'A husbandman', said Markham, 'is the master of the earth, turningbarrenness into fruitfulness, whereby all commonwealths aremaintained and upheld. His labour giveth liberty to all vocations,arts, and trades to follow their several functions with peace andindustrie. What can we say in this world is profitable wherehusbandry is wanting, it being the great nerve and sinew whichholdeth together all the joints of a monarchy?' And he is confirmedby Young: 'Agriculture is, beyond all doubt, the foundation of everyother art, business, and profession, and it has therefore been theideal policy of every wise and prudent people to encourage it to theutmost.' Yet of this important industry, still the greatest inEngland, there is no history covering the whole period.
It is to remedy this defect that this book is offered, with muchdiffidence, and with many thanks to Mr. C.R.L. Fletcher of MagdalenCollege, Oxford, for his valuable assistance in revising the proofsheets, and to the Rev. A.H. Johnson of All Souls for some veryuseful information.
As the agriculture of the Middle Ages has often been ably described,I have devoted the greater part of this work to the agriculturalhistory of the subsequent period, especially the seventeenth,eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.
May 22, 1909.
Communistic Farming.—Growth of the Manor.—Early Prices.—TheOrganization and Agriculture of the Manor
The Thirteenth Century.—The Manor at its Zenith, with Seeds of Decayalready visible.—Walter of Henley
The Fourteenth Century.—Decline of Agriculture.—The Black Death.—Statute of Labourers
How the Classes connected with the Land lived in the Middle Ages
The Break-up of the Manor.—Spread of Leases.—The Peasants'Revolt.—Further Attempts to regulate Wages.—A HarvestHome.—Beginning of the Corn Laws.—Some Surrey Manors
1400-1540. The so-called 'Golden Age of the Labourer' in a Period ofGeneral Distress
Enclosure
Fitzherbert.—The Regulation of Hours and Wages
1540-1600. Progress at last—Hop-growing.—Progress of Enclosure.—Harrison's Description
1540-1600. Live Stock.—Flax.—Saffron.—The Potato.—The Assessmentof Wages