A Short History of English Agriculture Part 7

This small army of men consumed 22 bushels of wheat, 8 pennyworth of beer, and 41 bushels of malt, worth 18s. 9-1/2d.; meat to the value of 9s. 11-1/2d.; fish and herrings, 5s. 1d.; cheese, b.u.t.ter, milk, and eggs, 8s. 3-1/2d.; oatmeal, 5d. salt, 3d.; pepper and saffron, 10d., the latter apparently introduced into England in the time of Edward III, and much used for cooking and medicine, but it gradually went out of fashion, and by the end of the eighteenth century was only cultivated in one or two counties, notably Ess.e.x where Saffron Walden recalls its use; candles, 6d.; and 5 pairs of gloves 10d.[165]

The presentation of gloves was a common custom in England; and these would be presented as a sign of good husbandry, as in the case of the rural bridegroom in the account of Queen Elizabeth's visit to Kenilworth who wore gloves to show he was a good farmer. Tusser bids the farmer give gloves to his reapers. The custom was still observed at Hawsted in 1784, and in Eden's time, 1797, the bursars of New College, Oxford, presented each of their tenants with two pairs, which the recipients displayed on the following Sunday at church by conspicuously hanging their hands over the pew to show their neighbours they had paid their rent. In this account of the Hawsted harvest the large number of hired men and the few customary tenants is noteworthy as a sign of the times, for before the Black Death the harvest work on the demesne was the special work of the latter.

In the fourteenth century the long series of corn laws was commenced which was to agitate Englishmen for centuries, and after an apparently final settlement in 1846 to reappear in our day.[166] It was the policy of Edward III to make food plentiful and cheap for the whole nation, without special regard to the agricultural interest: and by 34 Edw. III, c. 20, the export of corn to any foreign part except Calais and Gascony, then British possessions, or to certain places which the king might permit, was forbidden. Richard II, however, reversed this policy in answer to the complaints of agriculturists whose rents were falling,[167] and endeavoured to encourage the farmer and especially the corn-grower; for he saw the landlords turning their attention to sheep instead of corn, owing to the high price of labour. Accordingly, to give the corn-growers a wider market, he allowed his subjects by the statute 17 Ric. II, c. 7, to carry corn, on paying the duties due, to what parts they pleased, except to his enemies, subject however to an order of the Council; and owing to the interference of the Council the law probably became a dead letter, at all events we find it confirmed and amended by 4 Hen. VI, c. 5.

The prohibition of export must have been a serious blow to those counties near the sea, for it was much easier to send corn by ship to foreign parts than over the bad roads of England to some distant market.[168] Indeed, judging by the great and frequent discrepancy of prices in different places at the same date, the dispatch of corn from one inland locality to another was not very frequent. Richard also attempted to stop the movement, which had even then set in, of the countrymen to the growing towns, forbidding by 12 Ric. II, c. 5, those who had served in agriculture until 12 years of age to be apprenticed in the towns, but to 'abide in husbandry'.

One of the most unjust customs of the Middle Ages was that which bade the tenants of manors, except those who held the _jus faldae_, fold their sheep on the land of the lord, thus losing both the manure and the valuable treading.[169] However, sometimes, as in Surrey, the sheepfold was in a fixed place and the manure from it was from time to time taken out and spread on the land.[170]

In the same district horses had been hitherto used for farm work, as it was considered worthy of note that oxen were beginning to be added to the horse teams. The milk of two good cows in twenty-four weeks was considered able to make a wey of cheese, and in addition half a gallon of b.u.t.ter a week; and the milk of 20 ewes was equal to that of 3 cows.

On the Manor of Flaunchford, near Reigate, the demesne land amounted to 56 acres of arable and two meadows, but there must have been the usual pasture in addition to keep the following head of stock: 13 cows, who in the winter were fed from the racks in the yard; 4 calves, bought at 1s. each; 12 oxen for ploughing, whose food was oats and hay--a very large number for 56 acres of arable, and they were probably used on another manor; 1 stott, used for harrowing; a goat, and a sow.

s. d.

