England's Second Domesday and the Expulsion of the English Peasantry

Agricultural History Review, 2021

Book Reviews Book Reviews UK and Ireland ro s a m o n d fa i t h , The moral economy of the countryside: Anglo-Saxon to Anglo-Norman England (Cambridge University Press, 2019). xii + 235 pp. £19.99. More than two decades after the release of her commanding survey of the English peasantry, Rosamond Faith returns once again to the vexing subject of relationships between lords and peasants in her latest monograph. Having worked on the agriculture, farmers, and peasantry of England and France for the better part of fifty years, Faith now turns her attention not only to the mechanics of how the peasantry were exploited but, rather, why lords in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were able to appropriate their labour. This is a particularly timely contribution to the field given something of a flurry of publications addressing the topic of early medieval peasant society (see, for examples, recent works by Constance Bouchard, G. G. Astill, Alexander Langlands and Charles West). Despite the focused nature of this question, Faith's monograph also seeks to intervene in another, much older debate: when did 'feudalism' appear in early medieval England? In a distant echo of John Horace Round, Faith argues that the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 marked a distinct moment of transition between a 'profoundly un-feudal society' to a 'profoundly feudal one'. This is not Chris Wickham's steady but sure march of the feudal mode, but, rather, a mutation féodale. Faith suggests that pre-Conquest lords and institutions controlled one of the two Marxist means of production: land. However, she argues it was only after the Norman influx that lords 'gained control' over the second: labour.

Agricultural History Review, 2013

The later fourteenth century is often considered a period of rising standards of living, attributed in part to falling grain prices and diminished population pressure in the aftermath of the Black Death. Yet data from Oakington, Cambridgeshire, obtained from unusually complete tithe accounts, suggests that smallholding peasants in this region remained constrained by competing needs of production and consumption, even at the end of the fourteenth century. This article examines resource allocation and decision making on peasant land, and considers the effects of falling grain prices on standards of living in a region dependent on arable husbandry. By modelling a hypothetical peasant holding, this article argues that peasants at Oakington prized stability of yield, flexibility of crop use, and the calorific value of the land for people and, crucially, livestock. This allowed peasants to meet their consumption and contractual needs, but hindered their ability to respond quickly to changing economic circumstances.

The Agricultural History Review, 2013

The later fourteenth century is often considered a period of rising standards of living, attributed in part to falling grain prices and diminished population pressure in the aftermath of the Black Death. Yet data from Oakington, Cambridgeshire, obtained from unusually complete tithe accounts, suggests that smallholding peasants in this region remained constrained by competing needs of production and consumption, even at the end of the fourteenth century. This article examines resource allocation and decision making on peasant land, and considers the effects of falling grain prices on standards of living in a region dependent on arable husbandry. By modelling a hypothetical peasant holding, this article argues that peasants at Oakington prized stability of yield, flexibility of crop use, and the calorific value of the land for people and, crucially, livestock. This allowed peasants to meet their consumption and contractual needs, but hindered their ability to respond quickly to changing economic circumstances.

Journal of Historical Geography, 2004

This article uses information from the feet of fines (the copies of legal agreements reached following disputes over land ownership) for various English counties (principally Shropshire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire) during the famine years of the early 14th century, from 1315 to 1322. The evidence presented suggests an increased level of activity in the freehold land market during this period of intense agricultural crisis. There is a correlation between regions described as experiencing problems in other documentary sources from the period, notably the Nonarum Inquisitiones, and those where land transactions were especially numerous. Evidence from the 1327 Lay Subsidy further suggests that it was the poorer sections of society who were selling land.

Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 2006

The paper argues that accounting and other evidence supports Marx's theory that capitalist farmers drove an English 'agricultural revolution' that began in the sixteenth century but took hold from the late seventeenth century. Historians often say England had an agricultural revolution, but disagree over what it was, when it occurred, what caused it, and its consequences. Modern historians usually define it tautologically as 'revolutionary' increases in output and productivity. Early historians argued that a new 'commercial' or 'capitalist' mentality drove the revolution, and some modern historians stress the need for farmers to become 'businessmen', but no one precisely defines this mentality. The paper defines the capitalist mentality rigorously using Marx and accounting and outlines a testable history of the genesis of capitalist farmers, who should appear wherever farmers using wage labour participated in socialised capital. It argues that the historical evidence supports the prediction from Marx's theory that the geographical distribution of ship ownership in England should correlate with agricultural improvement. The paper argues that the published evidence on farmers' accounts from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries directly supports Marx's theory. It concludes that accounting historians can make a critical contribution to a major debate by testing the theory against the large archive of farmers' accounts that survives.

Rural History, 2012

Using the evidence of manorial court records, this paper examines in detail the developments in the relationship between the Bishop of Ely and his peasants at the manor of Brandon leading up to the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. Increasing levels of discontent among the peasantry can be observed across the period. This is expressed in rising reported numbers of various cases in the court rolls, such as non-compliance with the court, labour refusals, trespasses and cases of foot-dragging. This rising level of conflict, some open, some more hidden, can be seen as evidence both for increasing seigniorial concern to assert various jurisdictional rights, and the peasants’ increasing willingness to test the boundaries of seigniorial dominion, leading eventually to their participation in the Rising in East Anglia.

Agricultural History Review, 2013

The later fourteenth century is often considered a period of rising standards of living, attributed in part to falling grain prices and diminished population pressure in the aftermath of the Black Death. Yet data from Oakington, Cambridgeshire, obtained from unusually complete tithe accounts, suggests that smallholding peasants in this region remained constrained by competing needs of production and consumption, even at the end of the fourteenth century. This article examines resource allocation and decision making on peasant land, and considers the effects of falling grain prices on standards of living in a region dependent on arable husbandry. By modelling a hypothetical peasant holding, this article argues that peasants at Oakington prized stability of yield, flexibility of crop use, and the calorific value of the land for people and, crucially, livestock. This allowed peasants to meet their consumption and contractual needs, but hindered their ability to respond quickly to changing economic circumstances.

Bulletin of Economic Research, 1991

2013

2015

Agricultural History Review, 2017

The period between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries was one of rising population and increasing pressure on land and resources. Access to land per person and per household declined as peasant ...