Resource allocation and peasant decision making: Oakington, Cambridgeshire, 1360–99 (original) (raw)
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Resource allocation and peasant decision-making: Oakington, Cambridgeshire, 1361-1393
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.
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 productivity of peasant agriculture: Oakington, Cambridgeshire, 1360-99 1
The Economic History Review, 2012
By ALEXANDRA SAPOZNIK* Agriculture was the largest and most important sector of the medieval English economy.Yet although peasants comprised the majority of the population, and were responsible for the greater part of land use, surprisingly little is known about peasant cropping patterns and production strategies. Taking the Crowland Abbey manor of Oakington, Cambridgeshire as a case study, this article examines peasant land use and agricultural strategies. Using data collected from the Oakington tithe accounts and manor court rolls, this article demonstrates that peasants used their land more extensively than did the lord, raising their output per acre above that of the demesne. This was driven by peasant need for fodder crops, and the strain placed on agricultural systems that required peasants to use their land to produce grains and legumes for consumption, fodder, and sale. * Author Affiliation: Newnham College. 1 I am indebted to John Hatcher for his comments on drafts of this article, and I am grateful to Mark Bailey, Richard Smith, and David Stone for their comments and advice on previous iterations of this research, and to Chris Briggs for first directing me to the Oakington documents. I also thank Bruce Campbell and the anonymous referee for their careful critique and comments on this article. Many thanks are also owed to the Economic History Society and Institute for Historical Research for the Postan Fellowship, which I held during the time this article was written.
Modelling Population and Resource Scarcity in Fourteenth-century England
Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2005
This paper examines the empirical data relevant in the analysis of the agrarian transformation of England in the Middle Ages. It presents an empirical analysis of available data that investigates the role and extent of resource scarcity in 14th-century England. The analysis offers a way forward for economists and historians to reach a plausible consensus about the reality of what may be one of the most important transition periods in European economic history. The insights gained throw useful light on the processes whereby agricultural relations evolved from ancient feudal structures.
ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL OUTPUT 1250-1450: SOME PRELIMINARY ESTIMATES
We provide annual estimates of agricultural output for England over the period 1250-1450. The data are extracted largely from manorial accounts but checked against tithe records for the non-demesne sector where possible. We provide separate estimates for the output of individual arable and pastoral products, and combine them into an aggregate agricultural output series. This is combined with estimates of population and the agricultural labour force to provide an overview of the path of agricultural labour productivity. Estimates from the output side are cross-checked against estimates from the income side and per capita consumption of calories. English agriculture responded positively to the crises of the fourteenth century, with agricultural labour productivity increasing substantially across the Black Death, in line with an increase in agricultural real wages. With rising living standards, the share of pastoral farming increased at the expense of arable farming. Leverhulme Trust, Reference Number F/00215AR. We are grateful to participants in the Third Workshop for Working Group 2 of Cost Action A35 (Rural management of land) on "Production and productivity in European agriculture in a historical context", at Lund, Sweden, for helpful comments.
The feet of fines, the land market and the English agricultural crisis of 1315 to 1322
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.
Harvest Shortfalls, Grain Prices, and Famines in Preindustrial England
The Journal of Economic History, 2011
The frequency of bad harvests and price elasticity of demand are measured using new data on English grain yields 1268–1480 and 1750–1850 and a revised price series. The analysis shows that major harvest shortfalls were a significant component of most historical subsistence crises, as back-to-back shortfalls were of the worst famines. Although serious harvest shortfalls long remained an unavoidable fact of economic life, by c.1800 yields had become less variable and prices less harvest sensitive. By the eve of the Industrial Revolution, England had become effectively famine-free.