VOLUME 3 3 1985 PART I
Thirteenth-Century Prices and the Money Supply A R BRIDBURY Medieval Agrarian Practices: The Determining Factors? MAVIS MATE The Size of Open Field Strips: A Reinterpretation ALAN NASH The Social and Economic Origins of the Vale of Evesham Market Gardening Industry j M MARTIN Parliamentary Enclosure in Nineteenth-Century Surrey -- Some Perspectives on the Evaluation of Land Potential A G PARTON i- Agricultural Science in Higher Education: Problems of Identity in Britain's First Chair of Agricuhure, Edinburgh I79O-CI83 I STEWART RICHARDS British Agricultural Policy Since the Second World War J K BOWERS Annual List and Brief Review of Articles on Agrarian History, 1983 RAINE MORGAN Book Reviews THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW VOLUME 33 PART I I985
Contents
Thirteenth-Century Prices and the Money Supply A R BRIDBURY I !: Medieval Agrarian Practices: The Determining Factors? MAVIS MATE 22
The Size of Open Field Strips: A Reinterpretation ALAN NASH 32
i The Social and Economic Origins of the Vale of • L ,I: Evesham Market Gardening Industry J M MARTIN 41 Parliamentary Enclosure in Nineteenth-Century Surrey Some Perspectives on the Evaluation of Land Potential A G PARTON 5 1 Agricultural Science in Higher Education: Problems of Identity in Britain's First Chair of Agriculture, Edinburgh I79o-ci83 I STEWART RICHARDS 59 British Agricultural Policy Since the Second World War j K BOWERS 66 Annual List and Brief Review of Articles on Agrarian History, I983 RAINE MORGAN 77 Book Reviews: Science and Civilisation in China, vol 6 part II, Agriculture, by Joseph Needham and Francesca Bray FRANK LEEMING 8 9 Place Names in the Landscape, by Margaret Gelling D G HEY 9 I The Somersei Landscape, by Michael Havinden H S A FOX 91 The Letter Books of Sir William Brereton, edited by R N Dore R C RICHARDSON 92 Review of Scottish Culture, I, edited by A Fenton, H Cheape, and R K Marshall IAN D WHYTE 93 Sixteenth-Century England, byJoyce Youings DONALD WOODWARD 93 The Parliamentary Survey of the Duchy of Cornwall, Parts I and If, edited by NJ G Pounds MAURICE BERESFORD 95 The Great Reclothing of Rural England: Petty Chapmen and their Wares in the Seventeenth Century, by Margaret Spufford PETER EDWARDS 96 The Irish in Ontario: A Study in Rural History, by Donald Harman Akenson CORMAC 6 GRADA 96 Canadian Papers in Rural History, IV, edited by D H Akenson D L WINTERS 97 Rural Houses of the North of Ireland, by A Gailey P J FOWLER 99
(continued on page iii of cover) Thirteenth-Century Prices and the Money Supply By A R BRIDBURY
HE thirteenth century has always demesne farming flourished in the thir- been a favourite with historians. It teenth century as a result of market con- T commends itself to scholars of ditions in which it was very hard for ]iverse interests as the culminating age of demesne farming to fail? The evidence for nedieval achievement. Not least in this this universal belief in the buoyancy of :ompany are to be found the agrarian thirteenth-century conditions is partly cir- fistorians. For them, until recently, the cumstantial. Expansion is to be found :hirteenth century was quite simply the practically everywhere that one looks for it :lassic age of demesne farming; and in the thirteenth-century records. Clear- demesne farming was, for them, the classic ances, the reclamation of marsh and fen, .'xpression of buoyant market forces work- changes in land use and new settlements, ng in a feudal context to promote the all seem to tell of thrust and growth. The nterests and advance the prosperity of the direct evidence of rents is, apparently, no 9aronial and knightly classes upon whose less telling. By the end of the century, rents welfare the achievements of the age de- were altogether more onerous for the pended. tenantry than they had ever been before; In recent years a bleaker interpretation of and if entry fines, though sometimes spec- :he evidence has darkened the prospect that tacularly high by then, did not always rise agrarian historians once viewed with such in proportion to the rise in rents, we are unqualified satisfaction. As so often in assured that commercial considerations historical questions, the facts are not in were not the only ones that governed what dispute. No one denies the rising trend of was demanded. ~ thirteenth-century prices and rents. But Fines, however, like rents, are not the historians whose concern is with the 'con- easiest of payments to interpret. Moreover, dition of the people' now stress the misery if we are to believe what we are told about to which thirteenth-century market forces thirteenth-century market conditions, we reduced everyone who was unable to take ought to look closely at the evidence of advantage of them. Rising markets un- prices. Fortunately there are price series for doubtedly favoured the lucky, the enter- a variety of farm products. And some of prising and the well-born; but according to these do indeed show that the prices paid, recent investigators, for people in general, or obtained, for certain products, rose thirteenth-century conditions spelt want throughout the thirteenth century. But not and degradation and even ruin. I all these series are equally reliable or indeed Can we be sure, however, that the significant. Farm products were anything underlying assumption made by everyone but homogeneous. Livestock quality concerned with the issues, is justified by varied infinitely; so did the quality of the evidence? Is it in fact true to say that -'j z Titow, English Rural Society taooq35o (I969), pp 76-7; B F 'For a recent survey, seeJ R Maddicott, 'The English Peasantry and Harvey: 'The Population Trend in England between I3oo and the Demands of the Crown I294-134 l', Past and Pre.;ent, Supple- 1348', Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser, XVI ment no i 0975), esp pp 7o-2. (1966), pp z5-7. THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW manufactured foods like cheese; and the somewhat less than we should like to know range of quality to be found in wool is because there are seemingly irreparable notorious. 3 Furthermore the volume of deficiencies of material in the mid-century usable evidence for product prices varies decades. Dr Farmer has warned us about enormously. Grains varied in quality as these deficiencies; but his warnings have other farm products did. But grains pro- not always been heeded. Nevertheless, vide us with what is easily the best attested between I226 and i244 there are at present evidence; and grains were easily the most prices for the principal grains for only four important products so far as farm profits years out of eighteen; and between I255 were concerned. Livestock prices or and 1262 there are grain prices for only two dairy-produce prices meant very little to years out of seven. thirteenth-century demesne farmers be- We can perhaps supply these deficiencies cause few of them depended upon sales of in a sense. If we take 4s 6d per quarter as such things for more than a fraction of their the middle-market price, when wheat was incomes. Even wool was no more than a neither cheap nor dear, then we find that subsidiary source of income even for the there were roughly twice as many years biggest wool farmers.* The medieval between 1210 and 1270 when wheat was demesne farmer was essentially an arable less than 4s 6d per quarter than when it was farmer. In Postan's felicitous phrase, the more. Taking middle-market prices for the big estates were little more than 'federated other grains produces comparable results. grain factories'. Much of the income they We may perhaps make the tentative received consisted of cash earned by selling assumption, therefore, that if we had grains; and a good deal of it consisted of quotations for the missing years we should cash paid by tenants who sold grain in find that they confirmed rather than upset order to be able to pay their rents. Accord- the evidence that Dr Farmer has examined ingly, if we want to know how demesne and collated. farmers fared in the thirteenth century it is But even if we make a much more to the grain markets that we must address modest assumption and assume merely ourselves in the first instance; and we must that prices fluctuated in the missing years as count ourselves fortunate that the most they did in other years, the grain prices important price series are, in this case, also nevertheless force us to conclude that the most reliable. between 121o and I27O we can perceive no long-term trend. Grain prices rose and fell, as good years succeeded bad, and bad I good, without displaying any long-term As a result of Dr Farmer's exhaustive tendency either up or down. labours in the archives, we can be reason- Contemporary farmers had very little ably confident of knowing as much as we idea of how the cereal market had de- are ever likely to know about the trends of veloped, and of course, none of how it grain prices in the thirteenth century.~ But would develop. Historians all too easily what we can know about these trends is forget that farmers coped with market prices as they formed and looked back with 3T H Lloyd, 'The Movement of Wool Prices in Medieval England', imperfect knowledge and failing memory Economic History Society Supplement 6 (1973). *A R Bridbury, 'Before the Black Death', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd set, on a comparatively short span and narrow XXX (I977), p 398. compass of experience. So far as contem- 5The cereal prices used throughout this article and in the accom- panying graphs are taken from D L Farmer, 'Some Grai,l Price porary farmers were concerned, grain Movements in Thirteenth-Century England', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd prices, as they rose and fell in the course of ser, X (x957). Dr Farmer's years are those in which the harvests were gathered. the thirteenth century, did so without [
THIRTEENTH-CENTURY PRICES AND THE MONEY SUPPLY 3 offering them any hope that high prices of grain prices in the thirteenth century was had come to stay or any confidence that dominated by two periods of significant high prices would not be followed by years change, the first of which began in the final of prices which could easily cancel the quarter of the twelfth century, and the gains previously made. The only lesson second in the final quarter of the thirteenth that market conditions could teach the century. 6 As a result of the changes that more perceptive farmers was that if good took place at those periods grain prices prices did not last, neither did bad ones. were established at new and higher levels After 127o a decisive change takes place. which persisted for several generations. Henceforth, so far as wheat prices are These changes irrupted suddenly and with- concerned, 4s 6ct per quarter no longer out warning; and only now can we see that serves as the middle-market price dividing what, at other times, proved to be nothing cheap years from dear ones. Between 127o more than a violent aberration, at these and 1325 we find that wheat only falls junctures inaugurated a new era. below 4s 6d per quarter when harvests are Once the shock of change had worn off, quite exceptionally abundant. The line that experience offered no clear guidance to divides years of cheap wheat from years those who managed the big estates and when wheat is dear must be drawn, hence- determined manorial policy as to how they forth, at 5s 6d per quarter or even perhaps should proceed. If those in charge had at 6s. Once again, moreover, there is no assumed that a period of high prices would easily recognizable trend either up or inevitably bring low prices in their wake, down. There is not even an increase in the as they always had done before, then violence of fluctuations as we approach prudent management required no more of what were, for most people, the terrible them than that they should put by the years that followed 1315. The most violent profits of the fat years against the long haul fluctuations of price recorded in this period of lean years to come, using some of the occurred between I287, when wheat stood profits perhaps to attend to some of those at 2s Iol/2d, and 1295 when it rose to thousand and one repairs and renewals that 9s 23/4d. This was worse than the worst get postponed when times are bad or fluctuation previously recorded, which endlessly delayed when the weather makes occurred between 1254, when wheat fell to it impossible to carry them out at the only 2SlI1/4d, and 1257 when it touched season of the year during which they can be 8s o3/4d. And both these fluctuations in fact done. No doubt many demesne farmers exceeded in violence the worst fourteenth- took this view of farming prospects in the century fluctuation before I315. This I27OS; and even those who came to the occurred between 13o6, when wheat stood conclusion, for whatever reason, that this at 4s 6d, and I3O9, when it rose to 7s 113/4d. time high prices had come to stay, would Wheat was always the dearest of the have had no warrant for the further grains as oats were the cheapest; but wheat assumption that the future would break so prices differed in behaviour from that of completely with the past that the high the prices of other grains only in the prices they were enjoying would prove to violence of their fluctuations. In other be merely the prelude to still higher prices respects what was true of wheat after 127o later on. And in fact anyone sanguine was true also of barley, rye and oats. enough or rash enough to look forward to In retrospect we can see a pattern in the such a double break with the past and to act price history of the thirteenth century that upon his expectations would soon enough no one living at the time could possibly e,p D A Harvey, 'The English Inflation of t18o-122o', Past and have perceived. We can see that the history Present, 61 ('973). 4 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW have found his manors encumbered with At first demesne farmers found them- more debt than they could bear; for once selves sharing with their tenants the the new price levels had been established welcome experience of uncovenanted they stabilized in the sense in which they benefits in the form of higher prices and had stabilized between 1210 and I270. hence higher profits than ever before. This sharing was inevitable until contracts were revised, because manorial tenants with crops of grain to sell were bound to gain, in II proportion to their sales, as much as their Modern discussions of investment policy landlords did. Demesne farmers even in thirteenth-century farming have gen- found themselves sharing these benefits erally assumed that demesne farmers made with some, perhaps with many, of their decisions about investment in the confident non-servile labourers. Such labourers were expectation that prices would continue to often paid partly in kind. Some were paid rise in the future as they had done in the mainly in kind. ~ And no one can fail to be past. On this assumption historians have impressed by their importance in often'expressed surprise at how little in- thirteenth-century rural society. Conse- vestment, by modern standards, demesne quently when grain prices rose as they did farmers appear to have undertaken. 7 But it in the I270s, payment in kind spread the is clear from the evidence that if demesne benefits even to them. But these were farmers had judged by experience they purely temporary gains. There could be no would have had no such confident expec- permanent rise in general well-being on the tations about the future. They could not land without some profound change im- have made investment decisions on the basis proving the availability of land for of optimism about the future course of prices farming. And there is no reason what- founded upon grateful recollections of the soever why we should suspect that any past because there was no such past, at least such improvement had taken place at that no such past in the recollection of anyone time. living, to which they could have appealed. On the contrary, historians who have In the short run, once grain prices had taken rising thirteenth-century grain prices jumped to higher levels in the I27OS, for granted, have argued that rising prices experience may i1Ot have been a sure guide reflected an increasing scarcity of land for demesne farmers, who could have been caused by a growing pressure of popu- forgiven for allowing optimism about the lation which was, in its turn, aggravated by future course of grain prices to colour their a contraction of the arable acreage as a vision. But once it became clear that grain result of loss of productivity due to over- prices would henceforth fluctuate about exploitation. But grain prices did not rise stable levels, as they always had done in the in the last quarter of the thirteenth century. recollections of those with the longest Nor did they do so earlier in the century. memories, it also became clear, as it had On each occasion when they changed a done after the previous jump in grain jump took grain prices to a plateau. This is prices, that grain prices cannot change not in the least how an intensification of sharply and permanently without having population pressure exerts its influence profoundly important ramifications for upon grain prices. Population pressure is a many other relationships. force of cumulative power, not of sudden
SFor an interesting discussion of these matters, see N R Goose, 7See, for example, R H Hilton, The English Peasantr}, ill tire Later 'Wage Labour on a Kentish Manor', Archaeolo~ia Cantiana XCll Middle Ages, Oxford 0975), chapter x. (1976). THIRTEENTH-CENTURY PRICES AND THE MONEY SUPPLY 5 onset and subsequent surcease. If we want payer from a liability. The evidence of to see how population pressure reacts on colonization is, for the most part, evidence grain prices, in the absence of widespread of grants made upon payment of a fee. The improvements in the organization and evidence of land lost by arable cultivation techniques of farming, we cannot do better may not mean what it says. Indeed there is than follow the relentlessly progressive a strong presumption that it does not. ~° trend of grain prices in the sixteenth But the evidence of colonization is unmis- century. 9 Whatever allowance we ought to takable. And what it seems to tell us is how make for accessory monetary influences difficult colonization was becoming. If upon it we surely cannot fail to see that the colonization had still been easy it would steadiness of the trend is not the least not have made such a stir in the records. notable of its features. The contrast with And when we recall the stability of twelfth- and thirteenth-century changes thirteenth-century grain prices we cannot could scarcely be more striking. Where readily believe that the quantities of land grain prices rose steadily in the sixteenth involved were anything like as extensive as century, they rose suddenly in the twelfth they needed to be if they were to do more and thirteenth centuries. And where they than compensate for any losses there may pursued a rising trend in the sixteenth have been, still less if they were to improve century, they pursued level, if not at times, the food supply. falling trends, in the thirteenth century. If thirteenth-century grain prices give Whatever may have been happening to the impression that colonization, at best, population size in the thirteenth century, could do no more than keep the arable we cannot use grain prices as evidence that acreage constant in relation to needs ex- the pressure of population was actually pressed in terms of market demand, so increasing at the time. does the evidence provided by the cata- Stable grain prices may be incompatible strophic famines of the years I315-r7. The with increasing population pressure. But consequences of severe famine were com- they are not necessarily incompatible with parable with those of a notable colonizing an increase of the size of the population. It movement. Famine was as capable of is not inconceivable that the pressure of adding to the supply of land as colonization population was contained at this period was. When it did so, it worked by dimin- because land lost to arable cultivation, ishing the population instead of by in- whatever the cause, was more than com- creasing the arable acreage; but the effect pensated for by land newly added to the upon the relationship between land and arable acreage as a result of colonization. population was the same. The mass of evidence of colonization is, in Opinion about the effects of the early its way, as impressive as the mass of fourteenth-century famines has moved evidence of land lost to arable cultivation. away from Postan's view of them as a But it is evidence of a different kind. The cataclysmic disaster which signalized the evidence of land lost to arable is usually onset of debilitating problems that evidence given to excuse a bailiff who was dominated economic life until the end of required to account for rents which were the Middle Ages. Miss Harvey's survey not forthcoming, or to exonerate a tax- suggests that very little changed in agrarian England between I3oo and I348. ~ Even 9W G Hoskins, 'Harvest Fluctuations and E,':glish Economic History 148o-1619', Ag Hist Rev, II (1953-4), reprinted in W E Minchinton (ed), Essays in Agrarian History (x968). This study has '°Thus, for example, A R H Baker, 'Evidence in the Nonarum been subjected to keen criticism, but not so as to ir.,validate its use Inquisitiones of Contracting Arable Lands', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd here. See CJ Harrison, 'Grain Price Analysis and Harvest Qualities ser, XIX (1966). I465-1634', Ag Hist Rev, XIX (197x). "See note 2 above. THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW Dr Kershaw, who has tried so hard to Farmer's researches may not have settled. curdle our blood with his account of an Good harvests in that period seem to have early fourteenth-century crisis, of which had the effect of driving prices to lower the famines were the centrepiece, was levels than any known since the general obliged to conclude his survey by con- enhancement of prices in the 127os. Was ceding that 'in many of the wealthier and this the result of the easing of population more densely populated parts of the pressure after the famines? The ac- country there is no indication that the cumulation of surpluses, which takes the agrarian crisis initiated a lasting decline in sharpness out of harvest failure, also has production and occupation of the land'; the effect of forcing producers to lower and to confess that his evidence to the prices more than they would have done in contrary was drawn very largely from more stringent circumstances in order to estates situated in 'the poorer and less dispose of stocks which supply less urgent populous regions'. '2 Studies of replace- needs than they once did. It would be ment rates, though few and not altogether tempting to see the workings of this satisfactory, are at any rate scattered geo- mechanism in the grain price movements graphically and seem to indicate, in the of that period but for the behaviour of words with which Dr Razi concluded his money-wage rates. An easing of popu- remarkable study of the Halesowen evi- lation pressure at that time might reason- dence, that English villagers in this period ably be expected to have induced some 'were able not only to replace themselves increase in money-wage rates, or if not from generation to generation, but also to something as positive as an increase, then produce a surplus of offspring to maintain at least it should have imported an element population growth'. '3 If Dr Farmer dis- of firmness into the labour market. But it sents from these views it is only to the did not. Money-wage rates, after a long extent that he perceives some shift in the history of gentle advance, seem to have economic balance between the period im- chosen just this period of the I33Os and mediately before the famines, when grain I34Os for an equally gentle retreat. 's prices 'had a hair-trigger sensitivity' to The advance of wage rates in the harvest yields, and the period of the I33OS thirteenth century is perfectly intelligible if and I34OS when they seem to have lost that we accept that the jump in grain prices that degree of sensitivity. ,4 took place in the I27OS was part of a wider Dr Farmer's extensive studies of crop movement that caught up the remuner- yields, wages and prices, have added a new ation of labour in its wake. The advance of depth to the discussion. His conclusion that wage rates at that period suggests indeed yields did not change in the period 1271- that this wider movement was one that it 141o except when farmers kept more would not be unreasonable to call in- livestock, will not please those who con- flationary. That is to say, in the final tend that the famines inaugurated an era of quarter of the thirteenth century, as upon impaired productivity on the land. But an earlier occasion, prices expressed in there are difficulties about the behaviour of money rose generally without reflecting a prices in the I33OS and I34OS that Dr change in the relative scarcity of resources. Is this perhaps what we can see happening ~:I Kershaw, 'The Great Famine and Agrarian Crisis i,a England in reverse during the I33OS when a series of I3Z5-22', Past and Present 59 0973), Pp 49, 46. '3Z Razi, L~, Marriage and Death hz a Medieval Parish, Cambridge, abnormally low grain prices seems to have x98o, p 33. '4D L Farmer, 'Crop Yields, Prices and Wages in Medieval z5 Farmer, ibid, p 144. CfE H Phelps-Brown and Sheila V Hopkins, England', Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History 6 0983), 'Seven Centuries of Building Wages', in E M Carus-Wilson (ed), p x37. Essays in Economic History, II (t962), p I74. THIRTEENTH-CENTURY PRICES AND THE MONEY SUPPLY 7 dragged money-wage rates down to lower once they had worked their way through levels? The retreat of money-wage rates the economic system, left demesne farmers makes it difficult for us to interpret the fall with higher profits as producers but with in prices as a sign that the post-famine lower real incomes from monetary decades bore witness to a substantive im- sources. The higher profits earned by so provement in the ratio of land to labour. many estates at this period are not, as they And if the abnormally low grain prices of are so often taken to be, indisputable proof the time do in fact indicate that the country of the energetic efforts made by the more was, however briefly, in the grip of de- active and able demesne farmers to realize flation, then what could be more likely the potentialities of hitherto neglected or than that money wages should fall into line imperfectly developed resources. They are with a change in monetary relationships very largely the results of inflation; and which did not reflect any change in the they may very well have helped to conceal relative scarcity of resources? from less vigilant demesne farmers the fact that monetary income was actually dimin- ishing in real value at the same time. III The fall in the purchasing power of What sort of world was it then in which money doubtless suited many demesne neither the colonizing achievements of the farmers; for they were, as a class, inveterate thirteenth century nor the clearances ex- borrowers. But many of them received half ecuted by the sharp famines of the early their incomes in cash; I7 and the insidious fourteenth century were capable of restor- effects of the declining purchasing power ing a measure of slack to the economic of money were bound to have had their system? The land market was evidently impact upon the most torpid and ineffec- saturated. If we may judge by the be- tual of them in the end. We can perhaps see haviour of grain prices, the land market something of the alacrity of some and the had been saturated for a century or more. lethargy of others in the differences of What it required was a more rigorous opinion expressed by Dr Titow and Miss exorcism than any it had yet received. And Harvey on the subject of whether the when the time for exorcism came, as it did general level of rents and fines rose by with the Black Death, it took recurrent much or little in this period. ~8 visitations of that dreadful pestilence before Once they had grasped the fact that land could be had on easier terms; and higher prices had come to stay, demesne before that decisive clearance there was farmers were compelled to start revising as patently no scope for any general and many of their rents and other charges as abiding improvement in standards of living they could. But they did not embark upon in the English countryside.16 any fundamental reorganization of the The inflation of the I27OS, like the manorial system. Nor did they lose con- previous inflation that began in the late fidence in the system by surrendering the twelfth century, was not progressive: it manorial demesne lands they had managed ended in stability. A new structure of to a series of tenants. It would be difficult prices supplanted the old one; but contracts to imagine how such a move could pos- fixed before inflation naturally took no sibly have improved estate solvency or account of the fall in the purchasing power profitability in conditions such as those of of money brought about by inflation. the late thirteenth century. Consequently the new levels of prices, Some demesne farmers certainly did
'e'A R Bridbury, 'The Black Death', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, XXVI 'TE Miller, The Abbey and Bishopric of Ely, Cambridge, I951, p 93~ (1973). 'Sgee note 2 above. 8 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW lease out fractions of demesne to tenants at Winchester estates, the Taunton evidence this time. But there was nothing abnormal makes it extremely difficult for us to about that. Fractions of demesne were believe that the policy was prompted by always being leased out in this way. When prophetic insight into the bleak future that Postan saw this being done in the twelfth lay ahead for demesne farming in the late century he converted what he saw into a fourteenth century. trend; I9 and historians of thirteenth- We cannot hope to see how estate century farming are equally disposed to see management reacted to the sudden change the beginning of the end of demesne of price level that occurred in the late farming in any evidence of demesne leasing twelfth century with anything like the then. But when the Bishop of Ely's same clarity as we can see how it reacted to managers let small parcels of demesne land the later one. But we can at any rate see to tenants at this period, we should be quite how the twelfth-century price change left wrong to interpret their action as a fearful its mark. Assized rents, that is to say the omen, since 'high farming' on the Ely customary rents that were once the full estates, according to their historian, 'may rents for tenancies, continued to be entered have r&ched its highest pitch of intensity separately on many manorial account rolls and profitability in the reign of Edward before the increments were recorded, that II'. 2° And when the Bishop of Winchester's is to say the additional rents that turned estate managers seriously diminished the assized rents into the closest approximation demesne farming of the estate they were, to rack rents obtainable. And the price apparently, pursuing a policy whose logic change also left its legacy of immutable was not in the least determined by des- dues. Commutation payments, as Denton pondency about market prospects for remarked a century ago, originally inten- grains. 2I We can see from the evidence that ded perhaps to be the cash equivalent at Dr Titow has used in his study of popu- current wage-rates of the services per- lation pressure on the Bishop of Win- formed by tenants, were never revised, so chester's manor of Taunton that demesne that once inflation had raised wage-rates leasing, though pursued vigorously there, above their twelfth-century levels, such was dictated neither by shortage of labour payments no longer provided thirteenth- nor indeed by poor ~arket prospects. The century demesne farmers with the cash manor was evidently choked with labour; they required in order to be able to hire an and entry fines of as much as £4o were paid equivalent force of wage-labourers if they or pledged for virgates on the estate.-'-" needed one, or with the equivalent pur- Entry fines capitalized expected income chasing power over other things if they did flows. A farmer with £40 to pledge was not not. 23 a starving peasant desperately giving Demesne farmers were often marvel- hostages to fortune. He was a man who lously fertile in expedients with which to could choose where to farm and presum- overcome the problems created by im- ably someone who could take a rational mutable dues and tenures whose terms and informed view of farming prospects on could not be changed except after a more Taunton manor. Whatever may have been or less prolonged lapse of time. Nominal behind the leasing policy carried out on the profits undoubtedly rose as a result of the adjustments that were made after the 'gA R Bridbury, 'The Farming Out of Manors', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd twelfth- and thirteenth-century price ser. XXXI 0978). ~°Miller, op tit, p 98. changes; but it would be taking much for :J Titow, English Rural Society, pp 52-3, •aj Z Titow, 'Some Evidence of the Thirteenth-Century Population -'~W Dentol.. Engla.d in tile F(ftee.th Cenmr I, 0888), p 1o7, note i; Increase', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, XIV 0961). Harvey, 'The English Inflatio,~', p 18. See note 6 above. THIRTEENTH-CENTURY PRICES AND THE MONEY SUPPLY 9 granted if we were to assume that these without displaying 'any pronounced ten- increased profits always provided demesne dency to rise or fall subsequently, and do farmers with as much purchasing power as this twice, with an interval of a century lower profits had done in earlier days. between each rise, we are irresistibly drawn towards a monetary explanation of what has happened. But the relative in- IV activity of the mint in the I27OS, when The sudden inflation that set such problems grain prices had just made their thirteenth- for contemporaries has not lost its power century jump, is surely a warning that we to baffle; for it sets its problems also for us. must not expect a monetary explanation of How are we to explain these extraordinary these phenomena to be easy to justify. irruptions? The late twelfth-century in- One potential source of doubt we can flation is more obscure than the later one eliminate from the start. For most of the because it occurred during the infancy of Middle Ages, and for most purposes the public records. There are no mint throughout the Middle Ages, the currency output figures for the late twelfth century; issued by the mint consisted of silver no records to tell us how big the export pennies. These pennies scarcely varied at trade was; no accounts of the money sent all, in the thirteenth century, either in abroad to finance Angevin foreign policy. fineness or in issued weight. They were We cannot even be sure that the price made of silver mixed with copper in ratios change was as sharp as it looks, so meagre which were generally within a few points is the price material upon which we are of 925 parts of silver to 75 of copper; and compelled to depend. The sharp rise of late the weight of metal used, measured in thirteenth-century grain prices, however, terms of the number of coins cut from a is not so much obscure as inscrutable. mint pound, varied only from 24o to 245. There is by then no shortage of public If we are looking for a monetary explan- records; but the records only deepen our ation of the price history of this period we perplexity instead of dispelling it; for prices shall not find one in mint manipulation of rose in the late thirteenth century at a the fineness or weight of the coins issued. period of tranquillity for the country. The Once they had started to circulate, how- king may have been bankrupt; but the civil ever, these coins soon began to deteriorate war was over and done with; and if the in quality and diminish in number. All of Lord Edward's response to Flemish them lost weight in use because silver is a seizures of men and goods in 127o had any soft metal which soon rubs away; some immediate effect upon the wool trade it were clipped; others were sliced into halves was surely in the direction of reducing and quarters to provide small change; and bullion flows to England rather than in- others again simply disappeared into creasing them. Mint output figures survive hoards, or were lost or exported. Anything from I234, and mint output in the early that reduced the number of coins circu- 1270s was in fact lower than at any time lating ought to have raised the value of since extant figures began. 24 those that survived, with the effect of When grain prices rise sharply and per- depressing prices. And anything that manently and then stabilize at a higher level caused a growing disparity between the '4 The mint output figures used in this article are taken fromJ Craig, face value and the silver content of the The Mint, Cambridge (1953), and Mavis Mate, 'Monetary surviving coins, if it had any effect whatso- Policies in England 1272-Ho7', British Numismati::Journal, XLI (I972). The figures are rendered graphically in terms of average ever on relative values, ought presumably monthly output over twelve-month periods in N J Mayhew, to have had the effect of diminishing coin 'Numismatic Evidence and Falling Prices in the Fourteenth Century', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, XXVII (t974), p t I. value and hence of raising prices. I0 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW The mint could only keep the currency dition gave rise to expressions of the supplied and thus maintain the king's gravest public concern were least likely of monopoly of the right to coin all the all to have submitted them for renewal money circulating in the country if it could without offering the most strenuous resis- attract enough silver with which to do so. tance to the king's charge. The mint was kept fairly busy at all times Had coins lost purchasing power as they because there were always people who had lost silver, so that many poor coins bought to have their bullion turned into coin neither more nor less than the smaller however unfavourable the terms they were number of new coins by which the mint offered, .just as there are always people was prepared to replace them, then cur- today who are forced by personal or rency standards would have been much business needs to sell assets which, if the easier to enforce. To some extent, indeed, profitability of their investments were their they would have been self-regulating. As sole consideration, they would certainly the currency deteriorated so prices would not sell at that particular moment. But the have had to rise in terms of nominal coin terms .upon which the mint accepted old values in order to reflect the changes in real coins did nothing to encourage the popu- values that had taken place. This rise in lation to have its poor coin restored to mint prices would have made monetized silver condition. For the mint, in buying coins more valuable than before in terms of for renewal, was interested in buying bullion or ornamental silver because coins silver, not in acquiring currency. Conse- in mint condition command a premium in quently the mint weighed rather than markets in which coin values vary with counted the coins it was offered, and silver content. As more silver was charged a fee for its services which de- monetized so prices would have fallen frayed its costs and left a residue which because coins of mint condition were re- provided a welcome seignorage for the storing higher real values to the unchanged king. 25 nominal values in which the currency was The terms upon which coins were re- expressed. But thirteenth-century grain newed in thirteenth-century England in prices did not rise and fall as we might fact severely discouraged everyone from reasonably expect them to have done if the offering deteriorating or damaged coins to periodic deterioration of the currency had the mint. RecoJnage without the incentive caused widespread changes in the purchas- of debasement was the rule; and since coins ing power of coins. did not, as a general rule, lose purchasing Where thirteenth-century English kings power as their silver content rubbed away wielded the stick in their efforts to force as a result of constant handling, it follows silver into their mints, elsewhere in Europe that those who surrendered poor coin to monetary authorities proferred a carrot. the mint surrendered purchasing power Recoinage campaigns abroad were sweet- with their poor coin and thus paid dear for ened by doses of debasement. -06 Indeed in their bright new pennies. And the poorer -'e'Debasement does not necessarily mean reducing the silver content their coin the greater the forfeit they paid, without changing the face value. It can equally mean raising the so that those who held coins whose con- face value without altering the silver content. But medieval English kings never resorted to this particular device. • s C Johnson (ed), Dialogus de Scaccario (I 9 5o), p 3 6 et seq. See also, C Sometimes the seignorage was reduced in an attempt to attract Johnson (ed), TI, e De Moneta of Nicholas Oresme (I956), p 54. more silver to the mint. But this could hardly make enough Salisbury Municipal Records, Ledger A, fols 82-82d (14zt), difference to be worth doing. A lowering of the rate by, say, 3d in recites a royal writ which states that the subsidy shall be paid in the pound, meant that, on ata investment of £1oo, a currency gold half-nobles and nobles worth 5s 8d by due weight of the speculator saved 25s. But this was, roughly speaking, the clear noble; that anyone who pays with coins worth more will have the profit he could usually make out of an £8 investment in a sack of excess returned to him; and that coins worth less will not be wool. If he were in any doubt, he could always risk less by going accepted. into wool. THIRTEENTH-CENTURY PRICES AND THE MONEY SUPPLY II many countries monetary authorities had find that they can translate their prices into got precociously addicted to the use of those of the devaluing country only by various forms of debasement as a way of doing so at rates of exchange which render attracting silver to their mints long before their goods less saleable than before. English kings had resorted to any but the Such feats of monetary prestidigitation mildest interference with accepted stan- were utterly beyond the powers of dards of fineness and weight; and had thirteenth-century monetary authorities, plunged ever more deeply into addiction at because monetary exchanges between a period when English kings, who had medieval countries consisted of exchanges come late to the true practice of debase- of silver embodied in coins of diverse ment, were indulging an acquired taste for provenance and a variety of denominations it, sparingly and at decent intervals. De- whose value was determined fundament- basement had the effect of raising prices by ally by the quantity and quality of the silver increasing the volume of currency. It they contained. Foreign coins were, every- forced everyone with better coins than the where, weighed and even assayed, not debased ones to exchange their better ones counted; and exchange rates expressed the for a larger number of poorer ones. Any- appropriate silver parities suitably discoun- one who failed to do that soon enough ted for transaction costs. -'7 If the mech- found himself paying out more silver than anism of international exchange had necessary for any particular purchase; and worked without friction, the effects of anyone quick enough to spend his debased debasement and inflation would have been coins before prices rose found himself stopped at the frontier, or at any rate at the satisfactorily in pocket as a result of de- Channel. When silver's relative scarcity has basement. not changed, a pound's weight of silver of But debasement and the inevitable in- a given fineness will undoubtedly buy flation that followed did not play havoc more coins in one countrv than in another with established patterns of trade between if the monetary authorities of the former countries. There was no question of goods country have taken it into their heads to and services from countries whose price raise revenue by debauching the currency levels were comparatively low, because whilst the monetary authorities of the latter their currencies had not been debased, have not; but a pound's weight of silver sweeping the board in countries whose ought not to be able to buy more goods debasements had caused an inflation of and services than before in either country. costs and prices. The active arbitrament of The purchasing power of coins may have silver in exchanges between currencies been altered as a result of debasement, but meant that medieval debasements had few not the purchasing power of silver. Ex- of the international repercussions that we changes may have had to fluctuate in the associate with modern devaluations. Such Middle Ages as the silver content of coins devaluations, which alter otherwise fixed was changed; but prices expressed in terms parities so as to cheapen a particular of silver ought surely to have stayed the domestic currency in foreign exchange same. markets, invariably stimulate exports, at In practice debasement took time to least in the short run, and discourage work its way through the system. The lag imports, by enabling exporters to translate between debasement and inflation that their prices, upon favourable terms, into enabled ordinary members of a community the prices they will actually obtain in in which the currency was being debased to markets abroad, and by making things aVOn these costs, see J D Gould, The Great Debasement, Oxford correspondingly harder for importers, who 0970), Chapter 5. 