxfordshire, about the middle of the century, the average yield +during several seasons was only 5 bushels.[45] About 1300, the fifty +acres of demesne planted with wheat at Forncett yielded about +five-fold or 10 bushels an acre (five seasons).[46] Between 1330 and +1340, the average yield (500 acres for three seasons), at ten manors +of the Merton College estates was also 10 bushels.[47] At Hawsted, +where about 60 acres annually were sown with wheat, the average yield +for three seasons at the end of the fourteenth century was a little +more than 7-1/2 bushels an acre.[48] + +Statistical data so scattered as this cannot be used as the basis of +an inquiry into the rate of soil exhaustion. Where the normal +variation from place to place and from season to season is as great as +it is in agriculture, the material from which averages are constructed +must be unusually extensive. So far as I know, no material in this +field entirely satisfactory for statistical purposes is accessible at +the present time. There is, however, one manor, Witney, for which +important data for as many as eighteen seasons between 1200 and 1400 +have been printed. A second suggestive source of information is Gras's +table of harvest statistics for the whole Winchester group of manors, +covering three different seasons, separated from each other by +intervals of about a century. The acreage reported for the Winchester +manors is so extensive that the average yield of the group can be +fairly taken to be the average for all of that part of England. +Moreover, Witney seems to be representative of the Winchester group, +if the fact that the yield at Witney is close to the group average in +the years when this is known can be relied upon as an indication of +its representativeness in the years when the group average is not +known. The average yield for all the manors in 1208-1209 was 4-1/3 +bushels per acre; for Witney alone, 3-2/3. In 1396-1397 the yield of +the group and the yield at Witney are, respectively, 6 and 6-1/4 +bushels per acre.[49] + +Table III shows the yield of wheat on the manors of the Bishopric of +Winchester in the years 1209, 1300 and 1397. If it could be shown that +these were representative years, we should have a means of measuring +the increase or decrease in productivity in these two centuries. Some +indication of the representativeness of the years 1300 and 1397 is +given by a comparison of prices for these years with the average +prices of the period in which they lie. The price in 1300 was about 17 +per cent below the average for the period 1291-1310,[50] an indication +that the crop of nine bushels per acre reaped in 1299-1300 was above +the normal. The price of wheat in 1397 was very slightly above the +average for the period;[51] six bushels an acre or more, then, was +probably a normal crop at the end of the fourteenth century. This +conclusion is supported also by the fact that the yield in that year +at Witney was approximately the same as the average of the eleven +seasons between 1340 and 1354 noted in Table V. The price of wheat in +the year 1209-1210 is not ascertainable. Walter of Henley's statement +that the price of corn must be higher than the average to prevent loss +when the return for seed sown was only three-fold[52] is an +indication that the normal yield must have been at this time at least +three-fold, or six bushels, so that the extremely low yield of the +year 1208-1209 can hardly be considered typical. This examination of +the yield in the three seasons shown in the table gives these results: +at the beginning of the thirteenth century the average yield was +probably about six bushels and certainly not more than ten; at the +beginning of the fourteenth century the average was less than nine +bushels--how much less, whether more or less than six bushels, is not +known--at the end of the fourteenth century the yield was about six +bushels. + + + TABLE III + + YIELD OF WHEAT ON THE MANORS OF THE BISHIPRIC OF WINCHESTER[53] + + _Area sown_ _Produce_ _Ratio produce_ + _Date_ _Acres_ _Bushels per acre_ _to seed_ + + 1208-1209 6838 4-1/3 2-1/3 + 1299-1300 3353 9[54] 4 + 1396-1397 2366-1/2 6 3 + + + TABLE IV + + ACERAGE PLANTED WITH GRAINS ON THE MANOR OF THE BISHOPRIC OF + WINCHESTER[55] + + _Wheat_ _Mancorn and Rye_ _Barley_ + 1208-1209 5108 492 1500 + 1299-1300 2410 175 800 + + + TABLE V + + YIELD OF WHEAT AT WITNEY[56] + + _Date_ _Bushels per acre_ _Acres sown_ + 1209 3-2/3 417 + 1277 8-1/2 180 + 1278 ... 191 + 1283 8-1/2 ... + 1284 10-1/2 ... + 1285 7-1/4 ... + 1300 (7-10) ... + 1340 5-1/2 126 + 1341 7-1/2 138 + 1342 6 132 + 1344 ... 129 + 1346 5-1/2 127 + 1347 6-1/2 128 + 1348 6-3/4 138 + 1349 4-3/4 128 + 1350 5-1/4 ... + 1351 6-1/2 ... + 1352 8-1/2 ... + 1353 5 ... + 1397 6-1/4 51-1/2 + + +The yield of the soil in single seasons at widely separated intervals +is a piece of information of little value for our purpose. These +tables reveal other facts of greater significance. The yield for the +year gives almost no information about the normal yield over a series +of years, but the area planted depends very largely upon that yield. +The farmer knows that it will pay, on the average, to sow a certain +number of acres, and the area under cultivation is not subject to +violent fluctuations, as is the crop reaped. The area sown in any +season is representative of the period; the crop reaped may or may +not be representative. Land which, over a series of years, fails to +produce enough to pay for cultivation is no longer planted. If the +fertility of the soil is declining, this is shown by the gradual +withdrawal from cultivation of the less productive land, as it is +realized that it produces so little that it no longer pays to till it. +Table IV shows that in fact this withdrawal of worn out land from +cultivation was actually taking place. The area sown with wheat on the +twenty-five manors for which the statistics for both periods are +available was reduced by more than fifty per cent between the +beginning and the end of the thirteenth century. A similar reduction +in the area planted with all of the other crops, mancorn, rye, barley +and oats, took place. A process of selection was going on which +eliminated the less fertile land from cultivation. If six bushels an +acre was necessary to pay the costs of tillage, land which returned +less than six bushels could not be kept under the plow. The six bushel +crop which seems to be normal in the fourteenth century is not the +average yield of all of that land which had been under cultivation at +an earlier time, but only of the better grades of land. Plots which +had formerly yielded their five or six bushels an acre had become too +barren to produce the bare minimum which made tillage profitable, and +their produce no longer appeared in the average. Even with the +elimination of the worst grades of land the average yield fell, +because the better land, too, was becoming less fertile. At Witney +(Table V) the area planted with wheat fell from about 180 acres in +1277 to less than 140 acres in 1340; but, in spite of this reduction +in the amount of land cultivated, the average annual yield after 1340 +was less than 6-1/2 bushels, while it had been about 8-1/2 bushels per +acre in the period 1277-1285. This withdrawal of land from cultivation +took place without the occurrence of any such calamity as the Black +Death, which is ordinarily mentioned as the cause of the reduction of +arable land to pasture in so far as this took place before 1400. It +affords an indirect proof of the fact that much land was becoming +barren. + +These statistical indications of declining productivity of the soil +are supported by the overwhelming evidence of the poverty of the +fourteenth century peasantry--poverty which can be explained only by +the barrenness of their land. Many of the features of the agrarian +changes of this period are familiar--the substitution of money +payments for villain services, the frequency of desertion, the +amalgamation and leasing of bond-holdings, the subdividing and +leasing of the demesne. A point which has not been dwelt upon is the +favorable pecuniary terms upon which the villains commuted their +services. Where customary relations were replaced by a new bargain, +the bargain was always in favor of the tenant. What was the source of +this strategic advantage of the villain? The great number of holdings +made vacant by the Black Death and the scarcity of eligible holders +placed the landowner at a disadvantage, but this situation was +temporary. How can the difficulty of filling vacant tenements before +the Black Death be accounted for, and why were villains still able to +secure reductions in their rents a generation after its effects had +ceased to be felt? + +Even before the Black Death, it was frequently the case that villain +holdings could be filled only by compulsion. The difficulty in finding +tenants did not originate in the decrease in the population caused by +the pestilence. There is little evidence that there was a lack of men +qualified to hold land even after the Black Death, but it is certain +that they sought in every way possible to avoid land-holding. The +villains who were eligible in many cases fled, so that it became +exceedingly difficult to fill a tenement when once it became vacant. +Land whose holders died of the pestilence was still without tenants +twenty-five and thirty years later, although persistent attempts had +been made to force men to take it up. When compulsion succeeded only +in driving men away from the manor, numerous concessions were made in +the attempt to make land-holding more attractive. It is important to +notice that these concessions were economic, not social. The force +which was driving men away was not the desire to escape the incidents +of serfdom, but the impossibility of making a living from holdings +burdened with heavy rents. These burdens were eased, grudgingly, +little by little, by landlords who had exhausted other methods of +keeping their land from being deserted. It was necessary to reduce +the rent in some way in order to permit the villains to live. The +produce of a customary holding was no longer sufficient to maintain +life and to allow the holder to render the services and pay the rent +which had been fixed in an earlier century when the soil was more +fertile. + +Notices of vacated holdings date from before 1220 on the estates of +the Berkeleys. Thomas the First was lord of Berkeley between 1220 and +1243, and + + Such were the tymes for the most part whilest this Lord Thomas + sate Lord, That many of his Tenants in divers of his manors ... + surrendred up and least their lands into his hands because they + were not able to pay the rent and doe the services, which also + often happened in the tyme of his elder brother the Lord + Robert.[57] + + +This entry in the chronicle is significant, for it is typical of +conditions on many other manors at a later date. The tenants were not +able to pay the rent and do the services, and therefore gave up the +land. It was leased, when men could be found to take it at all, at a +rent lower than that which its former holders had found so oppressive. +It is interesting to note that much of this land was soon after +enclosed and converted to pasture, more than a century before the +event which is supposed to mark the beginning of the enclosure +movement. The productivity of the land had declined; its holders were +no longer able to pay the customary rent, and the lord had to content +himself with lower rents; the productivity was so low in some cases +that the land was fit only for sheep pasture. + +Land holding was regarded as a misfortune in the fourteenth century. +The decline in fertility had made it impossible for a villain to +support himself and his family and perform the accustomed services and +pay the rent for his land. Sometimes heirs were excused on account of +their poverty. Page has made note of the prevailing custom of fining +these heirs for the privilege of refusing the land: + + In 1340 J. F., who held a messuage and half a virgate, had to pay + two shillings for permission to give up the land, because he was + unable to render the services due from it. Three other men at the + same time paid six pence each not to be compelled to take up + customary land ... at Woolston, 1340, R. G. gave up his messuage + and half virgate because he could not render the necessary + services; whereupon T. S. had to pay three shillings three pence + that he might not be forced to take the holding, and another + villain paid six shillings eight pence for the same thing.[58] + +Miss Levett mentions the fact that cases were fairly frequent at the +Winchester manors in the fourteenth century where a widow or next of +kin refused to take up land on account of poverty or impotence;[59] +and three villains of Forncett gave up their holdings before 1350 on +account of their poverty.[60] + +In case no one could be found who would willingly take up the land, +the method of compulsion was tried. The responsibility for providing a +tenant in these cases seems to have been shifted to the whole +community. A villain chosen by the whole homage had to take up the +land. At Crawley in 1315 there were two such cases. A fine was paid by +one villain for a cottage and ten acres "_que devenerunt in manus +domini tanquam escheata pro defectu tenentium & ad que eligebatur per +totam decenuam_." At Twyford in 13433-1344, J. paid a fine for a +messuage and a half virgate of land, "_ad que idem Johannes electus +est per totum homagium_."[61] In other entries cited by Page, the +element of compulsion is unmistakable: the new holder of land is +described as "_electus per totum homagium ad hoc compulsus_," a phrase +which is frequently found also in the entries of fines paid on some of +the Winchester manors after the Black Death.[62] + +This method of compulsion was useful to some extent, but there were +limits beyond which it could not be pushed. Five men of Therfield in +1351 were ordered to take up customary land, and several of them left +the manor rather than obey. "_Vendiderunt quod habuerunt et +recesserunt nocitante._"[63] At Nailesbourne, in the same year, +"_Robertus le Semenour compulsus finivit et clam recessit et ea tenere +recusavit_."