In 1382 the total receipts of this manor were 8 1 9-1/2 The total expenses 7 0 5 -------------- Profit 1 1 4-1/2 ==============

Among the receipts were:-- For the lord's plough, let to farmers (perhaps this accounts for the large team of oxen kept) 6 8 14 bushels of apples 1 2 5 loads of charcoal 16 8 A cow 10 0 Among the payments:-- For keeping plough in repair, and the wages of a blacksmith, one year by agreement 6 8 Making a new plough from the lord's timber 6 Mowing 2 acres of meadow 1 0 Making and carrying hay of ditto, with help of lord's servants 4 Threshing wheat, peas, and tares, per quarter 4 " oats, per quarter 1-1/2 Winnowing 3 quarters of corn 1 Cutting and binding wheat and oats, per acre 6

On the Manor of Dorking the harvest lasted five weeks as a rule; the fore feet only of oxen used for ploughing, and of heifers used for harrowing, were shod. For washing and shearing sheep 10d. a hundred was the price; ploughing for winter corn cost 6d. an acre, and harrowing 1/2d. 30-1/2 acres of barley produced 41-1/2 quarters; 28 acres of oats produced 38-1/2 quarters; 13 cows were let for the season at 5s. each. In the same reign, at Merstham, the demesne lands of 166-1/2 acres were let on lease with all the live and dead stock, which was valued at 22 9s. 3d., and the rent was 36 or about 4s. 4d.

an acre, an enormous price even including the stock.

FOOTNOTES:

[149] Smyth, _Lives of the Berkeleys_, ii. 5. There is no doubt the lease system was growing in the thirteenth century. About 1240 the writ _Quare ejecit infra terminum_ protected the person of a tenant for a term of years, who formerly had been regarded as having no more than a personal right enforceable by an action of covenant.

Vinogradoff, _Villeinage in England_, p. 330; but leases for lives and not for years seem the rule at that date.

[150] Cullum, _Hawsted_, p. 175.

[151] See _Domesday of S. Paul_, Introduction.

[152] Thorold Rogers, _History of Agriculture and Prices_, i. 25.

[153] Cullum, _Hawsted_, p. 195.

[154] Cunningham, _Industry and Commerce_, i. 586.

[155] Banyd, afflicted with sheep rot.

[156] Eden, _State of the Poor_, i. 55.

[157] Cullum, _Hawsted_, p. 182. Another instance of the difference in value between arable and tillage. At the inquisition of the Manor of Great Tey in Ess.e.x, 1326, the jury found that 500 acres of arable land was worth 6d. an acre rent, 20 acres of meadow 3s. an acre, and 10 acres of pasture 1s. an acre. _Archaeologia_, xii. 30.

[158] Medley, _Const.i.tutional History_, p. 52.

[159] Cunningham, _op. cit._ i. 328, and 335-6.

[160] _Domesday of S. Paul_, p. lvii.

[161] _Hist. Angl._, Rolls Series, i. 455. The other political and social causes of the revolt do not concern us here. The attempt to minimize its agrarian importance is strange in the light of the words and acts above mentioned.

[162] Page, _op. cit._ p. 77.

[163] Cunningham, _Industry and Commerce_, i. 402, 534; _Transactions of the Royal Historical Society_, New Series, xvii. 235. Fitzherbert probably referred more to villein status, which continued longer than villein tenure.

[164] Thorold Rogers, _History of Agriculture and Prices_, i. 278, 288.

[165] Harrison, _Description of Britain_, p. 233, says the produce of an acre of saffron was usually worth 20.

[166] Exportation of corn is mentioned in 1181, when a fine was paid to the king for licence to ship corn from Norfolk and Suffolk to Norway.--McPherson, _Annals of Commerce_, i. 345. As early as the reign of Henry II, Henry of Huntingdon says, German silver came to buy our most precious wool, our milk (no doubt converted into b.u.t.ter and cheese), and our innumerable cattle.--Rolls Series, p. 5. In 1400, the _Chronicle of London_ says the country was saved from dearth by the importation of rye from Prussia.

[167] Hasbach, _op. cit._. p. 32.

[168] Lord Berkeley, about 1360, had a ship of his own for exporting wool and corn and bringing back foreign wine and wares.--Smyth, _Lives of the Berkeleys_, i. 365.

[169] Na.s.se, _Agricultural Community of the Middle Ages_, p. 66.

[170] Customs in some Surrey manors in the time of Richard II, _Archaeologia_, xviii. 281.