12 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW make a profit out of debasement, before does not suggest a persistent loss of silver [ prices rose, by being quick off the mark in gradually eroding the foundations of the having their heavier coins exchanged for currency and deflating the economy. In- the new lighter ones, also enabled interna- deed if we were to judge silver supplies by tional operators to do the same. Exchange the behaviour of grain prices we should be i rates responded at once to debasement. compelled to conclude that England had Domestic prices, by failing to do so, gave received a sudden bounty of silver in the exporters a margin between these lower late twelfth century and again in the late prices and the prices that would have thirteenth century as a result of which prevailed if the volume of domestic cur- prices had jumped to higher levels which rency had increased to the point at which it were then maintained for long periods monetized, on debased terms, the entire during which flows of silver into the stock of silver that the currency had pre- country were balanced by flows out of it. viously employed, given an unchanged Grain prices suggest, in fact, that debase- velocity of circulation. This margin made ment did not confer much benefit upon exports cheaper; and by the same token debasing countries which traded with made imports dearer. England in the thirteenth century. When we turn to English grain prices, neither their long-term stability in the thirteenth century nor their sudden V changes of level, is easily explicable in But grain prices, significant though they monetary terms. The paradox of medieval may be for a general analysis of most debasement is that a country which was aspects of many medieval economies, may inflating as a result of debasement could not tell us what we want to know. A/ier actually improve its terms of trade with all, the advantage that a debasing country countries which had not resorted to de- could derive from changes in its terms of basement. England, which did not debase trade depended not so much upon how its currency in the thirteenth century, was long it took debasement to inflate domestic bound to have found that international prices in general as it did upon the respon- terms of trade, if they moved at all, had to siveness of the particular domestic prices get worse as other countries made their whose sluggishness made the terms of markets harder to enter and their own trade more favourable. Such prices might products more saleable abroad. Balance of respond to changes in the terms of trade payments problems, in such circum- very much more rapidly than the general stances, had to manifest themselves in level of prices did; and this was particularly bullion movements. A modern disequilib- likely if changes in the terms of trade rium under a system of fixed exchange brought a rush of foreign business to rates produces a foreign exchange crisis: a producers who, for one reason or another, dollar shortage or the like. A medieval could not readily increase output. More- disequilibrium did not, because there could over the advantages of debasement in the not be an excess supply of any currency special case of trade with England might upon the foreign exchange markets when very well have been nullified for debasing mints everywhere stood ready to turn countries as a result of an entirely different silver in any shape or form into coin of the factor: the inflexible demand for English realm, whichever realm it happened .to be; wool. If the volume of English wool sold and indeed welcomed the chance to do so in the markets of debasing countries were for the sake of the fees they earned. no more dependent upon price in the Nevertheless the evidence of grain prices thirteenth century than it proved to be in THIRTEENTH-CENTURY PRICES AND THE MONEY SUPPLY I3 the fourteenth, 28 then exports from bullion until August 1286, and from im- England would have been able to match ported bullion until April 129o. Canter- exports from such countries, with the bury meanwhile coined more imported result that there would have had to be no silver between September i28i and July movement of bullion from England to pay 1290 than it had coined from silver what- for imports which could no longer be ever its provenance between January 1280 requited in any other way. and September 1281. The strength and indeed the indepen- If we take it, therefore, that Edward I's dence of the English economy derived recoinage began in London in April 1279 mainly from such forces as these. And yet and ended at Canterbury in July 1290, then English kings get the credit for having we shall find that London and Canterbury, accomplished far more in the field of between them, issued about £400,ooo- monetary management than they could worth of coin manufactured from native possibly have achieved. It is fortunate, in bullion and about £470,0oo-worth of coin this connection, that one of the most manufactured from imported bullion. We famous attempts to manage the currency must make certain reservations about these occurs in this period, so that we can turn figures. They exclude the work of the Dr Farmer's grain prices to account in provincial mints. They include the normal gauging its efficacy. It was carried out by work of the mints that proceeded year by one of the most celebrated of English year in periods of recoinage as in periods kings. As a test of the power of the kings of when the king left the mints to do what England in monetary affairs it would be work came their way. And they tell us of hard to find a more significant case-study coin issues, not of coin circulation. than that of Edward I's recoinage campaign It is impossible to do justice to the of 1279. Coercion not debasement was the contribution of the provincial mints or to spur; and no king used coercion as an calculate how much of the foreign bullion instrument of monetary policy with more minted in England went straight back resolution than did Edward I. whence it came to provide mercantile Mint figures show that recoinage began communities abroad with the kind of in London in April I279, and in Canter- monetary stability that Maria Theresa bury in January 128o. Recoinage was then dollars provided them with later.--9 But we taken up at many provincial mints, some of can perhaps make some attempt to estimate which had been opened for the purpose, in how much difference Edward's recoinage the course of the year 128o. The provincial made by deducting from the gross figures mints were then shut down in the early of mint output an allowance for the recon- summer of I281, so that although we have ditioning process that went on normally, as got no accounts for their output, they are bullion was exchanged for coin and old not likely to have had time to make a coin was exchanged for new, in periods substantial contribution to the total output when a comprehensive recoinage was not of new coin. Recoinage continued at the order of the day. London and Canterbury. By September How much we should deduct from the I28I these two mints had turned out over £42o,ooo-worth of new coin. But this was :glf English coins circulated abroad, this stands Gresham's Law on its head, and does so because bad coin only drives out good when by no means the end of the matter. It is the bad coin buys as much as the good, so that the good can be perfectly obvious from the figures that the mehed down with advantage in order to provide more coins of equal purchasing power. When good coins continue to circulate London mint continued to turn out un- they do so because they buy more than other coins do. If English usually large quantities of coin from native coins were held in such esteem abroad it was clearly in the interests of currency speculators to bring silver to tile English ""A R Bridbury, Medieval English Clothmaking (1982), pp 89-90. mints and then smuggle abroad the coins that they issued. I4 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW gross figures it is not easy to say. The mint in these years reflected great credit upon records, which begin in 1234, include an Edward's campaign to renew the currency earlier period of recoinage in their run. because it kept within bounds what might This recoinage began in 1247 and came to otherwise have been a sensational surge of an end in 125o. If we ignore it, the mint prices. But when we look back we find that figures seem to tell of an output between grains have been fluctuating in cycles of 1234 and 127o which averages out at high and low prices, similar in amplitude something like £3o,ooo-worth of coin per and level, since 1268 or 1269. And when year. If we may assume that Edward's we look forward we find these cycles of recoinage went on for about a decade, this highs and lows continuing without means that we ought to deduct somewhere diminution. in the region of £3oo,ooo from the gross When grain prices do indeed plunge, as output of nearly £9oo,ooo in order to get they do in 1287 and 1288, they fall even anywhere near an estimate of how much farther than they fell in I267. Had it lasted, difference Edward made to the currency. this fall would have been hailed as a When we probe farther by asking how triumphant vindication of Edward's cur- much difference it made to the currency to rency reform, despite the fact that a re- be renewed, for the period of a decade, at a sponse in 1287 to a strenuous programme rate which, even when we have made of reform which began in 1279 was surely reasonable allowance for coinage export, unaccountably belated. In the event, how- must have been at least twice the normal ever, the fall proved to be a mere aber- rate and, on occasion, may have been three ration. Cereal prices quickly returned to times the normal rate, we ask the most the loftier regions whence they had difficult question of all, because no one can strayed. And in a longer perspective we can say how much coin circulated, as a general see that the prices of 1267, and of the rule, at times when there was neither an scatter of years immediately before 1267 exceptional influx of silver from abroad for which grain prices survive, were mem- nor an abnormal outflow, such as there was orable because prices as low as these re- whenever English kings succumbed to the curred thereafter only when something temptation of assuming the role of pay- wholly exceptional drove prices down master to a succession of European allies. below their normal range for a year or so. But we need not know how much of the This fact is, in itself, a curious reflection currency Edward recoined in order to be upon Edward's reforms: for in 1267 we are able to measure the success of his efforts. within a decade of the complaints that We can instead trace the impact of his apparently convinced Edward that he had to reforms on grain prices. And grain prices act in order to remedy an accumulation of do nothing to commend to us the enthus- defects in the currency. Numismatic his- iastic approbation that Edward I's torians who insist that Edward acted in good monetary policies generally receive. For faith tell us that these defects were the the early years of recoinage, particularly culmination of many years of wear and tear the years 1280-83, when we might have of the currency, of abuse of the currency, and expected cereal prices to fall as a result of ofaduheration of the currency as a result of Edward's efforts, were in fact marked by a the importation of foreign coins as well as of sharp rise in grain prices. Such a rise in the circulation of counterfeit native coins. prices occurred whenever harvests were Are we to conclude, as a result of our deficient. Consequently if we looked knowing how low grain prices were in the neither back nor forward we might reason- 126os, that these defects were, in fact, of very ably conclude that the rise that took place recent accumulation and revealed them- THIRTEENTH-CENTURY PRICES AND THE MONEY SUPPLY I5 selves in the sudden rise in grain prices that Flemish and Gascon expeditions was the began at the very end of the decade? soaring peak of 1295, followed by the Is it likely that so much deterioration had plunging fall so characteristic of grains after taken place so quickly? Sharp rises in grain dear years, and succeeded by recovery, in prices had been known before, one of them at 1297, to levels normal for the late thirteenth least, in 1255 and 1256, a mere five or six century. Can it be that we perceive no years after the last recoinage had ended, evidence of deflation in these figures sharper than any recorded in extant docu- because, denuded of its native coin, England ments until 1295. But these rises had always was being invaded at this period by floods of been followed by equally sharp falls. What counterfeit and foreign coin? The crisis made the rise from 1267 to I271 so caused by the widespread currency of remarkable was that it broke with usage in pollards and crockards undoubtedly over- this respect and established much higher lapped with the period of coin export. But if prices as normal. Consequently if Edward pollards and crockards had reversed what had been disposed to listen sympathetically might otherwise have been a deflationary to those who argued for currency reform, we trend, how are we to account for the fact that need not assume that he did so for the between 1297 and 13o3 wheat prices fell in somewhat discreditable reason that he badly every year, and that other grains fell almost needed an excuse to replenish his coffers in unison? from a source which had proved to be Edward did not move against the pollards disappointingly unproductive for many and crockards until Christmas 1299, and did years. not demonetize them until Easter 13oo. In the event, however, as we can plainly These were years of good harvests, as we see from the subsequent course of grain shall see. It is not impossible that good prices, filling his coffers was about the only harvests, comparable with those ofi287 and tangible result that Edward achieved with 1288, offset the pernicious effects of these his currency reform. Nor was this reform the alien coins, so that prices which ought to only major monetary upheaval to produce have risen against a corrupt currency fell little or no effect upon grain prices at this instead as a result of a series of bumper crops, period. Between 1294 and 1298 Dr and then fell still more because it took time Prestwich estimates that Edward shipped before the mint could replace the de- about £35o,ooo-worth of coins abroad. 3° monetized coin with its ownissues. But if we Between 13oo and I3O2 over £262,000- are not very careful we shall find ourselves worth of coins were minted in order to invoking harvest abnormalities in order to replace the foreign pollards and crockards explain every failure by a monetary factor to which had circulated so freely hitherto. And exert the influence we had attributed to it. between September 13o3 and the end of The influx of foreign silver with which Edward's reign the London and Canterbury Edward's reign ended, provides a case in mints were inundated with foreign silver: point. As it began, prices rose. As it they coined over £36I,OOO-Worth. continued, prices fell. Then, in 13o6, prices These were, to all appearances, huge started a rise which continued until 13 o9 and transfers of coin. But the only noticeable took wheat to a higher peak than any yet feature of grain prices during the period of recorded in extant accounts, except for 1256 Edward's export of coin to pay for his and 1295. The peak was then followed by a plunging fall such as we have so often seen in grain prices, and a recovery whose sub-
~°M Prestwich, 'Edward l's Monetary Policies and :heir Con- sequent course was interrupted by the sequences', Econ Hist Rev, znd ser, XXII (I969), p 41 t. phenomenal experiences of 1315. 16 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW VI or at any rate disappointing wheat crops and How are we to interpret this sequence of forty-two bad or disappointing barley prices? Can we really blame the harvest for crops. The rest more or less lived up to rising prices whenever monetary policy expectation or exceeded it. Had good and decreed that prices should fall, or whenever bad crops been equally good or bad, and had monetary factors ought to have depressed they been evenly distributed throughout the them? And can we really attribute falling period, the task of interpreting Dr Farmer's grain prices to bumper harvests whenever findings in terms of currency factors would everything we know about the contem- have been made much easier. But good or porary monetary scene leads us to expect bad crops tended to cluster together in runs. such prices to have risen? Again wheat had a more even record than The evidence of crop yields that Dr barley. Farmer has recently published discourages Thus barley crops were generally bad or any such interpretation of the evidence. 3~ Dr more or less inadequate before I3O8 and Farmer's yields, however, do not tell a plain better thereafter. Between I27i and 13o7 story.. For one thing they are drawn there were twenty-seven poor crops out of exclusively from Winchester and West- thirty-eight: between I3o8 and I346 only minster material, not from the wider fifteen poor crops out of thirty-nine. So far as selection of material upon which Dr Farmer wheat is concerned there were runs of bad based his price and wage series. The crops between I28I and 1295; and runs of exigencies of the material available make it good or very good ones between 1296 and somewhat harder to match harvest success 1314, that is to say right up to the eve of the with price changes than it might seem to be. famines. In these nineteen years before the For another, crop yields, in Dr Farmer's famines there were only five bad crops, series, do not seem to move together as grain whereas in the previous fifteen years there prices do. To take the most important crops, had been only two good ones. After the wheat and barley, there were between i27i famines, ill the years between 1325 and 1346, and I346 many occasions when wheat crops when farming had perhaps got over the were good, according to Dr Farmer's index, immediate effects of those disastrous years, andbarley crops bad. In 1278 and i279, when there were only six bad wheat crops out of wheat yielded very nearly the best crops Dr twenty-two. Farmer has ever found, barley returned Not only was wheat's crop record more miserable results: in I279 worse results than reliable than barley's, but wheat crops were, in 13 I6, at the height of the famines. In i 293 on the whole, better than barley crops. When when wheat plunged, barley soared. In 1296 barley crops were bad they were worse than the roles were reversed. After the famines bad wheat crops except when wheat was correlations were, on the whole, better really bad, as it was in I315, 1316, I32I and though there were glaring exceptions such as I339. When they were good they were in 1340 when wheat rose and barley dipped. seldom as good as good wheat crops, with Obviously it is not easy to interpret the rare exceptions such as 1323, 1325, 1333 and fluctuations of grain prices in terms of Dr 1338. Wheat was obviously a better crop as Farmer's index of'harvest success'. Accord- well as a more valuable one than barley. It ing to that index wheat was clearly the more was, not unreasonably, much favoured by reliable of the two most important crops. medieval farmers. Consequently it is likely Thus between I27I and 1346 , out of to have responded more sensitively to the seventy-six years there were thirty-four bad impact of currency factors upon prices than barley did. 3'See note I4 above. When we turn back to the currency history THIRTEENTH-CENTURY PRICES AND THE MONEY SUPPLY 17 of Edward I's reign, we can now see that achievements of 1275 and 1278. These Edward's recoinage ofi279 coincided with a harvests certainly brought prices down. But run of bad harvests. These bad harvests, when we consider how good three of them however, cannot account for the astonish- were, what is most surprising is how little ingly contrary response of wheat prices to effect upon prices these harvests had. Edward's monetary reforms. The bad In an economy as stretched as England's harvests of 1281 to 1286, with the exception was, in the later decades of the thirteenth of the harvest of I283, were no worse than century, exceptionally abundant harvests those of the I27OS. But wheat prices rose as ought to have produced a very much sharper sharply and very nearly as far, as a result of response than the harvests of those years bad harvests during the recoinage years, as actually did, if only because there were, they had done before. No doubt we should comparatively speaking, so few buyers with make some allowance, in interpreting these enough cash to be able to clear such copious figures, for the fact that Dr Farmer's price stocks of wheat without a bigger adjustment material derives from a wider range of of prices than we find. Wheat prices fell sources than his crop yields do. Nevertheless farther in 1287, 1296 and 13o3, when this is not how prices should have responded harvests, though good, were nothing like as to what looks like a fairly normal run of poor good as the best ones had been between 1275 harvests at a time when the volume of and 128o. When prices fail to adjust to currency circulating ought to have been changes in supply as they should we are seriously diminished as a result of the terms bound to suspect that those who can afford to upon which Edward I had authorized his do so are storing rather than selling their recoinage. We cannot expect a recoinage to surpluses. If that is what these wheat prices eliminate fluctuations caused by real factors; mean, then presumably the stocks accumu- but we have every right to expect a successful lated during the good years were released recoinage to lower the levels at which prices subsequently when harvests failed and better fluctuate and perhaps to diminish the prices prevailed. What then are we to think of amplitude of such fluctuations. Evidently the high wheat prices that we find on the the grain prices of these years had not been morrow of Edward's I279 currency reform? damped down as they should have been if the Are we not entitled to conclude that Edward recolnage had had the success so often achieved very little with his recoinage claimed for it. because wheat prices rose far more in those If these price fluctuations suggest that years of reform than they should have done Edward's recoinage was not a conspicuous when we recollect that the bad harvests of success, there is another factor, with no those years were likely to have been offset to connection with monetary policy, which some extent by sales of stocks of grain held in reinforces their testimony. And that is the reserve as a result of the exceptionally harvest record of the years immediately abundant harvests of the years immediately preceding the recoinage. The wheat harvests preceding them? of I275 and 1278 were not merely successful: These disparities between what we expect they exceeded by an enormous margin the and what we find are not confined to the yields achieved by every other successful years following upon the inauguration of a harvest in Dr Farmer's series. This was in fact period of currency reform in 1279. As we a period of good harvests; for between I275 have seen, they occur later. Currency history and I28o only the harvest of I276 was with its theme of comprehensive cleansing disappointing; and the third-best harvest of and renewal is evidently irreconcilable with the period, that ofi279, would have held the the results of price history. Nor do these yield record but for the unparalleled results offer any comfort to those who I8 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW attempt to show that mint issues and coin word for it that these intrusions into his movements between England and the money supply were as pernicious as he said Continent regularly and as a matter of course they were, because we know what vital exercised either an important independent interests of prestige and profit impelled him influence or a powerful contributory in- to take measures to rid his mint of the fluence upon thirteenth-century price levels. competition of rivals. Ordinary currency Whether we search early or late in the users did not share the king's repugnance thirteenth century, we can correlate grain- because they did not share his interests and price fluctuations with monetary changes evidently trusted a whole range of unauthor- only by straining the credulity of those we ized coins well enough to be content to pass are trying to persuade and by conveniently such coins from hand to hand whenever they ignoring similar fluctuations which oc- could do so with impunity. How they did so curred at other times and in quite different we do not know. Obviously people got used monetary conditions. to handling many different sorts and If, however, the king's issue of coins and conditions of coin. We come across so little the king's transfer abroad of subventions of comment upon the quality or provenance of coin in pursuit of his foreign ambitions had the coin in which debts were paid or no readily perceptible effect upon grain obligations discharged that we are surely prices, then we must surely conclude that justified in assuming that, for most pur- however impressive the king's monetary poses, coins circulated at face value unless activities may look they were, nevertheless, they were outstandingly fine or obviously upon too small a scale to impress themselves inadequate. Presumably in making pay- upon the money supply. And if the volume ments, particularly tax payments, you paid of money in circulation were so great that it with the worst coins that would pass muster; was beyond the king's powers of control, and in saving you picked out the best you then we must expect to ilnd that there was a could find. Cautious creditors did some- great deal more foreign money or unauthor- times specify the quality of the coin in which ized English money in the form of they required payment to be made; and the counterfeit or token money circulating than Exchequer had its own ways of com- we had thought possible; and we must also pensating itself for the deficiencies of the expect to find that the stock of money poor coin it was offered. Coins certainly accumulated iil the economic system as a deteriorated in use; but if there were many result of previous mint issues was very much more of them in circulation than we had larger than we have been given to understand suspected they presumably deteriorated that it could have been. 32 more slowly than we have been told they We know that foreign coins circulated did. 33 Moreover the worst ones were freely in England, and we know that these probably demoted, so that effectively they coins were popular because the king was were turned into the small change for which forever exercised by the need to eradicate there was always such insistent demand and them from the system. We also know that which the mint was always reluctant to token and counterfeit coins circulated; and supply because small change was so we know what the king did to counterfeiters expensive to produce. when he caught them. But we cannot take his But if the spectacular intervention of the king in monetary affairs, whether as the 3:Tallies were universally employed for the registration of debt. guardian of the purity of the coinage or as the They were therefore available as a form of currency, and doubtless passed from hand to hand suitably discou,lted. Debts, however, were usually repaid; so that tallies which swelled the money supply during their span of life then diminished it o,1 being 33 C C Patterson, 'Silver Stocks and Losses in Ancient and Medieval retired at redemption. Times', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd set, XXV (I972). THIRTEENTH-CENTURY PRICES AND THE MONEY SUPPLY 19 paymaster of Europe, shipping abroad which lay within the same silver-deficient thousands upon thousands of the coins region. whose integrity he had so scrupulously These, however, are not problems which preserved, cannot explain the lesser fluctua- can be pursued here. So far as English estate tions of thirteenth-century grain prices, how management was concerned, sudden can we hope to explain in political terms the changes in the level about which grain prices far more profound changes that took place in fluctuated made for trouble rather than for the late twelfth and again in the late easy profits. Generally speaking, as we have thirteenth century as a result of which prices seen, the market for grains, particularly for jumped to new levels which they then wheat, was extraordinarily volatile in the maintained for decades together? thirteenth century without ever compen- We are surely entitled, in such circum- sating the farmer with a rising trend. In this stances, to look for an explanation of this far from auspicious environment it was recurrent phenomenon in terms of changes much harder for estate management to affecting the entire region which depended increase the profits of farming by investing upon the import of silver for the main- in the land than by reducing the remuner- tenance of its stocks. For none of the ation of labour, and where possible in- countries of western Europe possessed creasing the usage of labour or employing indigenous resources of silver. Conse- more suitable or more skilled labour than quently each of them depended upon a hitherto; for the labour market was the only favourable balance of trade in order to attract important market that may have improved silver to itself. But a favourable balance of in the course of the thirteenth century from trade is not something that all countries can the point of view of the demesne farmer. enjoy at the same time; and measures taken Population pressure which, to judge by by any one of them with the object of putting grain prices, was no longer capable of raising the rest at a disadvantage could always be the effective demand for arable products, met by retaliatory measures taken by those may not yet have reached the point at which which were losing silver with the object of it was no longer capable of lowering the real reversing the flow. In normal circumstances, wages of labour. At any rate that is what the therefore, the countries of western Europe evidence of peasant hardship seems to tell us. found themselves by turns gaining currency In such circumstances, with high profits and then losing it. These were, however, being constantly offset by low ones, the strictly temporary gains and losses; and the inflation of prices that occurred twice in this English evidence strongly suggests that even period, by reducing the real burden of the when international flows of silver were as big fixed charges paid by tenants, threatened to as political authorities could make then:, turn real profits into paper profits. Demesne they were never big enough to make serious farmers could only restore real incomes by inroads upon domestic currency supply. It is revising every charge and obligation within of course true to say that western Europe as a reach, with the result that money incomes whole somehow maintained a favourab!e rose on many big estates by the end of the trade balance with the mining communities thirteenth century. Painter's sample of 272 that supplied it with its silver. But to say that baronial estates whose manorial revenues does not help to explain why the terms upon rose prodigiously between Domesday and which silver was supplied suddenly changed 125o and significantly but not spectacularly for England in the twelfth and ~hirteenth thereafter, whatever its shortcomings, does centuries, and changed so decisively that we seem to reflect the greater severity of the may confidently assume that they changed earlier inflation as we see it in the grain prices for all the other countries of western Europe and the comparative mildness of the later 2O THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW one. 34 It also, perhaps, reflects the sense of taken to be. Essentially they reflected the urgency with which demesne farmers efforts made by demesne farmers to responded to inflation; for these higher compensate themselves for the losses they incomes are not the evidence of farming had incurred when inflation miraculously prosperity, or the vindication of improved and fleetingly improved the terms upon management techniques, that they are often which whole sections of the peasantry could 3~S Painter, Studies in the History of the English Feudal Barony, Johns hold their land. Hopkins, z943, p z6o.
16.6 SALE PRICES OF WHEAT,1210-1325 16,54 14 -14
-13
12 -12
11 -11
10- LlO
-9
.8
-6
/vi,r -5
4- -4
3- -3
2- -2
-1
/ I I I 1210 1220 1230 1240 1250 1260 1270 12B0 12g0 1300 1310 1320 1330 Year FIGURE I
14" SALE PRICES OF BARLEY,1210-1325
13" -13
12" 12
11"
10" -10
9" -9
8 -8
7 -7
8 -6
52 -5 L, ~3- / .3 ~/ f" \ . 2
1 -1
[ , . , . , . ; , ~ ... f , , 121o 12~o ' 12~o ' 1240 1250 1250 1270 1280 1290 1300 1310 13'20 1330 Yeir FIGURE 2
i
[! . THIRTEENTH-CENTURY PRICES AND THE MONEY SUPPLY 21
SALE PRICES OF OATS,1210-1325 8-
7-
6-
5-
0 4 -
"o3.
~.2- m, g, I- •~. 5 -" ,/'I~.."
' 12120 ' L , i , , , , , , . i ' , , b • , , i , 1210 1230 "1240 1250 1260 1270 1260 1290 1300 1310 1320 1330 Yut FIGURE 3
14- SALE PRICES OF RYE,1210-1325 -14
13- -13
12- -12
I1- -11
10- -10
9- -9
8 -8 7 / -7 0- 6
. 5" 5
.../ /" - 4 15 3 ,v F/ .,/ '3 :-2 "2 g, I
t210 1220 1230 1240 1250 1280 1270 1200 1290 1300 1310 1320 1330 "(ear
FIGURE ¢ Medieval Agrarian Practices: The Determining Factors? By MAVIS MATE
N the heyday of high farming several early autumn and animals who had been treatises were written giving advice on pastured elsewhere during the day were I husbandry, estate management and folded onto the fallow at night. Where lords accounting. ~ While such manuals gave were able to take advantage of the sheep of detailed instructions on how to improve the their tenants as well as their own, the tenants soil, how to manage stock and how to were aware of the value of the manure they prevent reeves from cheating, there were a were losing. On two of the manors number of topics that were not discussed. belonging to the cathedral priory of Christ No advice was given on the best rate to sow Church, Canterbury, the tenants, after the seed, on whether or not to sow legumes or Black Death, paid thirteen quarters of barley how to keep pasture in good shape. Agrarian a year rather than continue to put their practices on matters such as seeding rates, animals into the sheepfold of the priory. 3 cropping patterns and convertible hus- The addition of marl was generally seen as bandry varied considerably from one part of one of the best ways to fertilize the land. the country to another. How did landlords Canterbury Cathedral Priory, in the early make up their minds what policies to adopt? fourteenth century, passed an ordinance that Did they follow the books of advice? Did on all manors in which marl could easily be great lords adopt common policies for all found marlators were to be provided and as their estates or did farmers, both large and much land as possible was to be marled in the small, within a neighbourhood, follow summer.* In this instance the monks policies that best suited local conditions? followed a common policy for all their estates and made no distinction between i their manors inside and outside Kent. The didactic literature stressed the im- Marling was carried out as vigorously in portance of improving the soil through the Essex and Surrey as it was on manors closer use of manure and marl. Walter of Henley, to the house. The real problem was that very for example, believed that dung and earth few manors actually had marl readily mixed together made the best compost and available, and, when they did, the marl lasted that it should be laid upon the fallow after the only for a limited amount of time. Oll their first ploughing. He also advised that when manor of West Farleigh, for example, small sheep were folded on the land 'the nearer it is amounts of land were marled in the late to the sowing time the better it is'. ~ Such thirteenth and early fourteenth century, but, practices appear to have been quite common. finally, in 1338, a man was hired to fill in a Manure was carried from the cattle and sheep great marl-pit that was now fallowed. barns onto the wheat fields in the summer or Furthermore marling could be very ex- 'I am grateful to the American Council of Learned Societies for pensive, especially where customary labour providing a grant that made possible the research on which this was not available. Men were needed to dig article is based. 1 have also benefited a great deal from discussing the subject matter with Mr A F Butcher at the University of Kent. 3Cathedral Archives and Library, Canterbury (hereafter referred to Walter of Henley and other Treatises Oll Estate Management and as CALC) Register K fo 167v: RegisterJ fo 92. Accounting ed. Dorothea Oschinsky, Oxford I971. '~Chapter ordinance printed in R A L Smith, Canterbury Cathedral ~c 73-4 ibid, p 3z9. Priori,, Cambridge I943, p 215.
22,
:il f
MEDIEVAL AGRARIAN PRACTICES: THE DETERMINING FACTORS? 23 the marl, load it onto carts, and then spread it expenditure on marling virtually dis- on the land. The total cost on the Christ appeared. Church estates ranged from 8s to 2os 6d an Few fields, however, could be supplied acre, depending on how accessible the with manure or marl and farmers had to keep marl-pit was, how much marl was spread on their land in good shape in ways not the land and whether or not it was necessary mentioned in the treatises. In eastern to rent extra carts. 5 Norfolk an average of twenty-four to Did the Christ Church monks ever ask twenty-six acres were folded with sheep whether the results justified the expenses? In each year, depending on the manor, and on some areas they did not and the local serjeant no demesne for which account rolls survive did not specify which area was being marled, did the area folded ever exceed thirty-five or if he did, the yield from that particular acres. But, on manors within a five-mile piece of land. But, at Ebony, where between radius of Norwich farmyard manure was 13o3 and 1311 £56 5s 8d was spent applying supplemented by nightsoil purchased from manure, marl and lime to the land, more the town. s On the Chiltern farm of systematic records were kept. 6 Before 13o3, Berkhamstead, in 1349, eighteen acres had wheat, which was seeded at the rate of four been manured by the sheepfold, but the bushels an acre, produced an average yield of arable land there was also improved by the 11.69 bushels an acre (2.92Xseed) and oats, addition of dead leaves and deer droppings which was seeded at eight bushels an acre, gathered from parkland. 9 Similarly, in Kent, yielded an average of 29.06 bushels an acre just a small fraction of the total acreage could (3.63 x seed). Land that had been treated did be manured in any one year. On the produce higher yields. In 13 o9 oats grown on archiepiscopal manor of Otford, for non-marled land yielded 22.22 bushels an example, in 1323/4, thirteen acres were acre (2.77x seed) whereas those growing on composted with carts and sixteen acres with marled land produced 34.58 bushels an acre the sheepfold, the two areas together (4.32Xseed). Wheat, which was only grown comprising IO per cent of the total acreage on marled land, yielded 16 bushels an acre sown.'° On the Christ Church manor of (4Xseed). While grain prices were high, the Orpington, in north Kent, in 13o3/4, the Priory clearly felt that such results justified serjeant was able to compost thirteen acres the high cost of marling. But, although with manure and seventeen acres with the Walter of Henley argued that marl lasted sheepfold, just under 15 per cent of the total longer than dung, 7 the monks had no way of acreage sown. The Christ Church monks, proving this. In fact Henley was right and at however, during the inflationary period of Ebony the effect of the marl and the lime the early fourteenth century, displayed lasted long after it had been applied, for the considerable ingenuity when it came to ways average yield of wheat for the whole period, of keeping their land in good shape. At Loose 13o4-44, was I3.O5 bushels an acre a man was hired to take out and cart away (3.26 x seed), well above the late-thirteenth- large stones from one field and eight hundred century level. Priory officials, however, did heaps of earth were spread over another not make this calculation and when grain field. At West Farleigh sixty-four perches of prices fell in the late I32OS and I33OS gutter in the Westfield were lined with stone
HB M S Campbell, 'The Regional Uniqueness of English Field- Sln 1296 the serjeant at Merstlaam, in Surrey, marled nine acres for a systems: Some Evidence from Eastern Norfolk', Ag Hist Rev total cost of.£9 5s i.e. for each acre 2os 6d. i88 cartloads of marl XXIX, I98I, pp 22-4: B M S Campbell, 'Agricultural Progress in were spread on each acre. The major item of expenditure was the Medieval England: Some Evidence from Eastern Norfolk', Econ cost of carrying the marl at Id or II/2d a cartload. CALC Beadle's Hist Rev, 2nd set, XXXVI, x983, p 34. rolls, Merstham. 9David Roden, 'Demesne Farming in the Chiltern Hills', Ag Hist ~CALC Beadle's rolls, Ebony. Rev, XVII, t969, pp I6-I7. 7c 70 Walter ofHenle), ed. Oschinsky, p 3.7.9. ~°Lambeth Palace Library MS ED 83o. 24 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW to dry out the land. ~ But, as was the case animals earmarked for the larder were to be with marling, these efforts dropped off put in good pasture for safekeeping 'so that when prices fell. they may be sound, fit and fat' when Much advice was also given about the best needed. ~° The allocation of good pasture for methods of taking care of stock. Each year the purpose of fattening stock shows the the reeve or bailiffwas expected to examine importance of meat in the medieval diet, but the flocks and herds and discard all weak and also suggests that there was a ready clientele sickly animals. In addition the author of the of butchers and breeders. Seneschaucy suggested that these animals Sheep-flocks, of course, were always should be put in good pasture for fattening subject to disease and at times of severe (en bone pasture pur engresir) and when the murrain a third or a halfofa flock could easily better ones have improved they ought to be be wiped out. To prevent such a disaster sold to the butchers. '~ Such advice was shepherds were advised to watch over their heeded and, in r3T4, the chapter of sheep well 'that they are not killed or Canterbury Cathedral Priory reminded the tormented by dogs.., and that they do not local serjeants that while the ordinary stock pasture in forbidden moors, ditches and was .to be kept in good pasture, all the bogs, thereby contracting illness and rot animals not to be retained were to be put in through lack of supervision'. Furthermore better pasture, fattened and not worked but when the lambs were young, the shepherd sold when they were fat. ~3 At the same time should pull away the wool from between the the Christ Church officials were raising teats of the ewes to prevent it from getting healthy animals for sale and their own table. into the mouths of the lambs, who might In the late thirteenth century, before most of swallow it down. t7 Some estates seem to the cows were farmed out, a half to have followed such advice and when a fairly two-thirds of the young calves were sold, long series of accounts is available, the either to the cellarer or in the neighbour- death-rate of both adult sheep and newborn hood. x4 Similarly some manors regularly lambs appears quite low. In the early sold newborn lambs, while others kept all fourteenth century, for example, substantial the stock in order to replenish or expand the numbers of ewes and wethers were kept on priory's flocks. Large sales were most the royal manor of Keyinghamin Yorkshire. common on the Essex manors of Milton and Although some years as much as 23 per cent Lawling and on the two north Kent manors of the newborn lambs died, other years as of Barksore and Cliffe, all of which were few as 4.4 per cent died. The average within easy reach of the London market. ~5 death-rate for the lambs (with eleven Lambs, calves, pigs and wethers were also accounts) was I4.6 per cent. '~ Similar supplied to the cellarer on a regular basis. percentages can be found ola a number of These were generally good, healthy animals estates belonging to Canterbury Cathedral and in I333 it was expressly ordained that Priory. At Meopham, in north Kent, there were a few disastrous years: in 13o5 35 out of "CALC Beadle's rolls, Orpington, Loose, West Farleigh. 55 newborn lambs died, in I322 46 died out ':c 31-2 Walter of Hetlley ed. Oschinsky, pp z74-5. See also the treatise of Walter of Henley c 76 and 97 (ibid. pp 33o-L 336-7). of 6o, and in r333 35 died out of 64. But in U'omnia animalia quae non sunt retinenda in annum futurum good years, out of the average 59 lambs ponantur in meliori pastura et impinguantur' Chapter ordinance produced each Spring, only eight had died printed in Smith, Canterbury Cathedral Prior},, p 2t4. '4At Battle Abbey about a quarter of the calves each year were slaughtered for food: Eleanor Searle, Lordship and Community: "Literae Cam,arienses ed. J B Shepherd, 3 vols. (Rolls Series, Battle Abbe], and its Banlieu, I o66-J538, Toronto, t 974. 1887-9) II, 35-7. 'SBefore t348 Barksore and Cliffe were selling an average of 55 ,7 Seneschauey c 6-,° and Walter of Henley c m5. Walter ,!fHenley, ed. lambs a year and the two Essex manors of Milton and Lawling Oschinsky, pp 287, 339. were selling respectively an average of 65 and to7 lambs a year. 'SPRO SC6/to79/12: to79/16-18: 1o8o/9: to81/7-9: 1o82/3: CALC Beadle's rolls, Barksore, Cliffe, Milton and Lawling. to82/5.