[64] The problem which confronted landowners during the +Black Death was not so much an absolute lack of men on the manors, as +a stubborn unwillingness on the part of these men to hold land. There +were enough men left by the pestilence, but they were determined to +avoid taking up the tenements whose holders had died. The pressure +which was brought upon the villains to induce them to take up land and +to prevent them from leaving the manor could not prevent the +desertions, which had begun before the pestilence, and which took away +the men who would naturally have supplied the places of those who +died. The whole village must have been anxious to prevent the +desertion of these men, for the community was held responsible for the +services from vacant tenements, when they failed to provide a tenant. +At Meon, for instance, each of twenty-six tenants paid 1 _d._ in +place of works due from a vacant holding, according to an arrangement +which had been made before the Black Death,[65] and at Burwell, in +1350, when three villains left the manor, their land was "_tradita +toto homagio ad faciendum servicia et consuetudines_."[66] In spite of +the deterring force which must have been exerted by public opinion +under these conditions, and in spite of the aggressive measures taken +by bailiffs to prevent desertion and to recapture those who had fled, +the records are full of the names of those who had been successful in +making their escape. Throughout the latter half of the fourteenth +century and the first part of the fifteenth there was a gradual +leakage from the Winchester manors. "Villeins were apt 'to go away +secretly' and to be no more found."[67] Page describes a similar +tendency on the part of villains of the manors whose records he has +examined. At Weston, three villains deserted in 1354. At Woolston in +1357 a serf "_recessit a dominio et dereliquit terram suam_." At +Chilton, between 1356 and 1359, eleven men and two women fled, some of +whom were recaptured. At Therfield in 1369 a man who held twenty-three +acres of land fled with his whole family. In the same year at Abbot's +Ripton a man escaped with his horses, and three years later another +villain left Weston by night.[68] At Forncett, "Before 1378 from 60 to +70 tenements had fallen into the lord's hands. It was the serfs +especially who were relinquishing their land; for a larger proportion +of the tenements charged with week-work were abandoned than of the +more lightly burdened tenements."[69] This, of course, is what we should +expect, as the lighter burdens of these holdings caused their tenants to +feel less severely than the ordinary serfs the declining productivity of +the land. + +The method of compulsion failed to keep the tenants on the land. They +ran off, and the holdings remained vacant. It was necessary to make +concessions of a material nature in order to persuade men to take up +land or to keep what they had. They were excused of a part of their +services in some cases, and in others all of the services were +definitely commuted for small sums of money. When no tenants for +vacant land could be secured who would perform the customary services +due from it, the bailiff was forced to commute them. "'So and so holds +such land for rent, because no one would hold it for works,' is a +fairly frequent entry both before and after 1349," on the records of +the Bishopric of Winchester. The important point to be noticed here is +that the money rent paid in these cases was always less than the value +of the services which had formerly been exacted from the land; not +only that, it was less than the money equivalent for which those +services had sometimes been commuted, an amount far less than the +market value of the services in the fourteenth century at the +prevailing rates of wages. For instance, when Roger Haywood took up +three virgates and a cotland at a money rent instead of for the +traditional services, "_quia nullus tenere voluit_," he contracted to +pay rents whose total sum amounted to less than twenty-five shillings +and included the church scot for one virgate and the cotland. On this +manor, Sutton, the total services of _one_ virgate valued at the rate +at which they were ordinarily "sold" must have amounted to at least +eighteen or twenty shillings. At Wargrave the services of thirty-two +virgates were all commuted at three shillings each, and the same sum +was paid by each of twenty-three virgates at Waltham.[70] + +At Forncett and on the manors of the Berkeley estates commutation had +little part in the disappearance of labor dues. The vacated land was +leased in larger or smaller parcels at the best rents which could be +obtained. This rent bore no relation to the value of the services +formerly due from the land. The customary tenements which had been the +units upon which labor dues were assessed were broken up, and the +acres leased separately, or in new combinations, to other men.[71] At +Forncett, as in the case of the Winchester manors where the services +were commuted, the terms of the new arrangement can be compared with +those of the old, and it is seen that the money rent obtained was less +than the value of the services formerly due. The customary services +were here valued at over two shillings per acre; the average rent +obtained was less than one shilling an acre. The net pecuniary result +of the change, then, was the same as though the services had been +commuted for money at less than their value. + +Another method of reducing rents in this period was the remission of a +part of the services due. Miss Levett notes the extent to which this +took place on the Winchester manors, and suggests that the Bishop +wished to avoid the wastefulness and inefficiency of serf labor.[72] +She overlooks the fact that he failed to exact the money payment in +place of the services for which manorial custom provided. It was a +well established custom that in case work owed by the tenants was not +used they should pay money instead. The amount of work needed each +year on the demesne varied according to the size of the harvest, etc., +but the number of days' works for which the tenants was liable was +fixed. The surplus of works owed above those needed were "sold" each +year to the villains. Frequently the number of works sold exceeded the +number performed, although formal commutation of dues had not taken +place. At Nailesbourne (1348-1349), 4755 works were due from the +villains, but nearly 4000 of these were sold.[73] If the Bishop had +merely wished to avoid waste, then, in ceasing to require the +performance of villain services on his manors, he would have required +the payment of the money equivalent of these services. When the +services were excused, and the customary alternative of a money +payment also, the change was clearly an intentional reduction in the +burden of villain tenure. This fact makes emphasis upon the payment of +money as the distinguishing feature of the changed relations between +landlord and tenant in this period misleading. There was every +precedent for requiring a money payment in the place of services not +wanted. When, therefore, a great many services were simply allowed to +lapse, it is an indication that it was impossible to exact the +payment. It makes little difference whether the services were commuted +at a lower rate than that at which they had formerly been "sold" or +whether the villain was simply held accountable for a smaller number +of services at the old rate; in either case the rent was reduced, and +the burden of the tenant was less. + +The reduction of rent is thus the characteristic and fundamental +feature of all of the changes of land tenure during this period. This +fact is ignored by historians who suppose the chief factor in the +commutation movement to have been the desire of prosperous villains to +rid themselves of the degrading marks of serfdom. Vinogradoff, for +instance, in his preface to the monograph from which most of the +foregoing illustrations have been drawn, has nothing at all to say of +the reduction of rent and the poverty of the tenants when he is +speaking of the various circumstances attending the introduction of +money payments. + + In the particular case under discussion the cultural policy of + William of Wykeham may have suggested arrangements in commutation + of labour services and rents in kind. In other cases similar + results were connected with war expenditures and town life. In so + far the initiative in selling services came from the class of + landowners. But there were powerful tendencies at work in the + life of the peasants which made for the same result. The most + comprehensive of these tendencies was connected, it seems to me, + with the accumulation of capital in the hands of the villains + under a system of customary dues. When rents and services became + settled and lost their elasticity, roughly speaking, in the + course of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, the + surplus of profits from agriculture was bound to collect in the + hands of those who received them directly from the soil, and it + was natural for these first receivers to turn the proceeds + primarily towards an improvement of their social condition; the + redemption of irksome services was a conspicuous manifestation of + this policy.[74] + + +This paragraph contains several suggestions which are shown to be +misleading by a study of the extracts from the original sources +embodied in the essay of whose preface it forms a part. It is true +that the cultural policy of William of Wykeham was an extravagant one, +and that he was in need of money when the system of tenure was being +revolutionized on his estates; but it is misleading to interpret the +changes which took place as measures for the prompt conversion into +cash of the episcopal revenues. No radical changes in the system of +payment were necessary in order to secure cash, for the system of +selling surplus services to the villains had become established +decades before the time of this bishop, and no formal commutation of +services was necessary in order to convert the labor dues of the +villains into payments in money. The bulk of the services were not +performed, even before commutation, and the lord received money for +the services not used on the demesne. The essential feature of the +changes which took place was a reduction in the amount paid--a +reduction which the bishop must have resisted so far as he dared, just +as other landowners must have resisted the reductions which their +tenants forced them to make at a time when they were in need of money. +The commutation of services was incidental, and was only a slight +modification of the system formerly in use, but, whether services were +commuted or were in part excused, the result was a lessening of the +burden borne by the tenant, and the reduction of the rent received by +the lord. + +It is true, as Professor Vinogradoff states, that there were powerful +tendencies in the life of the peasants which made for this result. In +fact no initiative in selling services--at these rates--could have +come from the side of the landowners. The change was forced upon them. +Unless they compromised with their tenants and reduced their rents +they soon found vacant tenements on their hands which no one could be +compelled to take. The amount of land which was finally leased at low +rents because the former holders had died or run away and no one could +be forced to take it at the old rents is evidence of the reluctance +with which landowners accepted the situation and of their inability to +resist the change in the end. + +But it is not true that the most comprehensive of these tendencies was +the accumulation of capital in the hands of the villains, and their +desire to improve their social condition. The immediate affect of the +commutation of services and similar changes at this time was to leave +their social condition untouched, whatever the final result may have +been. These villains did not buy themselves free of the marks of +servitude. Their gradual emancipation came for other reasons. At +Witney, for example, where the works of all the native tenants had +been commuted by 1376, they were still required to perform duties of a +servile character: + + they were all to join in haymaking and in washing and shearing + the lord's sheep, to pay pannage for their pigs, to take their + turn of service as reeve and tithingman, and to carry the lord's + victuals and baggage on his departure from Witney as the natives + were formerly wont to do.[75] + +This example, taken at random, is typical of the continuance of +conditions which should make the historian hesitate before adopting +the view that the social condition of the peasants was improved by the +new arrangements made as to the bulk of their services and rents. But +more than that, the terms of the new arrangements are not those which +would be offered by well-to-do cultivators in whose hands the profits +from the soil had accumulated. In all of these cases the new terms +were advantageous to the tenants, not to the lord, and advantageous in +a strictly pecuniary way. The lord had to grant these terms because +the tenants were in the most miserable poverty, and could no longer +pay their accustomed rent. + +Neither the Black Death, whose effects were evanescent, nor the desire +of prosperous villains to free themselves of the degrading marks of +serfdom was an important cause in the sequence of agrarian changes +which took place in the fourteenth century. Serfdom as a status was +hardly affected, but a thousand entries record the poverty and +destitution which made it necessary to lighten the economic burdens of +the serfs. At Brightwell, for example, the works of three +half-virgaters were relaxed, the record reads, because of their +poverty (1349-1350).[76] Some villains had no oxen, and were excused +their plowing on this account, or were allowed to substitute manual +labor for carting services.