CHAPTER VI

1400-1540

THE SO-CALLED 'GOLDEN AGE OF THE LABOURER' IN A PERIOD OF GENERAL DISTRESS

In this period the average prices of grain remained almost unchanged until the last three decades, when they began slowly and steadily to creep up, this advance being helped to some extent by defective harvests. In 1527, according to Holinshed it rained from April 12 to June 3 every day or night; in May thirty hours without ceasing; and the floods did much damage to the corn. In 1528 incessant deluges of rain prevented the corn being sown in the spring, and grain had to be imported from Germany. The price of wheat was a trifle higher than in the period 1259-1400; barley, oats, and beans lower; rye higher.[171]

Oxen and cows were dearer, horses about the same, sheep a little higher, pigs the same, poultry and eggs dearer, wool the same, cheese and b.u.t.ter dearer. The price of wheat was sometimes subject to astonishing fluctuations: in 1439 it varied from 8s. to 26s. 8d.; in 1440 from 4s. 2d. to 25s. The rent of land continued the same, arable averaging 6d. an acre,[172] though this was partly due to the fact that rents, although now generally paid in money, were still fixed and customary; for the purchase value of land had now risen to twenty years instead of twelve.[173] The art of farming hardly made any progress, and the produce of the land was consequently about the same or a little better than in the preceding period.[174]

At the end of the fourteenth century the ordinary wheat crop at Hawsted was in favourable years about a quarter to the acre, but it was often not more than 6 bushels; and this was on demesne land, usually better tilled than non-demesne land.[175] As for the labourer, it is well known that Thorold Rogers calls the fifteenth century his golden age, and seeing that his days' wages, if he 'found himself', were now 4d. and prices were hardly any higher all round than when he earned half the money in the thirteenth century, there is much to support his view. As to whether he was better off than the modern labourer it is somewhat difficult to determine; as far as wages went he certainly was, for his 4d. a day was equal to about 4s. now; it is true that on the innumerable holidays of the Church he sometimes did not work,[176] but no doubt he then busied himself on his bit of common. But so many factors enter into the question of the general material comfort of the labourer in different ages that it is almost impossible to come to a satisfactory conclusion. Denton paints a very gloomy picture of him at this time[177]; so does Mr. Jessop, who says, the agricultural labourers of the fifteenth century were, compared with those of to-day, 'more wretched in their poverty, incomparably less prosperous in their prosperity; worse clad, worse fed, worse housed, worse taught, worse governed; they were sufferers from loathsome diseases, of which their descendants know nothing; the very beasts of the field were dwarfed and stunted; the disregard of to sell their corn at low prices to the detriment of the whole kingdom: a typical example of the political economy of the time, which considered the prosperity of agriculture indispensable to the welfare of the country, even if the consumer suffered. Accordingly, it was enacted that wheat could be exported without a licence when it was under 6s.

8d. a quarter, except to the king's enemies. On imports of corn there had been no restriction until 1463, when 3 Edw. IV, c. 2 forbade the import of corn when under 6s. 8d: a statute due partly to the fear that the increase of pasture was a danger to tillage land and the national food supply, and partly to the fact that the landed interest had become by now fully awake to the importance of protecting themselves by promoting the gains of the farmer.[178] It may be doubted, however, if much wheat was imported except in emergencies at this time, for many countries forbade export. These two statutes were practically unaltered till 1571,[179] and by that of 1463 was initiated the policy which held the field for nearly 400 years.

Thorold Rogers denounces the landlords for legislating with the object of keeping up rents, but, as Mr. Cunningham has pointed out, this ignores the fact that the land was the great fund of national wealth from which taxation was paid; if rents therefore rose it was a gain to the whole country, since the fund from which the revenue was drawn was increased.[180]

In spite of the high wages of agricultural labourers, the movement towards the towns noticed by Richard II continued. The statute 7 Hen.

IV, c. 17, a.s.serts that there is a great scarcity of labourers in husbandry and that gentlemen are much impoverished by the rate of wages; the cause of the scarcity lying in the fact that many people were becoming weavers,[181] and it therefore re-enacted 12 Ric. II, c. 5, which ordained that no one who had been a servant in husbandry until 12 years old should be bound apprentice, and further enacted that no person with less than 20s. a year in land should be able to apprentice his son. Like many other statutes of the time this seems to have been inoperative, for we find 23 Hen. VI, c. 12 (1444), enacting that if a servant in husbandry purposed leaving his master he was to give him warning, and was obliged either to engage with a new one or continue with the old. It also regulated the wages anew, those fixed showing a substantial increase since the statute of 1388. By the year:--

A bailiff was to have 1 3s. 4d., and 5s. worth of clothes.

A chief hind, carter, or shepherd, 1, and 4s. worth of clothes.

A common servant in husbandry, 15s., and 3s. 4d. worth of clothes.

A woman servant, 10s., and 4s. worth of clothes.

All with meat and drink.

By the day, in harvest, wages were to be:--