i: i. / MEDIEVAL AGRARIAN PRACTICES: THE DETERMINING FACTORS? 2,5 by Michaelmas and not one of the lambs was higher rates prevailing throughout much of sold. If all the bad years are included, the Kent. On the Christ Church estates there average death-rate for the lambs at oats were sown at eight bushels per acre on Meopham from 1283 to 1356 was 19.6 per the Romney Marsh manors, six to seven cent. i9 Where significant numbers of lambs bushels on the east Kent and Medway valley were sold regularly, thus reducing their risk manors, and four to five bushels on its two of death on the manor, the rate of loss was northern manors of Meopham and even lower-- 13 per cent at Milton in Essex. Orpington. In contrast, on most of its Essex So far as stock-raising was concerned, the and Suffolk manors, two-and-a-half or three Priory made no distinction between its bushels per acre were sown, but at Milton manors and seems to have followed and Hadleigh four bushels were used. Its common policies, exercising the same care in Surrey manors sowed oats at five bushels an Essex as in Kent. acre, the same rate as on the Archbishop of II Canterbury's Surrey manors.-'2 Some of this Where the husbandry manuals were silent, variation can probably best be explained by however, practices differed widely. No differences in soil type, but the prevalence of optimum rates were suggested for the high or low seeding rates within an area is sowing of grain. Indeed the author of the quite obvious. Oats were also sown at six Husbandry specifically recognized that 'some bushels an acre on the Battle Abbey manor of lands may be sown more sparsely than Marley in the late fourteenth century and others', although he did indicate that in many when Arthur Young visited the area four places wheat, rye and peas might be sown centuries later he commented on the heavy with two bushels an acre, and barley, beans sowing he found. One cannot but agree with and oats with four bushels an acre. ~-° Lay and the observation of Professor Eleanor Searle ecclesiastical lords, with estates scattered in that 'locally such heavy sowing was different parts of the country, adopted probably the custom'.-'3 different seeding rates in each area. Battle High rates of seed generally produced Abbey, for example, used a much lower high yields per acre. With the poor quality of seeding rate on its manors in Berkshire, most medieval beasts and tools, it was hard Wiltshire and Oxfordshire than it did in Kent to break up the soil sufficiently to eliminate and Sussex. 2' The Priory of Christ Church, all the weeds. Over and over again local Canterbury, also sowed at higher rates on its officials report that more was spent on manors within Kent than on those outside. weeding or the harvests were poor because Wheat, for example, in Kent was sown at of an abundance of thistle, or poppy, or three to four bushels an acre, the same rate as noxious herbs. Thus, especially in the on the Battle estates, whereas on estates Spring, when all vegetation tends to grow outside Kent, it was sown at two or more rapidly and vigorously in the wet two-and-a-half bushels an acre, the rate ground, it made good sense to cover the land suggested in the Husbandry. Barley was with a heavy sowing, so as to fill up the sown at five to six bushels an acre on the ground with desirable, rather than undesir- Priory estates in Kent and Surrey, and at able plants. 24 On demesne land in eastern three, three-and-a-half or four bushels an acre on its estates elsewhere. Oats were sown '"Lambeth Palace Library ED 831: British Library Addit. MS 29,794 fo I. at a wider variety of rates, but still with -'3 Searle, Lordship and Community, p 287. -'4 These ideas are more fully developed by W Harwood Long, 'The tgA series of 4t accounts. CALC Beadle's rolls, Meopham. Low Yields of Corn in Medieval England', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, "°c 58 Walter of Henley, ed. Oschinsky, pp 442-3. XXXII, I979, pp 459-69. He is conviqced that low yields were -" P F Brando,L 'Cereal Yields on the Sussex Estates of Battle Abbey not the result of soil exhaustion, hut rather the fault of poor dt, ring tbe Later Middle Ages', Econ Hist Ret,, and ser, XXV, f,armi,lg techniques, which were not adequate to clear the land of t972, Table 2, p 408. weeds. I
26 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW
TABLE I A Comparison of Seed and Yield Ratios, I30o-I348 on Some Estates of Christ Church Priory
Manor Seeding rate Average yield Average yield per Available after (bushels) per seed acre (bushels) seed (bushels) if 100 acres so~Yl Wheat Eleigh 21/, 3-50 8.75 625 Adisham 4 3.50 I4.oo :ooo
Oats Bocking 2V2 2.3 7 5.92 342 Eleigh 3V2 2.53 8.85 535 Milton 4 2.69 I o. 76 676 Ebony 8 2.75 22 i4oo
Norfolk, in the first half of the fourteenth seeding ones, the greater profitability of the century, wheat, sown at four bushels per larger seed-ratio becomes apparent. acre, yielded an average of fifteen bushels per Whatever differences may have existed in acre and on the most productive estates the size of the bushels, -~8 the amount of oats reached thirty bushels or more in a good available at Ebony in Kent was tar greater year. 25 On the Sussex estates of Battle than that available at Bocking in Essex. Abbey, in the late fourteenth century, the Were Priory officials aware of the average net yields for wheat, after allowance advantages of sowing more intensively? for tithe and reaping had been subtracted, They never made the exact calculation made ranged from nine to just over thirteen above. But when they did calculate yields, it bushels an acre. 26 Average oat yields ranged was usually done on a 'per acre' basis. They from eleven to sixteen bushels per acre, should, therefore, have realized that more depending on the manor. Similar average was being produced on each acre in Kent yields can be found on the Kentish estates of than Essex, yet they made no effort to Christ Church Priory, but, when the new increase seeding rates outside Kent. The marsh at Appledore was first brought into books of husbandry, however, in discussing cultivation in the 13 50, oats, seeded at eight yields focused on the yield per seed, not the bushels per acre, produced harvests of yield per acre. Walter of Henley pointed out thirty-three and thirty-four bushels an that if the grain did not yield three times as acre. 27 Even though a large quantity of grain much as the seed, the farmer gained nothing was required for seed, there was still plenty unless the corn bore a good price. The author left over for sale and other purposes. When of the Husbandry believed that, by rights, some Christ Church manors that employed 'barley ought to yield to the eighth low seed-rates are compared with the higher grain.., wheat ought to yield to the fifth ~Sln d~e early fourteenth century tile Kentish measure for oats was the large seam, which contained sixteen bushels, and it is not clear ~Campbell, 'Regional Uniqueness', p 21: see also Campbell, whether these bushels were the same size as those in a quarter or 'Agricultural Progress', p 3 L eight-bushel seam. But when the Priory switched over to using 2~Brandon, 'Cereal Yields', p 417. the standard measure of the quarter, it still seeded at the same rate aVCALC Beadle's rolls, Appledore, 1353-4. of bushels, which suggests that the bushel was the same size.
J/; !
MEDIEVAL AGRARIAN PRACTICES; THE DETERMINING FACTORS? 27 grain and oats to the fourth grain'? 9 On the quantities of legumes sustained above- Christ Church estates the yields per seed, as average levels of productivity. 32 Table I indicates, were frequently the same Did medieval farmers, however, know inside and outside Kent. The monks may that legumes added nitrogen to the soil and have thought that their crops were pro- sow them in order to enrich the land? Vetch ducing as much as could be expected. or peas also provided useful forage for Moreover the seeding rates used at Bocking animals, and on the estates of Canterbury (2V2 bushels per acre for both wheat and oats) Cathedral Priory were almost always can be found on other estates in northern consumed in the fields by the beasts, usually Essex.3° If, according to the wisdom of the the carthorses or the stots. Indeed on some neighbourhood, such rates were best suited manors, none of the crop was saved for seed, to local soils, why should the monks make and the serjeant spent £4 or £5 a year any changes? purchasing new legume seed. Yet this The books of husbandry were also silent expenditure was presumably worth it, since about the fertilizing properties of legumes. it allowed him to reduce the area under oats, Yet in many parts of the country substantial which would otherwise be needed for amounts of legumes were being grown. On forage, in favour of barley that was needed to the manors of Isabella de Forz in the Isle of make ale for the house. Thus the main Wight between 16 and 23 per cent of the total purpose behind the large sowing of legumes acreage was sown with peas, ai~d vetch and on the Priory's east Kent estates may not beans covered a considerable acreage on have been to improve the quality of the soil, some of her lands in Holderness. When these but simply to provide sustenance for the manors came into royal hands, the sowing of stock. For the Christ Church monks, on legumes continued on the Isle of Wight and their Essex manors, sowed between 2 and 5 increased in Holderness. At Brustwick, for per cent of the total acreage with legumes. example, before the I33os, 951/2 acres on an On their Suffolk and Surrey manors the average were planted with oats and 28 acres percentage was somewhat higher, 5 to Io per with beans and peas. Thereafter the area cent, but still below the 25 per cent so under oats steadily declined and, concomi- common on their east Kent manors. Since tantly, the area under legumes increased legumes were so useful, both in enriching the until in the early 134os I4V2 acres were being soil and providing needed forage, why did sown with oats and 133 acres with the Priory not increase the acreage under legumes. 3~ In east Kent and coastal Sussex legumes outside Kent? One reason may have many lords sowed a quarter to a third of their been that the average yield per seed on these total acreage with legumes and these crops mauors was already on a level with those in were generally not grown at the expense of Kent, just over three times the seed with the Spring crop, but were an alternative to wheat and two-and-a-half times with oats. fallow. The value of such practices shows up As was suggested for seeding rates, Priory very clearly in eastern Norfolk, where those officials may have believed that the land was demesnes which cultivated above-average already producing to capacity. On the other hand they may have been totally unaware that legumes added to the fertility of the soil, -'gWalter of Henley c 59; Husbandry c 3. Walter of Henley, ed. Oschinsky, pp 324-5,418-9. especially since the books of husbandry did J°R H Brimell, 'Agricultural Technology and the Margin of not mention it. Crops were often sown to Cultivation in the Fourteenth Century', Eeon Hist Rev, 211d ser, XXX, 1977, p 6o. supply a specific need, whether it was food 3, M Mate, 'Profit and Productivity on the Estates of Isabella de for the animals, for the famuli or the Forz, 126o-92', Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, XXXIll, I98O, pp 33l-3: PRO SC6/Io79/[z m. Iz: Io8o/9 m. 8d., lid., 14d., x8d.: m82/4 m. I'. to82/5 m. 3. 3aCampbell, 'Agricultural Progress', p 32. i:/
z8 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW TABLE 2 Cropping pattern ofWellesfield, Ho9-I31834
Years Crops sown in acres Total acreage sown
I309 fallow 0 I3IO 13 wheat, 39 barley, r8 peas, I2, vetch,33 oats II5 I3II 34 vetch 34 I314 36 wheat, 6V2 winter barley, 8 spring barley, 30 peas, 33 vetch I 131/2 I3r5 54 wheat, 9 winter barley, 25 spring barley, i6 oats I04 I316 18 spring barley, 6 peas, 2 vetch, 50 oats 76 I317 351/2 wheat, I3 peas, I3 vetch, 22 oats 831/2 r3r8 fallow O
household. The more distant estates of the including a mixture of winter and spring Priory were not expected to supply the house grains. A clear example is the use of with barley, so local officials could take care Wellesfield in the manor of Welles. Where of the needs of the stock by planting a the fields were slightly smaller, it was substantial acreage under oats. Furthermore customary to sow one main crop, plus a other north Essex lords, in the first half of the small admixture of different grains. The field fourteenth century, were also sowing before the gate at Loose, for example, was primarily wheat and oats. Even so, what was sown, in I3II, with thirty-five acres of to prevent the monks from introducing the wheat, four acres of rye, three acres of vetch east Kent rotation system -- wheat/barley and one acre of peas, and in I32o, with three plus oats/legumes or fallow -- on their acres of oats and thirty-nine acres of wheat. estates in Essex and selling the barley locally, As elsewhere, the whole field was not sown like they did their wheat? Land in that area every year and when just legumes were was clearly suitable for barley, since it was sown, two-thirds of the land was usually grown there successfully in the fifteenth planted and the rest was left fallow. century. 33 Again one can only hazard a All the evidence indicates this scattering of guess. The market for barley may not have crops was practised on other Kentish estates been as developed in the fourteenth century as well. Writing of Otford, one of the as it became later. Moreover since farmers in manors of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the neighbourhood clearly felt that the land Du Boulay says, 'The most striking fact is was best suited for the growing of wheat and the way in which the larger fields were oats, and nothing else, the monks of Christ themselves divided among the different Church may have decided not to challenge crops in any one year and also were liable to that local wisdom. have only a small proportion of their area Cropping patterns also varied a great deal cropped in any particular year. us Less from one part of the country to the next. In evidence is available for what was done on Kent it was quite common to scatter the main tenant land, but there appears to have been crop over a wide area and not sow it all in one no common rotation system and each field. On the manors of Canterbury individual was free to plant whatever he Cathedral Priory the large demesne fields wished on any of his strips. Thus even when were frequently sown with more than one kind of crop in a field in any given year, ~4 CALC Beadle's rolls, Welles. 3s F R H Dr, Boulay, 'Late continued demesne fi~rming at Otford', Archaeolq~ia Cantiana, LXXVII, 1959, p 12o. See also Tile Lordship 33 Brimell, 'Agricultural Technology', pp 58-64. qfCanterbury, 1966, p 48. :it
['[. ~:., ...... MEDIEVAL AGRARIAN PRACTICES: THE DETERMINING FACTORS.~ 29 demesne land was mixed in with tenant land, winter and summer corn might be sown in there was no obligation to plant the same the same field, for he advised the reeve, when crops as one's neighbour. As Christ Church that happened, to account for each furlong Priory picked up more and more tenant land, separately. 37 In some parts of Yorkshire it sought to consolidate its holdings, cropping patterns approximated those of purchasing the land of its neighbours and Kent. On the royal manor of Brustwick, for exchanging parcels in one field for another. example, in 1344, the Eastfield was sown Where it was not possible, however, the with 65 acres of wheat, 21/2 acres of rye, 30 convent might well be left with a parcel of a acres of barley and 34 acres were left to lie few acres at the edge of a field or surrounded waste. 38 On the Dorset lands of Glastonbury by tenant land. In such a case, there would be Abbey, the greater part of a field was sown no reason why the local serjeant should not with one main crop, such as wheat, but a few sow a different crop there from the main crop small patches were sown with oats and sown in a larger parcel in a different part of barley. 39 Elsewhere sown fields frequently the field. contained some fallow land and it was quite But scattering appears to have had common to bunch together different crops advantages in and of itself and cannot be of the same season. On the Christ Church explained solely in terms of the wide Essex estates, however, such practices rarely dispersion of demesne land. At Welles, occurred. The monks, on their fields there, between 1314 and 1318, an average of 83 never sowed a mixture of winter and spring acres of wheat was sown a year. They could grains and, in general, fully utilized each easily have all been sown in Wellesfield. main field each time around. They never were. Instead they were always In Kent, Sussex, and Norfolk as well as in scattered among two or three fields. The Flanders, some form of convertible hus- most logical explanation is the idea put bandry was practised. The plough was taken forward by Professor Donald McCloskey round the pasture for the express purpose of that scattering reduced the risk of having all improving the pasture, and not to increase one's crops destroyed. 36 Both fungoid the area under cultivation. 4° Instead of the diseases and insect attacks tended to be land being divided into permanent grass and spotty in their incidence. Other risks permanent arable, pasture and arable became flood, fire, birds, rabbits, moles, hail and almost interchangeable. On the Christ wandering armies -- could all attack one Church Kentish manor of Mersham, for field and leave its neighbour unmolested. example, the main demesne fields were One way to reduce the risk oftotalloss was to frequently listed in the pasture accounts with scatter crops over different locations. the notation 'nothing because sown this Another advantage of scattering was great year'. Some patches of land there continu- flexibility. Acreages under the different ously switched back and forth. In 1289 the grains were not tied to a fixed field system pasture of Rydale was sold for 9s 6d and in and could be changed easily from year to 129o it was sown with twelve acres of oats. year. Then it reverted to pasture. In the late 133os, Scattering can be found outside of Kent. ~7c 60, Walter of Henley, ed. Oschinsky, p 443. The author of the Husbandry recognized that 3SPRO SC6/IO82/5 m. 3. 3~ I Keil, 'Farming on the Dorset estates of Glastonbury Abbey', Prot J~' D McCloskey, 'The persistence of the English open fields' in W N Dorset Natural History and Archaeology Soc, LXXVII, t965, p 239. Parker and E C Jones, eds, European Peasants and their Markets ~° P F Brandon, 'Demesne Arable Farming in Coastal Sussex during (Princeton, 1975) and 'English Open Fields as a Behaviour the later Middle Ages', Ag Hist Rev, XIX, 2, 1969, pp t32-4: towards Risk' in Research in Economic History, I, x976. Charles Searle, Lordship and Community, pp 272-86: Campbell, 'Agricul- Wilso,~ in 'A Letter to Professor McCloskey' asks why the lords tural Progress', p 43: for practices in Flanders and Brabant see failed to notice the risk aversion benefits that were open to them Marie-Jeanne Tits-Dieuaide, 'L'~volution des techniques agricol- by scattering (]ounaal of European Economic History 8, 1979), but es en Flandre et en Brabant du xiv~ au xvi~ si~cle', Ant,ales, Ec Soc clearly some lords were aware of these benefits. Civ, May-June 1981, p 372. :!i
Ii I. 30 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW however, it was being sown heavily with Ebony the most usual rotation for a wheat :ii wheat in 1337, 1339 and r343 but after the field was wheat/fallow/fallow/legume. Black Death it returned to being pasture and Just once in a while would they be sown with sold for ISS in 135o. This practice of oats. Similarly on its Medway valley manor improving pasture through cultivation may of Great Chart many of the small wheat fields well have been followed by the peasants as were sown only occasionally with oats and well as the lords, for when, in 1299, the left fallow more times than they were sown. Priory drew up a list of acres that had been Even poor land that had been marled could sown on the manor of Westcliff, it not be cultivated for a sustained period. specifically noted that 'twenty acres of weak Twenty-six acres at Great Chart, called pasture had been sown with oats to improve Roughwood, were marled in 13 r r and sown the pasture according to the custom of the with wheat in 1313. Thereafter there are only neighbourhood' [italics mine]." This oc- two references in I32I and I325 when they casional ploughing under of the pasture were sown with oats. The land appears to helped to prevent the grass from becoming have reverted to grass. Even the main field, waterlogged and allowed crops to be sown Westfield, which followed a fairly regular on ground that had been well-manured for three course rotation, could not be cultivated long periods of time. In many other parts of indefinitely. In the early fourteenth century the country poor land, used primarily for around eighty acres were sown most years; pasture, was sown with oats occasionally, by the I34osjust over half that amount was but not on a regular basis, as was usual with sown and by the I36OS and I37OS Westfield full-fledged convertible husbandry. was virtually abandoned and just used for Some of these variations in agrarian growing occasional vetch and peas. In its practices can be explained by differences in place the serjeant was using areas for wheat soil fertility. Where land was particularly that had not been cultivated earlier. In the fertile, such as in coastal Sussex and eastern Chiltern Hills, some fields followed a path Norfolk, lords were able to crop it with similar to that of the fields of Great Chart, ie, considerable intensity. The monks of Battle they were ploughed regularly before the Abbey, by using high seeding rates to I33os, then cropped intermittently and smother the weeds and sowing 20 to 30 per finally abandoned. 44 cent of the total acreage with legumes, were able to reduce or eliminate the fallow on many of their estates in the late Middle Ages III and still produce harvests that were superior When landlords, like the monks of Battle to those on the estates of the Bishop of Abbey and Christ Church Priory, had Winchester. 4-- Their lay neighbours pursued manors in different parts of the country, they similar policies. In eastern Norfolk, land, in made no distinction between their estates in the first half of the fourteenth century, was matters such as manuring and marling. often left fallow only once every ten or Furthermore stock-raising, on the Christ twelve years and still produced good Church estates, was carried out with the yields. .3 Conversely when lords tried to same care in Essex as in Kent. In contrast, grow wheat on poor land, they were often practices such as seeding rates, the use of forced to leave it fallow for long periods of legumes and the widespread scattering of time. On the Christ Church marsh manor of crops varied on the manors in different parts of the country. Within Kent, Christ Church i 4, CALC Register I, fos. 144v.-I45v. 4:Brandon, 'Demesne Arable Farming', pp I13-34: Brandon, Priory managed its estates with remarkable 'Cereal Yields', pp 403-20. 43Campbell, 'Regional Uniqueness', p zx: 'Agricultural Progress', 44 Roden, 'Demesne Farming', pp 2o-21. P 43. 1
i,q;.:._ ...... MEDIEVAL AGRARIAN PRACTICES: THE DETERMINING FACTORS.~ 3I efficiency. By using legumes for fodder, it and eastern Kent and coastal Sussex. As cut back the area under oats in east Kent and B M S Campbell has pointed out, they 'ail replaced it with barley. It minimized the risk possessed naturally fertile and easily cul- of loss through disease and other hazards by tivated soils, all enjoyed coastal and/or scattering the crops over different locations riverine access to major urban markets, both and it sowed at a high rate of seed. It also at home and overseas, and all supported maintained its pasture in good shape with above-average population densities'. 45 But regular ploughing, and where poor land was can this be a sufficient explanation? Certainly sown with wheat, the Priory was content to on the Christ Church estates the fertility of let it lie fallow for long periods of time. many of its Essex and Suffolk manors was as Outside Kent, it did not follow similar great as those in east Kent. Moreover policies. Large quantities of oats were grown Milton, on the south Essex coast, had easy to feed the stock. Little attempt was made to access to London, and successfully utilized scatter the crops and seed was sown at a this advantage in the marketing of its stock. lower rate. Consequently although the basic Yet very few legumes were grown there. 46 fertility of the soil was approximately the The best explanation, to my mind, is that same, the returns available for the Priory most landlords did not realize that sowing at were less. Yet it was never acting in isolation. a higher rate of seed would produce higher The policies it pursued so successfully in yields per acre or that legumes fertilized the Kent were also followed on the Kentish soil. Here the silence of the books of estates of Battle Abbey, on the archiepis- husbandry is surely significant. The tech- copal estates and as far as can be ascertained niques advocated by Walter of Henley and on the lands of the peasants themselves. others -- manuring, marling and folding Similarly in northern Essex the low seeding sheep -- were applied uniformly. Where no rates and lack of legumes can be found on the advice was given, lords seem to have relied Bourchier estates. on what can best be described as the local What lay behind these marked differences wisdom of the neighbourhood, in deciding in practice? The areas in which farmers what crops to grow and at what rate to sow generally used a high seeding rate and high seed. That wisdom naturally varied from percentage of legumes were all strung round one part of the country to another. the east and south coasts of England Holderness, Huntingdonshire and parts of •~s Campbell, 'Agricultural Progress', p 43. 4¢'3-5 per cent in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth century, Cambridgeshire, eastern Norfolk, northern CALC Beadle's rolls, Milton. !; , The Size of Open Field Strips: A Reinterpretation By ALAN NASH
INCE the pioneer work of Gray, a large Sussex lacks sufficient extant physical number of scholars have examined the evidence for strip size so it becomes S operation of the open field system, but necessary to use estate maps, dating from the have until recently paid little interest to a seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, fundamental aspect, the dimensions of the which depict open field cultivation and the component selions. ~ This is surprising constituent selions of such fields. This because there has been a long-standing assumes that a boundary continuity exists requirement to resolve a dispute concerning between these strips and those of the Middle thecause for the variation in their dimen- Ages. The proof for this must be circum- sions, and a more recent need to consider stantial, given the lack of early map material, strip size and the development of planned but the burden of evidence is such that this medieval fields. Thus, it is argued here that assumption can probably be made. Thus, an analysis of selion dimension is not the Conzen and Harvey have demonstrated that arcane pursuit that it appears, but rather is an estate maps can be used for this type of work, integral part of the continuing investigation while Beresford has shown that such map of land measures and field system origins evidence accurately reflects strip relicts and which Maitland called for in 1897. 2 their medieval counterparts, and so must be considered a legitimate tool of investi- gation. 4 In terms of physical evidence, while I ridge and furrow is unknown in Sussex, strip In order to examine these problems, the open lynchers shown on estate maps at Petworth field systems of Sussex were selected for and Upper Beeding from field investigation analysis. This county was chosen because its appear to be medieval, if their angle of slope range of environments and history of is diagnostic. Thus, these give some settlement provide an adequate scope for indication that strip boundaries may persist investigation of the variation in strip size, through time, a phenomenon also noted for and because the work of previous scholars medieval burgage plots. 5The fossilization of has indicated that this would be a fruitful area medieval arable strips in the town plans of for research. 3 New Winchelsea, Brighton, and East Grinstead provides a further demonstration
' H. L. Gray, En¢lish Field S),slems, Cambridge, Mass., I915; R A from relict features that the size of the Dodgshon, 'The origin of the two- and three-fidd system in medieval Sussex selion was comparable to England: a new perspective', Geolg"aphia Pdonka, 38, 1978, pp 149-64; A R H Baker, 'Observations on the open fields: the present 4 M R G Conzen, 'Alnwick: a study in town-plan analysis', Trans. hl.s+t position of studies in British field systems',.] Hist Geoa, 5, 1979, pp Brit GeR~ 27, t96o; M Harvey, 'Regular field and tenurial 315-26; T Rowley (ed), The origins qfopen:field at,ricuhure, 198 I. arrangements in Holderness, Yorkshirc',J Hist Ge02 (), 198o, pp 3, 8; -' F W Maitland, Domesda}, Book and Beyond, Cambridge, 1897 (t 960 M W Beresford, 'Ridge and fizrrow and the open fields', Econ Hist edn.), p 596. Rev, and ser, J, 1948, p 39. a W D Peckham, 'Customary acres in South-west Sussex', Sx Arch Institute of Archaeology, Rescue Archaeolo¢,}, in Sussex, t974; P F Coil, 66, 1925, pp 148-62; S. G6ransson, 'P,egular open-field Brandon, The Sussex Landscape, 1974, P 27; M G Whittington, 'The pattern in England and Scandinavian s61skifte', Geogra.fiska distribution of strip lynchets', Trails hlst Brit Ge(N, tI, 1962, pp Annaler, 43B, 196L pp too, m2; G R J Jones, 'Multiple estates and t 15-30; West Sussex Record Office Add Ms 2025; T R Slater, 'The early settlement', in P H Sawyer (ed.), ]t4ediel,al Seulemem: analysis ofburgages in medieval towns', Dept. of Geog., Univ. of / Continuity and Change, 1976, pp 26-35. Birmingham, Workittjlpaperseries, 4, 198o, p L 32 THE SIZE OF OPEN FIELD STRIPS; A REINTERPRETATION 33 those derived from much later estate plans been used to corroborate the regional picture for nearby areas. 6 and to examine the continuity of field In terms of documentary evidence for boundaries. Finally, later evidence from continuity, at P0rtfield, near Chichester, tithe and enclosure maps has been used to data from a thirteenth-century cartulary check estate material. indicates that the area of strips remained the From the forty-six Sussex estate maps, same as those cultivated in the same fields which showed open field strips, a sample of centuries later, while at Strettington detailed twenty-eight field systems was chosen. 9 archival and morphometric analysis has Selection was designed to avoid systems that demonstrated the probable continuity of exhibited interference or enclosure and to field boundaries from the thirteenth century, ensure countywide coverage (Fig I). These and given the layout of the system, the systems ranged from less than Ioo strips, as continuity of its component strips. 7 Clearly, at Littlehampton, to 984 at Brighton and it is impossible to demonstrate continuity for comprise a data set of over Io,ooo strips. ~o each selion, but since systems with manifest Each one was individually measured by ruler signs of alteration were omitted from to the nearest millimetre. On a scale of analysis, it is likely that there would be few twenty inches to one mile this represents a cases violating the assumption, and they maximum possible error of 5.I97 feet, a could have very little effect on the statistics figure comparable to that accepted by used in this study which are based on a large Sheppard. ~ It is unlikely this error could be data set. Thus, it is argued that those strips reduced due to the thickness of the available for study should provide sufficient draughtsman's lines, the creased and faded insight into the shape of medieval selions, condition of many maps, error in the original and it becomes necessary next to pay survey, and expansion and contraction in attention to the accuracy of the maps map, ruler, and the surveyor's chain or rope themselves. due to weather conditions. ~'- The criteria a map must meet here are The majority of strips measured were those of precision and widespread coverage. rectangular and posed little difficulty when These the Sussex estate maps do. The earliest measuring width and length, but where ones date from Treswell's maps of I6o8, and irregular shapes were encountered an from then their number markedly increases. element of subjectivity was necessary to The majority can be shown to be remarkably determine the principal axes, while irregular accurate, a fact consistent with other strips could not be usefully measured and counties, and with the involvement of their were omitted from the study. However, this surveyors in the early work of the English only occurred in a very few cases and Ordnance Survey. 8 Nevertheless, all maps typically the strip was on the periphery of a used here have been checked against modern field system. Ordnance Survey maps. County maps, Only the minority of maps recorded strip beginning with Saxton's of 1575, have also acreage. Consequently, this information is derived here by multiplication of strip width
~' W M lqoman, 'The founding of New Winchelsea', Sx Arch Coil, 88, and length. Since both these dimensions 1949; P D Wood, 'The topography of East Grinstead borough', Sx Arch Coil, 1o6, 1968; S andJ Farrant, 'Brighton 152o-18-'o: From Tudor town to Regency resort', Sx Arch Coil, I 18, 198o, p 346. " F W Steer, A Catalogue o.fSussex estate and tithe award maps, a vols, 7 L Fleming (ed), The Charmlary of the Priory qfBoxgrove, Sussex Sussex Record Society, Lewes, 1962 and 1968. Record Society, Lewes, vol 59, 196o, appe,~dix a; A E Nash, 'The ,o Manuscript references for the field systems analysed are given in the medieval fields of Strettington, West Sussex, and the evolution of appendix below. land division', Geqg Amtaler, 64B, 1982, pp 41-9. "J Sheppard, 'Metrological analysis of regular village plans in s Lord Leconfield, Sutton and Duncton Manors, 1956; T P, Holland, Yorkshire', Ag Hist Rev, :a2, 1974, p 12x. 'The Yeakell and Gardner maps of Sussex', Sx Arch Coil, 95, 1957, pp '~B K Roberts, 'Village plans in County Durham. A preliminary 95-IO4. statement', Med Arch, 16, 1972, pp 33-56. Ii::i ib 34 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW contain error, this calculation must con- sidered. Width ranged from 15.6 to i 8 r. 8 ,[ i ~ sequently compound that inaccuracy. feet, length from 273.5 to ro78 feet and area However, where comparison between from 2r.o square statute perches to 557.2. surveyed and computed areas is possible, as Moreover, only one case conformed to the in an Oving map of I758, it appears that the strip dimensions of 22 yards wide and 220 results are almost identical.'3 This suggests yards long, and only one even approached the method used here introduces little the expected acreage of I 6o square perches. It additional error into the final results, either seems clear therefore on the basis of this for area or, by implication, for the width and evidence that the 'traditional' strip size length dimensions from which it is cal- model cannot be found in Sussex, and this culated. concurs with results elsewhere.~6 -i The mode, or most commonly occurring It is possible that if the key factor size, for each of the three dimensions for each determining selion size was the amount of field system in the sample is given in Table I, land that could be ploughed in a day, then the being the most representative single statistic size of a strip must vary with local conditions for each system. Using these data, it is now such as terrain and soil quality. An possible to examine the rival hypotheses easily-worked and well-drained sandy soil concerning the origin of strip size variation, would permit a strip to be larger than a and then to consider its wider significance. statute acre, a heavy clay might compel its size to be smaller. In view of the variety of environments encountered, no typical size II for a strip would be apparent, but despite this Seebohm and Curwen suggested the typical seeming lack of conformity, an underlying strip in an open field would be ten times as common factor would be present. The long as it was broad and its dimensions were Orwins suggest that strip width in particular 22 yards wide and 220 yards long, producing is controlled in this way. ,7 Moreover, since an area of one statute acre, or 484o square strip width limits strip length in abutting yards. Shape was determined by the furlongs, it can be argued that length also convenience of ploughing a furrow as long as must be affected, even if it is not directly possible before turning back, hence the word related to the environmental controls which 'furlong', while area was governed by the alter width; it follows also that strip area amount of land which a man and his team must be so influenced. could plough in one day, or, more strictly, This view can be tested by grouping the the forenoon.' 4 This is still a definition found Sussex data according to land quality, for the term 'acre', and others suggest the although it must be recognized that this width of such a strip determined the length of procedure is not easy. Modern soil maps are the modern cricket pitch. 's inappropriate for this task since they do not It is possible to test this view with the reflect soil texture, previous conditions, or Sussex evidence by dividing strip length by past perceptions. Consequently, Young's strip width. As can be seen from Table I, 1813 map of the county was used here (Fig I). however, the ratio Io:I is found in only six This was supplemented by Topley's I874 cases, even if measurement error is con- geological map, and by modern rainfall and geological distribution maps as other '3WSRO Add Ms 2036. ,4 F Seebohm, The English Village Community, 1883, pp 2-5, 38 l; E Curwen and E C Curwen, 'Sussex lynchers and fieldways', Sx '"B K Roberts, 'Field systems of the West Midlands, in A R H Arch Coil, 64, 1923, pp 1-66; E C Curweu, Prdlistoric Sussex. Baker a,ad R A Butlin (eds), Studies of.field systems in the British I929, pp 78-81; Maitland, op tit, pp 432-42. Isles, Cambridge, 1973, pp 197, 223; Harvey, op cit, pp 15-16. ,5 Webster's New World Dictionary, (College edition), New York, ~7C S Orwin and C S Orwin, The Open Fiehls, 3rd edn., Oxford, 196o, p 13; H S Altham and E W Swanton, A history of cricket, 1967. pp 43, ioi; W O Auh, Open-fieldfarmittg in medieval England, 1926, pp 26-8. 1972, p 22. :
;!!~i : THE SIZE OF OPEN FIELD STRIPS: A REINTERPRETATION 35
f /