[77] At Weston, in 1370, a tenant "_non +arat terram domini causa paupertate_."[78] At Downton, in 13766-1377, +no money could be collected from the villains in place of the services +they owed in haymaking.[79] Frequently when services were commuted for +money, the record of the fact is accompanied by the statement that the +change was made on account of the poverty of the tenants. At Witney, +for instance, the + + works and services of all the native tenants were commuted at + fixed payments (_ad certos denarios_) by favour of the lord as + long as the lord pleases, on account of the poverty of the + homage.[80] + +The reduction in rent in this case was at least a third of the total. +The value of the customary services commuted was at least ten +shillings six pence per acre, and they were commuted at six shillings +eight pence. Other explicit references to the poverty of the tenants +as the cause of commutation are quoted by Page: + + At Hinton, Berks, the Bailiff reports in 1377, that the former + lord before his death had commuted the services of the villains + for money, "eo quod customarii impotentes ad facienda dicta opera + et pro eorum paupertate" ... At Stevenage, 1354, S. G. "tenuit + unam vergatam reddendo inde per annum in serviciis et + consuetudinibus xxii solidos. Et dictus S. G. pauper et impotens + dictam virgatam tenere. Ideo concessum est per dominum quod S. G. + habeat et teneat predictam terram reddendo inde xiii solidos iv + denarios pro omnibus serviciis et consuetudinibus."[81] + + +In connection with the matter of heriots, also, evidences of extreme +poverty are frequent. Frequently when a tenant died there was no beast +for the lord to seize. + + The heriot of a virgate was generally an ox, or money payment of + its value. But the amount as often reduced "propter paupertatem," + and sometimes when a succeeding tenant could not pay, a half acre + was deducted from the virgate and held by the lord instead of the + heriot.[82] + +The rate at which the value of these holdings declined when their +tenants possessed too few cattle was rapid. Land without stock is +worthless. The temptation to sell an ox in order to meet the rent was +great, but when the deficiency was due to declining productivity of +the soil, there was no probability that it would be made up the +following year even with all the stock, and with fewer cattle the +situation was hopeless. After this process had gone on for a few years +nothing was left, not even a yoke of oxen for plowing. Whatever means +had been taken to keep up the fertility of the land, attend to the +drainage, _etc._, were of necessity neglected, and finally the hope of +keeping up the struggle was abandoned. The spirit which prompted the +reply of the Chatteris tenant when he was ordered by the manorial +court to put his holding in repair can be understood: "_Non reparavit +tenementum, et dicit quod non vult reparare sed potius dimittere et +abire._"[83] If he left the manor and joined the other men who under +the same circumstances were giving up their land and becoming +fugitives, it was not with the hope of greatly improving his +condition. Some of the fugitives found employment in the towns, but +this was by no means certain, and the records frequently state that +the absent villains had become beggars.[84] + +The declining productivity of the soil not only affected the villains, +but reduced the profits of demesne cultivation. It has already been +seen that the acreage under crop was steadily decreasing, as more and +more land reached a stage of barrenness in which it no longer repaid +cultivation. This process is seen from another angle in the frequent +complaints that the customary meals supplied by the lord to serfs +working on the demesne cost more than the labor was worth. According +to Miss Levett: + + This complaint was made on many manors belonging to the Bishop of + Winchester in spite of the fact that if one may judge from the + cost of the "Autumn Works" the meals were not very lavish, the + average cost being 1 _d._ or 1-1/4 _d._ per head for each + _Precaria_.... The complaint that the system was working at a + loss comes also from Brightwaltham (Berkshire), Hutton (Essex), + and from Banstead (Surrey), as early as 1325, and is reflected in + contemporary literature. "The work is not worth the breakfast" + (or the _reprisa_) occurs several times in the Winchester Pipe + Rolls.... By 1376 the entry is considerably more frequent, and + applies to ploughing as well as to harvest-work.[85] At Meon 64 + acres of ploughing were excused _quia non fecerunt huiusmodi + arrura causa reprisae_. A similar note occurs at Hambledon + (_Ecclesia_) and at Fareham with the further information that the + ploughing was there performed _ad cibum domini_. At Overton four + virgates were excused their ploughing _quia reprisa excedit + valorem_.[86] + +Miss Levett quotes these entries as an explanation for the tendency to +excuse services, forgetting that the lord could usually demand a money +equivalent for services not required for any reason. We have here the +reason why so few services are demanded, but no explanation of the +failure to require money instead. The fundamental cause of the +worthlessness of the labor on the demesne is the fact which accounts +for the absence of a money payment for the work not performed. The +demesne land was worn out, and did not repay costs of cultivation; the +bond land was worn out, and the villains were too poor to "buy" their +labor. + +The profits of cultivating this unproductive land were so small that a +deficit arose when it was necessary to meet the cost of maintaining +for a few days the men employed on it. It is not surprising that men +who had families to support and were trying to make a living from the +soil abandoned their worthless holdings and left the manor. The lord +had only to meet the expense of food for the laborers during the few +days when they were actually at work plowing the demesne or harvesting +the crop. How could the villain support his whole family during the +entire year on the produce of worse land more scantily manured? In +this low productivity of the land is to be found the reason for the +conversion of much of the demesne into pasture land, as soon as the +supply of servile labor failed. It was, of course, impossible to pay +the wages of free men from the produce of soil too exhausted to repay +even the slight cost incidental to cultivating it with serf labor. +The bailiffs complained of the exorbitant wages demanded by servants +in husbandry; these wages were exorbitant only because the produce of +the land was so small that it was not worth the pains of tillage. + +The most important of the many causes which were at work to undermine +the manorial system in the fourteenth century is, therefore, plain. +The productivity of the soil had declined to a point where villain +holdings would no longer support the families which cultivated them +and where demesne land was sometimes not worth cultivation even by +serf labor. Under these conditions, the very basis of the manor was +destroyed. The poverty of the peasants, the difficulty with which +tenants could be found for vacant holdings, even though the greatest +pressure was brought to bear upon eligible villains, and even though +the servile burdens were considerably reduced, and the frequency with +which these serfs preferred the uncertainty and risk of deserting to +the certain destitution and misery of land-holding, are facts which +are intimately connected, and which are all due to the same cause. It +had been impossible to maintain the productive capacity of the land at +a level high enough to provide a living for the tillers of the soil. + + +Footnotes: + +[39] E. J. Russell, _The Fertility of the Soil_, Cambridge, 1913, pp. +43-46. + +[40] _Ibid._, pp. 48-52. + +[41] _Political Science Quarterly_, vol. xxviii, p. 394. + +[42] _Ibid._, p. 393. + +[43] Levett and Ballard, _The Black Death_, p. 216. + +[44] _Walter of Henley's Husbandry, together with an Anonymous +Husbandry, etc._, ed. by Elizabeth Lamond (London, 1890), pp. 19, 71. + +[45] Curtler, _Short History of English Agriculture_, p. 33. + +[46] Davenport, _Econ. Dev. of a Norfolk Manor_ (Cambridge, 1906), p. 30. + +[47] Rogers, _History of Agriculture, etc._, vol. i, pp. 38-44. + +[48] Cullum, _Hawsted_, pp. 215-218. + +[49] Unfortunately, the figures for the year 1299-1300 reveal an error +which makes it impossible to use the test of the representativeness of +Witney in a third season with accuracy. The acreage planted is +obviously understated, and it is possible to make only a rough +estimate of the correct acreage. The acceptance of the area given by +Gras (82 acres) results in the conclusion that 22 bushels per acre was +reaped. The suspicion that this result must be incorrect is confirmed +when it is found, also, that 68-1/4 quarters of seed were sown--an +amount sufficient for 270 acres at the average rate of 2 bushels per +acre, or for 220 acres at the rate of 2-1/2 bushels per acre, which +Ballard gives as the rate usual at Witney. (Levett and Ballard, _op. +cit._, p. 192.) In 1277 the acreage sown with wheat at Witney was 180 +acres, and in 1278, 191. (_Ibid._, p. 190.) If 3 bushels per acre were +sown in 1299, the area in this year also was 180 acres. If these +estimates are used instead of the figure 82, as indicating the correct +acreage, the yield for the year is found to be between 7 and 10 +bushels per acre, in a season in which the average yield for the whole +group of manors was 9 bushels per acre. The figures at Witney in the +three seasons where a comparison with the general average for the +group is possible deviate from it within limits narrow enough to +indicate that conditions at Witney were roughly typical. + +[50] Rogers, _History of Agriculture and Prices_, vol. i, p. 228. + +[51] _Ibid._, vol. i, p. 234; vol. iv, p. 282. + +[52] _Op. cit._, p. 19. + +[53] Gras, _Evol. of the Eng. Corn Market_ (Cambridge, 1915), appendix A. + +[54] Gras gives 1.35 quarters as the acre produce, or nearly 11 +bushels. This figure is incorrect, as it is derived by dividing the +total produce of 42 manors by the total acreage planted on only 38 +manors. The produce of the four manors on which the acreage planted is +unknown amounts to nearly 750 quarters, a large item in a total of +only 4527 quarters for the whole group of manors. The ratio of produce +to seed, however, is independent of the number of acres planted, and +these four manors are included in the computation of this figure. + +[55] Gras, _op. cit._, appendix A. These figures are given only for +the manors for which the acreage planted in both periods is known--25 +in the case of wheat, 4 in the case of the other grains. + +[56] Gras, _op. cit._, appendix A; Levett and Ballard, _op. cit._, pp. +190, 203. + +[57] Smyth, _Lives of the Berkeleys_, vol. i, p. 113. + +[58] Page, _End of Villainage_ (Publications of the American Economic +Association, Third Series, 1900, vol. i, pp. 289-387), at p. 324, note 2. + +[59] Levett and Ballard, _op. cit._, p. 83. + +[60] Davenport, _op. cit._, p. 71. + +[61] Page, _op. cit._, p. 345. + +[62] _Ibid._, p. 340, note 1, and Levett, p. 85. + +[63] _Ibid._, p. 340, note 1. + +[64] Levett and Ballard, _op. cit._, p. 85. + +[65] Levett and Ballard, _op. cit._, p. 85. + +[66] Page, _op. cit._, p. 340. + +[67] Levett and Ballard, _op. cit._, p. 135. + +[68] Page, _op. cit._, p. 344, note 2. + +[69] Davenport, _Decay of Villainage_, p. 127. For further evidence of +the voluntary relinquishment of land in this period, see Seebohm, +_Eng. Village Community_ (London, 1890), p. 30, note 4, and Davenport, +_Economic Development of a Norfolk Manor_, pp. 91, 71, 72. + +[70] Levett and Ballard, _op. cit._, pp. 42-43. + +[71] Davenport, _Economic Development of a Norfolk Manor_, p. 78, and +Smyth, _op. cit._, vol. i, p. 113. + +[72] Levett and Ballard, _op. cit._, p. 157. "On many manors the +majority of the services owed were simply dropped, neither sold nor +commuted. They were evidently in many cases inefficient, expensive, +and inelastic." + +[73] _Ibid._, p. 89. + +[74] Levett and Ballard, _op. cit._, p. v. + +[75] Levett and Ballard, _op. cit._, p. 199. + +[76] Levett and Ballard, _op. cit._, p. 108. + +[77] _Ibid._, pp. 38, 115. + +[78] Page, _op. cit._, p. 342, note 2. + +[79] Levett and Ballard, _op. cit._, p. 115. + +[80] _Ibid._, p. 200. + +[81] Page, _op. cit._, p. 342, note 2. + +[82] Seebohm, _op. cit._, p. 30, note 2. + +[83] Page, _End of Villainage_, p. 365. + +[84] _Ibid._, p. 384. + +[85] Levett and Ballard, _op. cit._, p. 157. + +[86] Levett and Ballard, _op. cit._, p. 121. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE OPEN-FIELDS + + +For the reasons given in the last chapter, bailiff-farming rapidly +gave way to the various forms of the leasehold system in the +fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. The economic basis of +serfdom was destroyed; a servile tenement could no longer be depended +upon to supply an able-bodied man to do work on the demesne for +several days a week throughout the year, with extra helpers from his +family at harvest time. The money received in commutation of customary +labor, or as rent from land which had formerly been held for services +was far less than the value of the services, and would not pay the +wages of free men hired in place of the serfs who had formerly +performed the labor. Moreover, the demesne land itself was for the +most part so unproductive that it had hardly paid to cultivate it even +at the slight expense incurred in furnishing food for the serfs +employed; it was all the more a waste of money to hire men to plow it +and sow it. + +The text books on economic history usually give a careful account of +the various forms of leases which were used as bailiff-farming was +abandoned. We are told how the demesne was leased either as a whole or +in larger or smaller pieces to different tenants and sets of tenants, +for lives, for longer or shorter periods of years, with or without the +stock which was on it, and, in some cases, with the servile labor of +some of the villains, when this had not all been excused or commuted +into money payments. Arrangements necessarily differed on the +different manors, and the exact terms of these first experimental +leases do not concern us here. + +The fact which does interest us is that with the cessation of bailiff +farming the last attempt at keeping the land distributed in fairly +equal shares among a large number of tenants was abandoned. Bond land +had been divided into portions which were each supposed to be +sufficient for the maintenance of a laborer and his family. As long as +the demesne was cultivated for the lord, it was to his interest to +prevent the concentration of holdings in a few hands, unless some +certain provision could be made to insure the performance of the labor +due from all of them. But even when the demesne was still being +managed for the lord, it had already become necessary in some cases to +allow one man to hold two or more of these portions, for the +productivity had so declined that one was no longer enough. Now, with +the leasing of the demesne, the lord no longer had an interest in +maintaining the working population of the manor at a certain level, +but was concerned with the problem of getting as much rent as +possible. When the demesne and the vacant bond tenements began to be +leased, the land was given to the highest bidder, and the competitive +system was introduced at the start. This led to the gradual +accumulation of large holdings by some tenants, while other men were +still working very small portions, and others occupied holdings of +every intermediate size. The uniformity of size characteristic of the +early virgates disappeared. In this chapter these points will be +considered briefly, and a study will also be made of the way in which +these new holders managed their lands. + +In the first place, as the more destitute villains were giving up +their holdings and leaving the manor, and as no one could be found to +take their places on the old terms, the landlords gave up the policy +of holding the land until someone should be willing to pay the +accustomed services and let the vacant lands at the best rents +obtainable. Freeholders, and villains whose land was but lightly +burdened, and those who by superior management had been able to make +both ends meet, were now able to increase their holdings by adding a +few acres of land which had been a part of the demesne or of a vacated +holding. The case of the man at Sutton, who took up three virgates and +a cotland, has already been mentioned. Another case of "engrossing," +as it was called, dated from 1347-1348 at Meon, where John Blackman +paid fines for one messuage with ten acres of land, two other +messuages with a virgate of land each, one parcel of four acres, and +another holding whose nature is not specified.[87] + +Legislators who observed this tendency issued edicts against it. No +attempt was made to discover the underlying cause of which it was +merely a symptom. The first agrarian statutes were of a +characteristically restrictive nature, and no constructive policy was +attempted by the government until after a century of futile attempts +to deal with the separate evils of engrossing, enclosure, conversion +to pasture, destruction of houses and rural depopulation. The first +remedy these evils suggested was limitation of the amount of land +which one man should be allowed to hold.[88] In 1489 the statutes +begin to prohibit the occupation of more than one farm by the same +man, or to regulate the use of the land so occupied. The statute of +1489 refers to the Isle of Wight, where "Many dwelling places, fermes, +and fermeholdes have of late tyme ben used to be taken in to oon manys +hold and handes, that of old tyme were wont to be in severall persons +holdes and handes."[89] The proclamation of 1514 regulated the use of +land held by all persons who were tenants of more than _one_ farm.[90] +A law of 1533 provides that no person should occupy more than _two_ +farms.[91] + +The old villain holdings did not necessarily pass intact into the +hands of one holder, but were sometimes divided up and taken by +different men, a few acres at a time. One Richard Grene in 1582 held +lands of which ten and a half acres had been gradually acquired +through as many as ten grants. This land had formed part of six other +holdings, and much of the rest of the land belonging to these holdings +had also been alienated.[92] The Inquisition of 1517 reported numerous +cases of engrossing, and Professor Gay notes some of the entries in +the returns of the Inquisition of 1607 which are also interesting in +this connection: W. S. separated six yardlands from a manor house and +put a widow in the house, a laborer in the kitchen and a weaver in the +barn. The land was divided between two tenants who already had houses, +and presumably, other land, and were taking this opportunity to +enlarge their holdings of land. G. K. took from a farmhouse the land +which formed part of the same tenement and leased the house to a +laborer who had "but one acre of land in every field."[93] + +The growing irregularity of holdings, combined with the decrease in +the number of holders whose interests had to be consulted, made it +easier than it had formerly been to modify the traditional routine of +husbandry. Even though the new land acquired by tenants from the +demesne or from old bond-holdings did not happen to be adjacent to +strips already in their possession, exchange could accomplish the +desired result. At Gorleston, Suffolk, a tenant sublet about half of +his holding to eight persons, and at the same time acquired plots of +land for himself from another eight holdings.[94] Before 1350 +exchanges, sales and subletting of land by tenants had become general +on the manors of the Bishopric of Winchester. It is unusual to find +more than two cases of exchanges in any one year, even on a large +manor; but Miss Levett adds: "On the other hand, one can hardly look +through the fines on any one of the episcopal manors for a period of +ten years without finding one or two. From the close correspondence of +the areas exchanged, together with exact details as to position, it is +fairly clear that the object of the exchange was to obtain more +compact holdings."[95] + +Fitzherbert writes that "By the assente of the Lordes and tenauntes, +euery neyghbour may exchange lands with other."[96] This practice was +especially sanctioned by law in 1597 "for the more comodious +occupyinge or husbandrie of anye Land, Meadows, or Pastures,"[97] but +it was common in the open-field villages before the legal permission +was given. Tawney reproduces several maps belonging to All Souls' +Muniment Room, which show the ownership of certain open-field +holdings of about 1590. Here consolidation of plots had proceeded +noticeably. There are several plots of considerable size held by a +single tenant. + +The advantage of consolidated holdings are considerable. In the first +place, the turf boundaries between the strips could be plowed up, or +the direction of the plowing itself could be changed, if enough strips +were thrown together. Fitzherbert advises the farmer who has a number +of strips lying side by side and who + + hath no dung nor shepe to compost nor dung his land withall. Then + let the husband take his ploughe, and cast al such landes three + or four tymes togider, and make theyr rigge theyr as ye raine was + before.... And so shel he finde new moulde, that was not sene in + an hundred yeres before, the which must nedes gyue more corne + than the other dydde before.[98] + + +In two Elizabethan surveys examined by Corbett, we have evidence that +the theoretical advantages urged by Fitzherbert were not unknown in +practice. It is now and then stated that the _metae_ between strips +have been plowed up. But sometimes, even though all of the strips in a +furlong had been acquired by the same owner, and enclosed, the land +was left in strips. Some of the pieces were freehold, others copyhold, +and the lord may have objected to having the boundaries +obliterated.[99] Cross plowing is also occasionally referred to in +these surveys, but it was apparently rare.[99] + +The possibility of improvement in this direction, although not to be +ignored, was, however, comparatively slight. The important changes +which resulted from the increased size of the holdings were not so +much in the direction of superior management of the land, as in that +of making a selection between the different qualities of land, and +cultivating only the land in comparatively good condition. Tenants +taking up additional land cultivated only a part of their enlarged +holdings. The least productive strips were allowed to become overgrown +with grass. The better strips were kept under crop. + +If we are to accept the testimony of Fitzherbert and Tusser, strips of +grass in the common fields, or lea land, as it was called, were a +feature of every open-field township, by the sixteenth century. +According to Fitzherbert, "in euery towneshyppe that standeth in +tillage in the playne countrye, there be ... leyse to tye or tedder +theyr horses and mares vpon."[100] According to Tusser, the process of +laying to grass unproductive land was still going on. + + Land arable driuen or worne to the proofe, + and craveth some rest for thy profits behoof, + With otes ye may sowe it the sooner to grasse + more sooner to pasture to bring it to passe.[101] + + +The later surveys give additional evidence of the extent to which the +new tenantry had restricted the area of cultivation in the old fields +which had once been entirely arable land. The most noteworthy feature +of the survey of East Brandon, Durham (1606), was, according to Gray, + + the appearance in certain fields of meadow along-side the arable. + Lowe field was almost transformed by such procedure, for seldom + did the tenants retain any arable there. Instead they had large + parcels of meadow, sometimes as many as twenty acres; nor does + anything indicate that these parcels were enclosed. They seem, + rather to have remained open and to point to a gradual abandonment + of arable tillage. Such an abandonment is more clearly indicated + by another survey of this series, that of Eggleston.... Presumably + the fields had once been largely arable. When, however, the survey + was made, change had begun, though not in the direction of + enclosure, of which there was still little. Conversion to meadow + had proceeded without it: nearly all the parcels of the various + tenants in East field and West field are said to have been meadow; + arable still predominated only in Middle field, and even there it + had begun to yield.[102] + +At Westwick, Whorlton, Bolam and Willington in Durham, and at Welford, +Northamptonshire, a similar transformation had taken place.[103] + +This land was obviously withdrawn from cultivation not because the +tenants preferred grass land, or because grass land was more valuable +than arable, but because it could be plowed only at a loss. Where, as +at Greens Norton, arable and leas are valued separately in the survey, +the grass land is shown to be of less value than the land still under +cultivation.[104] The land craved rest, (to use Tusser's phrase), and +the grass which grew on it was of but little value. Here we have no +capitalist systematically buying up land for grazing, but a withdrawal +of land from cultivation by the tenants themselves, even though they +were in no position to prepare it properly for grazing purposes. The +importance of this fact cannot be over-emphasized. It is true that +pasture, properly enclosed and stocked, was profitable, and that men +who were able to carry out this process became notorious among their +contemporaries on account of their gains. But it is also true that the +land which was converted to pasture by these enclosers was fit for +nothing else. Husbandmen had had to withdraw much of their open-field +ground from tillage simply because it was so unproductive that they +could not count on a bare return of seed if they planted it. The +pasturage for an additional horse or cow which these plots furnished +was pure gain, and was not the object of the conversion to grass. The +unproductive strips would have been left untilled even though no +alternative use had been possible. They were unfit for cultivation. + +The advantage of holding this lea land did not end, however, with the +fact that a few additional horses or cows could be kept on the grass +which sprang up. This was undoubtedly of some value, but the greatest +advantage lay in the fact that this land gradually recovered its +strength. When the strips which were kept under cultivation finally +produced in their turn so little that they had to be abandoned, the +tenant who had access to land which had been laid to grass years +before could plow this instead, for it had regained its fertility and +had improved in physical quality. Fitzherbert recommends a regular +interchange between "Reyst" ground and arable land which had become +exhausted. When the grass strips become mossy and make poor pasture, +plow them up and plant them; when arable strips fail to produce good +crops, lay them to grass. Lea ground, "the whiche hath ben errable +land of late" should be plowed up. + + And if a man haue plentie of suche pasture, that wil be mossie + euery thyrd yere, lette hym breake vp a newe piece of gronde, and + plowe it and sowe it (as I haue seyde before), and he shal haue + plentye of corne, with littell dongynge, and sow it no lengar + thu it will beare plentye of corne, without donge, and it will + beare much better grasse, x or xii yere after.... Reyst grounde + if it be dry, will bringe much corne, for the mosse will rotte, + and the moll hillockes will amende the ground wel.