I I ! 8=~ g z / v r' z d t,.J °°° m* - LU 13- ~E < oO U.I \ "I- I-- N'XN } EL. C-/ 0 Z 0 \ . W I-- to LO rr ~E Z ! ~BNg LU >-I I'- O9 o: \ >- O9 t.D n ~t .J U.I EL. E Z g W n 0 X LU O9 O9 "DBDDI lira "r E O- i -r J; 36 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW indicators of environmental controls. ~8 It pattern, or with any other obvious distri- !i ~ • should be noted that even if the medieval bution of techniques across the county. climate was wetter than at present this would Moreover, the Sussex turnwrest plough is not alter the result since relative differences known not to affect field shape, and the between land qualities would remain substitution of horses for oxen as draught unaltered. ' 9 animals has been shown to be unim- If the evidence for selion area is divided by portant. 23 Thus this notion must be rejected. soil type, geological region, or climatic A further hypothesis is that strip size may zone, it can be shown by a series of t-tests have altered over time as the county was that no significant statistical difference exists settled. This can be examined ergodically, between any of the categories. ~° Con- that is to assume that the further a field sequently, the environmental factors con- system lies away from the coast or a river sidered cannot be shown to control strip system, the more recent it must be. In doing area. This can be seen in Table I, for strips so, this broadly replicates the presumed situated on clays are not necessarily smaller chronology of Sussex colonization and the in area than those on loamy soils. Thus the importance of water routes for access to the view that strip size varies with land quality interior. 24 However, if the data are con- cannot be demonstrated in Sussex, and this sidered in this way, no such relationship confirms the limited findings made else- seems to emerge and thus this mechanism where. Moreover, such a conclusion is must be dismissed, at least until such time as implied by work which has suggested that the evidence concerning settlement chron- the size of the customary acre in Sussex was ology is refined. not controlled by soil type or geology.2~ The final suggestion that has been made is Two other explanations pose intriguing that selion sizes may have been influenced by solutions to the problem. There remains the earlier measures. Authorities have pointed possibility that alterations in medieval to the possibility ofcenturiation at Bosham, farming technology across a region, rather Polegate and Ripe, while the Roman unit of than any change in soil, might cause area, the iugum, is believed to be the variations in strip size. Knowledge of predecessor of the yoke, a medieval unit of regional agrarian practice in medieval Sussex land measurement found principally in is scanty, but clearly the broad divisions of Kent, but also known in Surrey and coastal lowland, Downland, and Weald Sussex. 25 To examine this hypothesis the would be important for environmental data in Table I were examined for any reasons. 22 However, the available strip indications of Roman influence. Only at evidence does not compare either with such a Petworth, Duncton, and Rustington did strip width, area, and length approach Roman units, but in no case was the ,s A Young, General view ofthe agricultureof Sussex, 1813, eudpicce; W relationship between them one that indi- Topley, 'The geology of the Weald',j Roy Ag Soc Eng, 8, 1872; P, W cated centuriation. Moreover, despite the Gallois, British regional geoh,gy, 4th edn, I965; HMSO, British Rainfall 1968, 1969. presence of nearby villas in two of these '9 P F Brandon, 'Late medieval weather in Sussex and its agricultural significance', Trans btst Brit Geog, 54, i97 t, pp t-17. :o S Siegel, Non-parametricstatistics, New York, 1956. ~ H M Clark, 'Selion size and soil type', Ag Hist Rev, 8, I96O, pp 9 x-8;J -"~ M 1) Nightingale, 'Ploughing and field shape', Antiquity, 27, t953, Thirsk, 'Preface to the Third Edition' in C S and C S Orwin, op tit, pp 20-6;J Langdon, 'The economics of horses and oxen ill medieval z967, p xiii; A E Nash, 'Perch and acre sizes in medieval Sussex', Sx England', Ag Hist Rev, XXX, 1982, pp 3 E, 40. Arch CoU, z 16, 1978, p 6i; A E Nash, 'Morphometric analysis: its -'4 A Mutton, 'Tile process and pattern of the Saxon settlement of West relevance to historical geography. A case study of field sizes in Sussex', Sx Arch Coil, 78, 1937; P F I3 raudon (ed), The South Saxons, Sussex', unpub. BA dissertation, Univ. of Cambridge, I976, p 36. Chichester, I978. '~ A E Wilson, 'Farming in Sussex in the Middle Ages', Sx Ardl Coil, "-~A H Allcroft, Downland Pathways, 2ud edn, 1924, pp 70, 268; 1 D 97, I959, pp 98-1 z8; A R H Baker, 'Field systems in medieval Surrey Margary, Roman Waj,s in the Weald, 1949, pp 204-7; K A Bailey and I and Sussex', in A R H Baker and R A Butliu (eds), op tit, pp 419-29. G Galbraith, 'Field systems i,a Surrey', SurreI, Arch Coil, 69, 1973. i. i THE SIZE OF OPEN FIELD STRIPS; A REINTERPRETATION 37 TABLEI Modal dimensions of Sussex open field strips Location Width ~ Length x Area" L/W J Area(S) 4 Area(C) 5 Chalk 6 Alciston 51.97 5o6.69 5o.22 9.75 o.31 o.42 Brighton 2o.79 498.91 37.30 23.99 o.23 o.3 I Coombes 3 I. 18 623.18 2o. 95 19.99 o. 13 o. 18 Mean: 34.67 542.93 36.12 17.91 o.23 o.3o Gravel East Lavant I5.63 507.98 29. I6 32.50 o. 18 0.24 Strettington 31.18 53o.o9 4o.48 17.oo 0.25 o.34 Tangmere 34.65 6o6.31 48.Ol 17.5o o.3o o.4o Westbourne 51.97 476.36 I21.23 9.17 o.76 I.OI Westhampnett 32.33 3o9.47 72.oo 9.57 o.45 o.6o Mean: 33.15 486.04 62.18 17.15 0.39 0.52 Clay Bramber 3 I. 26 586.16 5o. 47 18.75 o. 32 o. 42 Eastbourne 21.7o 489.98 80.17 22.58 o.50 0.67 Kingston 20.79 446.94 35.71 2 I. 5o o. 23 o. 3 o Littlehampton 14o.67 IO78.47 557.24 7.67 3.45 4.64 Petworth I81.89 7oi.57 317.19 3.86 1.98 2.64 Upper Beeding 23.32 3o3.19 46.74 I3.OO 0.29 0.39 Mean: 69.94 6OI.O5 I81.25 14.56 1.I 3 1.51 Loam Angmering I68.26 627. I4 378.I3 3.73 2.36 3.I5 Berstcd 91.47 748.35 241.28 8.18 1.51 2.Ol Bury II3.94 IO39.4o 31.75 9. I2 o.20 o.26 Duncton 77.95 402.75 75.95 5.17 0.47 0.63 Durrington 20.06 45I.O6 33.25 22.50 o.21 0.28 Goring 46.74 273.53 23.56 5.85 o. 15 o.2o Lyminster 3 I. 18 644.43 4 I. 67 20.67 o. 26 o. 35 Oving 62.52 32o.42 74.oo 5.13 0.46 0.62 Plumpton 63.88 665. I8 50.79 IO.41 0.32 0.42 Prinsted I45.52 561.28 261.9o 3.86 1.64 2.18 Storrington 137.67 749.50 463.21 5.44 2.9o 3.86 Sutton 38.98 571.65 84.oo 14.67 o. 53 0.70 Washington 54.71 664.26 76.27 I2. I4 0.48 0.64 Worthing 23.45 437.64 33.65 18.66 o. 21 o. 28 Mean: 76.88 582.61 I33.53 lO.4O 0.83 I.II Notes: I. Width and length dimensions are given in statute feet, each comprised of x2 statute inches. 2. Area: modal strip area in square statute perches, each statute perch being t6.5 statute feet long. 3. L/W: modal strip length divided by modal strip width. 4. Area(S): modal strip area as a proportion of the statute acre containing 16o square statute perches. 5. Area(C): modal strip area as a proportion of the customary acre containing x2o square statute perches. 6. Soil categories are derived from Young (I8H). 'Clay' here includes his 'clay' and 'marsh' divisions, 'loam' his 'rich stiff loam' and 'rich loam' types. Sources: Data were drawn from computer analysisof approximately io,ooo strips, using modified SPSS, Version 6, packageprograms (N H Nie et al, Statistical Packablefor tire Social Sciences, 2nd edn, New York, 1975). The twenty-eight maps used are listed in Appendix l. ii !i~. 38 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW TABLE 2 Strip size analysed by local perchlength Modal dimension Modal dimension (size in feet) Local perch (local perches) Location Width Length (in feet) Width Length Bramber 31 586 15.0 2 39 N. Westbourne I44 560 I6.o 9 35 Westbourne 52 476 I7.O 4 28 Alciston 52 5o7 17.5 3 29 Petworth r 82 702 17.5 I o 40 N. Westbourne I4 558 I7.5 8 32 Durrington 20 451 r 8.o I 25 Sutton 39 572 I8.5 2 30 Petworth ~82 7o2 2o.o 9 35 Note: All feet dimensions are given as statute feet units. Source: Data from Table x; local perch sizes from Nash, op tit, 1978, pp 63-7. cases, this cannot demonstrate that Roman Across Sussex, local perch size ranged from influence extended to all of the systems fifteen to twenty statute feet. 29 However, examined, and some scholars discount all since it is difficult to know which local perch such suggestions. ~6 was used in any field system it is necessary to It is possible that influences were not analyse the data in Table I using seven inherited from the Roman, but from the possible perch sizes for strip length and medieval period. Evidence has been width. If it is assumed that the only results advanced which perhaps indicates that which can be signs of planning are integer planned field systems were developed in multiples of each local perch in both width Sussex during the early Middle Ages at and length dimensions, then seven places Angmering, Apuldram, Icklesham, qualify (Table 2). However, some results Maresfield, Strettington, Willingdon and may be numerical coincidences, and it is Yapton. ~v Certainly it is not surprising that difficult to be sure that all possible perch sizes an area as agriculturally developed as the have been examined. Thus, while sug- Sussex coastal plain might share in in- gesting the possibility exists that the field novations noted in northern England and systems at Alciston, Bramber, Durrington, Sweden. ~8 If this is so, the measures used in North Westbourne, Petworth, Sutton, and such planning need to be known before Westbourne may be the outcome of investigation can proceed. medieval planning, it is impossible to prove The perch, perhaps originating from the this. width of four oxen yoked abreast, was fixed However, if the rigid notion of planning at I6.5 statute feet by law, but locally varied. via width and length is replaced by the Indeed, the observed inconsistency in early concept that area alone was regulated using cricket pitch lengths was probably so caused. the customary acre, it might be possible to demonstrate that strip area had a relationship '~' S E Winbolt, 'Romano-British Sussex', in L F Salzman (ed), Victoria with locally used acre size. This itself varied County History of the County of Sussex, vol 3, 1935, pp 2o, 24, 65; A L considerably from statute requirements Rivet, Town attd country in Roman Britain, 1958, p 1oL across the county. Thus, if the data in Table I aTG C Homans, 'Terroirs ordonn6s et champs ori,~nt~s: une hypoth~se sur le village anglais', Annales d'histoire, Economique et are reconsidered in relation to the most sociale, 8, 1936, p 447; S G/Sransson, op tit, pp Ioo, xo2; A E Nash, op tit, I982, pp 46-7; Peckham, op cit, p 159. ~sj A Sheppard, 'Pre-enclosure field and settlement patterns in an :'~J P, Wigfnll, 'Thebayasaunitofmeasurement', TransHunterianArch English township', Geql? Amlaler, 48B, 1966, pp 59-77; S Soc, 3, 1929, pp 154-8; Maidand, opcit, pp435-8; R Bowen, Cricket:a G6ransson, 'Regular settlements in Scandinavia: the metrological history qfits growth and development throughout the world, 197o, p 43; approach', Landscape History, z, x979, pp 76-83. Nash, op tit, 1978, pp 63-7. .71!~ THE SIZE OF OPEN FIELD STRIPS: A REINTERPRETATION 39 common Sussex customary acre size, 12o explanation since the exigencies of terrain square statute perches, 32 per cent of the must always have played a part in shaping the systems' strips lie between 30 and 5o square detail of some strip sizes. Nevertheless, in a statute perches, approximating one-third of large number of cases, the importance of such an acre, a fraction favoured in local tradition in field system layout appears customary measure. Larger strip sizes can be a strong possibility. interpreted as integer multiples of this unit. What remains for examination in future Indeed, the average of all the field systems' research is the reason for variation in local most common sized strips is itself, at 12o.5 acre measurement practice itself. The square statute perches, almost exactly a suggestion has been made that the size of customary acre. 3° customary acres was determined by feudal If local acre size was the controlling factor, lords, and was not evolved by the com- then it should also be possible to demonstrate munity. Thus, the pattern of local acre sizes this in those cases where the local acre was reflected the distribution of lordship. 3= In larger or smaller than two-thirds of a statute Sussex, this appears to have been partly acre, and this the Sussex data seem to show. influenced by rape divisions found in Thus, at Worthing, where the local acre was Domesday Book. 33 Certainly, the general lO6.6 square statute perches, and at Sutton, pattern of local acre sizes in the county seems where it was I8O, strip area can be seen to to fit such a suggestion, and crude t-tests of represent respectively one-third and one- strip width divided by rape produces half of the local acre's size. At Brighton, with encouraging results. 34 Moreover, while a customary acre of 35 square statute much more detailed work is required to perches, and at Westbourne with one oflo9, demonstrate that manorial lords introduced strip size approximated a complete local their own specific measures, the monarch as customary acre. Moreover, seemingly a local lord can be seen imposing the "king's anomalous sizes at Petworth and Little- measure" at Winchelsea before it became the hampton can be seen as products of larger national standard. 35 local acres in the Weald and smaller ones on What should be noticed is that lordship the coastal plain. 3I provides a powerful rationale for zoning the county along north-south lines, a system which cuts across natural regions and fits III closest with the demonstrated spatial Obviously it is possible to demonstrate that variation in local acre size. Moreover, there is any measure influenced strip size with accumulating evidence to suggest the rape sufficient manipulation, but this has not been system pre-dated Norman and even Saxon attempted here. Rather, it has been shown occupation of the county, so that the origin that previously accepted hypotheses are of local acres may lie with the Celtic Sussex either poor or irrelevant explanations for multiple estate.Ze selion size in Sussex, and an alternative view, Thus, it would seem that a mechanism for that local customary acres were involved, variation, based upon local practice con- appears a more fruitful approach. It is not being argued that this constitutes the sole ~° E Sayers, 'The acre equivalent of the Domesday hide', Sx Arch Coll., J: B E Howells, 'The distribution o fcustomary acres in South Wales',j 62, I921, p 2o2;J F Morgan, England under the Norman occupation, Nat Lib Wah's, iS, 1967, p 23o. 1858, p t9; R Dilley, 'The customary acre: an indeterminate 33j H Round and L F Salzman, 'Introduction to the Sussex Domesday', measure', Ag Hist Rev, XXlll, 1975, pp t73-6. (Note, however, in W Page (ed), Victoria County History of the County of Sussex, vol i, customary acres did not always comprise 16o customax'yperches as 19o5, pp 35x-4, and map between pp 386-7. Morgan and Dilley assert.) 34 Nash, op tit, I976, pp 39-42; i978, p 65. jt Maitland, op tit, p 435; F Seebohm, Customary acres and their historical ss A King, 'German Street, Winchelsea', Sx Arch Coil, xx 8, t 980, p 369. importance, 1914; Peckham, op tit, p 152. 3¢'Jones, op tit, 1976, pp 26-35. i; II 4o THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW cerning the size of customary measures used, previously been hypothesized, or than the has a firm basis and a number of interesting rival theories considered. Consequently, it is implications. Furthermore, it appears that clear that the role of strip size variations must such an explanation is more important in be carefully considered in future studies of determining open field strip size than has field systems at the county and national level. A CKNO WLEDGEMENTS For permission to consult documents in their care or possession the author is also indebted to the following: the late Dr F W Steer author is grateful to the following: the Duke of Norfolk (Arundel (Maltravers Herald Extraordinary, Archivist and Librarian to his Castle Manuscripts); Lord Egremont (Petworth House Archives); Grace, the Duke of Norfolk), Mrs P Gill (West Sussex County Viscount Cowdray (Cowdray Manuscripts); The Sussex Archae- Archivist), Mr S Newton (East Sussex County Archivist), Dr A R ological Society (documents held in the Barbican, Lewes); the West H Baker (University of Cambridge), Dr S61ve Gfransson Sussex County and Diocesan Record Office (Chiehester); the East (Kulturgeografiska Institutionem, Uppsala, Sweden), Mr P L Sussex Record Office (Lewes); the County Library (Chichester); the Drewett (Field Director, University of Lo,ldon, Sussex Archae- Public Library and Museum (Worthing); and the Sub-department of ological Field Unit), Dr P G Goheen and Mr A Tebb (Queen's Aerial Photography (University of Cambridge). The Goodwood University, Canada); The Vaughan Cornish Memorial Research Estate Archives are quoted by courtesy of the Directors of the Institute for the use of its extensive library; MrJ Kendall, Mr A and Goodwood Estate Company Limited and with acknowledgements Mrs j Nash for their help in tile field; and Mr Ross Hough who to the West Sussex Record Office and the County Archivist. The kindly drew tile map. Appendix I: Sources for Table I Alciston: Sussex Archaeological Society G45/25 (t758); Angmering: West Sussex Record Office Add Ms 5 I68 (I8o5); Bersted: WSRO Add Ms 227 (i84o); Bramber: WSRO Add Ms 9474 (I729); Brighton: East Sussex Record Office Danny Ms 2IO5; Bury: Arundel Castle Ms LMx (I634); Coombes: WSRO Petworth House Archives 32i6 (I9th C); Duncton: WSRO Petworth House Archives 3568 (x6o8); Durrington: Arundel Castle Archives HC2 (I768), WSRO Add Ms I99I (I8oo); Eastbounle: ESRO Gilbert Ms XC/I4 (I8~6); East Lavant: WSRO Goodwood Ms E5o3o (I83i); Goring: Worthing Public Library (~gth C); Kingston: WSRO Wiston Ms 5595 (t773); Littlehampton: WSRO Add Ms 517o (I84I); Lyminster: WSRO Add Ms 9482 (I724); Ovi~l~: WSRO Add Ms 2035 (I725), WSRO Add Ms 4656 (I838-42); Petworth: WSRO Petworth House Archives 3574 (r6Io), 3232 (I796), 3633 (I824); Plumptotl: ESRO Add Ms 4952, number 6 (I819); Pritlsted: WSRO Add Ms 2857 (I64O); Selham: WSRO Cowdray Ms I699 (I812); Storritlgton: WSRO Petworth House Archives 3384 (I788, copy I8o9); Strettington: WSRO CAP 1/29/7.26 (I768); Sutton: WSRO Petworth House Archives 357o (I6o8), 363o (182o); Tangmere: WSRO Goodwood Ms EI37 (176o); UpperBeedins: WSRO Add Ms 2o25 (r775); Washington: WSRO Wiston Ms 5592 (1739), Wiston Ms (I825); Westbolls'~le: WSRO Add Ms 2856 (I64o), WSRO QDD/6/W3I (I858); Westhanlpllett: WSRO Goodwood Ms E4993 (I775); Worthing: WSRO Petworth House Archives 3214 (I8o7). i: !f. i t I! ,i! The Social and Economic Origins of the Vale of Evesham Market Gardening Industry By J M MARTIN eW importance has been given by Bedfordshire gardening, here used as a the writings of Dr Thirsk to the source of comparative information on the N cultivation of special crops in early infant industry: Modern England. Her fresh appraisal has bestowed on them an important role within the English economy, t Nevertheless, except I for tobacco, little is known in detail about One aspect of the present work which calls such crops. The present piece looks therefore for comment is the attention given to at the origins of the gardening industry in Pershore. This was a very modest country- one of its principal locations, the Vale of town of only 2812 inhabitants in I84I , but Evesham. Here the peasantry of the was nevertheless destined to become one of adjoining Vales of Tewkesbury and the two principal centres of the Vale industry Evesham, freed from the constraining in the nineteenth century. Its occupational influence of watchful landlords, sought their and social structure was less complex than livelihood, says Dr Thirsk, in pursuits which that of Evesham, and it thus offers a better exploited their main asset -- their own insight into the socio-economic climate in hands. Labour-intensive crops of fruit and which the early industry laid down its roots vegetables as well as of tobacco enabled them in the century after 175o. to hold their own, and to survive into the Some of the principal Pershore families present century. Nevertheless, the rise of connected with the post-185o expansion of such vigorous peasant communities has gardening activity can be shown to have attracted little attention from the outside been already working garden ground during world. 2 Only one article on the local market the early eighteenth century. Of course here, gardening industry has appeared in recent as in Bedfordshire and South Staffordshire, times. 3 This piece outlined its main phases of the phase of more rapid growth got under growth, giving prominent attention to the way somewhat later, s The period of the town of Evesham. Virtually no use was French Wars and their immediate aftermath made by this writer, however, of probate, was certainly a time of expansion. A parish register, taxation, or census records stimulus was provided at that time by major which cast interesting light on individual road schemes connecting the Vale with Vale communities. A piece which does growing centres of population (touched on exploit such sources is a recent article on below). Parish registers and other sources 'J Thirsk, EcononlicPolicy and Projects, Oxford, 1978, pp 2-5; 'Projects show that by the I82OS gardeners were for Gentlemen, Jobs for the Poor: Mutual Aid in the Vale of widely spread throughout the neighbour- Tewkesbury t6oo-163o' in P McGrath andJ Cannon, eds, Essays in Bristol and GloucestershireHistory, Bristol, 1976, p 159; 'New Crops hood of Pershore, as well as in the two main and their Diffusion: Tobacco Growing in Seventeenth-Century England' in C W Chalklin and M A Havinden, eds, Rural Chan~e attd 4F Beavington, 'The Development of Market Gardening in Urban Growth 13oo-18oo, I974, pp 76-8. Bedfordshire 1799-1939', Ag Hist Rev, XXIII, t, t975, pp 23-47. Hbid, pp 90-L "Slbid, pp 27-8; for Staffs see produce of 4x acres of Fisherwick Park R Sidwell, 'A Short History of Commercial Horticulture in the Vale Gardens, 18o9-H, EIford Hall Collection, Birmingham Reference of Evesham', Vale of Evesham Historical Society Research Paper, II, Library, cat nos 771,x 97, 82o; also H Thorpe, 'Lichfield: Growth and x969, pp 43-50. Function', Historical Collectionsfor Staffordshire, 195o-i, p zoo. 4I /!':if!i,!. ¸! li ii~ ~ li ¸ 4 2 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW towns. 6 Other distinctive features showed were being put down to grass for sheep. I~ themselves at an early date. Thus some of the For humble men the attraction of gardening earliest gardening parishes like Ripple and was that, like tobacco-growing, it utilized the two Pershore parishes were composed of what lay to hand: access to garden property numerous scattered hamlets and abundant and commons, family labour, and time. The commons. 7 Both in Pershore and in certain mid-nineteenth-century censuses serve to adjoining parishes, all later gardening illuminate the dependence on family labour; strongholds, the Dean and Chapter of and along with tithe schedules and direc- Westminster owned large estates, s Here the tories yield information on the incidence of villager tended to be his own man, fortified dual occupations, the size of holdings and the by a striking fragmentation of land and pace of expansion in the industry. property amongst a medley of Westminster tenants and under-tenants. The leasehold arrangements which overlay this minute II division of property in Pershore finds It might be useful to begin by taking a stand frequent mention in the probate records. at around i82o, a time when records first Early Vale gardeners were drawn, judging became reasonably plentiful. The rising by their inventory wealth, largeIy from the commercial importance of the Vale at that ranks of the labouring and lesser trade time is well illustrated by the new road sections of the community. Thus initially construction schemes which established vegetables, like tobacco after I62o, were in direct links with the principal urban centres Dr Thirsk's phrase 'a poor man's crop'.9 A of the region: with Cheltenham, a rising spa key to this gardening activity appears to have town in 1811; then via Telford's arch over the been the large amount of house-property Severn at Tewkesbury, with the new with garden ground and orchards attached industrial centres of South Wales; and finally which found its way in Pershore into the in I825 by a direct link across country hands of the lowest strata of society (even (cutting out Worcester) with Birmingham today vegetable allotments continue to and the Black Country. ,2 By I834 the Vale occupy a large area of land close to the centre growers were said to serve six markets, 'all of the town). The Vale's knitting and within easy reach'. gardening pursuits must have sprung out of a As a result of these improvements in need for employment locally during the communication the requirement for certain eighteenth century, t° For while tobacco Vale products appears at first to have outrun growing had ceased, population rose sharply supply. Local newspaper reports show that in and around Pershore after I75o. At the both potatoes and fruit fetched high prices in same time the extensive tracts of heavy soils certain of the post-Napoleonic war years despite the large acreages given over to these 6The registers of Holy Cross and St Andrew, Pershore, Birlingham, two products in the Vale. '3 It seems that Eckington, Ripple, Welland, and Defford were consulted in Worcester and Hereford Joint Record Office (henceforth CRO), St production was expanded in response to this Helens, Worcester; directories included: Anon, TI, e Worcestershire demand, and as a result the price of, for Direaory,Worcester, 1820;T Bentley, Histoq,, Gazetteerand Directory for Worcestershire, I, Birmingham, x84I; Hunt's CityqfGIoucester and '~ See: A Young, A Six Months Tour Through the North of England, II1, Chehenham Director},, Gloucester, t847; one £Io freeholder list 2nd ed I771, p 307; Report of Select Committee on Agricuhure, BPP survives for each parish for year 18an, CRO Ace aol/I 8o. 1833, V, pp 83, 9o;J D Chambers, 'Enclosure and Labour Supply in 7Ripple for instance contained some eight villages and hamlets. the Industrial Revolution', Econ Hist Rev, ,,lad ser, V, '953, p 328. SThe character of Westminster land was illustrated in numerous ': The 'new road from Evesham to Cheltenham' passed near an estate property notices: see for example the estate in hand ofG Perrot, at Aston, BWJ, ~ May 1811; the notice for a farm at Kempsey Berrows WorcesterJournal (henceforth BWj) I9 Marcia I8o7, spread commented on the 'projected new road from Pershore direct to over the villages of Eckington, Wick, Elmley and Bishampton. Birmingham' coupled with the widening of the Worcester turnpike: 9'Projects for Gentlemen', op tit, p 159. BWj, 12 August t825. 2 '° For the Pershore and Evesham woollen knitting industry in 1744 see: UFor the price of apples 1819-39, BWJ, 19 March 184o; for price of y HCJ, XXIV, pp 830, 84z. potatoes, Gloua, sterjoumal, 15 May 1826, I I May 1833. !'i ! VALE OF EVESHAM MARKET GARDENING INDUSTRY 43 example, Vale apples fell sharply from IOS tO Whatever the cause, the post-war decades 2s 4d per bushel in the twenty years after were obviously significant for the develop- 1819. ment of gardening. 'v The registers of the What effect did rising market demand two Pershore parishes recorded fifty-two have on land use? Both Young writing in the gardening households between I813 and I77OS and Pitt forty years later commented 1819, which compares with the fifty-five on the spread of gardening in the town of gardeners found in Sandy, the main Evesham, but the numbers springing up Bedfordshire location in the years 1813-3 I. ~s elsewhere have hitherto gone unrecorded. The same decade saw gardeners springing up Numerous property advertisements illumi- in a number of riverside villages. For nate the traditional popularity of fruit example the parishes of Birlingham, orchards in the Vale. Small farmers like J Eckington and Ripple all recorded upwards Checketts of Eckington, with only nine of five gardeners apiece by 182o. In I841 acres, would normally have an acre or two gardeners were appearing in all the villages under fruit. Other small men like S Smith of of the Avon valley below Pershore, and in Birlingham managed to combine, in his case the neighbouring Severnside parishes of three acres of fruit with crops of wheat and Ripple, Upton and Kempsey. By that date all garden produce including potatoes, onions, these parishes could boast between ten and cabbages, peas and turnip seed. '* Potatoes, twenty gardening households each. onions and cabbages are the vegetables Behind this expansion into the catchment encountered most frequently in early- area of the future industry lay a growing nineteenth-century advertisements. One awareness of its profitability. This was six-acre garden at Ashchurch had storage reflected in an astronomical rise in the rental space in 1813 for I oo pots of potatoes and 200 value of garden ground in the Vale. Young bushels of onions. Another garden at Upton had noted in the I77OS that the Evesham contained 250 pots of potatoes, forty pots of gardens let for between 5os and £3. By 18o7 onions, and some 3oo,ooo early cabbage Pitt was claiming that every country plants. '5 As in Dorset, the emphasis on labourer in the Vale could afford to give as potato growing probably helped to com- much, or more than the farmer in rent per pensate for the fall-off after I815 in acre (this was also true of allotments let out to home-grown hemp and flax. Bounties paid labourers by philanthropic landlords). Later from I782 to encourage cultivation of the on in 1834 an advertisement claimed that the latter may well have also assisted the early conversion of pasture to garden ground in spread of vegetable growing. They did after the 'Golden Vale of Evesham' had served to all require similar soils and dressing raise the rental value from £5 to £IO per acre, techniques. And gardening dynasties like the a figure confirmed later by the Evesham Andrews family of Pershore also figured historian, May, writing in 1845. ,9 prominently in the eighteenth century as The pattern of land occupation found here flaxgrowers. Furthermore, the neighbour- was also consistent with the spread of hood around Pershore formed the principal ,7 In tile Evesham neighbourbood the 30o-400 acres of the 177os had area of hemp and flax cultivation in the risen, by 1845, to 594 acres; Young, op tit, p 314; May quoted by county. ,6 Sidwcll, op tit, p 46. 'SSome 12 per cent of infants baptized in Sandy were born to '4BWJ, 15January 18o6; 9July 18oi. gardeners, 1813-19, compared to 6 and 4 per cent in the sprawling '~ Gloucesterjournal, 24 May, 813; 22 January 1848. parishes of St Andrews and Holy Cross, Pershore; Beavington, op 'e'B Kerr, Bound to the Soil: a Social Histo O, of Dorset 17.5o-19,8, ,968, p cit, p 27. 32; for the effect of the bounties in fostering cultivation around 'gYomlg, op tit, p 314; W Pitt, A General Vieu, of,he Agricuhure of the Pershore and Evesham see J Noakes, Notes and Queries .for County qfWorcester, 18,3, p 147; Beavington quotes £2-£3 per acre Worcestershire, ,856, pp IO2-3; for combination of horticultural for Beds in, 8o8, op cit, p 24; for allotments see GloucestershireJo,lnlal, pursuits with flaxgrowing see register of Holy Cross, Pershore and ,2 February ,83,, 1, May ,833; estate of G Day, Esq, BWJ, 3 April wills ofW Cosnett 25June ,8o8, S Andrews 5 April 182o. ,834. [i ; i¸ 44 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW small-scale intensive cultivation. Thus the elements, thanin the Diocese of Worcester as number of occupied units recorded in the a whole, during the years 17o2-8. He also land tax returns of a sample of twenty noted that 'underemployment was charac- contiguous Avon valley villages was 354 in teristic of the period'. The soil in the I79O, and 349 in I825. But at the same time neighbourhood Young found to be 'all of the those units on which between 4s and £I was heavy kind, either clay or loam'. Conse- paid rose from I I7 (33 per cent) to I4O (40 per quently there was much conversion of the cent). Significantly this rise occurred heavier soils to permanent pasture. Later between 1815 and 1825 rather than earlier. At observers like Cobbett enthused over the the end of the period, in 1825, it also appeared large flocks and herds to be seen around that half (sixty-nine) of the occupied units Pershore. 2 were still owner-occupied. It was in such conditions as these that by-industries like stocking manufacture, in the words of Dr Thirsk, 'took up the slack in III the early eighteenth century [while] further It is clear from the above account that by the employment was found in market gar- 182os gardening was, as in Bedfordshire, dening'. The historian of the hosiery already well advanced in the Vale. And by industry also noticed a link between poor the 184os there were in aggregate probably as populous communities, perhaps attracted many gardeners in the smaller Vale com- initially by abundant commons, and the munities as in Evesham itself. At the same spread of the knitting industry. ~2 Pershore, time it is clear that the industry pre-dated the like other Midland towns, was surrounded nineteenth century. Here the town of by its common meadows where 'open-tide Pershore is worth closer study since it casts extends over at least halfof the year'. And by useful light on the social and economic I744 the Evesham and Pershore hosiery climate in which the infant industry industry was said to employ many hundreds flourished, and sprang to national im- whose products were exported largely to portance after 182o. Germany, a reflection perhaps of their For nearly a decade after I698 the registers inferior quality and precarious existence. ~3 of St Andrew and Holy Cross (which It was, as we show below, from the poorer between them cover the whole town) record section of the community that the early the occupations of all male adults. The gardeners were apparently recruited. I11 picture which emerges is of a very poor order, therefore, to look more closely at this community. Some I43 (43 per cent) of 326 group, all Pershore inventories valued at individuals were described as mere under £25 were examined for the period labourers, while only fifteen (4 per cent) 1695-1759. Such inventories related for the were gentlemen, yeomen, or professionals; most part to labourers and to the lesser trades nearly one-third of the IO7 trade and and crafts element. 2. It appeared that half of craftsmen were involved in the traditional the total of forty-two testators disposed of wool and leather trades, a significant detail in house and garden property in Pershore. The the light of the general decline of the cloth industry. ~° A recent historian of the Vale a,j A Johnston, 'The Vale of Evesham 17oa-8: the Evidence from found that the mean value of inventory Probate Inventories and Wills', Vale of Eveslmm Historical Research Papers, IV, I973, p 88; Young, up tit, p 307. wealth was substantially lower here, both ::Thirsk, 'New Crops', up tit, p 9I; D M Smith, 'The British Hosiery for labourers and for the trade and craft Industry at the Middle of the Nineteenth Century: An Historical Study in Economic Geography', reprinted in A Baker, J Hamshire andJ Langton, eds, Geographical Interpretations of Historical Sources, a°The decline of the cloth industry in the contiguous vales of pp 363-9. Tewkesbury and Evesham was specifically linked to the appearance ~3HCj, XXIV, p 562; ibid, p 830. there of new occupations inJ Thirsk, 'New Crops', up tit, p 9x. ~4 Diocesan probate records are classified under 008.7 in CRO. il ¸ : j' VALE OF EVESHAM MARKET GARDENING INDUSTRY 45 volume of such property tended to increase remarkable pattern of fragmented land over time. During the years 173o-59, for occupation. The manor of Binholme, which example, some twenty-two individuals left extended over most of the town of Pershore, inventories valued at under £25. In and was owned by the Chapter of West- aggregate the property these men disposed minster, exemplified this tendency most of amounted to twenty-seven houses and strikingly. A survey of circa 174o illuminates gardens, plus four additional parcels of the prevailing pattern of leasehold tenure, garden ground. Few local inventories with ownership under the Chapter widely survive for the period after 176o. Neverthe- dispersed amongst a large number of less, eleven Pershore wills were made out in individuals. ~7 This was a pattern which did the years 1765-9. All of these disposed of not diminish over time. The land tax some house property, amounting in documents record the names of the lease- aggregate to a further twenty-four houses holders, their tenants and under-tenants. In and gardens. 2s the township of St Andrews in Pershore The early gardeners, judging by their some sixty-eight of seventy-nine units of inventory wealth, were drawn largely from ownership under the Chapter (86 per cent) the ranks of this humble class of property on which 5s or more was paid in the years owner. Six of seven local gardeners, for I787-96, contributed between 5s and £I. In instance, left inventories in the range £3-£19. the adjoining township of Holy Cross However, the amount of house property (covering the remainder of the town) this they transmitted to their heirs was figure was forty-eight of sixty-three units frequently in contrast to this modest level of (76 per cent). Owner occupation, as in the personal wealth. Thus T Powell, a gardener Avon valley villages mentioned earlier, of Pershore, left only £3 I IS 9d, but in his was still significant in Pershore, accounting will bequeathed a parcel of garden ground for 44 and 33 per cent respectively of all 'bought of Mr Bullin ofEvesham'. Another, occupied units. J Blizzard, also of Pershore, left only £5 ISs, Later on, in the I84OS, tithe documents but in his will passed on no less than three covering the whole of the principal township houses with their gardens at Newlands (near of St Andrews suggest that the earlier pattern the centre of the town), along with various of ownership prevailed still. ~8 One sees here other parcels situated in the Binholme Fields the effect of fruit and garden culture in (owned by the Chapter of Westminster) shaping and perpetuating the patterns of a 'late purchased of T Ashfield, Gent'. -'~ century earlier. Thus ifTidsley Wood (23 I Altogether, six Pershore and Evesham acres) is excluded from the total of 814 acres, gardeners disposed of eleven houses and then some thirty gardeners (half of the total gardens in wills drawn up in the years of sixty occupiers) were in possession of 288 1733-67, while four of them also left acres, or roughly half of the remaining additional parcels of garden ground (a acreage in St Andrews. The average size of seventh gardener made no mention of their holdings was thus 9.6 acres. However, property). at the time of the survey only ~34 acres were The widespread dispersal of house and recorded as actually under garden culti- garden property was accompanied by a vation of above half an acre in extent. The average size of the twenty-nine which fell '~ In the principal gardening parish in Evesham (St Lawrence) houses into this category was a mere 4.6 acres were also 'in many different hands'; in the other inner parish (All Saints) the land was 'much divided'; in the outer parish of :v Survey made by J West who leased the Manor under the Dean and Bengworth there were 'many occupiers': Reportfor Inquiring into the Chapter: original in Warwick CRO Ace I639/B/123/I 13. State of the Poor La,vs (18 34): Answers to Rural Questions, appendix :H Land tax returns for Holy Cross, CRO, QS 823/I/t 52; St Andrews, B 1, BPP x834, XXX, p 584. QS 163ff3; St Andrews parish tithe schedule, CRO, APs/ ~6 Wills dated t 5 February 1748, 7 October 1757. 76o/521/BA/1572. 46 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW (median 2.5 acres). This figure was much manner that 'he may be entitledto possession lower than that of 8.5 acres quoted by unlimited'. Other wills spoke frequently of Professor Beavington for Sandy, the prin- the 'tenant right of renewing', the term of cipal Bedfordshire location, in I841. Some their Westminster leases which had been twenty-two of the thirty Pershore gardeners granted 'to their heirs forever'. 29 Was this the had the whole of their holdings under garden source of similar rights enjoyed in around culture, and five of the remaining eight were 185o by the Vale gardeners? One cannot say in possession of only small additional for certain, although a writer of the I93OS acreages of orcharding or meadow-land. claimed that the 'Evesham' custom of the Five of the thirty gardeners worked their Victorian period certainly originated from own land, and the rest were mere occupiers some earlier epoch. Forms of tenant custom (often under-tenants). The acreage given have, of course, turned up elsewhere. The over to garden ground in 1842 was effect in the Vale was to reduce the role of the apparently three times as much as that under landlord to that of a mere receiver of rents. fruit. Occasional glimpses of land-use And it created a security of tenure which was patterns in the previous century leave the seen as a pillar of the nineteenth-century impression of many smallholdings in the gardening industry. 30 It is interesting to note manor of Binholme under cherry and apple that local leasehold land of the previous orchards. It suggests that the balance as century was also regarded as an extremely between fruit and vegetables may have been valuable asset. Its value is recorded in eight different in the earlier period, with more Pershore inventories of the period emphasis then on fruit growing. 1695-I759; in aggregate it amounted to £387 Bound up with the pattern of fragmented (31 per cent) of£I244 total inventory wealth. occupancies were other features of land- And it appears to have been worth nearly as holding in Pershore which favoured the much as freehold land: £5 and £3 per acre interests of the eighteenth-century gardener. were quoted in early eighteenth-century The widely scattered Westminster estates, Pershore compared to £8 for freehold land in already referred to, perpetuated an archaic Bengworth (adjoining Evesham). It is also form of life-leasehold in Pershore which significant, in this context, that the Pershore reminds one of the copyhold tenure land tax returns record the names of both prevalent in the town of Shipston-on-Stour leaseholders and those of their tenants and (on the Warwickshire border) belonging to under-tenants. the Dean and Chapter of Worcester. In both towns this form of tenure was associated with a fragmentation of land and property IV which persisted into the nineteenth century. Leaving aside the question of landholding In Pershore it was also linked to a arrangements, there were numerous other proliferation of tenancies and under- influences in and around Pershore which tenancies. The principal characteristics of favoured the infant gardening industry. In this tenure are best illustrated by quoting the two Pershore parishes and in Ripple, all examples. J Millington, woolwinder, dis- posed of parcels of leasehold land in :gDr Thirsk noted the traditionally .permissive attitude of West- minster towards the subdivision of land and the payment of re,at: Binholme (partly in the hand of an 'New Crops', op tit, p 90; wills of Millington, Wade, Washbourn, under-tenant) held, in 1745, on a twenty- Ganderton, dated: I5 November I745, 4 November 1769, 26 April 1758, 4 April 1753. one-year lease ofJ West, farmer of the manor 30 Gardiner, op dt, p 347; some leasehold was said to bestow 'in effect under the Chapter. In 1769 S Wade requested hereditary tenure': C Clay, 'Life Leasehold in the Western Counties of England 165o-I75o', AgHistRev, XXlX, 2, 1981, p94;J Perkins, that his wife insert the life of his son into the 'Tenure, Tenant Right and Agricultural Progress in Lindsey lease of his cottage and six acres in such a 178o-I85o', Ag Hist Rev, XXlII, x, I975, p to. iilL VALE OF EVESHAM MARKET GARDENING INDUSTRY 47 containing early gardening communities, (Evesham), and a high incidence of adult one finds the clearest examples of the children was recorded in both parishes. characteristic landscape of numerous, scat- Resident offspring of over ten years of age tered hamlets and abundant commons. The were twice as numerous as, for example, latter included both meadow-land, much amongst agriculturallabourers, a very much divided, as at Pershore and Birlingham, and more youthful group. By I86I, for the first rough grazing on the higher ground at time in this locality, the occupations of all Defford and Ripple. Consequently the family members were recorded accurately. gardening industry grew up alongside a In Pershore there were then some sixty-three system of both small- and large-scale households headed by gardeners, and they farming in which animals were prominent. contained a further forty-one relatives And links existed between these activities. (including thirty-two sons of over ten years) Vale gardeners, like those in Bedfordshire, also described as gardeners. This suggests depended on farmers for their dung. Young, that nearly 40 per cent of the individuals amongst others, mentions that the latter was specifically described as gardeners in fact got in vast quantities by early gardeners for lived in the household and belonged to the forming their 'fine flexible loams' on clayey family of other gardeners. 32 By contrast the soils like those of the Vale, and also for 1861 census recorded only three 'working' creating their hot-beds. 3~ Most Vale gar- gardeners and six gardeners' labourers deners apparently lacked the resources to resident in Pershore. Even twenty years engage in farming on any scale, but on the later, in I88I, when Pershore boasted other hand, some small farmers were active eighty-six gardening households, still only in both fruit and garden production. Thus ten contained any gardeners' labourers so Sam Smith of Birlingham, dying in 18Ol, described. Taken together with a marked was the first of three generations of his family absence of lodgers and servants (a mere occupied in both traditional and garden seventeen per IOO households) this evidence production. Later on between 182o and does serve to confirm that most gardening 1841, Francis worked twenty-six acres, and labour came in Pershore from within the by I86I his son Henry had thirty-six acres, family. mostly under garden cultivation. Gardening was also easily absorbed into The attractiveness of gardening pursuits the network of dual occupations found lay, as Dr Thirsk has said, in their utilization throughout the Vale. In the eighteenth of assets like family labour which lay century at least, references to full-time conveniently to hand. Prevailing demo- gardeners are quite rare. It seems likely that graphic tendencies here assisted their spread. in its early phase gardening more often than In the town of Pershore numbers expanded not provided an ancillary occupation for by one-third between 1756 and I8OI, and by labourers and lesser trades and craftsmen. 33 a further 47 per cent to 1841. This rate of The probate records yield numerous ex- increase was roughly equalled in adjoining amples of the dual nature of gardening: men villages like Defford, Birlingham, and likeJ Allen, maltster, who left two acres of Eckington. The mid-century census leasehold land in Pershore, along with crops schedules throw some light on the structure of hops, french beans, and fruit; orJ Wicket, of this labour force. In I84I half of the male labourer, who bequeathed to his wife no less gardeners heading households were over fifty years of age in Pershore and Bengworth J: PRO, RG 9/2to3-4: this figure does not include 'wives' as such. 3, A Young, Six Months Tour through the Southern Counties of England J3 Like knitting which, as Youug noted, was the employment of the and Wah's, l, 3rd ed, 1772, p 193; for hot-beds and glass-bells see SirJ poor in Evesham and Pershore: Tour through which the North of Hill, The Gardeners New Kalender, x758, p 137. Er(~land, op cit, p 314. !i 48 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW than six houses with their gardens situated in family carried on gardening in Pershore Lovewell Street (Pershore). 34 During the alongside baking and malting. nineteenth century, despite the presence by The wide division of garden property in then of more full-time gardeners, dual Evesham and Pershore might also have occupations remained still a strong feature of fostered the pursuit of dual occupations. In economic life in Pershore and its neighbour- Evesham such property was described by the hood. All the records throw up examples of z 832 Poor Law commissioner as residing 'in the practice. The St Andrew tithe schedule many hands'. This fact and the highly for instance records the names of several developed transport facilities must have tradesmen who occupied garden ground in encouraged all those with access to garden the town: men like T Ganderton and T ground to explore their opportunities to the Birch, both woolstaplers, and T Collins, full. shopkeeper. In all at least forty of the I39 The question of the size of Vale gardens is individual male household heads (28 per not an easy one to answer. Professor cent) appearing in one or other of the two Beavington quotes averages of I2 and 8.5 Pershore parishes who recorded their acres for his two main Bedfordshire occupation as market gardener in one or locations in the 184os, but the Evesham and other of the three censuses z 84 I, 1861 or 188 I Pershore town gardens may have been also combined this with some other calling. somewhat smaller than this. The only The cross-checking of names with local comprehensive evidence comes from the directories demonstrates that this was 184I tithe schedule for St Andrews Pershore, certainly an underestimate of the true figure. which yields an average of 4.4 acres actually The largest group appearing in the under garden ground at the time of the censuses were the fourteen who combined survey. For the two inner Evesham parishes gardening with shopkeeping, while a further the contemporary historian, May, records a six individuals retailed beer. Others were figure of 459 acres of garden ground in 1845, engaged in some specialist form of small- which when divided by the IO6 'gardeners' holding production like pig dealing. No less appearing in the z84I census yields an than eleven men were variously described as average of 4.3 acres. This estimate could brickman or labourer, which says some- have been too low, however, since there is thing for the continuing social mobility of some evidence that in Evesham gardeners' gardeners. At Defford, next door to labourers were not always distinguished in Pershore, gardening was combined with 184I from those renting or owning gardens. shoemaking, carrying, thatching, and shop- For Bengworth, the outer of the three keeping. Also, whole dynasties dealing in Evesham parishes, May records 135 acres of special products appear to have taken root by garden ground. Correlation with the I84I 186I. Men like the Prossers of Pershore were census households yields a high average here already established by z84I, and became of I Z.2 acres per gardener. Similar high large-scale fruit dealers between i86i and average acreages, much nearer to the figures z88I. Dual occupations may, in fact, have quoted for Bedfordshire, have also been been a factor in the stability of some gleaned from the later census schedules. gardening families. The Andrews family, Very few acreages were recorded for forinstance, produced a line of gardeners and Evesham before I87I, but twenty gardeners flaxdressers in the second half of the did so in each of the I87Z and I88I censuses, eighteenth century, while for forty years yielding means of 8.3 and 8.7 acres -J between 184I and 188 z three members of the respectively (medians of 7.2 and 6.5 acres). Some twenty-nine Pershore gardeners also 341nventory of Allen, 13 September z7o3; will of Wickett, 4 April z748. recorded their acreages in one or other of the _!i iill /i VALE OF EVESHAM MARKET GARDENING INDUSTRY 49 censuses between 1851 and 188 I, and twelve 18oo in the projects mentioned earlier on. gardeners did so for four neighbouring Similar influences can be seen at work parishes over the same period, yielding elsewhere in the economic catchment area of means of I3.3 and lZ.3 acres respectively Birmingham. Thus the Fisherwick Park (medians of 6.5 and 5.o acres). Five further gardens near Lichfield despatched regular cultivators recorded their occupations in quantities of cabbage, broccoli, asparagus Evesham and Pershore as farmer and market and fruit to Birmingham and London gardener, and recorded a mean of 83.z acres. between 18o9 and 1813. By 1845 the The pattern tentatively suggested is of many sixty-eight market gardeners of Lichfield small gardens situated in the inner urban were claiming that they delivered the areas merging into a landscape of larger produce of 13 IO acres of garden ground by holdings spread over the outlying townships horse and cart to the neighbouring Black and villages. The inclusion of larger than Country markets. 36 average gardens situated in outlying town- ships would tend to push up the average size, so that there is not necessarily a conflict V between the evidence of May and that We might conclude this discussion by taking derived from the mid-century censuses. stock of the gardening industry as it stood This apparent army of small producers rnust poised on the threshold of a new phase of have benefited greatly from the long- railway-influenced expansion around 185I. established marketing facilities of the Vale. The first point to note is that the local Pitt claimed that the eighteenth-century industry may have been substantially larger road improvements had allowed the des- in the I84OS than the Bedfordshire one. patch of sixty to eighty pack horses in a single There were some 8oo-Iooo acres of garden day from Evesham, directed mainly north- ground and roughly 150 gardening house- wards into the Midlands. Local road holds in Evesham and Pershore, at least improvement Acts dating from I713 had forty-three market gardeners in business in resulted in some twenty-three miles of the nearby towns of Cheltenham and carriage-way around Evesham under con- Gloucester, and many more springing up in struction by I7Z8. Pershore benefited from the Vale villages. 37 similar schemes, and by I763 the town was Nevertheless, a salient feature of the described as a 'considerable Thoroughfare in mid-century industry was the apparently the Lower Road from London to modest pace of further expanmon. In Worcester'.3s When Young came to the Vale Pershore, for instance, households headed in 1771 the principal manufacture of the Vale by gardeners rose from forty-one in 1841 to towns remained that of stockings, caps and sixty-three in 1861 and eighty-six by 188 I. In the like. One suspects that initially it was the Evesham May spoke of depressed garden pressure from the substantial hose and workers in the mid-I84OS, and numbers bodice manufacturers, with their widely stagnated here between 184I and 186I. Thus flung markets, which facilitated this ex- there were I IO households headed by pansion of road communications. The later gardeners in I84I, IO3 in I86I, and I53 by substitution of wheeled waggons for pack 188 I. Surprisingly few gardeners' labourers horses was accompanied by further major showed up in either town until after I86I. advances in road facilities, culminating after Between I86I and I88I, however, the 3~Pitt, quoted in Sidwell, op tit, p 45; HCj, XXIV, p 390 for tile Petition of trustees of the Act; T Cox, Mat,,na Britannia et Hibernia, 3¢, Fisherwick Park Garden receipts, Elford Hall MS, Ioc tit, cat nos 771, VI, x73x, p 217;B Martin, TheNatt~raIHistorI, of Et~llatld, II, 1763, p 797, 820; H Thorpe, op tit, p zoo. I48. J7 For tile latter towns see Hunt's Directory, op ¢it, pp 38, l t9. t1>~!;:i/ 5O THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW number of households headed by identi- passing down from father to son over the ii . fiable gardeners' labourers rose in Evesham course of a century, there was obviously from nineteen to eighty, and in Pershore some degree of continuity also. In fact the from four to ten. ancient families retained an impressive hold The industry of the Victorian era over the garden ground worked in continued to recruit from a wide social Pershore: eleven men belonging to one or spectrum, often, as we saw earlier, from the other of the six dynasties occupied a total of lesser trades and labouring classes. Indi- eighty-six acres of garden land (two-thirds viduals of very modest means appeared out of the whole) recorded in the 1842 tithe of the ranks of the most ancient of the schedule for St Andrews. The average size gardening dynasties. Thus, at his death W of their holdings was roughly twice that of Cosnett left only his freehold house, whileJ all holdings in Pershore. Dufty and G Ewins bequeathed estates Perhaps not surprisingly the six ancient valued at under £2o and £IOO respectively. dynasties threw up a number of individuals Other men, as in the previous century, left who turned gardening into a large-scale much property, but very little personal business concern. Andrew Dufty, for estate. W Dudfield of Pershore for example instance, was a 26-year-old gardener renting transmitted an impressive amount of house a house and 81/2 acres in I841, but by i88i and garden property, but his inventory was working forty-four acres of ground. wealth amounted, in 1847, to a mere £39. 3~ James, the eldest son ofJoseph Cosnett, who If, in 185o, the gardening industry still had occupied 51/2 acres of garden land contained many small men, nevertheless one between 1841 and 185 I, was cultivating fifty can, at the same time, discern a nucleus of acres, and employing eight men by 1881. family dynasties active both in Pershore and Other individuals like Joseph Blizzard went Evesham from at least the mid eighteenth on to combine gardening with tenant century. Thus the six families of Beard, farming. Four descendants of the six Cosnett, Collins, Blizzard, Dufty, and families, namely William and Andrew Andrews all supplied gardeners who were Dufty, James Cosnett and Willam Andrews, present in Pershore by about 175o (Beard, all gardeners, boasted some 2o2 acres in Cosnett, and Collins by 17oo). Later the six aggregate at the mid-century. 39 Such men dynasties furnished a third of the gardening were, perhaps, well-placed to experiment families (eighteen of fifty-two) recorded in with new products, endowed as they were Pershore during the years I813-2o, and a with a century of horticultural expertise. further forty-eight noted in the censuses of The celebrated Pershore Egg plum was a case I84I-8I. The latter included thirty-one (22 in point. It was discovered in Tidsley Wood per cent) of 139 gardening household heads in about I833 by Thomas Crook. 4° He was recorded at the census dates 184I, I86I or styled gardener, seedsman, and shopkeeper 1881. Individual members of these family of Church Street in the years I813-4I, and dynasties displayed substantial disparities his father was found occupying fruit in wealth, a reflection of the wider social orchards in the town in 179o. framework of the gardening industry. At the same time, with land and know-how V~Their parents' generation appear usually to have cultivated rather smaller holdings: see the wills of Sam Audrews aud Stephen Blizzard sXWills of W Cosnett, J Dufty, G Ewins and W Dudfield dated dated 5 April 18zo, and zo May 1844. respectively 25 June 18o8, 21 April I813, 9 March 185o, and 27 4o Sidwell tmtes Crook's discovery, op tit, p 47; for the earlier Thonaas November t847. Crook see will of P Green, 13 September 179o. iI Parliamentary Enclosure in Nineteenth-Century Surrey- Some Perspectives on the Evaluation of Land Potential By A G PARTON HE study of Parliamentary Enclosure of an enigma, especially when one considers at national level has a long history Wrigley's evidence for the spread of T ranging in time from the early works metropolitan influences in South-East of Gonner and Slater to the more recent England by the seventeenth century. 4 Tate synthesis by Turner. I These countrywide confirmed the view that Surrey, in common perspectives have been matched by a great with Middlesex and Hertfordshire, was a variety of regional studies which have county where much of the open-field had stressed the physical changes enclosure been taken in by I7OO. s brought to open-field and common or to At the end of the eighteenth century heathland and moorland. 2 A few "writers Surrey contained an estimated 73,94o acres have considered the process of enclosure of unenclosed land, including 8ooo acres of whilst others have examined the contentious open-field; by I87o about 41,8oo acres had issue of its effect upon the small landowner. 3 been the subject of Enclosure Acts. 6 The Understandably the focus for much of this agricultural value of this land was extremely work has been the wholly rural districts. varied, ranging from the fertile loams of the This paper examines the impact of Parlia- Thamesside districts set in an area of mentary Enclosure in a county and at a time intensive agriculture, to the relatively when rural and urban influences might be remote, barren heaths of the west and expected to be increasingly in competition south-west. for the use of land. The focus is particularly Court Rolls provide evidence of piece- upon the evaluation of land potential and the meal enclosure at this time, but this was little subsequent use to which the newly enclosed more than legalizing the nibbling at the land was put. waste lands by the cottagers who lived on the Most of the unenclosed areas at ~8oo were fringes of common and heath. 7 Enclosure by commons or heathlands. The survival of 4 E A Wrigley, 'A Sinaple ModelofLondon's Importance t65o-175o', patches of open-field arable at this date and at Past and Present, 37, 1967. s W E Tate, 'Enclosure Acts and Awards Relating to Lands in the no great distance from London, is something County of Surrey', Surrey Archaeological Collections, XLVIII, 1942-3 . E C K Gomaer, Common Land and Enclosure, 1912; G. Slater, The e, James Malcolm, A Compendium of Modern Husbandq, Principally Etlglish Peasantr), and the Enclosure of the Common Fields, 19o7; M E Written During a Survey of Surrey, 18o5; Tate, op cir. Turner, English Parliamentary Enclosure, its Historical Geography and 7 For example the Court Rolls of Horley Manor for 18o8 gave lieence Economic History, Folkestone, 198o; W E Tate, A Domesday ofEnglish to Thomas Blundell to enclose twenty rods on the south side of Endosl,re Acts and Awards, M E Turner, Ed, Reading, 1978. Horley Mill Road; eleven years later Thomas Marston was brought : For example: H G Hunt, 'The Chronology of Parlianlentary before the Court charged with illegal encroachment upon the waste Enclosure in Leicestershire', 2nd ser, X, 1957; M A (from 'Historical Notes', collected by the Horley Local History I Econ Hist Rev, Havinden, 'Agricultural Progress in Open-Field Oxfordshire', Ag Association, no date). Further evidence of piecemeal enclosure Hist Rev, 1X, 1961; M Williams, 'The Enclosure of Waste Lands in appears in the Court Rolls for Banstead, Surrey Record Office Somerset 17oo-19oo', Trans Inst Brit Geogr, 57, 1972;J Chapman, (SRO), 212/6/232 and 233/234 for 1716-1818, also in those for 'Parliamentary Enclosure in the Uplands: the case of~he North York Great Bookham. SRO, Ace 153, 1784-1839, and in a series of letters Moors', Ag Hist Rev, XXIV, 1976. written by Lord Onslow concerning his claims to the waste in 3 B Loughborough, 'AnAccountofa YorkshireEnclo~ure-Staxton Windelsham; 18o3', Ag Hist Rev, XIII, 1965; J M Martin, 'The Parliamentary • . . encroachments are perpetually taking place.., very many Enclosure Movement and Rural Society in Warwickshire', Ag Hist slips have been taken offthe Waste of which cottagers and others are Rev, XV, 1967;J V Beckett, 'The Decline of the Small Landowner in in possession. Eighteenth-and Nineteenth-Century England', Ag Hist Rev, XXX, SRO, 'Act for Inclosing lands in the Parish of Windelsham (and I982. related papers)'• 5I j~,;i I 52 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW When known the dates of Enclosure Awards are shown{Aw}, otherwise the dates are those of the Enclosure ActslA) ,.,°,> v 4< AwIB17 O Aw1801 Aw1816 Aw181~ OAw18~2 ,18s, A:~III, ( Aw;.''L~°s ~,~ ~, AW1866 ~AwI86S Aw1826 AwlS00 Aw1905 Aw1817 AwIB86 Aw1858 @ Aw1811 km 0 100 250 1000 2000 mls Acres FIGURE I Enclosure Awards for tile County of Surrey Act of Parliament was the principal means by In common with other agricultural which residual areas of open-field and large districts, extra-Metropolitan Surrey ex- acreages of common and heath were perienced two main phases of Parliamentary eliminated during the nineteenth century in enclosure (Fig I). The first period from I796 Surrey. The majority of Enclosure Bills to 1839 applied to both subdivided arable and were inspired by a desire to effect improve- to commons and heath, followed by a second ment and increase revenue from agricultural from I846 to 187o , by which time little rents. At the suburban fringe two related but open-field remained. In some cases the delay r{ diametrically opposed forces were at work. between the first reading of a Bill, the receipt ] On the one hand income from building of the Royal Assent and the laying out of field development was sometimes seen as a more boundaries was such that agricultural certain and immediate return from newly prosperity had turned into depression. John H enclosed land than agricultural land-use Houghton had begun his attempts to could yield; at the same time the expansion of improve a part of Bagshot Heath before the suburban South London generated a desire low prices of the early 183os which curtailed to preserve open space as amenity areas. his activities; in evidence before the Select ¢ PARLIAMENTARY ENCLOSURE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY SURREY 53 12-1 11q 7// ~, 8-1 i//j I/D Z/l/ till 3 ~////'" IHJ 1-1 Ill; I/I *//J i[ll .... ;33; 'i/klll/I/[/. iii, 01i60 165 170 1"/5 100 105 190 195 118OOI05 II0 115 120 !5 130 135 Iz,o I/+5 50 155 160 165 170 175 IBo 185 190 195 I1~01 FIGURE 2 Time Profile of Surrey Enclosure Acts Committee of I836 he stated, 'I am applied to very large tracts of country, and restrained from going on in nay improve- enclosure and land improvement were not ments in consequence of the low price of synonymous. By no means all of this land agricultural produce, or I should have gone was destined for tillage, for land use potential much further'. ~ At Effingham enclosure was on occasion taken into account. William took only one year, partly because six people Keen, a Godalming land agent, was clearly accounted for most of the open-field aware of the limitations of the Greensand enclosed, whereas the Acts for Kingston and heaths, for he considered that 'Some would Frimley were subject to delays of thirty and make very good arable land and some very twenty-five years respectively. The distri- good meadow land, and there might be some bution of open-field arable at 18oo represen- good water meadow land, and some good ted an evaluation of land-use potential made pasture, a great portion of it is only fit for at an early date; in most cases it was the better plantations. '9 The land which had already quality land in a parish which had been been enclosed by an Act of I8II was appropriated to these uses. The success of described in similar terms. The poorer soils enclosure, which made for more efficient use had been planted with softwoods which of these valuable soils, was almost assured. were yielding timber by I844. Keen This was in marked contrast to the enclosure distinguished between 'black sandy com- of common and heathland. Very often these mon' dominated by heather and 'ferny areas included the poorer lands of their common' which had greater agricultural respective parishes. It might be expected that value, the bracken probably being an enclosure would have not been attempted in indication of a less acid soil. ,o The value of such areas. Whilst the damp oakwood land affected by any one Enclosure Act commons of the clay with flints which caps reflected contrasts in its potential. When a the North Downs have remained unen- part of the newly enclosed land belonging to closed to this day, in the west and south-west the Ware Estate at Tilford was sold to offset of Surrey attempts were made to tame the the costs of enclosure the agent recorded that extensive heathlands developed on the Lower Greensand and Bagshot areas (Fig 2). s BPP, 1836, VIII, Q846. '~ BPP, 1844, V, Q69o. Many of the Enclosure Acts for these areas '° Ibid. 54 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW , r ii' Alluvium Lower Greensand~ 'i Cloy with Flints Weald Cloy _ _ _ Bogshot Series London Cloy Chalk ;>5i:)% T": I"l t • t~' ¢ 0 8 16km I t I 0 5 lOmts FIGURE 3 Surrey -- Simplified Geology Acknowledgement: Based, m part, on Crown Copyright Geological Survey Maps by permission of the Director of the British Geological Survey 'the lots near Abbots pond were sold for less of the land resources. Many small parcels of than £8 an acre, three lots next to it, not such waste in several places were eliminated good land for £3 an acre'." under the umbrella of one Act; for example The Weald Clay, with few areas of an award of I854 applied to 592 acres of common or waste and no open field, was common and waste in seven locations, only affected through the enclosure of some mostly roadside strips in the parishes of of the meadow which had been held in Betchworth, Leigh and Charlwood. common and the roadside wastes. The Colonel Goulbourn of Betchworth was motive for enclosure was to make greater use concerned that roadside commons on the of areas spasmodically grazed and to more Weald clay were unenclosed and under- efficiently manage the meadows which were used. During investigations to ascertain who subject to over-intensive use. In a district had rights to this land Goulbourn's solicitor where fodder was in short supply both types wrote: of enclosure constituted a more efficient use • . . with regard to enclosures, the question is what is waste, and what rights the Lord or copyholders have "SRO Ace 7o5, Ware Estate Records. on it, if there be a roadside slip the assumption is that ,/ PARLIAMENTARY ENCLOSURE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY SURREY 55 the holder of the enclosed land is entitled to it and in fact scattered conifers growing within a land- to the land on his side of the middle of the road. It is said scape of enclosure fields, and was probably that in bad weather, when the roads were impassable unchanged since it was described by the you might travel by the sides. The roads being now made good, owners of adjoining land whenever they Board of Agriculture reporters at the can enclose up to the roadway.~2 beginning of the century. Although Lord Not that enclosures of this kind, involving Onslow bemoaned the large acreage of waste prior to enclosure, very small acreages, were always the subject of Enclosure Acts. In some instances you may well suppose it to be a neglected manor when enclosure was arranged between tenant or the waste is so extensive, landowner and the Lord of the Manor. At Ockham a tenant wrote to the Lord of the the costs of effectively improving the land Manor, were high. i4 Very often paring and burning and trenching to break up the iron pan I am cutting down the old hedge which is past mcnding commonly found at a depth of about twenty and propose planting a fresh hedge so as to take in this waste. ~3 inches was necessary if arable crops were to be grown. The land had then to be heavily These instances afford evidence of some dressed with lime and manure and a kind of land assessment prior to the preparatory crop of clover grown and presentation of a Bill to Parliament, but the ploughed in. After the heavy capital examination of the subsequent use to which investment that all of this involved it was not enclosed land was put suggests that evalu- certain that returns would be high enough to ation also followed enclosure and that justify the outlay, except in a few favoured reappraisals of land potential were made locations or during periods of exceptionally subsequently when changed economic high prices. At the turn of the century the conditions or improved accessibility might latter condition was met; Brayley, noting the give a new value to land. The heaths of the successes in reclamation in the Bagshot west and south-west included some of the region, ascribes them to the application of most marginal land in the county although stable dung from Bagshot, which lay on the paradoxically they occurred within the most heavily used coach route from London to the advanced agricultural district in terms of south-west. ,s Conditions may have seemed both the integration of stock and crop and the ripe for more extensive attempts at improve- application of farming methods designed to ment through Parliamentary Enclosure. increase productivity. The considerable However, a complex mesh of changes called though by no means always successful for less optimism and a more selective efforts made to improve the poorer lands approach to land improvement. William might be related to a concentration of Cobbett, admittedly a somewhat biased improving landlords and tenants in these observer, saw at first hand the attempts to districts. The Award for Windlesham was reclaim the western heaths; writing at a time made in I814; fifty years later a few nursery when agricultural prices were depressed, he grounds occupying a small acreage and some considered that the investment in their coniferous plantations were the only signs of improvement was improvement. A relatively small proportion of the 4ooo acres described in the Award the misapplied capital which should be concentrating on the good lands, x6 showed evidence of any change in land-use. Most of the. vegetation was heath and ,4 SRO, 'Act for I,~closinglands in the Parish of Windelsham (and related papers)'. z:SRO, Acc 319, Goulboum IV/6, 14/I. ,5 W Brayley, A History of Surrey, t84I. ~JSRO, Acc 317, Box 45 (viii). '~W Cobbett, Rural Rides, 183o. il i'i 56 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW After the opening of the London and Several methods were being used to Southampton railway in I838, the cheap, reclaim the newly enclosed land; deep readily available supply of stable dung ploughing, double trenching with or became an increasingly rare commodity as without burning the turf, first becking then stage coach traffic rapidly diminished, but burning the turf before double ploughing so whilst the railway made reclamation more that the first furrow was buried beneath the costly it also brought markets for agricul- second. The costs of these methods were tural produce within easy reach. The nursery from £3 IOS to £6 an acre. Whilst the larger /, and market gardens which developed in this part of the allotment was developed as part of region after I84o demonstrate how the the home farm, the remainder was allocated potential of an area can be changed in to the estate farms, the tenants paying a low response to altered economic and geo- rent to cover the cost of enclosure and graphical circumstances. The light sandy fencing for the first few years, after which the soils were well suited to the production of rents were increased, thus recognizing that market garden crops, especially early the tenant would expend some capital on carrots, peas, and nursery products such as improvement. Considerable tracts of the azaleas, rhododendrons and other lightest land were planted with trees; in 'American plants'. Before the development I85I-2 alone, I5o,ooo Scotch fir and 5o,ooo of the railway this district was too renqote to larch were sown. By 1860 the Agent could produce these crops; improved communica- write: tions brought London nearer, allowing it to There is a considerableextent of the enclosedcommon exert a greater economic influence than had now in plantations for future value which yields little hitherto been possible. Be that as it may the or no income, but on the other hand there are some landscape effects of these developments plantations yielding poles for sale . . . it is probable were negligible since these activities were that this part of the estate will be made to balance,''~ carried on in small units. Brayley mentions an 'extensive nursery for American plants, at For the arable land, sheep were not Woking which had been enclosed from bog surprisingly seen as the best means of and heath', but this was only I2o acres in improvement allied to the production of area. ,7 root crops. The enthusiastic Agent wrote: In the i82os one could deem most attempts at improvement in this part of I repeat the old text all the sheep you can find and if you ask what this is I reply as the sailor who first asked for all Surrey failures, but by I87o, this judgement the tobacco in the world and on being asked, what would have to be qualified. In the south-west more? only said, I ask a little more tobacco, so say I a the acreage of the Ware Estate at Tilford on few more sheep if possible,a° the Lower Greensand was doubled as a result of an allotment made by the Tilford By the end of the century the judicious Enclosure Award. The Agent was well investment of capital had resulted in the aware of the varying potential of the land and integration of the enclosed common with the in recommending that parts of it could be rest of the estate. profitably used for either cultivation, grass The large number o fvariables .operatin .g in or coniferous plantation he was careful to time and space would call in question say, generalizations made about the success or failure of enclosure. The Report of the Select having laid before you this opinion I must add that I Committee of I844 records that land may be mistaken the land may disappoint us. 's enclosed at Godalming had doubled in 'VBrayley, op cir. '"Ibid. '"SRO, Acc 7o5, Ware Estate Records. "° 1bid. PARLIAMENTARY ENCLOSURE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY SURREY 57 value ~ but it is certain that this was not I8IO when an Act to enclose and drain them always the case. Harvey Keen in his evidence was passed. ~6 to the same Committee, when pressed, st George's Fields are fields no more admitted that he was The trowel supersedes the plough; afraid that a great dealof land alreadyenclosed does not Swamps, huge and inundate of yore, pay for the cultivation of it. "-~" Are changed to civic villas now. 27 Nine years later Henry Evershed noted that Similarly, nearby Walworth Common Ioo acres of Bradley Common, Godalming had been enclosed in I77o and vested in was then being reclaimed, but he expressed Trustees for the Poor who were empowered doubt as to whether even the larch and to let it on ninety-nine-year building leases. Scotch fir being planted would survive. ~3 Most of the expected income was to go to For the promoters of enclosure in Surrey, poor relief. In fact little building took place proximity to London was generally of less here until after I8OO, because of the land's significance than variations in land quality liability to flooding. Whilst more suitable and the movements of season and price. areas were available the commons remained However, in the district bordering the urban as agricultural outliers amongst suburban area, the growth of the metropolis had a development. This was also the case with more profound effect. Prior to enclosure the Stockwell Green which was enclosed in 18 I4 commons were heavily utilized. Thus but it was not until 1874 that proposals were gravels were dug to repair the heavily used made to build upon it. By this time the roads which converged in North Surrey en movement to preserve open space had been route for the Thames bridges. Bakers and developing and an attempt was made to others cut timber for fuel and the cow return the land to its former 'common' keepers pastured their animals on the limited status. This venture in conservation failed amount of common land available. Soon because of a legal technicality and a year later after Kennington Common was opened in three-storey terrace dwellings were being May, it was poached and overgrazed to such constructed. an extent that it was of no further use until The awareness of the value of land in the autumn. -~4 Battersea and Clapham com- form of open space as an amenity for the mons drew a most unusual comment from inhabitants of new suburbia had been those staunch advocates of enclosure, the developing for some years. As early as I814 Board of Agriculture reporters, who the Egham Enclosure Act had provided a considered them to be as productive as if they green, were enclosed. :5 These often poorly drained clayland commons were not always im- open and uninclosedfor the pleasure of the inhabitants mediately attractive to the developer; easy and the adornment of their residenceson the said green access to London was evidently not enough. in such a manner as the commoners shall think fit.:8 Two new roads leading to Blackfriars Bridge were developed following an Act of A little later, in I835, a committee of 1769; they intersected in St George's Fields, residents of the then fashionable and an area of swampy common where some of growing suburb of Clapham obtained the London's street sweepings were deposited. leases of all the manorial rights to Clapham They were not developed for building until Common. They drained it, improved it and made the common into a public park. ~-9 :' BPP, 1844, V, Q668. 2~"Ibid. :e'Great Britain, Laws, Statutes, etc. Local Act, 49 Geo Ill, ch x83. :J H Evershed, 'On the Farming ofSurrey',JRASE, XIV, 1853. :v H and J Smith, The Spread of London, 18 x3, :4 W James andJ Malcohn, A General view of the Agric!dtun, qf Surre),, :, Great Britain. Laws, Statutes, etc, Egham Enclosure Act, 18 I4, 54. 1794. Geo Ill, ch 153. :SJames and Malcohn, op cit. :" E Malden, The Victoria County History of Surrey, IV, I912. 58 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW These were the forerunners of the main Lord Spencer, Lord of the Manors of phase of common preservations in the 186os, Battersea and Wimbledon, attempted to which found expression in the 'Commons enclose the land, but the local residents Open Spaces and Footpaths Preservation formed a committee to oppose the plan and Society' of 1865, the principal body behind the Bill was subsequently withdrawn. the Metropolitan Commons Acts of i866 Determined to obtain some income from the and 1869, which gave some protection to the commons, Lord Spencer opened a brick- commons within the Metropolitan Police field, excavated for gravels and leased a part District. 3° Conflicts of interest between of the land for use as a sewage farm. Finally those who saw commons as amenities and the local residents began moves which others who saw them as commercial assets culminated in the Wimbledon and Putney occurred before and after the Metropolitan commons Act of I87I, which preserved the Commons Acts. The Vestry Minute Books commons for public use in the care of for Tooting in 1863 record the setting up of a conservators.34 committee, The bulk of the land enclosed in nineteenth-century Surrey was common or to s~tfeguard the rights of the parish in reference to the proposed enclosure of the common by the Lord of the heath; land which, it might be argued, earlier Manor. a' generations had placed beyond the limits of cultivation. The nineteenth century brought The common was subsequently preserved, new perceptions of land value which were as was Wandsworth Common, which was expressed in attempts to enclose some of this vested in the hands of conservators. 3-~ In land. The varying degrees of success which similar vein the Enclosure Act for Rush followed Parliamentary Enclosure were Common stipulated that testimony to the accuracy of these percep- tions and to the vagaries of season and price, no buildings or erections above the surface of the earth be erected upon Rush common within 150 feet of the the backcloth against which the protagonists London to Croydon turnpike. 33 of enclosure worked. Nearer to London earlier assessments of land quality were This common consisted of a narrow strip of sometimes confirmed by the reluctance of land which ran the length of Brixton Hill. developers to build upon the poorly drained Although enclosed, the open character of the commons. The growth of an awareness of land was preserved and the building line still the anaenity value of open space started a remains at the stipulated distance from the process of conservation which helped to roadway. The most notable instance of produce the character of the county today. conflict over the use of common land Although close to London, Surrey still concerned Wimbledon and Putney com- contains 26,ooo acres of preserved mons, which today constitute the largest 'wildscape'. 3s public open space in South London. In 1864, 3°Great Britain, Laws, Statutes, etc, Metropolitan Commons Acts, .~4j 1) Casswell, How Hqmbh'don and Putne), Ct,mmons were Saved, no _i 1866 and 1869, 29 and 30 Vict, eh 122; 32 and 33 Vict, ch IO7. date but e189o. Minet Library, Papers in comlection with the ~' W E Morden, A Hislory of Tooting Gravene},, 1897. proposed enclosure ofWimbledon Conlmons. Green, 0p cir. J~ G W R Green, The Story of Wandsworth and Putnel,, I925. J~W G Hoskins and L D Stamp, The Common Lands of England amt 3J LCC Survey of London, Parish of St MarI, Lambeth, XXV, 1951. IYah's, 1963 . ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The author would like to thank Mr H C Prince of the Department of Geography, University College London, for his comments on an earlier draft of this paper. 11 l Agricultural Science in Higher Education: Problems of Identity in Britain's First Chair of Agriculture, ! Edinburgh 179o-ci 8311 By STEWART RICHARDS Y the last decade of the eighteenth the 'dirty-booted farmer' of the period. 