[105] + + +Tusser's references to the practice of plowing up lea ground and +laying other land to grass are so incidental as to be good evidence of +the fact that this was not merely the recommendation of a theorist, +but a common practice, the details of which were familiar to those for +whom he intended his book. A passage in which he refers to the laying +to grass of land in need of rest has already been quoted.[106] In +discussing the date at which plowing should take place he mentions the +plowing up of lea land as well as of fallow.[107] + +The superior value of enclosed pasture to open-field leas, and of +enclosed arable to open-field arable, is not only asserted by +Fitzherbert and others who are urging husbandmen to enclose their +land, but appears also when manorial surveys are examined. It would +seem, therefore, that the tenants would have been anxious to carry the +process to an end and enclose their land. Undoubtedly the larger +holders were desirous of making the change, but as long as the rights +of the lesser men were respected, it was almost impossible to carry it +out. The adjustment of conflicting and obscure claims was generally +held to be an insuperable obstacle, even by those who urged the change +most strongly, while those who on principle opposed anything in the +way of enclosure took comfort in the fact that holdings were so +intermixed that there was little prospect of accomplishing the change: + + Wheare (men) are intercominers in comon feildes and also haue + theare portions so intermingled with an other that, thoughe they + would, they could not inclose anie parte of the saide feldes so + long as it is so.[108] + + +Just as the services of a promoter are needed in the formation of a +modern industrial combination, pressure from above was usually +necessary in order to overcome the difficulties of the situation. The +Lord of Berkeley (1281-1321) + + drewe much profitt to his Tenants and increase of fines to + himselfe ... by makeing and procuringe to bee made exchanges of + land mutually one with an other, thereby casting convenient + Parcells togeather, fitting it for an inclosure and conversion. + And by freeinge such inclosures from all comonage of others.[109] + +A landlord of this sort would do much to override the opposition of +those who, through conservatism, fear of personal loss, or insistence +upon more than their share of the benefits of the readjustment, made +it impossible for tenants to carry out these changes unassisted. + +Where tenants with or without the assistance of the lord had managed +to enclose some of their land and free it from right of common, they +were in a position to devote it to sheep-farming if they chose to do +so. Ordinarily they did not do this. If, as has been claimed, the +large-scale enclosures which shall be considered later were made +because of an increasing demand for wool, it is surprising that these +husbandmen were willing to keep enclosed land under cultivation, and +even to plow up enclosed pasture. The land had to be kept under grass +for a part of the time, whether it was open or enclosed, because if +kept continuously under the plow it became unproductive; and it was +better to have this land enclosed so that it could be used +advantageously as pasture during the period when it was recovering its +strength. But the profits of pasturage were not high enough to prevent +men from plowing up the land when it was again in fit condition. + +At Forncett, the tenants had begun sheep-farming by the end of the +fourteenth century, and had also begun to enclose land in the +open-fields; the situation was one, therefore, in which agriculture +was likely to be permanently displaced by grazing, according to the +commonly accepted theory of the enclosure movement. This change failed +to take place; not because enclosures ceased to be made--nearly half +of the acreage of the fields was in enclosures by 1565--but because +the tenants preferred to cultivate this enclosed land.[110] If the +enclosures had been pasture when they were first made, they did not +remain permanently under grass. Like the land still in the open +fields, and like the small enclosures in Cheshire reported by the +commission of 1517, they were sometimes plowed and sometimes laid to +grass, according to the condition of the soil. In a Cheshire village, +two tenants had small enclosures in the same field, which were treated +in this way. At the time the commission visited the place, one of +these closes was being used as pasture, and the other was in +cultivation. John Monkesfield's close, which had been made six years +before, + + _continet in se duas acras & diversis temporibus fuit in cultura + & aliis temporibus in pastura & nunc occupata est in + pastura._[111] + +John Molynes' close of one acre had been made the year before and + + _fuit antea in pastura & nunc occupata est in cultura._ + +It had evidently been a strip of lea land which had been so improved +by being kept under grass that it was in fit condition for +cultivation, while John Monkesfield's close had been plowed long +enough and was just at this time in need of rest. These men were +apparently unaffected by any increasing demand for wool, but were +managing their land according to its needs. + +By the sixteenth century, then, some enclosures had appeared in the +open fields, and the old common-field system was disintegrating. The +old customary holdings had been so altered that they were hardly +recognizable. Some tenants held a great number of acres, and had +managed by purchase or exchange to get possession of a number of +adjacent strips, which they might, under certain conditions, be able +to enclose. Much of the land, however, was withdrawn from cultivation, +and for years was allowed to remain almost in the condition of waste. + +For the most part, however, there had been no revolutionary change in +the system of husbandry. The framework remained. The whole community +still possessed claims extending over most of the land. The village +flocks pastured on the stubble and the fallows of the open fields. The +advantages which could in theory be derived from the control of +several adjacent strips of land were reduced to a minimum by the +necessity of maintaining old boundaries to mark off from each other +lands of differing status. Even where the consolidation of holdings +had proceeded to some extent, the tenants who had acquired the most +compact holdings in comparison with the majority still possessed +scattered plots of land separated from each other by the holdings of +other men, and some of the smaller holders had no two strips which +touched each other. When the tenants had been left to themselves, all +of the changes which took place before the eighteenth century, +numerous as they were, usually left the fields in a state resembling +more their condition in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries than that +of the nineteenth century. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[87] Levett and Ballard, _op. cit._, p. 49, note. + +[88] A speech on enclosures commending bills proposed in 1597 +contrasts the constructive character of that legislation with the +earlier laws: "Where the gentleman that framed this bill hath dealt +like a most skilful chirugien, not clapping on a plaster to cover the +sore that it spread no further, but searching into the very depths of +the wound that the life and strength which hath so long been in decay +by the wasting of towns and countries may at length again be quickened +and repaired." Bland, Brown & Tawney, _Eng. Econ. History--Select +Documents_, pp. 271-272. + +[89] 4 H. 7, c. 16, as quoted by Pollard, _Reign of Henry VII_, p. 237. + +[90] Leadam, _Domesday of Inclosures_ (London, 1897), p. 7 + +[91] 25 H. 8, c. 13. + +[92] Gray, _English Field Systems_ (Cambridge, 1915), pp. 95-96. + +[93] "Midland Revolt," _R. H. S. Trans._, New Series, vol. xviii, p. 230. + +[94] Tawney, _Agrarian Problem_, pp. 164-165. + +[95] Levett and Ballard, _op. cit._, pp. 52-53. + +[96] _Husbandry_ (ed. English Dialect Society, 1882), p. 77. + +[97] 39 El., c. i, vi. + +[98] _Surveying_ (2nd ed., 1567), ch. 24. + +[99] Corbett, "Elizabethan Village Surveys," _Royal Hist. Soc. +Trans._, New Series, vol. ii, pp. 67-87. + +[100] _Surveyinge_, ch. 41. + +[101] _Five Hundred Points_ (London, 1812). + +[102] Gray, _op. cit._, pp. 106-107. + +[103] Gray, _op. cit._, pp. 35, 106-107. + +[104] Lennard, _Rural Northamptonshire_, pp. 100-101. + +[105] Fitzherbert, _Surveyinge_, chs. 27 and 28. + +[106] See p. 79. Another reference to this process is made in +October's _Husbandry_, vol. 22, ch. 17. + +[107] Tusser, January's _Husbandry_, vol. 47, ch. 32. + +[108] _A Discourse of the Common Weal of this Realm of England_, ed. +by Elizabeth Lamond, Cambridge, 1893. + +[109] Smyth, _Lives of the Berkeleys_, vol. ii, pp. 159-160. + +[110] Davenport, _Norfolk Manor_, pp. 80-81. + +[111] Leadam, _op. cit._, pp. 641-644. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +ENCLOSURE FOR SHEEP PASTURE + + +Enclosure made by the tenants themselves by common agreement aroused +no opposition or apprehension. No diminution of the area under tillage +beyond that which had already of necessity taken place occurred, and +the grass land already present in the fields was made available for +more profitable use. The Doctor in Hales' dialogue carefully excepts +this sort of enclosure from condemnation: + + I meane not all Inclosures, nor yet all commons, but only of such + Inclosures as turneth commonly arable feildes into pastures; and + violent Inclosures, without Recompense of them that haue the + right to comen therein: for if the land weare seuerallie inclosed + to the intent to continue husbandrie theron, and euerie man, that + had Right to commen, had for his portion a pece of the same to + him selfe Inclosed, I thincke no harm but rather good should come + therof, yf euerie man did agre theirto.[112] + + +In this passage Hales recognizes the theoretical possibility of a +beneficial sort of enclosure, but the conditional form in which his +remarks are thrown indicates that, so far as he knew, there was little +systematic division of the land among the tenants by common consent. + +Orderly rearrangement of holdings into compact plots suitable for +enclosure was difficult unless the small holders had all disappeared, +leaving in the community only men of some means, who were able to +undertake the expenses of the readjustment. In most villages, +however, holdings of all sizes were the rule. Some tenants had almost +no land under cultivation, but picked up a living by working for +others, and by keeping a few sheep on the commons and on the fallow +lands of the town. There was thus always a fringe of peasant families +on the verge of destitution. They were being gradually eliminated, but +the process was extremely slow. A few of them in each generation, +feeling as a realized fact the increasing misery which has been +predicted for the modern industrial laborer, were forced to give up +the struggle. Their land passed into the hands of the more prosperous +men, who were thus gradually accumulating most of the land. In some +cases, no doubt, all of the poorer tenantry were drained off in this +fashion, making it possible for those who remained to consolidate +their holdings and enclose them in the fashion advocated by +Fitzherbert, keeping a part under tillage until it needed a rest, and +pasturing sheep and cattle in the closes which were under grass. + +It is impossible to estimate the number of these cases. What we do +know is that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries no such stage +had been reached in hundreds of English townships. The enclosures +which had been made by the tenants were of a few acres here and there. +The fields for the most part were still open and subject to common, +and consisted in part of poor pasture land. We do know also that many +landlords took matters into their own hands, dispossessed the tenants, +and enclosed a part or all of the land for sheep pastures. The date at +which this step was made, and the thoroughness with which it was +carried out, depended very much upon the character and needs of the +landlord, as well as upon local circumstances affecting the condition +of the soil and the degree of poverty suffered by the tenants. The +tendency for landlords to lose patience with the process which was +gradually eliminating the poorer men and concentrating their land in +the hands of the more prosperous is not characteristic of any one +century. It began as early as the middle of the fourteenth century, +and it extended well into the seventeenth. By 1402 clergy were being +indicted as _depopulatores agrorum_.[113] In the fifteenth century +statutes against enclosure and depopulation were beginning to be +passed, and Rous gives a list of fifty-four places near Warwick which +had been wholly or partially depopulated before about 1486.[114] For +the sixteenth century, we have the evidence of numerous statutes, the +returns of the commissions, doggerel verse, popular insurrections, +sermons, _etc._ Miss Leonard's study of the seventeenth-century +enclosures is confirmed by additional evidence presented by Gonner +that the movement was unchecked in this period. In 1692, for instance, +Houghton was attacking the "common notion that enclosure always leads +to grass," by pointing out a few exceptions.[115] In 1695 Gibson spoke +of the change from tillage to pasture, which had been largely within +living memory.[116] + +There is no reason to believe that the landowners who carried out this +process were unusually mercenary and heartless. The need for putting +their land to some remunerative use was imperative, and it is +surprising that the enclosure movement was of such a piece-meal +character and extended over so many years, rather than that it took +place at all. + +There was little rent to be had from land which lay for the most part +in open fields, tilled by men who had no capital at their command for +improving the condition of the soil, or for utilizing profitably the +portion of the land which was so impoverished that it could not be +cultivated. + +Poor tenants are unprofitable tenants; it is difficult to collect rent +from them and impossible to raise their rent, and they attempt to save +by exploiting the land, leaving it in worse condition than when they +received it. Contemporary references to the poverty of these +open-field tenants all confirm the impression given by Hales: + + They that be husbandmen now haue but a scant lyvinge therby.