2 It century, the new convertlb_e hus- was, accordingly, not surprising that when B bandry' had become widely, if there first emerged formal instruction unevenly, established throughout England. designed specifically for agriculturalists, it Improved methods of land cultivation, should be at the 'upper extremity' of the particularly when they were further exten- educational hierarchy rather than at the ded in acreage by the acceleration of the lower. enclosure movement between I79O and Paradoxical as it may seem, it has often 1815, and increased in efficiency by a more happened that the cause of agricultural profit-orientated managerial organization, education has suffered at the hands of enabled the production of home-grown successful farming practice. Such was food to keep apace of a rapidly expanding already the case in late-eighteenth-century population. Although this remained a period England, for who, it was asked rhetorically, of little more than crude empirical investi- could expect to benefit from theoretical and gation, still well before exploitation of the scientific tuition, when everywhere were to inorganic or 'mineral' fertilizing agents, by be seen the fruits of an art of husbandry the turn of the century work by such men of which long experience showed could be science as Ingenhousz, Black, Priestley, acquired only by traditional forms of Cavendish, Scheele and Lavoisier, made it apprenticeship on the farm? evident that a revolution was under way in Such fruits as were evident in England, chemistry no less than in agriculture, and it however, were hardly to be found north of was therefore perhaps inevitable that the one the border. Until well after I75o, large areas should impinge more and more on the other. of rural Scotland were blighted by poverty Of course, we must remember that the and barrenness. The combination of poor, appalling level of general education ensured thin soil, a high proportion of mountain and that despite the gradual accumulation of heath, too much water and too little warmth, empirical data which were ultimately to presented natural problems for the agricul- provide a theoretical basis for the improvers' turalist which were formidable enough. But practice, and despite the worthy attempts to to these must be added the fact that the 'new propagate this information in the journals of farming' was far less widely established than innumerable agricultural societies and in England. There was nowhere sufficient farmers' clubs, there was little penetration to winter feed for stock and no opportunity to provide it from the late crops that struggled ' This paper draws substantially on S A P,ichards, 'Agricultural to ripen in undrained and unenclosed fields. Science in British Higher Education, x79o-1914', unpublished MSc thesis, University of Kent at Canterbury, 1982. Once again 1 am grateful to Professor Manriee Crosland, Unit for the History, Philosophy and Social Relatio,~s of Science, for his helpful advice : G E Fussdl, 'Science and Practice in Eighteenth Century British and COlllnlelltS. Agriculture', Ag Hist, XLlll, 1969, pp 7-18. 59 :?!ii:i 6o THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW When improvements did come, the for much time that had already been lost. effects, measured against this depressing Activity was centred most notably around picture, were dramatic indeed. Fields were the Highland Society, first founded in enclosed and drained, new and plentiful London in 1778 for the purpose of preserving crops m notably, as in England, turnips and and developing the Highland culture, and potatoes ~ were cultivated on new schemes established in Edinburgh itselfin 1784. From of rotation and in soil enriched by liming and an early date the Society favoured academic manure. As a result the stock breeders could agricultural education, and argued that the produce newly viable strains of cattle, sheep 'diffusion of knowledge' and 'mutual and pigs. As Handley puts it, 'the alacrity communication of ideas and information' with which the new methods were adopted with similar bodies in England and Ireland was remarkable. In the short space often or was 'the , .,principal object of such fifteen years an agricultural revolution was Institutions. effected in many places. '3 Of the several Second, the Scottish universities -- in factors contributing to this rapid trans- marked contrast to Oxford and Cambridge formation, the most general was that m had, during the century, established for agricultural improvement always represen- themselves a reputation that was second to ted a crucial element in the so-called Scottish none in Europe, and Edinburgh was Enlightenment, and that this now found a unsurpassed in the teaching of medicine and potent stimulus in the effects of the industrial science. Furthermore, the Philosophical revolution. 4 As the wealth of the country Society of Edinburgh (founded in 1732) was, rose between 175o and 1815 with the by the I78OS, in many ways the intellectual expansion of manufactures and the iron and centre of British science, numbering among steel industries, so too did the demand for its members several illustrious figures whose agricultural produce which, existing now interests bordered directly upon agriculture, for the first time as a surplus to local needs, for example, Adam Smith the economist, could also be transported to the urban Joseph Black the professor of chemistry and markets on the newly constructed roads. Sir medicine in the university, and the geologist John Sinclair, writing in r 813, could claim James Hutton. with justifiable pride that 'the foundation of Third, the science which had long been improved agriculture is certainly laid in the regarded as fundan:ental to agricultural best cultivated districts of Scotland in as improvement, namely chemistry, was also great perfection as it possibly can be in any the science for which the University of other country', s Edinburgh was most renowned. The establishment of agriculture in higher education must be seen, then, as the result of the combined influence of three factors. First, there was in Scotland during the second half of the eighteenth century, an I intensity of interest in the awakening of a Given this three-fold influence, it is perhaps new farming system which was the more not surprising that we find the earliest concentrated because of the need to make up promotion of agriculture as a subject appropriate to a university education in j E Handley, Scottish Fanning it~ the Eighteenth CentJ,rl,, 1953, p Scotland's dynamic capital city. The Uni- "H. versity of Edinburgh was, at the close of the 4 SeeJ R R Christie, 'The Rise and Fall of Scottish Science'. In M P Crosland (ed.), The Emet:~ence of Science in Western Em'ope, 1975, eighteenth century, experiencil:g what has pp I I l-z6. / j Sinclair, An Account of the S),stem ofltusbandr), adopted in the more !: Improved Districts of Scotland, II, 18H, p 68. " 7"rat~s H(~,hlaM Soc, XI. 18o7, pp 28-9. i, ~ AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION 61 been widely regarded as a golden age. 7 In John Walker, the professor of natural addition to Black himself, there were several history, commenced a much fuller course on scientific professors of notable distinction, agriculture which was recommended by the among them William Cullen and Charles Highland Society for attendance by its Hope (medicine and chemistry), Alexander members. '° Walker appears also to have Munro (anatomy), John Robinson (natural been a man with the necessarily wide philosophy), Daniel Rutherford (botany), scientific interests, but while he lectured on and John Walker (natural history). These botany, geology, hydrography, miner- men could enjoy, before the I820s saw the alogy, and zoology, as well as agriculture growth of competition both at home and itself, there appears to be no record of his abroad, a sense of confidence and superiority knowledge of chemistry. '~ However, by which was a representative culmination of this time the idea of elevating agriculture to a the wider Enlightenment spirit. chair in its own right had occurred to Sir It appears that the move to introduce William Pulteney, a Member of Parliament formal agricultural tuition had originated in and close acquaintance of Sir John Sinclair, mid-century with the secretary of the who was, incidentally, to die 'the richest Society of Improvers, Robert Maxwell. In commoner in Britain'. ~2 Arthur Young had the Select Transactions of the Society of 1743, heard of this idea (ifnot before, then from the Maxwell lamented the fact that there was no advertisement placed in his Annals of university professor of agriculture, and Agriculture), asking: argued that such a post should be held by a Why not a Professor of Agriculture in every practical farmer who also understood the University? that young men might be instructed how scientific principles of his subject. But he was to concentrate, to one important object, the knowl- evidently not optimistic, for in his Practical edge to be gained from other lectures; such as those on Husbandman ofi757 he concluded that 'there botany, chemistry, mineralogy, mechanics etc. 13 perhaps never may be in our Time, a College But his position seems to have been of Husbandry established by Authority'. 8 ambivalent in a fashion not unknown among The momentum generated by Maxwell present-day agriculturalists. There might, must, however, have encouraged the he acknowledged, be some merit in well-known lawyer Henry Home (Lord studying: Kalnes), for in I768 he persuaded William those branches of chemistry, botany and mineralogy Cullen to give some lectures to a private that will afterwards be of use to him. But I must own audience on the science of agriculture at that I do not recommend the University at all; and for Edinburgh. Cullen was no doubt a good this plain reason; that among the great number of gentlemen I have known who were educated there, I choice, for he had wide interests in the scarcely know a single one that acquired any application of chemistry to the arts and knowledge which is of the least use or application to the manufactures, as well as experience in life and pursuits of a country gentleman. '4 teaching botany at Glasgow. 9 Yet it was this very inconsistency which There was still nothing more concrete to enabled him, in echoing Maxwell, to come of this development until, in 1788, identify the affliction which has tormented agriculture as a university discipline ever 7 See T C Stnout, A HBtoq, of the Scottish People, 156o-183o, 1969; N T Phillipson and R Mitchison (cds.), Scotland in the Age of bnprovement, Edinburgh, 197o; and in particular J B Morrcll, '°A and N L Clow, The Chelnical Revohltion. A Contribution to Social 'Science and Scottish University Reform: Edinburgh in 1826', Brit Tedlm,locy, 1952, p "94. J Hist Sci, VI, I972, pp 39-56. "Grant, op cit, pp 432-3. s R Maxwell, The Practical Husbandman, Edinburgh, ;757, p 381. ': R Mitchison, Agricultural Sir john. The Lift, qf Sir john Sinclair of '~ J A Cable, 'Early Scottish Science: the Vocational Provision', Ann Ulbsrer, 1754-183.5, 196a, p I68. Sci, XXX, '973, p 188; W P Wightlnan, 'William Cullcn and the UA Young, Ann Ag, XI, 1789, p 368. Teaching of Cbcmistry', Ann Sci, XII, 1956, p 196; A Grant, The '4Quoted in G E Mingay, Arthur YoJing and his Times, 1975, pp Story qf the Unit,ersit), qf Edillbutyh, II, 1884, p 394. 13-14. I:r:, ¸ 62 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW !i!i since. Referring to the founder of the appointment. The College Bailie expressed Edinburgh chair, he remarked: concern that the rights of the Town Council The difficulty to this excellent patriot will be the choice might be prejudiced by a private individual's of his Professor; he will meet with men of science, and having founded the chair; the professor of he will meet with men of practice, but neither natural history (Walker) protested that the separately will do, they must be united.'S new chair should not be allowed to interfere It is an inherent dilemma which agriculture with his rights to teach 'any branch of shares with other applied sciences, for Natural Science'; and the professor of botany example medicine and engineering, in which (Rutherford) reacted to this in turn with the the Scots also played a pioneering role. counter-claim that the professor of natural Perhaps we should not be surprised, history did not have the right to teach therefore, that two hundred years should botany. Finally Coventry himself was have done little to relieve the symptoms. anxious that he alone should enjoy the privilege of giving 'a separate course of Georgical lectures'. ~8 II These internecine disputes serve to In'any event, I79o has a notable significance remind us not only that Edinburgh pro- for higher agricultural education in Britain, fessors at the time were largely dependent for it was in that year that Pulteney placed the upon students' fees for their remuneration, sum of £I25o with the Edinburgh Town and consequently felt threatened by the Council for the purpose of founding a chair appearance of a rival, but also of the of agriculture, the incumbent to receive, at 4 wide-ranging, not to say elusive nature of per cent interest, a salary of£5o per annum. Coventry's subject. His position appears, This action created two precedents. It was indeed, to have been decidedly insecure, the first chair in the university to be founded even though by modern standards, least of by a private benefactor, all previous ones all by those of the time, he seems to have having been established either by the Crown served his university diligently for forty-one or the Town Council, and the first in years. agriculture at any university in the British We can gain some appreciation of his Isles. It was, furthermore, 'a prime example anxieties from the testimony he gave to the of professionalisation facilitated by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the patronage of landed gentry'. ,6 Scottish Universities, which took ex- The man duly appointed, Dr Andrew haustive evidence during the years 1826 to Coventry o fShanwell (i 764-I 832), had little 183o. ~9 The Commission was established by need of the modest stipend. He was the eldest the then Home Secretary, Robert Peel, to son of the Minister of Stitchell, but his investigate 'certain irregularities, disputes, independent means were enjoyed by virtue and deficiencies . . . in the Universities of of inheritance through his mother of the Scotland, calculated to impair the utility of estates of Shanwell, near Kinross. Coventry these establishments'. -~° It was evidently a had taken an MD degree at Edinburgh in reflection of Peel's concern over the I783, but devoted himself to progressive academic and administrative problems farming, becoming in due course being experienced at all five universities at acknowledged as 'the first authority on the time, and in particular over the power Agriculture in Scotland'. ,7 From the begin- ning, there was controversy over his ,SE Shearer, 'Edinburgh University and Edinburgh College of tSYoung, op cir. Agriculture', Ag Prqeress, XIV, z937, pp 173-4. '6S. Shapin, 'The Audience for Science in Eighteenth Century '~ Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the State of the Edinburgh'. Hist Sci, XII, 1974, p 113. Universities of Scotland, BPP 1831, Xll. 'TGrant, op tit, II, p 456. :°Report, op oil, p I. i!il 1 AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION 63 [ struggles at Edinburgh between the Senate himselfthe poor relation of the 'purer', more and the Town Council. established, and more clearly identifiable Coventry produced as the syllabus of his sciences, while claiming for himself special i" lectures his Discourses Explanatory of the competence only in an uneasy conglomerate i Object and Plan of the Course of Lectures on of disciplines among which he is 'master of Agriculture and Rural Economy which had none'. Coventry himself seems to have felt been published in Edinburgh in I8o8. In this, and he was vulnerable in another respect other circumstances this, together with the also; at least in public he could afford to pay weight of thirty-seven years in the chair, no more than the customary obeisance to the might have been regarded as evidence scientific foundations of his subject, lest he enough of his impeccable credentials, but the risk alienating the bulk of the farming Commission adopted what now looks like community by showing his true colours to an inquisitorial, even a hostile, position, so be 'merely academic'. Thus while chemistry that Coventry felt obliged to utter a number and botany 'would be requisite for any of defensive rationalizations. person wishing to understand Agriculture in I have given, I believe, more Lectures in one Course a full and proper manner', he should also than any other Professor in the University. I have had 'know something about practical affairs', for sometimes I4o lectures, having part at double this, at the end of the day, was likely to count hours... [and] ... give to all the students a for more than 'knowing anything about the pamphlet, containing notes upon some difficult parts of the subject or those too minute in detail for them to finer opinions Oll the subject of Agricultural follow in a Lecture."' Chemistry, delivered by Sir Humphrey After the better part of a lifetime in office [sic] Davy and some others'. "-4 Coventry was still not free of 'demarcation Coventry's other weakness was ruthlessly disputes' with his colleagues. Thus he gave: exposed by the Royal Commission. The size of his class had fallen from over seventy to lectures upon the Structure and Economy of Plants, about thirty students during his term in but only with respect to the application of that subject to Agriculture; I do not take notice of anything that office, but the decline, pleaded the professor, belongs to the Botanical class, but I do of everything was; that could be turned to usein Practical Agriculture; and owing partly to the circumstances of the time. There so with the observations on the atmosphere and its are many that [have] spoken to me... of their variations. 22 intention to send their sons to the class; but from the In their Report of October I83I the change in conditions of the renan try of late, they put off Commissioners made little attempt to hide doing so. -'s their critical attitude. Choosing to deal with In view of the devastating slump which agriculture at the bottom of their comments had overtaken agriculture since the end of the on the Faculty of Medicine, they remarked Napoleonic Wars (the latter having been a somewhat scornfully that 'as there is a stimulus to innovation and productivity), peculiarity in the mode of teaching it, it may this seems a fair point; a nascent agricultural be subjoined to the account of the different education could hardly be expected to classes connected with the three faculties'. 23 achieve immunity at a time when not just This 'peculiarity' ~ the enormous breadth money (the class fee for agriculture was four o fsubj ect matter that must be covered ~ is of guineas) but food itself was in short supply. course familiar enough to the modern Moreover, a class which in thirty years had agriculturalist who not uncommonly finds never fallen below thirty in number must surely be taken-- more especially in view of 2, Evidence taken before the Commissioners of the Universities of Scotland, BPP 1837, XXXV, p 561. 2.. Ibid. :4 Evidence, op cit, pp 561-3. "~ ReTort, op cit, p I52. 25 Report, op tit. i-- !i I~ii ~ iili:i i: l:ii I :, 64 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW r the fact that its subject was available neither Humphry Davy himself. In the introduction for graduation nor ordination ~ as evidence to his Agricultural Chemistry (1813), Davy of the initiative's considerable success. refers to the General Report ofthe Agriculture of Scotland (edited by Sinclair and first published in I812), regretting that it had III appeared too late for him to use. As to the important matter of the contents of Had it beenin circulationbefore, I shouldhave profited Coventry's course and to the way it was by many statements given in it, particularly those of delivered, the Report's findings speak for the opinions of the enlightenedProfessor of Agricul- themselves: ture in the Universityof Edinburgh; and I should have dwelt with satisfaction on the importance given to The Subject of the Course of Study embraces all that some chemicaldoctrines by his experience.-'s relates to Agriculture and the management of Live Stock, with various discussions relating to Rural Unfortunately, the approval of one who Economy... No preliminary Course of Study is had popularized agricultural science rather ordered, or deemedrequisite, none havingbeen ever at than advanced its practical utility, was the class who were not qualified to understand what hardly sufficient to provide for Coventry the was delivered. It is, however, generally wished that pu'pils should previously have attended Chemistry, succour that he needed in official, not to say Botany, Natural History and Mechanical or Natural in farming, circles. Few agriculturalists Philosophy. There are no Examinations of thc believed academic instruction to be either a Students; but they have been asked to write upon any viable alternative, or even a useful sup- subject which they heard discussedin the Lectures, or plement, to prolonged experience on the which they thought connected with the subject.-'6 farm. In any case, such scientific expertise as All this seems eminently reasonable. At might conceivably be profitable could be the time, all Edinburgh professors, not just acquired simply by attending the ordinary Coventry, had complete legal monopoly classes already available in the university on over their subjects and seldom required any chemistry, natural history, geology, en- eiatrance qualifications from their students. gineering and the like. No agricultural Furthermore, non-graduating students had faculty or department per se was desirable, complete freedom to study whatever they for agriculture was a practical art, not a chose. Thus the hostility to Coventry was theoretical science, and as such could never not motivated by any dissatisfaction with his lend itself appropriately to study at the own performa:ace, but rather by unresolved university. To make matters worse for doubts as to the academic merits of his Coventry this view was, of course, one subject. which recruited wide support among his In addition to the volume already own colleagues in the university, although mentioned, our first professor of agriculture for the quite different reasons of apprehen- also brought out a small treatise on The sion and disdain. Succession of Crops and Valuation of Soils, and it has been suggested that Coventry's influence was perhaps reflected in the early IV 'soil surveys' of the Edinburgh area.-'7 More Given the opposition from all quarters, it direct evidence of his influence, and an was surprising that the Edinburgh chair indication that chemistry was more im- survived at all. While the prestige of portant to him than he felt it politic to reveal, agriculture had stood high in the decades comes from no less an authority than around the turn of the century, it suffered a :6Report, op tit, p i52. ~7 R Somerville, General View of the Agriculture of East Lothia t, 18o5, P 279. .-HH Davy, Elements of Agricultural Chemistry, r 813, p ix,. ~il.~~i I ' 7 ¸ l/ AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION 65 J- precipitous fall in the wake of the colossal and debate, it was the more difficult to National Debt which followed 'victory' in promote a role for agriculture in formal the French Wars, a tragic situation which had education. Although in the event no action been documented by several Select Com- was taken against the Edinburgh chair mittees before I84o. This depression was (David Low succeeding Coventry when the now reflected in the state of agricultural latter retired in I83 I), the attitude assumed science, which in Britain passed through a by the Royal Commission is as revealing as relatively quiescent period between the any of the parlous condition into which the seminal publications of Davy (Elements of rural interest had declined. It required a new Agricuhural Chemistry, I813) and Liebig generation of teachers and experimentalists, (Organic Chemistry in its Application to with new energy and new ideas, if a Agricuhure and Physiology, I84o). In the successful rescue operation were to be absence of a lively atmosphere of discovery mounted. British Agricultural Policy Since the Second ;i ~, World War By J K BOWERS B x any standards, British farmers had a the depression was also important. Farmers good war. Following a prolonged were one of the groups that had a claim on the depression of the inter-war period better world that was to emerge from the with low prices and low farm incomes the ruins of victory. onset of hostilities saw a rapid transform- ation in their position. In just three years I from I938-39 to I94Z-42 gross output of The basis of the post-war settlement for British agriculture increased by two-thirds British farmers was laid in the Agricultural and over the war as a whole real farm net Act of I947.-" The general objectives of the income increased more than three-fold. Act, which were subsequently quoted on Much of this improvement was in prices almost every occasion that a new departure rather than in quantities. Prices doubled in policy was made and at other times as well, between I939 and I946, whilst at constant are stated in section I. prices gross output peaked in I939--4o at a 'promoting and maintaining.., a stable and efficient level some I6V2 per cent above that of agricultural industry capable of producing such part of I938-39; the I939-4o level was not reached the nation's food and other agricultural produce as in again for a decade. ~ Aggregate figures the national interest it is desirable to produce in the arguably understate the contribution of United Kingdom, and of producing it at minimunl British farmers to the war effort since the prices consistently with proper remuneration and living conditions for farmers and workers in objective was to save scarce shipping space agriculture and an adequate return on capital invested by reducing dependence on imported animal in the industry'. feedstuffs via the expansion of home-grown For the main products, constituting at the cereals and root crops. In these terms there time about 80 per cent of gross output, the was considerable success. Between I939 and mechanism for achieving these objectives I942 physical output of wheat and barley was through price guarantees, initially paid rose by about two-thirds, oats by three- directly through the Exchequer and sub- quarters, and tonnage of potatoes almost sequently, as wartime controls were lifted, doubled. This was at the expense of livestock by 'deficiency payments' representing the output. Cattle numbers remained virtually difference between the guaranteed prices of constant and sheep numbers fell. the product and some sort of average market The farmers' contribution to the war price. Guarantees were given for eleven effort stood them in good stead when it came main products: cattle, sheep, milk, eggs, to the post-war settlement. The strategic importance of a prosperous agriculture was -'The principles of agricultural support had evolved during the War. accepted and a determination to avoid a They were rehearsed in a speech by the Minister of Agriculture in the House of Commons in November 194o. The purpose and reversion to the 'dog and stick' farming of timing of Reviews was announced in l)ecember 1944 and the first annual review took place in February 1945. The objectives of policy as quoted above were stated in almost identical words by tbe Minister of Agriculture in the House of Comnmns on 15 Novem- 'P Cheshire, 'Management of the market: the economic arm of ber 1945. For the evolution of tile policy see W E Heath, 'Price agricultural policy' in Open University D 203 II1, Agriadture, fixing policies in Agriculture', Jounlal of the Proceedings ~ the Milton Keynes, I975. Agricultural Economics Societ},, vol 8, no i, 1948, pp 4-13. 66 [i' BRITISH AGRICULTURAL POLICY SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR 67 110( 100~ 90o __ Total Expenditure / / 8og 7oE 6oc 5o~ 4oE A / .%.0_I o~ o~ 3o1 ,, / "----.. /",,/ o,,./', / z 20( .-" ...... // "- , o.O.~ o o ~" o-o\, O.o / 10( 0 1954 55 56 52 58 59 60 6i 62 6'3 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 ~7 78 79 80 81 FIGURE I Public Expenditure on Agricultural Support (Current Prices) barley, wheat, oats, rye, potatoes, sugar taxpayer and not directly at the cost of the beet, and wool. Other products, eg consumer. 3 horticulture, were protected by a variety of From 1951 the Annual Review resulted in trade measures, mainly general and seasonal a White Paper which provides an invaluable tariffs. source of official thinking on agricultural Guaranteed prices were fixed annually policy. The brief historical commentary following an annual agricultural review. below is largely based on these documents. The Review involved Ministers consulting The Act contained provision for special with representatives of agricultural pro- reviews between annual reviews and ducers -- the various farmers' unions -- but recourse was made to them from time to not representatives of the agricultural time. Special reviews were held in 1951, workers -- to consider the economic 1955, I956 and in I97o. Those in the i95os condition and prospects of the industry. The were in response to wage settlements; that in farmers' unions were thus in a unique I97o to meet rapidly rising cost of all inputs. position among British industries in having a Farmers were not the only agricultural statutory right to consuhation over the interest group to be involved in the annual prices they would receive for their produce. price fixing ritual. Data provided by This statutory cartel was acceptable presum- agricultural economics departments in the ably because, until the I96OS at least, the ~But indirectly of course since supply on the home market is prices fixed were at the expense of the affected. :i(i' 68 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW ~il~ 'i ~i~i £M ) ':ii;, 90C Total ..... Price Support 800 -o-o- Grants and Subsidies 700 6O0 5oo I If/A\\\ tI111~ ~" .... ., ,, 400 , \ / ', oA \ ~/ 3oc ~o--o~ (~ ~ k./ /'~. / / o\ " % #/ 1 ----/ 200 \\ ,..o ,/ o &~. o.o1~/.__o 100 1954 55 56 57 58 59 60 6i 62 6t 64 65 68 67 68 69 70 71 72 7~ 74 75 76 77 7'8 79 B0 FIGURE 2 Public Expenditure on Agricuhural Support (Constant Prices) universities formed part of the information the direct grant element had a tendency to input and was published in the White rise over time at the expense of the price Papers. 4 These data, the Farm Management guarantees. Survey, were collected under MAFF This unique example of co-operation funding and the Ministry thus directly between agricultural interests over the sponsored agricultural economics in British development of agriculture and the fixing of universities, s The Ministry additionally prices arguably served to reduce criticism of sponsored research in Departments of the system; everybody with the knowledge Agriculture, as well as in various agricultural of the details was likely, one way or another, colleges, and the results in the form of to be part of the system. This was possibly improved techniques were disseminated significant when, as happened during the through the agricultural services (now the I96OS, the emphasis of policy changed, Agricultural Development and Advisory from, in the words of the Act, stressing Service (ADAS)). The annual settlement 'minimum prices' to concern with involved the payment of direct grants on 'remuneration and living standards'. inputs and for the adoption of new techniques as well as price guarantees. These are plainly complementary with ADAS II work; indeed part of that work involved The early years of the operation of the Act publicizing these grants. As Figure 2 reveals, were dominated by the problems of 4A good description of the system is in the 195x P,eview, Cnmd post-war reconstruction and the role that 8239, May I951. agriculture could play in easing them. The 5The situation at Queen's University, Belfast, where members of the Department are simuhaneously officials of the Northern Government had in mind a programme of Ireland Department of Agriculture, is unique. growth for the industry as it had for most of [ BRITISH AGRICULTURAL POLICY SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR 69 the next thirty years. The initial objective, TABLE I stated in detail in the :952 Review, 6 was to Increases in Guarantees and Changes in Cost raise net output by I956 to some 6o per cent for Review Products above pre-war levels. Priority was to be £M given to the development of livestock Cost Additions to enterprises to increase the supply of meat to Year Increases Guarantees the home market. 'Above all to raise to the I95I 53.5 53.25 utmost the production of beef and veal, 1952 4I.O 39.0 mutton and lamb' (para I2 (h)). The other I953 22.2 15.4 recurring problem was a shortage of feed I954 -6.7 -i2.o* i955 25.0 28.0 grains and an improvement in productivity I956 37.0 25. ° of grassland was sought so as to release one 1957 38.0 I4.o million acres for growing barley and oats. 1958 II.0 --19.0 The programme was to be coupled with an 1959 11.5 3.0 'efficiency drive' -- targets could only be i96o I3.O -9.o I961 I9.O I4.O met if there were a substantial rise in I962 I9.5 ii.o productivity. i963 I2.5 o.o Although subsequent White Papers ex- i964 24.o 3I.O pressed pessimism, the target was in fact i965 19.o lO.O met. The problem of imported fee&tufts 1966 32.o 23.0 I967 15.5 25.0 remained a policy preoccupation until the I968 68.5 52.5 late I95os with, in consequence, continual i969 4o.o 34.o calls for improved productivity of grassland I97O 6o.4 8o.o*t and increased production of feed grains. I97I 141.o I5O.O*t 'Ten per cent of concentrates saved would be I972 48.o 49.o worth at least one million tons of imports. ,7 A cut in pig production to save imported feed * Author's estimate. costs was sought in I955. The I956 Review 8 t Because of changes in the system of protection these called for an intensification of the I952 policy figures are not comparable with previous years. for balance of payments reasons. Efficiency was encouraged in a number of than 9 per cent in any three-year period. The ways. First, as Table I shows, the addition to total value of guarantees including pro- guarantees after I951 was typically less than duction grants was to be no less than 971/2 per the increase in costs and in I954, 1958 and cent of the previous year's level once I96O was in fact negative. Thus, the adjustment was made for cost changes. The intention was that increases in net farm White Papers for I958 and 196o ~° make clear incomes could only come through increased that but for this commitment the reduction efficiency. Long-term Assurances for Agricul- in guarantees would have been greater. ture9 placed constraints on the Government's The second method of encouraging ability to adjust the guarantees downwards. productivity growth was via a change in For any product the guaranteed price in any emphasis from price support to subsidies on year was to be no less than 96 per cent of the capital and chemical inputs and on structural previous year's level and for livestock change. The growth of grants and subsidies products the reduction was to be no more during the 195os in both current and constant prices is shown in Figures : and 2. Cmnd 23 e'Cmnd 8556. introduced a new scheme of grants at an 7Cnmd 9IO4 (1954) para 15. SCmnd 9721. initial rate of 331/3 per cent. 9Cmnd 23 (I956). '°Cnmds 390 and 970. I i~: ! 70 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW ':'L : While the long-term downward trend on As well as these measures the government price guarantees in real terms is clear from limited guarantees by imposing producer Figure 2 and its lack of trend until the 197os in quotas or 'standard quantities', with various current prices from Figure I, the open-ended penalties for over-production. These were commitment entailed by deficiency pay- introduced for barley and pigs in 1961 and for ments once the markets were decontrolled ~ eggs in 1963. A two-part tarifffor milk with imparted fluctuations to the actual expendi- substantially lower (and uncontrolled) ture on price guarantees. The initial strategy prices in the manufactured market appeared for dealing with this is best shown in Figures also in 1961. 3 and 4. Taking 1964 as our break-point (for In 196o, following a meeting between the reasons explained below), cumulative price Prime Minister and the President of the increases were zero or negative in pigs, eggs, NFU, talks were held between agricultural wool and wheat and low in all others with the ministers and representatives of the farmers' sole exception of beef and potatoes. The unions. The results were published as a increase in beef is more apparent than real White Paper. t4 From the tone of this since unlike the other intensive users of document, which contrasts sharply with imported foodstuffs, pigs and eggs, feed- that of the Annual Reviews of the period, the stuffcost charges were not netted out before NFU appears to have scored a maj or victory. calculation of guaranteed price. In the case of The paper describes agriculture as 'this great potatoes, prices were adjusted with the industry' (para 2), emphasizes its importance objective of meeting home demand from as a source of employment, both directly and home supply. indirectly its 'valuable contribution' to the Rising and unpredictable charges on the balance of payments and its impressive Exchequer, the inevitable outcome of increase in net output and productivity in the deficiency payments in a time of falling post-war period, while at the same time world prices of agricultural products, as was 'ensuring a countryside in which the whole the second half of the I95OS, rather than nation can find pride and enjoyment'. balance of payments problems, provided the Significantly, the paper argued that 'export main spur to reform of the support system. prices' were not a 'fair criterion by which the Unless guaranteed prices could be brought public should judge the competitiveness of down, the 'efficiency drive' served simply to the home product', since most competitors make the public expenditure problem supported their home agriculture. Further- worse. Concern with the cost of the policy more agriculture was not the only industry and the need to reduce it first surfaced in the to receive public money. The unions 1956 White Paper. By 1958 the Ministry had complained that the government intended to decided that 'on present prospects no further restrict the industry in the interests of saving expansion on gross output is required'. The public expenditure and to 'further a problem was aggravated by complaints particular trading policy'. In reply the from Commonwealth suppliers that UK Government stressed that their policy was agricultural expansion was spoiling the for expansion on 'sound lines'. The Govern- market. This was cited as a reason for cutting ment agreed to consider the unions' views the guarantees on milk and wheat in 1957 ~-" that surpluses were in fact desirable as a and for sheep in 195913 and for the policy of source of food aid to developing countries zero growth in 1958. and also to consider the possibility of "Eggs and cereals were decontrolled in 1953 a,ld fatstock, the last to be dealt with, in ~955. '4Agriculture- Reports on talks between the Agricuhural Depart- '~Cmnd IO9. ment.~ and the Farmers' Unions, Jone-Decenlber 196o, Cmnd z3 Cmnd 696. 1249 (196o). !i ¸ , il I BRITISH AGRICULTURAL POLICY SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR 71 +60. ./ / LIVESTOCK PRODUCTS / +70 r ..... Beef / /i +60 ..... Sheep ***** Milk . .' / $ Pigs ,' ." +50 t -o-o- Eggs t t , •~, ..... Woo1 , .. ,~ +aC / 0 +3C ...... i & • *2( / /' ' .... %. • .." ' +I( & q, .~.+ .... -- \ . -L~ ' ' "" ~ ~,, °. N -lo. o \o -20 ¸ -3( tf--~ * -40 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 6~ 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 FIGURE 3 Cumulative Percentage Incrcasc in Price Guarantees international agreement to control markets that had been followed hitherto. The paper 'to the mutual advantage of all'. announced the introduction of import These talks bore immediate fruit in that controls for cereals and fatstock. The Bacon the White Papers of the early I96os were Market Understanding was to operate from more fulsome in their praise for farming's I April and a minimum import price scheme achievements and in an improvement in the was to be introduced for wheat. Agreement relationship between guarantees and costs was being sought on control of the fatstock (Table I). But its real success appeared in the markets but meanwhile 'co-operation Annual Review for I964, which marked a would be sought with overseas suppliers in substantial shift in approach, to a degree that co-ordinating the level and phasing of amounted to an abandonment of the policy supplies to the UK market'. This approach :~CI'ii! q:" ' :i ii 72 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW ~iii: cRoP___~s ...... Potatoes "il ****** Beet ~7 +50 Barley -o-o-o Wheat +40 J / • 4, +30 +20' s. ~ 4r-~ ~ ~ ~K -J(- / +,..G,~ +..,-_*. +_ _+ .+_+_+.,,. ++-'-+,.,.~ ~ ,.. ,,.. + / ., +10" ,+++2"_.' ~ / o] o ] \ m ¢/+/ o ¸ " +-o "~o_+-- +--,~ o -lo. o .i k.. ~ o _ o..