[117] + I that haue enclosed litle or nothinge of my grond could (never + be able) to make vp my lordes rent weare it not for a little + brede of neate, shepe, swine, gese and hens that I doe rere vpon + my ground: whereof, because the price is sumwhat round, I make + more cleare proffitt than I doe of all my corne and yet I haue + but a bare liuinge.[118] + +Harrison, at the end of the century, writes of the open-field tenants: + + They were scarce able to liue and paie their rents at their daies + without selling of a cow or an horsse, or more, although they + paid but foure poundes at the vttermost by the yeare.[119] + + +The tenant who could not pay this rent without selling stock was, of +course, one of those who would soon have to give up his land +altogether, if the landlord continued to demand rent. If he sold his +horses and oxen to raise the rent one year, he was less able to work +his land properly the next year, and the crop, too small in the first +place to enable him to cover expenses, diminished still more. When +the current income was ordinarily too small to cover current expenses, +no relief was to be found by reducing the capital. A time came when +these men must be either turned away, and their land leased to others, +or else allowed to stay and make what poor living they could from the +soil, without paying even the nominal rent which was to be expected of +them. + +Lord North's comment on the enclosure movement as he saw it in the +seventeenth century is suggestive of the state of affairs which led to +the eviction of these husbandmen: + + Gentlemen of late years have taken up an humor of destroying + their tenements and cottages, whereby they make it impossible + that mankind should inhabit their estates. This is done sometimes + barefaced because they harbour poor that are a charge to the + parish, and sometimes because the charge of repairing is great, + and if an house be ruinous they will not be at the cost of + rebuilding and repairing it, and cast their lands into very great + farms which are managed with less housing: and oftimes for + improvement as it is called which is done by buying in all + freeholds, copyholds, and tenements that have common and which + harboured very many husbandry and labouring families and then + enclosing the commons and fields, turning the managry from + tillage to grasing.[120] + + +Not only were these men able to pay little rent for the land they +held, but, as has been suggested, they were unable to maintain the +land in proper condition by the use of manure and marl. These expenses +were beyond the means of the farmer who was falling behind; they +neglected the soil because they were poor, and they were poor because +the yield of the land was so low; but their neglect caused it to +decline even more. Fitzherbert, who deplores the fact that marl is no +longer used in his time, points out that not only the leaseholder, who +is averse to making improvements on account of the insecurity of his +tenure, but the freeholder, also, is neglecting his land; although + + He knoweth well, he shall take the profits while he liueth, & his + heyres after him, a corrage to improw his owne, the which is as + good as and he purchased as much as the improwment cometh + to.[121] + + +But if he spent money on marling the soil, he would have nothing to +live on while waiting for the crop. The very poverty of the small +holders made it necessary for them to sink in still greater poverty, +until the lord deprived them of the land, or until they became so +discouraged that they gave it up of their own volition. They might +easily understand the force of Fitzherbert's arguments without being +able to follow his advice. "Marle mendeth all manor of grounde, but it +is costly."[122] The same thing is true of manure. According to +Denton, the expense of composting land was almost equivalent to the +value of the fee simple of the ground. He refers to a record of the +early fourteenth century of the payment of more than twice the +ordinary rent for composted land.[123] With manure at high prices, the +man in difficulty might be tempted to sell what he had; it was +certainly out of the question for him to buy more. Or, what amounted +to the same thing, he might sell hay or straw, and so reduce the +forage for his cattle, and return less to the soil by means of their +dung. + +Dr. Simkhovitch points out the difference between the farmer who is +unable to meet expenses in a particular year because of an +exceptionally bad season, and one who is suffering because of +progressive deterioration of his farm. The first may borrow and make +good the difference the following year; the latter will be unable to +extricate himself. He neither has means to increase his holding by +renting or buying more land, nor to improve the land which he has +already. His distress is cumulative: + + Only one with sufficient resources can improve his land. By + improving land we add to our capital, while by robbing land we + immediately add to our income; in doing so, however, we diminish + out of all proportion our capital as farmers, the productive + value of our farm land. The individual farmer can therefore + improve his land only when in an economically strong position. A + farmer who is failing to make a living on his farm is more likely + to exploit his farm to the utmost; and when there is no room for + further exploitation he is likely to meet the deficit by + borrowing, and thus pledging the future productivity of his + farm.[124] + + +While small holders in the open fields were in no position to pay +higher rents, the land owners were suffering. Prices were rising, and +while the higher price of farm produce in the market was of little +help to the tenant whose own family used nearly everything he could +raise, the landlords felt the pressure of an increasing cost of +living. + + Many of us [says the Gentleman, in Hales' dialogue] haue bene + driuen to giue over oure houshold, and to kepe either a chambere + in london, or to waight on the courte Vncalled, with a man and a + lacky after him, wheare he was wonte to kepe halfe a score cleane + men in his house, and xxtie or xxxtie other persons besides, + everie day in the weke.... We are forced either to minyshe the + thirde parte of our houshold, or to raise the thirde parte of our + Revenues.[125] + + +It was difficult for the landowners to make economic use of even those +portions of the land which were not in the hands of customary tenants. +If they were willing to invest capital in enclosing demesne land and +stocking it with sheep, without disturbing their small tenants, they +found it impossible to do so. Not only did the poorer tenants have to +cultivate land which was barely productive of more than the seed used, +because they could not afford to allow it to lie idle as long as it +would produce anything; not only did they allow the land which was +under grass to remain practically waste, because they could not afford +to enclose it and stock it with sheep; not only did they neglect +manuring and marling the land because these improvements were beyond +their means, so that the land was constantly growing poorer in their +hands, and so that they could pay very little rent; but they were also +tenacious of their rights of common over the rest of the land, and +resisted all attempts at enclosure of the holdings of the more +prosperous tenants, because they had to depend for their living +largely upon the "little brede of neate, shepe, swine, gese and hens" +which were maintained partly by the gleanings from other men's land +when it lay common. + +They undoubtedly suffered when the lord himself or one of the large +leaseholders insisted on enclosing some of the land. If the commonable +area was reduced, or if the land enclosed was converted from arable to +pasture (as it usually was), the means by which they made their living +was diminished. The occasional day's wages for labor spent on the land +converted was now withdrawn, and the pasturage for the little flock +was cut down. The practical effect of even the most innocent-looking +enclosures, then, must have been to deprive the poorer families of the +means of livelihood, even though they were not evicted from their +worthless holdings. Enclosures and depopulation were inseparably +linked in the minds of contemporaries, even when the greatest care was +taken by the enclosing authorities to safeguard the rights of the +tenants. + +These rights, however, seriously interfered with the most advantageous +use of land, and often were disregarded. Not only did the small +holders have rights of common over the rest of the land, but their own +strips were intermingled with those of the lord and the large holders. +The typical problem confronting the enclosing landlord is shown below: + + HOLDINGS IN OPEN FIELD, WEST LEXHAM, NORFOLK, 1575[126] + + _Strips in Furlong A_ _Strips in Furlong B_ + 1. Will Yelverton, freeholder. 1. Robert Clemente, freeholder. + 2. Demesne. 2. Demesne. + 3. Demesne. 3. Demesne. + 4. Will Yelverton. 4. Demesne. + 5. Demesne. 5. Demesne. + 6. Demesne. 6. Demesne. + 7. Demesne. 7. Demesne. + 8. Demesne. 8. Demesne. + 9. Demesne. 9. Will Lee, freeholder. + 10. Glebe. 10. Will Gell, copyholder. + 11. Demesne. 11. Demesne. + 12. Demesne. 12. Demesne. + 13. Glebe. 13. Demesne. + + +If, as was probably the case, the product from these demesne strips +was so small that the land was fit only for conversion to pasture, the +pecuniary interest of the lord was to be served best by enclosing it +and converting it. But should he make three enclosures in furlong A, +and two in furlong B, besides taking pains to leave a way clear for +Will Yelverton and Lee and Gell to reach their land? Or should he be +content merely with enclosing the larger plots of land, because of the +expense of hedging and ditching the smaller plots separately from the +rest? If he did this, the unenclosed portions would be of little +value, as the grass which grew on them could not be properly utilized +for pasture. The final alternative was to get possession of the strips +which did not form part of the demesne, so that the whole could be +made into one compact enclosure. In order to do this it might be +necessary to dispossess Will Lee, Will Gell, _etc._ The intermingling +of holdings, in such a way that small holders (whose own land was in +such bad condition that they could not pay their rents) blocked the +way for improvements on the rest of the land, was probably responsible +for many evictions which would not otherwise have taken place. + +But not all evictions were due to this cause alone. The income to the +owner from land which was left in the hands of customary tenants was +much lower than if it was managed by large holders with sufficient +capital to carry out necessary changes. Where it is possible to +compare the rents paid by large and small holders on the same manor, +this fact is apparent: + + AVERAGE RENT PER ACRE OF LAND ON FIVE MANORS IN WILTSHIRE, 1568[127] + + I II III + + s. d. s. d. s. d. + + Lands held by farmers 1 6 7 3/4 1 5 3/4 + + Lands held by customary tenants 7 1/2 5 1 0 3/4 + + + IV V + + s. d. s. d. + + Lands held by farmers 1 1 3/4 1 5 1/2 + + Lands held by customary tenants 5 3/4 5 3/4 + + + +The differences in these rents are sufficient to be tempting to the +lord who was seeking his own interest. The large holders were able to +expend the capital necessary for enclosing and converting the part of +the land which could not be profitably cultivated because of its bad +condition. The capital necessary for this process itself was +considerable, and besides, it was necessary to wait several years +before there was a return on the investment, while the sod was +forming, to say nothing of the large expenditure necessary for the +purchase of the sheep. The land when so treated, however, enabled the +investor to pay higher rents than the open-field husbandmen who +"rubbed forth their estate in the poorest plight."[128] + +A lord who was willing to consider only pecuniary advantage had +everything to gain by clearing the land entirely of small holders, and +putting it in the hands of men with capital. It is, therefore, to the +credit of these landowners that there are so few authentic cases of +the depopulation of entire villages and the conversion of all of the +arable land into sheep runs. These cases made the lords who were +responsible notorious and were, no doubt, exceptional. Nearly fifteen +hundred places were covered by the reports of the commissions of 1517 +and 1607, and Professor Gay has found among these "but a round dozen +villages or hamlets which were all enclosed and emptied of their +inhabitants, the full half of them in Northamptonshire."[129] For the +most part, the enclosures reported under the inquisitions as well as +those indicated on the maps and surveys of the period involved only +small areas, and point to a process of piece-meal enclosure. The +landowners seem to have been reluctant to cause hardship and to have +left the open-field tenants undisturbed as far as possible, contenting +themselves with the enclosure and conversion of small plots of land. + +The social consequences of so-called depopulating enclosure were +serious, but they are not seen in their proper perspective when one +imagines the condition of the evicted tenants to have been fairly good +before they were dispossessed. The cause lying back of the enclosure +movement was bringing about the gradual sinking of family after +family, even when no evictions were made. To attribute the poverty and +misery of the rural population to the enclosure movement is to +overlook the unhappy condition of the peasants, even where no +enclosures had been made. Enclosures had been forbidden in the fields +of royal manors in Northamptonshire, but this did not protect the +peasantry from destitution. The manor of Grafton, for instance, was +surveyed in 1526 and a note was made at the end of the survey that the +revenue drawn from the lordship had lately been increased, but "there +can no ferther enprovemente there be made and to kepe the tenantries +standyng. Item the tenauntriez there be in sore decaye." The surveyor +of Hartwell also notes that the "tenements there be in decay."[130] + +The economic basis of the unfortunate social changes which were +associated with the process of enclosure came gradually to be +recognized. It was evidently futile to enact laws requiring the +cultivation of land "wasted and worn with continual plowing and +thereby made bare, barren and very unfruitfull."[131] Merely +restrictive and prohibitory legislation was followed by the suggestion +of constructive measures. Until the middle of the sixteenth century, +laws were made in the attempt to put a stop to the conversion of +arable land to pasture under any conditions, and required that land +which had been under cultivation should be plowed in the future. In +the act of 1552, however, an attitude somewhat more reasonable is to +be seen. It was provided that land which had been under cultivation +within a certain number of years preceding the act should be tilled, +"_or so much in quantity_."[132] Public men were also urging that less +time be devoted to the futile attempt to force men to cultivate land +unfit for tillage, and that encouragement be given instead to measures +for improving the waste, and bringing fresh land under the plow.[133] + +After a time, moreover, another fact became apparent: there was a +marked tendency to break up and again cultivate the land which in +former generations had been converted to pasture. The statute of 1597 +not only contained a proviso permitting the conversion of arable +fields to pasture on condition that other land be tilled instead,[134] +thus tacitly admitting that the reason for withdrawing land from +cultivation was not the low price of grain, but the barrenness of the +land, but also explicitly referred to this fact in another proviso +permitting the conversion of arable land to pasture temporarily, _for +the purpose of recovering its strength_: + + Provided, nevertheless, That if anie _P_son or Body Pollitique or + Corporate hath ... laide or hereafter shall lay anie grownde to + graze, or hathe used or shall use the same grownde with shepe or + anie other cattell, which Grownde hath bene or shall be dryven or + worne owte with Tillage, onely upon good Husbandrie, and with + intente bona fide withowt Fraude or Covyne the same Grownde shall + recover Harte and Strengthe, an not with intent to continue the + same otherwise in shepe Pasture or for fattinge or grazinge of + Cattell, that no such _P_son or Body Politike or Corporate shall + be intended for that Grownde a Converter within the meaning of + this Lawe.[135] + + +A speaker in the House of Commons commends these provisions: + + For it fareth with the earth as with other creatures that through + continual labour grow faint and feeble-hearted, and therefore, if + it be so far driven as to be out of breath, we may now by this + law resort to a more lusty and proud piece of ground while the + first gathers strength, which will be a means that the earth + yearly shall be surcharged with burden of her own excess. And + this did the former lawmakers overslip, tyeing the land once + tilled to a perpetual bondage and servitude of being ever + tilled.[136] + + +Several years before the passage of this statute, Bacon had remarked +that men were breaking up pasture land and planting it voluntarily.[137] +In 1619, a commission was appointed to consider the granting of licenses +"for arable lands converted from tillage to pasture." The proclamation +creating this commission, after referring to the laws formerly made +against such conversions, continues: + + As there is much arable land of that nature become pasture, so is + there by reason thereof, much more other lands of old pasture and + waste, and wood lands where the plough neuer entred, as well as + of the same pasture lands so heretofore conuerted, become + errable, and by husbandrie made fruitfull with corne ... the + quantitie and qualitie of errable and Corne lands at this day + doth much exceed the quantitie that was at the making of the + saide Lawe.... As the want thereof [of corn] shall appeare, or + the price thereof increase, all or a great part of those lands + which were heretofore converted from errable to pasture and have + sithence gotten heart, strength and fruitfulness, will be reduced + to Corne lands againe, to the great increase of graine to the + Commonwealth and profite to each man in his private.[138] + + +John Hales had protested against depopulating enclosures, in 1549, by +appealing to the public spirit of landowners. They increased their +profits by converting arable land to pasture, but, he argued, + + It may not be liefull for euery man to vse his owne as hym + lysteth, but eueyre man must vse that he hath to the most + benefyte of his countrie. Ther must be somethynge deuysed to + quenche this insatiable thirst of greedynes of men.[139] + + +But now it was no longer necessary to persuade the owners of this same +land to forgo their own interests for the sake of the public good. +Those whose land had been used as pasture for a great number of years +were finding it valuable arable, because of its long period of rest +and regeneration. Land which had been converted to pasture was being +put under the plow because of the greater profit of tillage. + +So great was the profit of cultivating these pastures that landlords +who were opposed to having pastures broken up by leaseholders had +difficulty in preventing it. Towards the end of the sixteenth century +at Hawsted, and in the beginning of the seventeenth, a number of +leases contained the express provision that no pastures were to be +broken up. In 1620 and the years following, some of the leases +permitted cultivation of pasture, on the condition that the land was +to be laid to grass again five years before the expiration of the +lease.[140] + +There is no doubt of the fact that much land was being converted from +pasture to arable in this period. Evidence of this tendency multiplies +as the century advances. In 1656 Joseph Lee gave a list of fifteen +towns where arable land hitherto converted to pasture had been plowed +up again within thirty years.[141] + +Barren and insufficiently manured land did not produce good crops +merely because other land had been given an opportunity to recover its +strength. The conversion of open-field arable to pasture went on +unchecked in the seventeenth century because it had not yet had the +benefit of the prolonged rest which made agriculture profitable, and +without which it had become impossible to make a living from the soil. +The lands which have been "heretofore converted from errable to +pasture.... have sithence gotten heart, strength and fruitfulnesse," +and are therefore being plowed again; but the land which has escaped +conversion, and has been tied to the "perpetual bondage and servitude +of being ever tilled," is "faint and feeble-hearted," and is being +laid to grass, for pasture is the only use for which it is suited. The +cause of the conversion of arable fields to pasture is the same as +that which caused the same change on other lands at an earlier +date--so low a level of productivity that the land was not worth +cultivating. Lands whose fertility had been restored were put under +cultivation and plowed until they were again in need of rest. + +Thus the final result was about the same whether an enclosing landlord +cut across the gradual process of readjustment of land-holding among +the tenants, and converted the whole into pasture, or whether the +process was allowed to go on until none but large holders remained in +the village. In both cases the tendency was towards a system of +husbandry in which the fertility of the soil was maintained by +periodically withdrawing portions of it from cultivation and laying +it to grass. In the one case, cultivation was completely suspended for +a number of years, but was gradually reintroduced as it became evident +that the land had recovered its strength while used as pasture. In the +other, the grazing of sheep and cattle was introduced as a +by-industry, for the sake of utilizing the land which had been set +aside to recover its strength, while the better land was kept under +the plow. Whether enclosures were made for better agriculture, then, +as Mr. Leadam contends, or for pasture, as is argued by Professor +Gay,[142] the arable enclosures were used as pasture for a part of the +time and the enclosed pastures came later to be used for tillage part +of the time, and the two things amount to the same thing in the end. + +This end, however, had still not been reached in a great number of +open-field villages by the beginning of the eighteenth century, and we +should expect to find that the history of the land in this century was +but a repetition of what had gone before, in so far as the fields +which had not hitherto been enclosed are concerned. + +But, during the seventeenth century, an agricultural revolution was +taking place. Experiments were being made with new forage crops. For +one thing, it was found that turnips could be grown in the fields and +that they made excellent winter forage; and grass seeding was +introduced. The grasses and clovers which were brought from Holland +not only made excellent hay, but improved the soil rapidly. The +possibility of increasing the amount of hay at will put an end to the +absolute scarcity of manure--the limiting factor in English +agriculture from the beginning. And the comparative ease with which +the artificial grasses could be made to grow did away with the need +of waiting ten or fifteen years, or perhaps half a century, for +natural grass to cover the fields and restore their productiveness. + + Only with the introduction of grass seeding did it become + possible to keep a sufficient amount of stock, not only to + maintain the fertility of the soil, but to improve it steadily. + The soil instead of being taxed year after year under the heavy + strain of grain crops was being renovated by the legumes that + gathered nitrogen from the air and stored it on tubercles + attached to their roots. The deep roots of the clover penetrated + the soil, that no plow ever touched. Legumes like alfalfa, + producing pound by pound more nutritious fodder than meadow + grass, produced acre by acre two and three times the amount, and + when such a field was turned under to make place for a grain + crop, the deep and heavy sod, the mass of decaying roots, offered + the farmer "virgin" soil, where previously even five bushels of + wheat could not be gathered.[143] + + +As the value of these new crops became generally recognized, some +effort was made to introduce them into the regular rotation of crops +in the fields which were still held in common, but, for the most part, +these efforts were unsuccessful, and new vigor was given to the +enclosure movement. Frequently persons having no arable land of their +own had right of common over the stubble and fallow which could not be +exercised when turnips and clover were planted; for reasons of this +sort, it was difficult to change the ancient course of crops in the +open fields. For example, late in the eighteenth century (1793) at +Stiffkey and Morston, the improvements due to enclosure are said to +have been great, for: + + being half-year land before, they could raise no turnips except + by agreement, nor cultivate their land to the best + advantage.[144] + +At Heacham the common fields were enclosed by act in 1780, and Young +notes: + + Before the enclosure they were in no regular shifts and the field + badly managed; now in regular five-shift Norfolk management.[145] + +At Northwald, about 3,000 acres of open-field land were enclosed in +1796 and clover was introduced. The comment made is that "the crops +bear quite a new face." The common field of Brancaster before +enclosure in 1755 "was in an open, rude bad state; now in five or six +regular shifts."[146] + +Hitherto there had been only one way of restoring fertility to land; +converting it to pasture and leaving it under grass for a prolonged +period. Now it could be speedily improved and used intensively. Arthur +Young describes the modern method of improvement in his account of the +changes made in Norfolk husbandry before 1771: + + From forty to fifty years ago, all the northern and western and a + great part of the eastern tracts of the county were sheep walks, + let so low as from 6 _d._ to 1_s._ 6 _d._ and 2 _s._ an acre. + Much of it was in this condition only thirty years ago. The + improvements have been made by the following circumstances. + + First. By enclosing without the assistance of Parliament. + + Second. By a spirited use of marl and clay. + + Third. By the introduction of an excellent course of crops. + + Fourth. By the introduction of turnips well hand-hoed. + + Fifth. By the culture of clover and ray-grass. + + Sixth. By the lords granting long leases. + + Seventh. By the country being divided chiefly into large farms.