-'° -20 -3o -40 1953 56 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 6h 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 FIGURE 4 Cumulative Percentage Increase in Price Guarantees was extended in subsequent years. By z 969 ~s of the burden of support from the taxpayer to there were in addition quotas on butter, the consumer. Protection thus was hidden 'voluntary arrangements' oi1 poultry, and higher prices could be justified as a fair negotiations in progress for ways of limiting reward for farmers and as reflecting the real imports of cheddar type cheese and on a cost of food production. The 1964 Review minimum import price scheme for eggs. laid stress on the social role of agricultural This changed approach meant the protection (para I I) and para I2 announced abandonment of attempts to eliminate that provided import controls worked, protection and support for agriculture greater weight in policy would be given to through making it competitive on world the question of returns to the farmer. markets. Under 'market management', Significantly I964 was the first year for a protection was effectively seen as per- decade in which the value of guarantees manent. This was made possible by the shift exceeded increased costs (Table I). If the objective was to reduce the overt cost 'SCmnd 3965. of protection to the Exchequer it was wholly ii: i iii '.... BRITISH AGRICULTURAL POLICY SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR 73 successful. In real terms public expenditure The selective expansion programmes peaked in I96I, and even at current prices the survived unscathed the collapse of the i96i level was not reached again until I973. National Plan with the measures of The removal of the public expenditure September I966 and in I969 were rolled constraint removed also the limitations on forward until I972-73. By I97O a new output. Throughout the period from the argument was introduced for a programme mid-I96os to the I98os agriculture was of maximum output growth: the reduction operating under some sort of expansion of the bill for the Common Agricultural plan. The first of these was the selective Policy in the event of entry to the EEC. expansion coupled with the National Plan of Entry to the EEC can be seen as the logical 1965 .'6 Agriculture's contribution to this culmination of UK agricultural policy in the was to be two-fold m to release labour for I96os. Agricultural protection was to be other industries by a rapid (5 per cent per regarded as permanent and was to be borne annum) growth in labour productivity and largely by the consumer, thus keeping the to save imports by meeting the estimated Treasury wolf from the Ministry door. In increase in consumer expenditure on food. fixing prices the main concern was with the Beef production was given major priority welfare of farmers, not the interests of the since 50 per cent of this increased demand consumer and still less those of overseas was expected to be for meat. suppliers and the benefits of international A separate White Paper in i965 '7 ad- trade. It had an additional advantage that if dressed itself to the problem of reform of the the consumer complained about high prices structure of holdings within the industry. then blame could be attributed to the French. Grants were to be available to persuade small As the I97I Review made clear, we would farmers to leave the industry, various forms have an import levy system whether we of assistance also to the amalgamation of entered the EEC or not. small farms into viable economic units and Entry to the EEC did not remove the case assistance to co-operation through a newly for expansion. The need to reduce the costs created body, the Central Council for of membership via expansion of agriculture Agricultural and Horticultural Co-oper- was then seen as even more urgent. It was ation. As part of the programme for exploited to the full in Food from Our Own structural reform the White Paper also Resources 's which gave a maximal expansion proposed mobilization in the special support programme over five to ten years. In for hill and upland farmers which had existed addition to the saving of budgetary contri- in varying forms since I94o. Livestock butions and food imports this paper found headage payments were put on a long-term another argument for expansion -- as an basis and increased in value (I965), hill insurance policy against the fluctuations in ploughing grants were introduced (I967) prices and the commodity shortages of the and further structural measures applied early I97os -- this despite our now having (I969). While assisting the achievement of right of access to an enormous supply block. productivity targets and especially the Even the later Farming and the Nation ~9 under targets for beef, these measures can be seen as a Labour Minister much more sympathetic in part stemming from the then current to consumers than either his predecessors of concern with regional problems and, within the I96os and I97os or, indeed, his successor, that, the peculiar problems of remote rural considered that there was a case for areas. mCmnd 2764 (1965). ,s Cmnd 6020 U975). ,7 The Development of Agriadture, Cmnd 2738. 'gCmnd 7458 0979). 74 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW expansion and proposed another five-year policy is a variant of the infant industry case programme. 20 for protection. It was assumed that there i~ ~. were economies of scale to be realized and that these could be obtained by expansion III with increased capital intensity. It is doubtful If the objective of British agricultural policy whether such economies are there to be in the period up to I964 was to make realized by any approach but in any case the agriculture self-supporting, to increase its implicit constraints under which policy productivity and efficiency to the point operated ensured that what existed could not where the need for public support and be exploited. Essentially the implicit con- especially public expenditure was reduced to straint was the size of farm. Until the late a minimum, then it must be adjudged a I96OS little emphasis was given to increasing failure. The abandonment of these ob- the size of units with the corollary of a jectives from the middle I96os is clear reduction in the numbers of farmers. Rather evidence of that. Under import limitation these economies were to be obtained by the level of protection has continued to rise as specialization within the farm and increased it "did in the I95OS and effective protection intensity o fland use. Labour may have been a rates in the late I97os under the CAP were scarce factor in the I95OS but it is not clear substantially higher than in the 196os. ~t The that land was; certainly capital was not burden has increased but the incidence has abundant. The consequence of the distortion changed. Given the virtual static demand for of factor prices built into the policy was a foodstuffs within the UK market, increased shift in factor ratios rather than economies of competitiveness for the national farm could scale and neutral technical progress. -'3 only come about via a shift in comparative If the infant industry argument does not advantage: de facto by a higher rate of provide a case for expansion the other productivity growth in agriculture than in arguments are also doubtful. The balance of manufacturing. This did not happen; the payments case concerned whether agricul- rapid growth in output per acre and per man tural expansion could improve the balance of was matched by low or even negative payments and not whether, given the growth per unit of capital, per unit of objective, agriculture was an efficient chemical input and probably per unit of location for resources to achieve this end. energy input so that total productivity Within the CAP expansion of output growth was less in agriculture than the embodies a basic prisoner's dilemma. Each internationally poor performance of UK country can hope to gain from its parmers manufacturing. ~2 The argument for the through expansion but the net result of expansion is that all are worse off. Expansion =°While setting no precise targets. Unlike Cmnd 6o',o this paper by the UK improves the budgetary balance shows concern about the costs of support, the impact of high prices on consumers, the impact of the policy on the environment at a high cost to the UK consumer. Given and the problems the CAP was causing for developing countries. Cmnd 6o2o was more in the tradition of the Report of the Select that the CAP is operating under a budget Committee on Agriculture 0969) which dismissed all arguments constraint, the net gain to the UK's and doubts about the wisdom of maximal expansion as 'mere speculation'. Virtually the entire hours of attendance at the hearings of this Conmfittee were made up of farmer MPs: P Cheshire, op cir. ='C J Black and J K Bowers, 'The Level of Protection of UK Agriculture', Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 46, 1984, pp 29I-3 Io. -'s The preoccupation with technical rather than economic efficiency ~=Over the period 1948-68 agricultural productivity grew at t.6 per follows inevitably from application of science to agriculture cent per annum while that in manufacturing grew at L8 per cent which, as noted, the Ministry actively promoted. Agricultural per annum, ie manufacturing productivity increased by 49 per research concentrated on such measures of efficiency as yields and cent compared with agriculture over 2o years. See J K Bowers, output per man. Concentration on individual enterprises accords 'Economic efficiency in agriculture', in Open University, op cir. with the logic of scientific experimentation. r ¸: Ii'i::il)f t BRITISH AGRICULTURAL POLICY SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR 75 budgetary contribution from expansion is threatened during the past 25 years as during far smaller than the gross gain. ~4 the previous 500'. There has clearly been a If post-war agricultural policy has failed to substantial loss of visual evidence of past make British farming more competitive it agriculruralpractices, such as the destruction has at least reconciled public opinion to the of ridge and furrow by continuous deep need for permanent protection. It has ploughing and the elimination of water furthermore persuaded the public that meadow systems but, except for the loss of British agriculture is highly efficient. The hedgerows, 27 this still awaits document- confusion between technical and economic ation. efficiency that underlies successive policy Turning to the natural environment there phases seems to be widespread. It has also has been considerable evidence of chemical achieved its objective of safeguarding pollution. Most strikingly the decimation of farmers' incomes. Not only was the populations of birds of prey from organo- three-fold rise of the war-time sustained and chlorine pesticide poisoning in the 196os, but consolidated, but the rise in real average also loss of water quality from fertilizer pre-tax net farm incomes since then has been run-off and wastes of intensive livestock greater than the real income growth of many units. Habitat loss, however, has been the other groups of workers. -'5 To this must be most lasting problem. The Nature Con- added massive real increases in rents and land servancy Council "8 has argued that the values. But the lasting achievement of modern intensive farm is a hostile environ- post-war policy has been the changes it has ment to almost everything except agricul- wrought in the landscape and the natural tural enterprises and the reduction in habitat environment. By common consent these diversity is shown by marked declines in the have been deleterious if not disastrous. They distribution of indicator species I plants result from the directions of change which and, although the evidence is less good, have been the objectives of policy: specializ- invertebrates and amphibians. It could ation, increased intensity of land-use, indeed be said that post-war agricultural increases in arable and leys at the expense of policy has created the nature reserve by permanent pasture and extensive use of reducing many wildlife habitats to a position chemical inputs. of scarcity, increasing their value and The damage and destruction of ancient vulnerability, and incidentally by reducing monuments in the I95OS and 6os, mainly the availability of agricultural land to meet through ploughing, was massive. Of growing demands for recreation, adding scheduled field monuments in Wiltshire, a greatly to the population pressures on what survey in 1964 found that almost two-thirds remains. had been damaged or destroyed. -~ The 1965 Finally, it should not be thought that these Report of the Deserted Medieval Study were problems of the I95os and 6os which Group noted that 'as many sites have been have now been recognized and are under control. Existing plans by Water Authorities will, if carried through, eliminate virtually '4See J K Bowers, 'Who pays the cost of UK agricultural expansion?', Universit), of Leeds, School o.f Ecom:mic Studies, Discus- all the wetland grazing marsh in England and sioll Paper 11o, 1982. Wales to be replaced by arable farming -'sj K Bowers and 1' Cheshire, Agriculture, the Com:tryside and Land Use, 1983, Chapter 4. The comparators used are male manual largely for cereals and leys on well drained workers, administrative grade civil servants, arm:, officers and university lecturers. This is not true of agricultural workers, who have simply maintained their position at about 75 per cent of the wage of male manual workers. As noted, policy has not bee,~ -'7Cotmtryside Conmlissioo, New Agricultund Landscapes: Issues, directed at agricultural workers. Objectives and Aaion, London, 1977. -'~'The evidence in these paragraphs is surveyed and documented in :s Nature Conservaucy Council, Nature Conservation and Agriadture, Bowers and Cheshire, op cit, Chapter 2. London, 1977. 76 THE AGRICULTURALHISTORY REVIEW land. These schemes are being promoted and amended, it is unlikely to do so. The threat to grant-aided by MAFF. 29 There is no the environment in all its aspects would evidence so far that the Wildlife and benefit from an abandonment of the Countryside Act I983 is controlling these if: wearying dash for growth in agricultural trends and internal evidence that, un- production and still more from some ~gj K Bowers, 'Cost-Benefit Analysis of Wetland Drainage', reversal. The consumer and taxpayer might Enuiromnent and Plmming, 'A', I5, 1983, pp 227-35. benefit from such a policy as well. :i Annual List and Brief Review of Articles on Agrarian History, 1983 * By RAINE MORGAN HERE was a disproportionately large number view, and argues that 'slow growth of human of important articles in I983 on the role of population before the eighteenth century was due T food in history. This arose out of the pub- mainly to lack of food, and the increase from that lication of papers given by the historians, time resulted largely from improved nutrition'. demographers, economists, food scientists and Central to his argument is the belief that poor food nutritionists attending the Bellagio conference the intake lowered resistance to disease, and that until previous year. Many had used evidence on the effects better hygiene of modern times, increases in density of hunger on fertility and mortality in present-day of populations encouraged infections, keeping poor societies to supplement historical data and mortality at a high level. European death rates are Scrimshaw (2o6) evaluates this approach. Among studied by Kunitz (I38) who offers a variety of those contributors critical of Malthusian theory explanations for their decline from the seventeenth Boserup (28) underscores the positive effects of century. Anaong the most significant, after the population growth and food shortages, arguing that waning of epidemics, was the alteration of diseases high and increasing densities allow heavy investment into relatively benign childhood forms where nu- in the infrastructure necessary for technological tritional status and level of child care were all- change and greater agricultural output. Simon (2r I) important for survival. Wrigley and Schofield's also focuses on thc benefits of dense settlement for recent seminal work -- England's Population History development, maintaining that an increased demand 1541-1871 -- offers a fresh interpretation of past for food leads to more plentiful supplies in the long events, and a number of articles by these authors term. Several other contributors questioncd the (203, 244 , 245 ) summarize their impressive investi- Malthusian assumption that malnutrition kept pre- gative efforts based on family reconstitution. Their industrial populations within the bounds of their most exciting proposal is that the astonishing resources through positive checks. Watkins and Van growth of England's population was due not to de Walle (233) for example argue that nutrition and changing mortality but to changes in nuptiality, mortality are linked but only where there is a chronic specifically earlier and more universal marriage, food shortage. In England crises of subsistence were linked to improvements in the real wage. This is too localized and infrequent to have a large impact already proving controversial and Olney (I72) for and high death rates were morc commonly the result example questions the postulated fifty-year lag be- of infections unrelated to the food supply. Even tween changes in fertility and living standards. An subsistence crises wcre not necessarily caused by underlying cause of disagreement may be the nature food shortages per se according to Tilly (222). The of a major data source- the Phelps Brown and rise of national markets, the ripple cffcct of high Hopkins cost of living index -- and Thirsk (22I) prices on employment or wars all affcctcd access to offers a salutary reminder to historians of its funda- food, leading to serious deprivation and conflict. Her mental weaknesses. Chief among them is the study of food protest in England and France suggests omission of fruit, vegetables, dairy produce and that crises were less about the dearth of grain than its pork for long periods. Flaws in the index are also inequitable allocation. Franklin's study (85) of highlighted by Shammas (2o7) who investigates the medieval Gloucestcrshire connects high death rates impact of new commodities and the evidence of not with harvcst failurc but with climatic changes wage assessments to gain a clearer understanding of which allowed the malarial mosquito to flourish. diet and expenditure patterns. Findings suggest that Carmichael and Livi-Bacci (4I,I46) also deny that the proportion of income devoted to food purchase infection was mainly duc to malnourishrnent and cite in early modern England was closer to 5o than the 8o killer epidemics that were independent of harvest per cent assumed by Phelps Brown and Hopkins, failures. McKeown (I49) however takes a contrary and that substitution and adjustments could counter- act hardship. By using retail instead of wholesale * Publications are dated x983 unless otherwise noted. References to prices Rappaport (I88) further suggests that the cost articles or off-prints should be sent to the Bibliographical Unit, of living index may overstate the fall in real income Institute of Agricultural History, University of P,eading. during the sixteenth century by some 4o per cent. An 77 78 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW alternative to the cost of living index for measuring where cereal growing was hazardous and at a time nutrition is data on height and Floud and Fogel et al when climatic change and population growth in- i!:i (83, 84) report on a major collaborative project to creased the risks of dearth. Until recently it has been ii test the value of this source in historical studies. assumed that the introduction of the hardy spelt Located in military records, censuses and household wheat in the first millennium BC was confined to the surveys, the information is not only abundant (after south of England, in association with pressure of I7oo) but also offers good geographical and occu- numbers and migration onto marginal soils. But Van !: pational coverage. A number of articles examine der Veen and Haselgrove (230) describe a sample how workers fared during modern times. Oddy from County Durham which suggests that spelt was (I68) proposes a new conceptual framework for the .probably not only present but also of considerable study of famines which differentiates between importance in the north. Coles and Orme (48, r74, psycho-social famine, nutritional famine and actual I75) bring us up to date with work on the ancient starvation. In a test case study of the ~86os sub- wooden trackways on the Somerset Levels and the sistence crisis in Lancashire he shows the impact of fascinating glimpses they provide of woodworking reduced incomes on consumption and health pat- techniques and life generally 6,ooo years ago. terns. Cage (38) also highlights the serious deterior- A number of data sources for the medieval period ation in income and conditions of Glasgow workers are described. The lay subsidy rolls contain the most in the first half of the nineteenth century. Two comprehensive evidence on wealth between r334 stu.dies reach more optimistic conclusions. The and the early sixteenth century. Despite the well analysis of height data in Floud (83) suggests a very known problems of under-assessment and local marked improvement in the nutritional status of variation Hadwin's critical survey (Ioo) confirms urban poor after rSoo, outweighing the effects of that they can still be of value in comparative studies. squalor and pollution, while Lindert and Williamson Clues to the antiquity of many boundaries can be 044) also argue that living standards rose. They use found in Ordnance Survey records and Faull (73) more traditional pay and expenditure data to show draws attention to their importance for the historian that farm workers actually gained ground on the and field archaeologist. Very little has been written higher paid during the latter half of the eighteenth on medieval Irish agriculture and J/iger (I22) de- century and from the r82os were better off than scribes a variety of primary sources which could during any earlier decade. provide the detailed information we lack. The There is a dearth of information on diet in ancient interest in field systems continues: Baker (7) reviews times but Greig, Knights et al and Osborne's studies recent contributions to the debate over origins and (97, 98, I37, r77) of sewers, cesspits and latrines calls for a closer co-operation among scholars in promise to remedy this deficiency. On the pre- order to synthesize ideas. Close examination of open historic period generally Pryor (r 87) offers a critical fields in Yorkshire by Harvey (IO9, 1 Io) has revealed survey of the major theories proposed by anthro- a remarkable regularity in layout and tenurial units. pologists and archaeologists to explain the origins of These support deliberate re-organization and the agriculture. A guide to the remarkable growth in author speculates about a ninth- or early te1~.th- research on the Mesolithic is provided in Price's century origin when strong or unified lordship, lengthy bibliography (r85) and review of recent population growth and a new landholding structure work. The general trend of thinking supports a rapid may have promoted the massive replanning of the intensification of subsistence patterns and settlement landscape. Also in the north-east, Unwin (229) within the context of seasonal foraging activity. compares an extensive system of fields of probable Modern farming has destroyed much archaeological Roman date with medieval township boundaries but evidence but Bell 08) demonstrates that valley finds no evidence of the continuity of occupation sediments can reveal valuable data on climatic and stressed in some recent findings. Work on Irish fields land use changes that would otherwise be unobtain- is also progressing and Currie (56) provides a able. The sophistication of early societies is becom- regional study with a classification of the various ing increasingly apparent. Fleming (79) scrutinizes field types. It has been thought that strip size in open the extensive network of boundaries on Dartmoor fields was linked to the quality of land or the statute and links them with complex territorial structures acre. A detailed analysis of Sussex data by Nash and agriculture. Their positioning suggests that the (I63), however, suggests that these are unlikely boundaries, or reaves, originated in a major re- explanations and that local customary acres may organization of land which followed a single political have had a strong influence. The low state of English decision in the second millennium BC. A study of agriculture during the thirteenth and fourteenth centralized food storage facilities in Britain by Gent centuries has become axiomatic. But in an important (9o) also casts new light on the nature of prehistoric article Campbell (39) shows that land pressures and economies. He argues that they evolved in areas poor stocking rates did not necessarily imply pro- !,' • ] [ ANNUAL LIST AND BRIEF REVIEW OF ARTICLES ON AGRARIAN HISTORY 79 ductivity failures. On the contrary, in eastern Nor- incomes in England and Wales, this source has been folk and some localities outside, high corn yields hardly used by historians, and yet could provide comparable with the late eighteenth century were valuable data on agrarian output. It has been a usual achieved by reduction of fallow, heavy manuring practice for students researching into the British and the intensive cultivation of nitrogen fixing economy to rely on Deane and Cole's estimates of crops. A very different picture emerges from production. However, recent investigations by Crafts Farmer's account (70) of Westminster Abbey (53) have highlighted the need for revisions, and new Manors. Here grain harvests remained wretchedly estimates give prominence to the period before I76o low despite increased stocking, abandonment of as one of significant achievement in agriculture, marginal lands and the growing of legumes. Using a while years thereafter have a slower growth than theoretical approach Silver (2IO) proposes a general generally believed. Lindert (I43) combines earlier equilibrium model to explain the decline in grain revisions of the social tables of Gregory King with yields on Winchester manors before the Black comparable estimates of income structure up to I913 Death. It is argued that the rise in wool-export taxes to give an over-view of growth and inequality rather than over-population caused a switch into trends. Findings again emphasize the importance of more intensive cereal cultivation leading to reduced the century before I78O for agricultural production. output per unit of land. In a separate article Similarly, in another important article, Wordie (243) Campbell (4o) again focuses on the problem of yields rewrites the chronology of English enclosure his- and demonstrates a new method of measuring tory, arguing that the seventeenth century rather output. By analysing data from a variety of estates than the eighteenth was pre-eminent in terms of on different soils he shows that productivity varied acreage, and he calculates that the productivity gains according to farming regions rather than the size or to agriculture were substantial. The stimulus of ownership of estates. Current investigations are enclosure to production and wealth is also high- shedding light upon the obscure origin of English lighted in Johnstone's analysis (I24) of probate sheep breeds. Bischoff (22) has uncovered evidence records from eastern Lincolnshire. However, an of two distinct fleece types in manorial records. This, econometric study by Allen (2) of data collected by in conjunction with a calculated use of rams, sug- Arthur Young in the ~76os comes to a very different gests selective breeding and the creation of the conclusion. Results argue that enclosure did not genetic predecessors of the seventeenth-century increase efficiency. Rather rent increases reflected a Longwool. Armitage's research into this breed (5) redistribution of existing agricultural income from uses osteological, iconographic and wool fibre evi- the tenant farmer to his landlord. Irish landowner- dence to reconstruct its changing appearance be- ship structures have been heavily researched: tween medieval and modern times. Contradicting O'Dowd (I69) examines inheritance customs and the usual assumption of economic rationality Mate's finds that the law of family or kin ownership was not investigation (I53) of the affairs of Canterbury always adhered to, even before the influence of Cathedral Priory indicates that the question of English colonizers encouraged primogeniture. monastic discipline influenced decisions on estate Smyth's scrutiny (213) of landholding in a single policy in a way which could reduce revenue. The Tipperary parish over two centuries portrays the traditional reliance on records of the largest estates highly cohesive kinship system as the essential t;or evidence on the development of leasehold tenure instrument which allowed the farm families, par- is avoided by Rees (x89) in her comparative study of ticularly the middle tenantry, to survive in times of a small and remote abbey property. Methodological uncertainty. Duffy too (64) stresses continuity in the controversies have surrounded the use of court rolls family farm system which survived well into the for social studies due to their idiosyncratic and nineteenth century where in-depth colonization did localized nature. To allow more meaningful inter- not take place. The Plantation has been viewed as the pretations Bennett (I9) proposes a new approach process of driving the native Irish off their lands for based on rigorous surname analysis and selective the benefit of colonists, but Sheehan (2o9) rejects this family reconstitution. The importance of local stereotype, maintaining that the English government management decisions in causing peasant discontent lacked the means to achieve it. Instead almost all the is stressed in Watts's study (234) of Titchfield Abbey undertakers lost their lands to native claimants by manors, while Stone (218) destroys tile romantic judicial proceedings or simple reoccupation. The idea of the ancient village as conflict-free and peace- process of Irish village development is also dis- loving: our ancestors were even more prone to casual cussed. Robinson (I95) argues that the urban net- violence in the past than at the present time. work in Ulster was influenced more by pre- For the early modern period Robinson (I96) Plantation precedent and the physical and economic describes the Valor Ecclesiasticus. Compiled in the environment than by any deliberate planning by the sixteenth century to provide information on benefice Commissioners, and Wheelan (235) describes how 8O THE AGRICULTURALHISTORY REVIEW new villages developed around the reinvigorated framework knitting taking root in certain Leicester- parish and chapel networks following the religious shire villages, drawing comparisons with evidence upheavals. The study of English village plans is for Nottinghamshire. He rules out environment and considered by Roberts (I9I) who offers a classifi- enclosure history but believes landownership pat- cation system, and Taylor (219) illustrates the effect terns and social structure may have been crucial. that grants of markets had on morphology. The Gulvin (99) notes that little has been written on manoeuvrings of Government, its agents and the framework knitting in Scotland and draws together local community over the issue of fenland drainage fragmentary data for the century after I65O. are explored by Kennedy (I 33,134) who shows how Many fewer notable articles were published on the Charles I aroused hatred and distrust by his un- modern compared with earlier periods. The Sun Fire scrupulous use of power, whereas Elizabeth and Insurance policy registers have been known about James had been remarkably fair-minded. A massive for some time but they are now being made more plough used to drain a Yorkshire clayland parish in accessible by the use of computer storage systems. the seventeenth century is described by Newman One of the potential uses of this data is to throw (I64). Twelve feet in length and requiring twenty- fresh light upon the agricultural processing trades eight oxen to draw it, the machine provides an and their fixed capital, although Schwarz and Jones extraordinary example of township co-operation in (2o4) alert future researchers to some inherent weak- the construction, use and maintenance of equipment. nesses. Three other primary sources are brought to A.number of articles return to the question of our notice. Kain and Holt 03o) map the data on information flows and technological change. crops and their yields from the Cheshire tithe files; Macdonald (I48) asks what was the role of the real the I854 statistics for north-east Scotland are user -- the agricultural labourer -- and argues it was analysed by Dodd (6I), and the accuracy of the a vital one. Not only did he adapt new ideas but he agricultural census from I866 is assessed by Clarke et transferred innovations from one area to another and al (45). On Ireland, Kennedy (I32) offers a critical sometimes even initiated change. Goddard (95) tries appraisal of writings adopting an econometric to estimate how influential were agricultural news- approach and stresses their outstanding contribution papers in hastening progress in farming. Although to our understanding of agricultural and population the majority of agriculturists never read an agricul- history. A rigorous statistical analysis of the I84I tural newspaper, one half of substantial tenants did census data is employed by Almquist (3) to recon- and the author concludes that the press provided an struct regional occupational profiles of the Irish important medium for the exchange of ideas. economy. Results contrast with Lee's findings for Absenteeism has been viewed unfavourably but Britain. Also on Ireland, Cuddy and Curtin (55) Beckett (I2) shows that it did not always lead to establish that by the end of the nineteenth century neglect and deterioration of estates; indeed it may farming was highly commercialized, even o11 the have encouraged efficiency through the employment smallest holdings in western areas, while Hazelkorn of able stewards. Marshall's lengthy article (i 5I) oll (I 1 I) looks at the writings of Marx and Engels and Cumbrian market towns is intended to put right the concludes that many of their insights were obscured 'lamentable deficiencies and tendencies in the study by 'flamboyant but inconsequential paradigm'. of urban history'. His aim is to widen the scope of Fukudome (86) too finds gross inaccuracies and study from a narrow concern with mere numbers of misinterpretation in Marx's view of English people and their economic function to a consider- mechanization. The activities of farmers is the main ation of local society, marketing and manufacturing theme in a number' of articles. Mutch (162) counters activities over time. On market development in Fletcher's claim that the late nineteenth-century Scotland Gibb and Paddison (9I) describe the in- depression was confined to the arable counties of the hibiting effect that burghal monopolies of trade had south-east. Even in Lancashire low prices and un- on village development and rural services. Scottish certainty were felt keenly by growers of vegetables, rural communities have not received the same fodder crops and corn. Fisher (77) explains why no attention as their English counterparts due to the statutory measure for enforcing the acclaimed Lin- belief that sources are lacking, but Whyte and Whyte colnshire custom of tenant right was achieved in the (236) identify a quantity of archival material that mid nineteenth century, despite an active campaign. could be exploited. Proto-industrialization has been Apart from the defence of landlord privilege there much debated in recent years and Coleman (47) were real practical difficulties in assessing residual explains why the concept has little value in an improvements in the soil and he notes that the high English context. Problems include the very gradual returns on investments in Lincolnshire made that development of rural industries here, their differing county exceptional. Also, local custom had already origins and the contrasting character of the localities evolved and Jones (I25) describes the sophisticated concerned. Mills (I55) seeks an explanation for and flexible system used by the Glamorgan tenantry. /i i! ANNUAL LIST AND BRIEF REVIEW OF ARTICLES ON AGRARIAN HISTORY 81 The activities of an enterprising businessman in 8 BARBER, SARAH. Irish Migran't Agricultural creating a prize farm in Yorkshire in the I88OS are Labourers in Nineteenth-Century Lincolnshire. detailed by Harris (Io8). Production of liquid milk Saothar, Jnl Irish Labour Hist Soc, VIII (I982), pp and butter for urban markets was the main ex- I0"--22. pression of confidence at the time. In a separate 9 BARRETT, GILLIAN F. Ring Fort Settlement in article Harris (IO7) focuses upon a single estate in the County Louth: Sources Patterns and Land- East Riding during the inter-war period and shows scapes. J,l County Louth Atzh & Hist Soc, XX, 2 how disastrous this time was for agriculture locally. (1982), pp 77-93. Livestock is now receiving more attention and Broad lO BARTLETT,THOMAS. An End to Moral Economy: (36) gives an account of the outstandingly successful the Irish Militia Disturbances of I793. Past & government action which eventually eradicated Present, XCIX, pp 41-64. cattle plague in the eighteenth century. In contrast, II BAUMGARTEN, KARL. Das Englische und das Britain failed to cope with the outbreak of disease in Deutsche Hallenhaus. Versuch einer Deutung. the 184os and Fisher (76) cites the belief in laissez-faire Ethnologia Europaea, VIII, 2, pp I89-"202. and confusion over the nature of anima! disease i2 BEC~:ETT, J v. Absentee Landownership in the which prevented effective control measures being Later Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Cen- taken at this time. The diffusion of improved sheep turies: the Case of Cumbria. Northern Hist, breeds is traced through farm sales notices by Walton XIX, pp 87-Io7. (232) who argues that the rapid adoption rate owed 13 BECKETT, J v. The Debate over Farm Sizes in much to Robert Bakewell's peculiar marketing Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century England. techniques. On farm labourers Devine (6o) examines Ag Hist, LVII, 3, PP 308-25. Highland migration, seasonal and permanent, to the t4 BELL, JONATHAN. An Agricultural Cooperative Scottish lowlands after I76O, and Peek (I79) surveys in County Donegal, Ireland. Peasant Studies, X, the changing composition of the male workforce in 3, PP 191-2II. Warwickshire during the third quarter of the nine- I5 BELL,JONATHAN. Harrows used in Ireland. Tools teenth century. From this time allotments and & Tillage, IV, 4, PP 195-2o3. smallholdings became common and Perkins (181) I6 BELL, JONATHAN. [Review Article.] Migratory describes the circumstances that led to their pro- Labourers from Donegal. Saothar, Jnl Irish vision. It was hoped that they would halt depopu- Labour Hist Soc, IX, pp lOO--7. lation and Haresign (IO5) explains why the schemes 17 BELL, JONATHAN. The Use of Oxen on Irish of the Lincolnshire fens were a failure. Basically Farms Since the Eighteenth Century. Ulster allotments provided only a small addition to income Folklife, XXIX, pp 18-28. and labourcrs remained badly paid, ill-fed, poorly I8 BELL, MARTIN. Valley Sediments as Evidence of housed and barely educated. Not surprisingly many Prehistoric Land-Use on the South Downs. Proc laid down their hoes and left the land. Prehistoric Soc, XLIX, pp 119--5o. 19 BENNETT,JUDITH M. Spouses, Siblings and Sur- names: Reconstructing Families from Medieval i ALLEN, J P. The Origins of Poultry. 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The Progress of disc Hist, XIV, pp 153-6o. Irish Ethnology, 1783-1982. Ulster Folklife, I83 PRICE, T DOUGLAS. The European Mesolithic. XXIX, pp 3-17. American Antiquity, XLVIII, 4, pp 761-78. 168 ODDY, D J. Urban Famine in Nineteenth-Cen- 186 PROUDrOOT, t J. The Extension of Parish tury Britain: the Effects of the Lancashire Churches in Medieval Warwickshire. [Its Links Cotton Famine on Working-Class Diet and with Demography.] Jnl Hist Geog, IX, 3, PP Health. Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, XXXVI, I, pp 231-46. 68-86. 187 PAYOR, FREDERIC t. Causal Theories about the 169 O'DOWD, MARY. Land Inheritance in Early Origins of Agriculture. Research Econ Hist, VIII, Modern County Sligo. Irish Econ & Soc Hist, X, pp 93-I24. pp 3-I8. 188 RAPPAPORT,STEVE. Social Structure and Mobility I7O O'FARRELL, PATRICK. Whose Reality? The Irish in Sixteenth-Century London: Part I. London Famine in History and Literature. Hist Studies, Jnl, IX, 2, pp lO7-35. • Australia, XX, 78 (1982), pp I-I3. 189 REES, UNA. The Leases of Haughmond Abbey, 171 OKIN, SUSAN MULLER. Patriarchy and Married Shropshire. Midland Hist, VIII, pp 14-28. Women's Property in England: Questions on 19o RELATIONSHIPof Nutrition, Disease and Social Some Current Views. Eighteenth-Century Conditions: a Graphic Presentation. Jnl Interdisc Studies, XVII, z, pp 121-38. Hist, XIV, 2, pp 5o3-6. I72 OLNEY, MARTHAL. Fertility and the Standard of 19I ROBERTS, BRIAN K. The Anatomy of the Village: Living in Early Modern England: in Consider- Observation and Extrapolation. Landscape Hist, ation of Wrigley and Schofield. Jnl Econ Hist, IV (I982), pp II-20. XLIII, I, pp 7I-7. I92 ROBERTS, MEREDYDD. Twenty-Five Years of I73 O'NEILL,J w. A Look at Captain Rock: Agrarian Development at Pwllpeirian Experimental Hus- Rebellion in Ireland I813-I843. Eire Ireland, bandry Farm. Jnl Ag Soc, University College qf XVI1, 3 (I982), pp 17-34. Wales, LXIII, pp Iio-3I. 174 ORME, B Jet al. Meare Village East I982. [Iron I93 ROBINSON, D M. New Light on the Romano- Age and ? Roman Levels.] Somerset Levels Britisll Settlement Geography of South-East Papers, IX, pp 49--74. Wales. Cambria, IX, I (I982), pp 1-26. I75 ORME, B J and COLES, J M. Prehistoric Wood- 194 ROBINSON, D M. The Villages of 'MeTric working from the Somerset Levels. I. Timber. England': Myth or Reality? Swansea Geog, XIX Somerset Levels Pa!:ers, IX, pp I9-43. (I98I-Z), pp 2-9. 176 ORR, WILLIE. The Economic Impact of Deer I95 ROBINSON, PHILIP. Urbanisation in North-West Forests in the Scottish Highlands, 185o-1914 . Ulster, 16o9-I67O. Irish Geog, XV (I982), pp Scot Econ & Social Hist, II (I982), pp 44-59. 33-5o. 177 OSBORNE, P J. An Insect Fauna from a Modern I96 ROBINSON,W a B. The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 Cesspit and its Comparison with Probable as Evidence of Agrarian Output: Tithe Data for Cesspit Assemblages from Archaeological Sites. the Deanery of Abergavenny. Bull lnst Hist Res, Jnl Arch Science, X, 5, PP 453-63. LVI, I33, pp I6--33. 