[147] + + +The evidence which has been examined in this monograph reveals the +far-reaching influence of soil exhaustion in English agrarian history +in the centuries before the introduction of these new crops. As the +yield of the soil declined, the ancient arable holdings proved +incapable of supporting their cultivators, and a readjustment had to +be made. The pressure upon subsistence was felt while villainage was +still in force, and the terms upon which serfdom dissolved were +influenced by this fact to an extent which has hitherto not been +recognized. The economic crisis involved in the spread of the money +economy threw into relief the destitution of the villains; and the +easy terms of the cash payments which were substituted for services +formerly due, the difficulty with which holders for land could be +obtained on any terms, the explicit references to the poverty of whole +communities at the time of the commutation of their customary +services, necessitate the abandonment of the commonly accepted view +that growing prosperity and the desire for better social status +explain the substitution of money payments for labor services in the +fourteenth century. The spread of the money economy was due to the +gradual integration of the economic system, the establishment of local +markets where small land holders could sell their produce for money. +Until this condition was present, it was impossible to offer money +instead of labor in payment of the customary dues; as soon as this +condition was present, the greater convenience of the use of money +made the commutation of services inevitable. In practise money +payments came gradually to replace the performance of services through +the system of "selling" works long before any formal commutation of +the services took place. But, whatever the explanation of the spread +of the money economy in England during this period, it is not the +prosperity of the villains, for, at the moment when the formal change +from payments in labor to money payments was made, the poverty and +destitution of the landholders were conspicuous. That this poverty was +due to declining fertility of the soil cannot be doubted. Land in +demesne as well as virgate land was showing the effects of centuries +of cultivation with insufficient manure, and returned so scant a crop +that much of it was withdrawn from cultivation, even when serf labor +with which to cultivate it was available. Exhaustion of the soil was +the cause of the pauperism of the fourteenth century, as it was also +of the enclosure and conversion to pasture of arable land in the +fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Systematic enclosure +for the purpose of sheep-farming on a large scale was but the final +step in a process of progressively less intense cultivation which had +been going on for centuries. The attention of some historians has been +devoted too exclusively to the covetous sheep-master, against whom +contemporary invective was directed, and the process which was going +on in fields where no encloser was at work has escaped their notice. +The three-field system was breaking down as it became necessary to +withdraw this or that exhausted plot from cultivation entirely for a +number of years. The periodic fallow had proved incapable of keeping +the land in proper condition for bearing crops even two years out of +three, and everywhere strips of uncultivated land began to appear in +the common fields. This lea land--waste land in the midst of the +arable--was a common feature of sixteenth and seventeenth century +husbandry. The strips kept under cultivation gave a bare return for +seed, and the profit of sheep-raising need not have been +extraordinarily high to induce landowners to abandon cultivation +entirely under these conditions. A great part of the arable fields lay +waste, and could be put to no profitable use unless the whole was +enclosed and stocked with sheep. The high profit made from +sheep-raising cannot be explained by fluctuations in the price of +wool. The price of wool fell in the fifteenth century. Sheep-farming +was comparatively profitable because the soil of the ancient fields +was too barren to repay the costs of tillage. Land which was in part +already abandoned, was turned into pasture. The barrenness and low +productivity of the common fields is explicitly recognised by +contemporaries, and is given as the reason for the conversion of +arable to pasture. Its use as pasture for a long period of years gave +it the needed rest and restored its fertility, and pasture land which +could bear crops was being brought again under cultivation during the +centuries in which the enclosure movement was most marked. + + +Footnotes: + +[112] Lamond, _op. cit._, p. 49. + +[113] 4 H. 4, c. 2. Miss Leonard calls attention to this statute. +"Inclosure of Common Land in the Seventeenth Century." _Royal Hist. +Soc. Trans._, New Series, vol. xix, p. 101, note 2. + +[114] _Cf. supra_, p. 27. + +[115] Gonner, _Common Land and Inclosure_, p. 162. + +[116] Leonard, _op. cit._, p. 140, note 2. + +[117] Lamond, _op. cit._, p. 90. + +[118] _Ibid._, pp. 56-57. + +[119] _Description of Britain_ (_Holinshed Chronicles_, London, 1586), p. +189. + +[120] Leonard, _op. cit._, vol. xix, p. 120. + +[121] _Surveyinge_, ch. 28. + +[122] _Ibid._, ch. 32. + +[123] Denton, _England in the Fifteenth Century_, p. 150. + +[124] "Rome's Fall Reconsidered," _Political Science Quarterly_, vol. +xxxi, pp. 217, 220. + +[125] Lamond, _Common Weal of this Realm of England_, pp. 19-20. + +[126] Tawney, _Agrarian Problem in the Sixteenth Century_, pp. 254-255. + +[127] Tawney, _op. cit._, p. 256. + +[128] Carew, as quoted by Leonard, _op. cit._, vol. xix, p. 137. + +[129] "Enclosures in England," _Quarterly Journal of Ec._, vol. xvii, p. +595. + +[130] Lennard, _Rural Northamptonshire_, pp. 73-4. + +[131] The reason stated in the preamble of many of the Durham decrees +granting enclosure permits (Leonard, _op. cit._, p. 117). + +[132] 5 & 6 Ed. 6, c. 5. Re-enacted by 5 El., c. 2. + +[133] Memorandum addressed by Alderman Box to Lord Burleigh in 1576, +Gonner, _op. cit._, p. 157. + +[134] 39 El., ch. 2, proviso iii. + +[135] _Ibid._, proviso iv. + +[136] Bland, Brown & Tawney: _Select Documents_, p. 272. + +[137] Cunningham, _Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Modern +Times_, part ii, p. 99. + +[138] _Ibid._, p. 99. + +[139] Lamond, _op. cit._, p. lxiii. + +[140] Cullum, _Hawsted_, pp. 235-243. + +[141] Leonard, "Inclosure of Common Fields in the Seventeenth +Century," _Royal Hist. Soc. Trans._, N. S., vol. xix, p. 141, note. + +[142] For this controversy see, "The Inquisitions of Depopulation in +1517 and the 'Domesday of Inclosures,'" by Edwin F. Gay and I. S. +Leadam, _Royal Hist. Soc. Trans._, 1900, vol. xiv, pp. 231-303. + +[143] Simkhovitch, _Political Science Quarterly_, vol. xxviii, pp. +400, 401. + +[144] _Board of Agriculture Report, Norfolk_, ch. vi. + +[145] _Ibid._, ch. vi. + +[146] _Ibid._ + +[147] Bland, Brown and Tawney, _op. cit._, pp. 530-531. + + + + + INDEX + + + Abbot's Ripton, 61 + + Arable, 11; + area reduced, 22, 24, 27, 54-56, 70, 80; + barren, 12, 16-17, 23, 47, 49, 55-56, 58, 62, 70, 72, 79, 81, + 97-99, 101, 106; + fertility restored, 13, 41-42, 46-47, 81-82, 98-99, 101, 103; + converted to pasture, 11-12, 14, 18-19, 23, 27-28, 30, 32, 35-36, + 58, 71, 84, 88, 90, 99; + cultivation resumed, 12, 15-16, 31, 33, 84, 99-101; + lea strips, 41, 79-84, 87, 106; + enclosed, 83-84, 102 + + Ashley, 33 + + + Bacon, 99 + + Bailiff-farming, 50, 70, 73-74 + + Ballard, 20, 50, 59-60, 63, 70, 77 + + Barley, 37, 56 + + Beggars, 70 + + Berkeley estates, 23, 27, 58, 63, 83 + + Black Death, 16, 18-23, 38, 41, 56-57, 60, 67 + + Bolam, 80 + + Bond land deserted, 16, 21, 56-57, 60-61, 66, 70, 72; + refused, 59; + no competition for, 21; + vacant, 22-23, 57-58, 62, 66, 72; + compulsory holding of, 21, 57, 59-60, 62, 72; + leased, 23, 57, 62, 75-76; + rents of, 16, 20-21, 57-58, 63, 66-68 + + Brightwell, 68 + + Burwell, 61 + + + Cattle, 48-49, 69, 91, 102 + + Carew, _Survey of Cornwell_, 33 + + Chatteris, 70 + + Clover, 102, 104 + + Combe, 51 + + Commissions on enclosure, engrossing, etc., 15, 30, 84 + + Common-field system, 11, 48, 85; + stability of, 82, 85, 87, 103; + disintegration of, chapter III + + Commutation of villain services, 19, 56-57, 64-69, 73, 105 + + Concessions to villains, 57, 59, 62-64, 66, 69; + see villain services, rents + + Conversion, arable to pasture, 11-12, 14, 18-19, 23, 27-28, 30, 32, + 35-36, 39-43, 58, 71, 84, 88, 90, 99; + pasture to arable, 19, 31, 34-36, 39-43, 84; + both, 19, 35-36, 39-43, 84; + reconversion of open-field land formerly laid to grass, 13, 15-16, + 31, 33, 84, 99-101 + + Convertible husbandry, 41-42, 81-82, 84, 102 + + Corbett, 78 + + Corn-laws, 33-34 + + Cornwall, 33 + + Cost of living, 92 + + Crawley, 59 + + Crops, 48, 102-104 + + Cross-plowing, 78 + + Cunningham, 32 + + Curtler, 13 + + + Demesne, leased, 19-20, 57, 73; + intermixed with tenant land, 94-95 + + Denton, 13, 27, 91 + + Depopulation, 27-30, 94, 96 + + Desertion, 16, 21, 56-57, 60-61, 66, 70, 72 + + Downton, 50, 68 + + + East Brandon, 79 + + Emparking, 27 + + Enclosed land, pasture, 33, 87; + tilled, 83-84, 102; + convertible husbandry, 41-42, 81, 84, 101-102 + + Enclosure, defined, 11-12; + progress of, 27-43, 87-88; + early, 16, 18-19, 22-23, 27, 58; + seventeenth century, 12, 17, 31, 35-37, 39, 88; + eighteenth century, 31, 103-104; + causes, see productivity, soil-exhaustion, prices; + social consequences, 15, 29-30, 97, + see depopulation, unemployment, eviction; + literature of, 14-15; + opposition to, 82, 93; + effect on quality of wool, 33; + for sheep-farming, 12, 19, 22, 24, 28, 37, 42-44, 83-84, 87-88, + 90, 96, 98; + enclosed land cultivated, 83-84, 102 + + Engrossing, 75; + see holdings, amalgamation of + + Eviction of tenants, 12, 15, 27, 30, 38, 90, 94, 96 + + + Fallow, 11, 47, 85, 87, 106; + see pasture, lea land + + Fertility, see productivity, soil-exhaustion; + fertility restored, 13, 41-42, 46-47, 81-82, 98-99, 101, 103 + + Fines, 59 + + Fitzherbert, 41, 77-79, 81-82, 91 + + Forage, 49, 91, 102 + + Forncett, 51, 61, 63, 84 + + + Gay, Professor E. F., 15, 96, 102 + + Gonner, E. C. K., 13, 88 + + Gorleston, 77 + + Grafton Park, 34 + + Gras, Norman, 51 + + Gray, H. L., 79 + + Grazing, 11, 18, 46; + profits from, 80; + see sheep-farming, pasture + + + Hales, John, 86, 89, 92, 100 + + Harrison, Description of Britain, 89 + + Hasbach, 13 + + Hawsted, 100 + + Hay, 48-49, 91, 102 + + Heriots, 69 + + Holdings, deserted, 16, 21, 56-57, 60-61, 66, 70, 72; + refused by heir, 59; + vacant, 22-23, 57-58, 62, 66, 72; + intermixed, 11, 77-78, 85, 94-95; + amalgamated, 12, 56, 74-75; + divided, 76 + + Holway, 41 + + Houses, destruction of, 90 + + _Husbandry_, Anonymous, 51 + + + Innes, 32 + + Isle of Wight, 28, 76 + + + Labor, supply of, 18, 22-23, 38, 41; + see wages, unemployment + + Landlords, enclosure by, 12, 96, 100, 106 + + Leadam, 102 + + Lea-land, 41, 79, 80-84, 87, 106 + + Lee, Joseph, 101 + + Leicestershire, 15 + + Leonard, E. M., 15, 27, 35-36, 40, 88 + + Levett, A. E., 20, 50, 59-60, 63, 70, 77 + + + Manorial system, readjustments in fourteenth century, 19 _et seq._ + + Manure, 41-42, 46-50, 78, 90, 102; + see sheep-fold, marl + + Markets, local, 105 + + Marl, 46, 50, 90-91, 104 + + Meadow, 48-49 + + Meredith, 32 + + Merton College, 51 + + Money-economy, 105; + see commutation of services + + Monson, Lord, 34 + + More, Sir Thomas, 29-30 + + + Nailesbourne, 60, 64 + + North, Lord, 90 + + Northwald, 104 + + + Open-field land, see common-field system, enclosures, lea-land + + + Page, 60-61, 68 + + Pasture, waste, 46, 49, 93; + fallow pasture, 11, 49, 82, 85, 93; + lea strips, 41, 79-84, 87, 106; + enclosed, 33, 82, 87; + converted to arable, 19, 31, 34, 36, 39-43, 84; + profits of, 12, 18, 30, 32-33, 107; + leased, 100 + + Pauperism, see poverty + + Pembroke, 41 + + Population, 34 + + Poverty, villains, 16, 21, 56, 59, 67-69, 72, 106; + small tenants, 87, 90-91, 97 + + Prices, sixteenth century, 92; + wool and wheat, 12, 17-19, 24-33, 36-37, 40, 53; + seventeenth century, 36-37 + + Productivity, 14, 38, 41, 44-48, 50-56, 90; + see soil-exhaustion + + Profits, tillage, 22, 34, 39, 41, 58, 70, 72, 89-92; + pasture, 12, 18, 30, 32-33, 96, 107 + + Protests against enclosures, 14-15, 38 + + Prothero, 13 + + + Reconversion, pasture to arable, 12, 15-16, 31, 33, 84, 90, 101 + + Rents, 16, 20-21, 57-58, 63, 66-68, 73, 89-90, 95 + + Rogers, J. T., 17, 26, 31, 39 + + Rotation of crops, 11, 103-104 + + Rothamsted Experiment Station, 44 + + Rous, 27, 88 + + Russell, 44, 46-47, 49 + + + Seager, 17 + + Seligman, 17 + + Sheep, 12, 29 + + Sheep-farming, 12, 19, 22, 24, 28, 37, 42-44, 83-84, 87-88, 90, 96, 98 + + Sheep-fold, 49-50 + + Simkhovitch, 13, 17, 47-48, 91 + + Smyth, John, 23, 58 + + Soil-exhaustion, 12, 16-17, 23, 47, 49, 55-56, 58, 62, 70, 72, 79-81, + 97-99, 101, 106 + + Statutes of husbandry, 28, 30, 39-40, 75-76, 88, 97-99 + + Stiffkey, 103 + + Stock and land lease, 73 + + Strips, 11, 85, 94-95; + exchanged, 77 + + + Tawney, 77 + + Tenants, elimination of, 87; + evicted, 12, 15, 27, 30, 38, 90, 94, 96; + poverty, 87, 90-91, 97; + enclosure by, 15, 82-87; + opposition to enclosure, 82, 93; + rents of, 89-90, 95 + + Therfield, 60, 61 + + Turf-borders, 11; + plowed under, 78 + + Turnips, 102-104 + + Tusser, 41, 79, 82 + + Twyford, 59 + + + Unemployment, 28, 30, 38 + + Utopia, 29-30 + + + Villains, poverty, 16, 21, 56, 59, 67-69, 72, 106; + compelled to take land, 21, 57, 59-60, 62, 72; + desertion of, 16, 21, 56-57, 60-61, 66, 70, 72; + social status with relation to commutation, 20, 57, 65, 67-68 + + Villain-services, 58-59; + reduced, 21, 62-64, 72; + commuted, 19-20, 56-57, 62, 64-69, 73, 105; + sold, 64, 66, 105; + excused, 70-71; + leased, 73; + retained, 67 + + Vinogradoff, 65-66 + + Virgate, 74; + value of services, 62-63 + + + Wages, 18, 36-39, 72-73 + + Walter of Henley, 51, 53 + + Waste, 12, 46, 49, 93, 98 + + Westmoreland, Countess of, 36 + + Weston, 61, 68 + + Westwick, 80 + + Wheat, yield, 47, 50-56, 90; + prices, 12, 17-19, 24-31, 32-33, 36-37, 40, 53 + + Whorlton, 80 + + Winchester, Bishopric of, 20, 50, 51-54, 60-61, 63, 70, 77 + + Witney, 51-53, 55-56, 67-68 + + Wool, demand for, 12, 22, 24-25, 29, 32, 42, 43; + price of, 12, 17-19, 22, 24-33; + quality, 33 + + Woollen industry, expansion of, 12, 22, 24-25 + + Woolston, 59 + + + Young, Arthur, 104 + + + + +Columbia University in the City of New York + + +The University includes the following: + +Columbia College, founded in 1754, and Barnard College, founded in +1889, offering to men and women, respectively, programs of study which +may be begun either in September or February and which lead normally +in from three to four years to the degrees of Bachelor of Arts. 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