178 PARTON, A G and MATTHEWS, M H. The Returns I97 ROMANrLLI, RAWAELE. Ritorno a Speenhamland. of Poor Law Out-Relief-- a Source for the Discutende la Legge Inglese sui Poveri Local Historian. Local Hist, XVI, I, pp z5-3 I. (I795-I834). IDiscussion on the English Poor 179 PEEK, ROSEMARY. Farm Labour in Mid-Nine- Laws, with English summary.] Quaderni Storici, teenth-Century Warwickshire. Local Pop XVIlI, 53, pp 625-78. Studies, XXXI, pp 42-3 I. I98 aOTBERG, ROBERT I. Nutrition and History. Jnl 18o PELTO, GRETEL H and PELTO, PERTTI J. Diet and lmerdisc Hist, XIV, 2, pp 199--2o4. Delocalization: Dietary Change Since 175o. J~ll I99 ROYLE, NICOLAJ. Polymorphism in Rare Breeds lnterdisc Hist, XIV, 2, pp 307-28. of Cattle. Ark, X, I2, pp 429--3o. 181 PERKINS, J a. Allotments in I9th-Century Lin- 200 ROYLE, STEPHENA. The Economy and Society of colnshire. Lines Hist & Arch, XVIII, pp 21-5. the Aran Islands, County Galway in the Early 182 PHmns, JOHN. An Approach to the Method- Nineteenth Century. Irish Geog, XVI, pp 36--54. ology of Recording Historic Landscapes. Garde~ 2oi RYDER, M t. The History of Sheep in Britain: Hist, XI, z, pp 167-73. Wool Remains Throw Light on Past Fleece S ~ ANNUAL LIST AND BRIEF REVIEW OF ARTICLES ON AGRARIAN HISTORY 87 Changes. Popular Arch, IV, I, pp I6-I9. and Historians. Canadian Jnl Hist, XVIII, 3, PP 202 SAVILLE, R V. Gentry Wealth on the Weald in the 379-98. Eighteenth Century: the Fullers of Brightling 218 STONE, LAWRENCE. Interpersonal Violence in Park. Sussex Arch Collns, CXXI, pp I29-47. English Society I30o-I98o. Past & Present, CI, 203 SCHOHELD, ROGER. The Impact of Scarcity and pp 22-23. Plenty on Population Change in England, 219 TAYLOR, C C. Medieval Market Grants and I54I-I87I.Jnl Interdisc Hist, XIV, 2, pp 265-9I. Village Morphology. Landscape Hist, IV (I982), 204 SCHWARZ, L D and JONES, L J. Wealth, Occu- pp 2I-8. pations, and Insurance in the Late Eighteenth 220 TAYLOR, CARL E. Synergy Among Mass Infec- Century: the Policy Registers of the Sun Fire tions, Famines and Poverty. Jnl bzterdisc Hist, Office. Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, XXXVI, 3, pp XIV, 2, pp 483-50I. 365-73. 22I THIRSK,JOAN. The Horticultural Revolution: a 205 SCRIMSHAW, NEVIN S. Functional Consequences Cautionary Note on Prices. Jnl Interdisc Hist, of Malnutrition for Human Populations: a IX, 2, pp 299--302. Comment.Jnl bzterdiscHist, XIV, 2, pp 4o9--I I. 222 TILLY, LOUISE A. Food Entitlement, Famine and 206 SCRIMSHAW,NEVIN S. The Value of Contempor- Conflict. Jnl hzterdisc Hist, XIV, 2, pp 333-49. ary Food and Nutrition Studies for Historians. 223 TOLLEY, B n. M J R Dunstan and the First Jnl Interdisc Hist, XIV, 2, pp 529-34. Department of Agriculture at University 207 SHAMMAS, CAROLE. Food Expenditures and College, Nottingham, I89o-I9oo. Tram- Economic Well-Being in Early Modern Thoroto, Society Nottinghamshire, LXXXVII, pp England..1111 Econ Hist, XLIII, I, pp 89-IOO. 7o-8. 208 SHEAIL,JOHN. Wild Plants and the Perception of 224 TOPPING, P. The Prehistoric Field Systems of Land Use Change in Britain: an Historical College Valley, North Northumberland. Nor- Perspective. Biolqqical Conservation, XXIV, 2 thern Arch, II, I (I98I), pp I4-33. (I982), pp I29-46. 225 TOUBERT, PERRE. Aux Origines de l'Openfield 209 SHEEHAN, ANTHONY J. Official Rcaction to Auglais. APropos d't~tudes R6centes. Revue Native Land Claims in the Plantation of Historique, CVI, 267 0982), pp II3-23. Munster. Irish Hist Studies, XXIII, 92, pp 226 TURNER, W H K. Flax Weaving in Scotland in the 297-318. Early I9th Century. Scot Geog Mag, XCIX, I, 2Io SILVER, MORRIS. A Non-Nco Mahhusian Modcl pp I6-3o. of English Land Values, Wages and Grain 227 TYLDESLEY, JOYCE A and BAHN, PAUL G. Use of Yields Before the Black l)eath. Jnl European Plants in the European Palaeolithic: a Review of Econ Hist, XII, 3, Pp 63 I-5O. the Evidence. Quaternary Science Rev, 2, pp 211 SIMON, JULIAN L. The Effects of Population on 53-8I. Nutrition and Economic Well-Being. Jnl Inter- 228 TYSON, DLAKE. The Perch Measure of St Bees disc Hist, XIV, 2, pp 413-37. Parish. Trans Cumberland and Westmorland Antiq 212 SMITH, RICHARD M. Hypotheses sur la & Arch Soc, LXXXIII, pp I75-7. Nuptialit6 en Angleterre aux XIIF -- XIV ~ 229 UNWIN, TIM. Townships and Early Fields in Si~cles. AmMes: Economies Soci~t& Civiliz- North Nottinghamshire. Jnl Hist Geog, IX, 4, atio,s, XXXVIII, I, pp io7-36. pp 3 I4-46. 213 SMYTH, WILLIAM J. Landholding Changes, 230 VAN DER VEEN, M and HASELGROVE, C C. Evidence Kinship Networks and Class Transformation in for Pre-Roman Crops from Coxhoe, Co Rural Ireland: a Case Study from County l)urham. Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th ser, XI, pp Tipperary. Irish Geog, XVI, pp I6--35. 23- 5 . 2I 4 SMYTHE, 1t P. Two Hundred Years A-Growing: 231 VARLEY,ANTHONY. 'The Stem Family in Ireland' the Story of Mackey's Seeds Limited, reconsidered. Comparative Studies Soc & Hist, I777-1977. Dublin Hist Rev, XXXV, 3 (I982), XXV, 2, pp 38I--92. pp IOo-I 5. 232 WALTON, JOHN R. The Diffusion of Improved 215 SOKAL, a a and MENOZZI, P. Spatial Autocor- Sheep Breeds in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth- relations of HLA Frequencies in Europe Sup- Century Oxfordshire. Jnl Hist Geog, IX, 2, pp port Demic Diffusion of Early Farmers. Ameri- I75-95. can Naturalist, CIX, I (I982), pp :-r7. 233 WATKINS, SUSAN COTTS and VAN DE WALLE, I_ 216 SPETH, JOHN D and SPIELMANN, K A. Energy ETIENNE. Nutrition, Mortality and Population Source, Protein Metabolism ar,'d Hunter- Size: Malthus' Court of Last Resort. Jnl Interdisc Gatherer Subsistencc Strategies. Jnl Anthropol Hist, XIV, 2, pp 205-26. Arch, II, pp I-3I. 234 WATTS, D G. Peasant Discontent on the Manors 217 SPRING, EILEEN. The Family, Strict Settlement of Titchfield Abbey, I245-I4o5. Proc Hants Field ~I ¸ ! II'~l!'; !'iii iii 88 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW i~?, , Club & Arch Soc, XXXIX, pp I21-35. 145-63. {?i 235 WHELAN, KEVIN. The Catholic Parish, the 24I WOODS, ROBERT L JR. Individuals in the Rioting i, Catholic Chapel and Village Development in Crowd: a New Approach. Jnl Interdisc Hist, Ireland. Irish Geog, XVI, pp I-25. X1V, I, pp 1-24. !, 236 WHITE,J. A History of Irish Vegetation Studies. z4z WOODWARD, C H. The Disposal of Chantry Jnl Life Sciences, III, I (I982), pp 15-42. Lands in Somerset. Southern Hist, V, pp 95-I 24. il 237 WHITE, STEPHEN D and VANN, RICHARD T. The 243 WORDIE, J R. The Chronology of English Enclo- Invention of English Individualism: Alan sure, 15oo-1914. Econ Hist Rev, 2nd ser, Macfarlane and the Modernization of Pre- XXXVI, 4, PP 483-5o5. Modern England. Social Hist, VIII, 3, 244 WRIGLEY, E A. The Growth of Population in pp 345-63. Eighteenth-Century England: a Conundrum 238 WHYTE, IAN D and WHYTE, KATHLEEN A. Scottish Resolved. Past & Prese,t, XCVIII, pp I2I-5O. Rural Communities in the Seventeenth Cen- 245 WRIGLEY, E A and SCHOFmLD, a S. English tury. Local Hist, XV, 8, pp 456--63. Population History from Family Reconsti- 239 WILKINSON, ALAN. Interpreting Aerial Photo- tution: Summary Results I6oo-I799. Pop graphs of Farmland and Village. Local Hist, XV, Studies, XXXVII, 2, pp I57-84. 7, PP 4o2-5 • 246 YESNER, DAVID R and TESTART, ALAIN. O1] Food 240 WILSON, C J C. Purveyance for the Royal Housc~ Storage among Hunter-Gatherers. Curre~lt hold, I362-I413 . Bull Inst Hist Res, LVI, I34, pp Anthropol, XXIV, pp Ii9--2o. Book Reviews i| i ii JOSEPH NEEDHAM, Science and Civilisation in China, vol 6, Biology and Biological Technology, part II, Agriculture, by FRANCESCA B~AV. CUP, z984. \¥1 P~ I xxvii + 724 pp. I3 tables. 27I illustrations. £5o. The dust-jacket of this book reminds us that many superlatives have been used of the previous volumes of Science and Civilisation in China, and the first thing to say is that Agriculture, written by a much younger author but still within Joseph Need- ham's personal and intellectual field, is a work worthy of its predecessors meriting many of the same superlatives. This is the first of a number of volumes which will deal with technology rather than science, and it sets high standards of scholarship, 1 judgment and presentation. It is also the first Western attempt to present a technical history of Chinese farming throughout the traditional cen- turies. It reminds us that the greatest topics in agricultural history are those about which least is written -- the growth, rationale and development of the great agricultural societies of Asia. Asian agricul- ture, still fundamentally traditional in form, con- tinues to maintain approaching one-half of the whole human family; and it has probably always done :.7 roughly that. China is only part of this experience, although in recent centuries the largest single part; in earlier centuries it appears likely that India took primacy. The materials for the history of Chinese agricul- ture are surprisingly good. Traditional farming systems gave rise to a series of farm manuals which FIGURE IO 4 no doubt represent superior practice but which give The capnon says this drill is used for sowing wheat, many indications of closeness to real farming ex- perience. These works depend much upon quo- barley, or setaria millet. TKKW Uzsb. tation, century after century, in the Chinese way; and there has also been considerable Japanese study and also in the Chinese way, many devote major in this and related fields; but it has been unfamiliar in sections to questions of administration rather than the West until the present time. These traditional cultivation; but the best are works of great dis- books represent the foundation of the present tinction. None, unfortunately, is yet translated into author's materials, and they display, as she says, a English in full, though Ch'i Min Yao Shu (Essential unique degree of continuity. As well as general farm techtliquesJbr the peasantry), the most important of all, manuals like Ch'i Min Yao Shu, they include a long written around 535 AD, has been the subject of a tradition of farm calendars (related more closely, brief analytical summary in English, with extensive surely, to the predictability of the east Asian seasons, quotations, by Shih Sheng-han; and Ms Bray herself than to the 'harsh and unpredictable climate'), and a promises us a full translation. Books of this kind give wide range of supplementary written materials. In advice not only on cultivation and land management addition Ms Bray has cast her net widely beyond the but also on orchard trees, silkworm management, standard written sources -- into archaeology, poultry, animals and fish, manufacture of food modern agronomy, Western travellers and writers, products such as soy sauce, storage and marketing of and so forth. The main body of the book reviews the farm outputs, and (in Ch'i Min Yao Shu) even main farm operations and techniques (field systems, cookery and preserving. The tradition of these books tillage implements, sowing, fertilization, weeding, is quite well known and well documented among harvesting and storage), and the main crops. In these Chinese scholars both before Liberation and since, chapters, Ms Bray is scholarly, dispassionate and with reprints, contemporary annotated editions, a sensible. She knows her sources and deploys them few translations into modern Chinese, and so forth; masterfully. The longest and most detailed chapter, 89 ,L , Iiii:i 9 0 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW on implements, is particularly well-informed and Yii-kung text, but strange to see these compared to perceptive; and she returns later to the same theme, I! i! ~ those suggested by Buck, or indeed to see two such in the form of the possible Chinese origins of the disparate partners jammed into one intellectual bed. European seed-drill. It is when handling objects, Society as well as nature is taken rather more for whether ploughs, 'transplanting horses', archae- granted than might have been expected in so intelli- ological finds, or the written sources themselves, gent and sensitive a book. The view of the Chinese that Ms Bray writes at her best. Even so, when she countryside outlined here is formal rather than il ~ has a path of judgment to tread among conflicting functional -- for instance, going back to land, Ms opinions based on limited or feeble evidences, in Bray's discussion of paddy land relates mainly to fields far removed from implements and documents physical form, and hardly at all to functional such as the origins and spread of maize or the origins organization; and similarly her discussion of rice of wet-rice terracing, she does so purposefully, cultivation remains close to technical materials and judiciously and securely. The author's scholarship is does not really attempt to develop various useful fortified by valuable features common to the whole insights about labour, yields and cropping systems. series -- painstaking referencing, elaborate biblio- Here however there is a prior preoccupation- graphical apparatus (in Chinese and Japanese as well relations between farm progress in China and farm as m European languages), spacious treatment, progress in Europe. When the author returns to the generous illustrative material, and welcome identi- functioning of paddy systems, discussion is still brief fication of Chinese words and names by characters in and over-general. foofnotes. The idiosyncratic and now sadly outdated A tendency to neglect functional realities has romanization system, once adopted for the series, is general as well as specific implications. Most no doubt here to stay. Chinese rural landscapes are extremely full of people As the author points out in her Introduction, 'This -- indeed, this is their most remarkable charac- volume differs from its predecessors in that agricul- teristic, and one which they share with those ofJava, ture is not a science but a technology.' 'Agriculture is Vietnam and many parts of India, and even Japan. par excellence the technical system that mediates The tremendous population growth which underlies between nature and society.' In fact this book is this crowding began in China towards the end ofthc addressed to agriculture itself, and relates only rather period represented by this book if that is taken to indifferently to either nature or society. It is in- terminate around I6oo; but it was based upon the troduced by a rather perfunctory review of Chinese organized countrysides of the Ming dynasty, rep- farm regions based on the work of John Lossing resented by books such as Nung Chet~ Ch'iiaH Shu Buck in the I93OS. The author points out that of which the author gives so lucid and enthusiastic an twentieth-century data probably relate only im- account. These are the mature landscapcs of her perfectly to conditions before I6oo AD (her notional history. Although the expansion of the Chincsc cut-off point) or even before r Soo; but does not population towards its modern total is a subjcct attempt the construction of an alternative scheme of primarily for the eightccnth century (it was in full Chinese regions. I-. fact Buck's work is itself flood in 18oo), and the expansions in India and Java vulnerable to criticism as a data-gathering cxccrcisc for the ninetcenth, nevertheless there is a case for based heavily upon over-confidence in cropping taking the maintenance of very large and dcnsely zones as the key to rural realities among American settled populations more seriously in thc ccnturics geographers of that period. One of its weaknesscs which preceded the modern expansion. This is was failure to recognize any course of change within particularly so when the modern expansion took these formulations, or to make allowance for de- place with the help of technical processes which are velopment over time. Ms Bray herself instances discussed elsewhere in the book. Hcrc too agricul- respects in which Buck must not be considered an ture is discussed with less rcfcrcncc to its social authority for the historic past, but nevertheless rclationships than might have bccn hoped for. One appears willing to accept him in that guise. In fact, difficulty, of course, is the idea ofa cut-offpcriod in dependence upon Buck has tended to over-formalize time in itself. Agricuhure in China up to thc present and under-represent very real historic distinctions in and for the foreseeable futurc is and is likely to Chinese landscapes about which Ms Bray is perfectly remain traditional in all essentials, and particularly in well informed, such as those between a dryficld its social relationships; in these conditions, no date in north and a paddy south, between mountain and time can represent a convincing terminus. plain, and between the old-settled north China plain FRANK LEEMING and the north-east which remained detached socially from China until late in the nineteenth century. It is good to see the author introduce the nine regions of north and central China proposed in the ancient BOOK REVIEWS 9I MARGARET GELLING, Place Names in the Landscape. MICHAEL HAVINDEN, The Somerset Landscape. Hodder Dent, I984. 326 pp. £I5. and Stoughton, 1981. 272pp. £7.95. The study of English place-names has taken a This book is a delightful introduction to the new direction during the last two decades. Dr county of Somerset. It is written by an economic Gelling's earlier book, Signposts to the Past (1978) was historian who knows much about agrarian history, acclaimed by historians and place-name scholars agrarian societies and about the business of farming alike. This new volume will convince historians that itself; it is therefore saved from the platitudes of the linguistic analysis of settlement names can be landscape 'histories' in which economic and social integrated with other approaches to the study of contexts are relegated to the status of an appendix of early history in a fruitful manner. As Margaret inappropriate or poorly understood models. Mr Gelling says, for example, among the words for Havinden's passages on post-medieval enclosure, for habitations aern, b~thl (and variants b~tl, bold) and example, form the most perceptive account yet stSw may be instanced as terms used only in the written of reduction of open fields and wastes in a naming of places which were, or later became, of county which experienced a wide and complex range some administrative importance. 'It follows that of enclosure processes, contributing in part to the Much and Little Cowarne in Herefordshire are not diversity of its landscapes today. Again, behind his named from an ordinary cowshed, and that Colerne adventurous yet deft handling of Domesday statistics (a large parish and ten-hide Domesday estate in lies the common sense of an agriculturalist; his brief Wiltshire) should be seen as more than a shed in calculations lead him to the conclusion that, high which charcoal was stored' -- sentiments that moorlands and low 'moors' apart, Somerset was agricultural historians will applaud. already relatively densely peopled at the time of the Earlier place-name studies were dominated by the Conquest. And throughout there are many little search for exceptional names; topographical names insights and observations -- on the houses of native aroused little interest. Dr Gelling makes it clear that gentry and newcomers, for example -- which show topographical settlement names (as distinct from that the eye of a professional historian has been minor- and field-names) outnumber other types of turned on the Somerset landscape. The book also names recorded by AD 73o. Moreover, they pre- differs from some other volumes in the same series in dominate in areas shown by archaeologists to have that Mr Havinden decided to devote half of it to had the earliest Anglo-Saxon settlers, and they surveys of the several regions into which he chose to predominate as names of parishes. Collectively, their divide the shire. This was a wise decision, for the historical importance is undoubted. pattern made by Somerset's farming regions is a Readers of the Review will also welcome the good deal more complex than that of many an statement that names in all instances must be con- English county. The decision has allowed him to sidered in relation to the landscape. 'The general escape, to a degree, from the slavery of conventional picture which emerges is of a people in possession of chronological divisions which contort interpre- a vast and subtle topographical vocabulary.' This is tations in most books on landscape history: the illustrated vividly by her suggestion that waesse Anglo-Saxons relentlessly advancing; early medieval signifies 'land by a meandering river which floods settlement everywhere expanding; later medieval and drains quickly', an idea inspired by noting that a landscapes predictably contracting; the sixteenth broad lake near Buildwas had evaporated overnight, century beautifully blossoming; and the nineteenth thus enabling cattle to graze the following day on the ubiquitously despoiling. For each of his regions Mr recently flooded meadows. Havinden describes what was unusual or distinctive l)r Gelling does not analyse the results of her in its evolution after about I5OO. For each he investigation. Her aim is the more modest one of provides a series of thumb-nail sketches of principal stimulating others to undertake field work. The towns; taken together, these make an excellent guide book consists of a short introduction and a lengthy to a collection of urban places which, as we might series of essays on topographical names arranged expect, is as diverse as the county's farming regions. alphabetically. She disarms possible criticism of The sketches are written with a freshness which some of her derivations by acknowledging the comes from recent observation in the field. The same disadvantages of a single author undertaking such a quality marks the work as a whole, as it must in a large-scale work. Topographical names usually book intended in part for the general reader. present fewer linguistic difficulties for the non- Yet if Somerset historians complain that the book specialist than most other early names. They there- is not a definitive account of the making of the fore provide opportunities for historiar:s to make a county's landscapes, particularly before I5OO, it is positive contribution towards furthering this line of only because their own researches (not least this research. Dr Gelling's book will be the essential reviewer's) have been so painfully slow. They starting point. DAVID HEY simply have not completed the background work 92 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW with sufficient thoroughness. The county offers decline, I32o--I46o', implying a downward spiral, is ample scope for research into some of the most not the happiest of headings for a sub-section on intriguing problems of English agrarian history, of Somerset in the later Middle Ages, as the author which three may be mentioned here. Unlike parts of knows well when he concludes it by describing the eastern, north-eastern and midland England, much lnfty Perpendicular of Yeovil church, pointing up- of what was later to become the county of Somerset wards as evidence for a rather different state of enjoyed almost a quarter of a millennium during affairs. which internal development of a Romanized society H S A FOX proceeded unchecked by 'the nations of the men of strange speech'. Like other eminent writers on west-country landscapes, Mr Havinden lays a dead R N DOSE (ed), The Letter Books of Sir William hand on this period by evoking plague and emi- Brereton. Record Society of Lancashire & gration to Armorica as disruptive forces. Romance Cheshire, I984. xvii + 534PP. £25 to non- aside, it may well turn out that the period con- members. tributed much of significance to the present-day The letters collected together in this substantial Somerset landscape; and if that is the case the county volume all belong to the first half of the year I645 will tell us something about rural societies which and will be valued principally by military historians elsewhere vanished leaving few traces. We shall of the English Civil War. The siege of Chester looms know only when the terms in the county's very rich large in these pages, but there is much information stor6 of Anglo-Saxon charters, which cast a back- here about tactics, troop movements, weaponry, the wards glance into the 'darkness', have been analysed relations between county regiments and between the along lines laid down by Mrs Hooke's work on the Committee of Both Kingdoms and the provinces, as west midlands; when lack of a place-name survey by well as about pay and army discipline. The text also experts, which must have infuriated Mr Havinden in provides repeated reminders of the religious co,1- his early chapters, has been rectified; and when full victions which animated the Parliamentary war and systematic use has been made of the evidence of effort. ecclesiastical topography, which is there for all of us Readers of this journal, however, will be less to employ if we are patient enough, and loving concerned with the military side of the war and more enough, to tease out its meanings. Second, parts of likely to be interested in what the letters reveal about lowland Somerset, her rich vales and her marshland its social and economic consequences. This is an area fringes, supported some of the densest populations still in need of further investigation and the pub- of all of medieval England. Mr Havinden's per- lication of any source materials dealing with it is to ceptive re-working of Domesday statistics hints that be welcomed. We get some sense here of the they may have been well peopled already at the time disruptions and privations which the war occasioned of the Conquest, thereby casting further doubts on both for combatants and civilians. Within the be- the concept of a poorly developed and late de- sieged city of Chester, we are told, 'they begin to veloping south-west. Over the following two stint the inhabitants to one meal a day... It is said hundred years, further and probably very fast fire, salt and hay are much wanting' (p I86). A later growth produced those bursting villages from which letter tells us that a quarter of veal had just sold there Postan drew some of his evidence for late for ten shillings, 'some say I3s 4d'. Outside the city, thirteenth-century crises and in which Titow calcu- however, in the rest of the county, conditions were lated a man/land ratio of one person to perhaps as becoming desperate. 'And for money they are so far little as 1.5 acres. The agricultural practices which exhausted betwixt free quartering of our own men nourished such high densities need to be explored in and plundering by the enemy, their daily taxations work akin to B M S Campbell's meticulous research and their weekly raises for these garrisons that they on another highly distinctive marsh fringed region are subject to, that they profess that, being restrained -- in north-east Norfolk -- and we need to know from selling that little cheese which is most of their more about relationships between marshland re- sustenance, they are not able to contribute any more sources, reclamation and growth of population in unless they should sell the very clothes off their these extraordinary comnmnities. Third, Somerset is backs and their wives and childrens' (p I9I). remarkable in that, according to Schofield's figures, There are many references in the text to the it was the second most wealthy English county in the provisioning of the army with meat and corn and, early sixteenth century, yet had ranked only since the theatre of operations was Cheshire, to twenty-third at the beginning of the fourteenth. supplies of cheese and salt. Plundering is mentioned Z Gross figures such as these undoubtedly conceal even on a number of occasions, a practice which Brereton more marked accumulation and concentration of deplored and desperately tried to prevent. 'Our i' wealth in some parts of the county. 'Crisis and reputation is extremely lost hereby with the corn- ): , BOOK REVIEWS 93 mon people, who for the most part judge our cause a pity that they did not go further and write, or by the demeanour of our army' (p 297). Elsewhere commission, an introductory review article sur- we hear of the requisitioning of horses, carts, even veying the current position of studies of Scottish pickaxes and spades. Sir George Booth held back culture. R H Buchanan's short paper 'Box beds and from making further appeals to the country people in bannocks. The Living Past' goes some way to April r645, conscious that their chief concern at that meeting this need but at a more general level. point was with seedtime. The volume is dedicated to T Henderson, the first The standard of editing of the four letter books curator of the new Shetland museum in Lerwick, included in this volume is high and represents a who died in I982, and one of his stories, 'The wreck considerable achievement in view of the problems of the Lastdrager', is included. There are two papers posed by the hasty copying, errors, and use of on material culture at a domestic scale -- on wooden cyphers in the originals. All the more pity, then, that tumbler locks and clay tobacco pipes -- but the so much skilful and patient editorial labour has had editors' aim of interpreting 'material culture' more its usefulness reduced by the omission of maps and, widely is shown by papers on wet-nursing and the above all, an index (presumably on grounds of pre-industrial origins of the Scottish tenement. expense). The index of names, places and (possibly) Agricultural historians will be particularly interested subjects will come in the second volume, but we arc in R C Boud's article on the development of warned that 'there is bound to be a sizeable gap agricultural improvement societies in Scotland be- between publication of the two volumcs'. tween I723 and r835. The author provides a useful R C RICHARDSON gazetteer of I33 societies. Unfortunately the num- bers of the entries in the gazetteer are not reproduced on the accompanying maps so that one is left to A FENTON, H CHEAPE and R K MARSHALL (eds), Review speculate on the location of some of the more of Scottish C,lt,re. John l)onald, Edinburgh, obscure societies. ~984. vii + Io4pp. £5. The journal looks as if it will provide a useful new To launch a new journal is always an act of faith. outlet for research on aspects of Scottish agricultural This is particularly so at a time when many libraries history, as well as other aspects of material culture, will only take a new periodical if an existing one of and the reviewer wishes the editors and the publisher equal cost is cancelled. For a price of £5 for the first every success with their venture. annual issue, Review qfScottish Culture provides good IAN D WHYTE value though, with over a hundred large-format pages and attractive illustrations. The journal is produced by John Donald pub- JOYCE YOUINGS, Sixteenth-Century England. The lishers who have, within a few years, made a major Pelican Social History of Britain, i984. 444PP. contribution to academic publishing on Scottish £2.95 (paper) and £I4.95 (cloth). topics. The editors claim that their new periodical l)uring the last two decades or so the content of fills a gap in the available publication outlets for modern economic history courses -- and textbooks work on Scottish material culture. They are prob- -- has changed substantially. Gone are the great ably right. Althot, gla existing archaeological, geo- social issues such as poor law reform, drains and graphical and historical journals provide some scope, housing, post-Napoleonic repression and Chartism, many folk-life journals have fallen on hard times education and trade unions. To compensate, social within recent years and there is no specific forum history has emerged replete with its own texts and within Scotland for the publication of research of this courses, its own jargon and journals. But for kind. teachers and students of the pre-industrial or early- The first issue demonstrates the editors' broad modern period the dichotomy has been less acute. definition of 'material cuhure' and the interdisci- Interests have shifted -- among economic historians plinary nature of work in this field with articles by the institutional approach had almost disappeared archaeologists, geographers, historians and museum but economic and social historians continue to share specialists. It is difficult to decide how a journal is many common interests. Many studies, and likely to develop on the basis of the first issue especially the growing number on local themes, defy though. The early numbers of 'Scottish Studies' an easy classification and bridge the two branches of were far more wide-ranging in their content than study. Joyce Youings's new book which appears in those of subsequent years. One hopes that Review of the Pelican Social History of Britain series is firmly Scottish Culture will maintain its broad perspective in line with this trend. Although this is in a social and will not become too narrow and specialized. history series it is rooted, quite rightly, in the study The editors provide a brief statement of intent of economic change. The argument is presented in regarding the aims and scope of their journal but it is fifteen chapters which deal with the major issues of 94 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW economic and social life: occupations and life in town history and it is as such that the success of the and country; social hierarchy and relationships; volume must be judged. The first and arguably the !!>i population change and price movements; the church, most difficult task facing the textbook writer is to ii~ i and education; crime and armed risings; poverty and decide on the structure to be adopted, and Joyce i i ~ii unemployment; social groupings and allegiances at Youings opted for a compromise combining family, county and national levels. The reading on chronological and thematic treatments. There are which Professor Youings's study is based is im- five chapters in each of three sections, each section pressively wide and the examples used to illuminate covering about a third of the century, although two generalizations are well chosen. In short, the book or three chapters are allowed to range over the whole i~I :: has much to offer, especially to those not entirely period. Unfortunately the three major sections are fresh to the subject. Throughout, Professor Youings not identified in the text and the inattentive reader is advisedly wary about the possible abuses of may slide over page 2I -- where the structure is statistics, whether they relate to migration patterns, revealed -- and remain confused. In addition the wage rates, or population growth: thus, 'it is a material under discussion refuses to remain in the sobering thought that the splendid figures now slots provided. Thus chapter one -- entitled 'Occu- available for the country's overall population each pations' -- belongs to the years 15oo to c. 153o, but year from I54I are based on the registers ofjust over some examples are drawn from later in the century. four hundred out of some ten thousand parishes in Moreover, many of the general comments in the England' (p2o). Even more sobering, perhaps, chapter are true for much, if not the whole of the although not mentioned here, is the fact that much of century, not just for the first three decades. The the explanatory framework in Wrigley and novice reader will face two further problems. First, Schofield's enormous work is based on the recon- there are various places where prior knowledge of stitution of families from a mere dozen parishes. the period is required. The causes of the 'rebellions in For agrarian historians and their students chapter 1536-7 in Lincolnshire and the north' are discussed in two on landlords and tenants in early Tudor England some detail but not the course of events, and the usefully threads its way through difficult terrain with uninitiated would find it difficult to discover what valuable glances back at previous centuries. Simi- exactly was going on in I549 (pp 2IO--216). Similarly larly, chapter seven on the land market is a judicious some readers might like to know what Daniel summary which, of course, incorporates the author's Hochstetter and Thomas Thurland were mining in own excellent work on the confiscated monastic England (p242), or what had happened in Drake's estates. Changes in agricultural techniques are dealt 'episode at Nombre de Dios' (p 245). Secondly, the with briefly at the start of chapter ten, which is need to compress arguments has led Professor entitled 'New Horizons'. Unfortunately, the dis- Youings to make comments which will confuse cussion is so compressed that in places controversial newcomers to the literature of the period. Thus a matters become hard fact. Before long I expect to discussion of the early history of the Russian Com- meet the following passage in an undergraduate pany explains the development of the joint-stock essay: principle followed by the statement that: In the great midland plain farmers were slowly but The Russian Company itself, and also the Levant surely, from the t56os, abandoning the rigid dis- Company formed in I581, was later to revert to tinction between arable and pasture land and private trading under regulation, like the older adopting the more flexible 'up-aud-dow,l' hus- Merchant Adventurers' Company. Perhaps it was bandry, 'up' for grain and 'down' for grass. This the open-field tradition, individual proprietorship must have led to radical changes, even total aban- under communal regulation, which best served donment, of time-honoured local customary Enghshmen's talents for collaboration (p 236 ). rotations, with considerable consequences for com- It will take a perceptive reader to discover munity life. Corn-yields on some farms crept up to from this the basic characteristics of the regulated as much as twice their former levels, and with the trading company. These two problems -- the better grass, though with as yet little selective breeding, the quality of stock slowly improved expectation of prior knowledge and the compression (p 2s2). of discussion -- are exacerbated by the absence of footnotes. The experienced reader can get a great How far this process had spread by 16oo we deal of pleasure from trying to 'spot' the sources, but are not told, nor, in the even briefer discussion of undergraduates need greater help than the, admit- water-meadows, is there any comment about their tedly useful, annotated guide to further reading can confined geographical location. provide. What, one would like to know, is the However, agriculture forms only a relatively small authority for the suggestion that many of the 6ooo or part of the study. Professor Youings set out to write so Kentish men who served abroad in the later a general textbook on sixteenth-century social Elizabethan army 'eventually returned home, but !,i Li! BOOK REVIEWS 95 diseased and unlikely to beget healthy children'? These Duchy surveys were part of a general (p I52). survey of Crown lands which followed the confis- Occasionally it becomes more difficult to see cations of I649. The 64 manors concerned lay mainly exactly what is meant by a particular passage; thus in Cornwall: those beyond Tamar are mapped in a we are told that as well as those most dependent on frontispiece to Part II; in the more crowded map of wage-earning: Cornwall, a frontispiece to Part I, places are num- there were others, perhaps only a minority, at all bered and identified by reference to a later Table social levels, whose income failed to keep pace with (pxxi). The boroughs are distinguished from the rising cost of living, a situation not made easier manors in the Cornish map but not in the Devon. for them to bear by the rise in the standard of The text itself is an alphabetical re-arrangement of material living which characterized the Elizabethan the original surveys collated from two surviving period' (p 3o4). series, one in the Duchy record office and one in the The average undergraduate may have diffi- Public Record Office. culty grasping this passage; similarly, he may be The editor's Introduction briefly describes the thrown by the statement that blast-furnaces were provenance of the surveys and the territories covered 'producing iron ore to supply the smiths for the together with a tabulation of the number of making of tools and utensils' (p 239). The inattentive tenements in each manor and its monetary yields. will also be misled by the statement on p I5I that 'By The reader is left to conduct his own researches into I59I overall population growth had actually the significance of these numbers and values, and slackened and was down to only about 2.5 per cent into the varied local economies revealed, which are per annum, compared, as already noted, with nearly 6 industrial as well as agrarian. The remarkably varied per cent in the I58os' [my italics]. Of course, these agricultural resources of the Isles of Scilly are are quinquennial estimates of growth as is revealed faithfully recorded alongside the remnants of the on p I48. Tile discussion of population growth, garrison from the days when they were a Fortress population densities, price changes, and the like Falklands. The editor makes no attempt to look would have benefited from graphic representation: backward to these tenements as described earlier, the book does not contain a single map, table, often in equal detail (as in Assession Rolls of I356 diagram, or graph. onwards or the great survey of I337 published by the Despite problems there is much of value in Society in I97I as vol I7, curiously omitted from Sixteenth-Century England; like most textbooks it has such references as those in note 24, p xiv). the power to annoy, but it can also stimulate. The bulk and detail of the Parliamentary Surveys However, it cannot be recommended unreservedly has presented a difficult editorial problem: the to undergraduates. One final word of warning: buy resulting text is a mixture of transcript and calendar, the paperback -- nay copy of the hardback is already the transcript being identified by single quotation dropping to pieces. marks, as is any direct quotation occurring within DONALD WOODWARD the calendar. This makes a ferocious task for printer and proof reader: since any lost quotation mark, as happens for example somewhere on p 42, makes it NORMAN J G POUNDS (ed), The Parliamentary Survey of impossible to distinguish the end of transcription and the Duch), of Cornwall, Parts I and II. l)evon and the beginning of editorial calendaring. Id., it will be Cornwall Record Society New Series, Vols 25 noticed, is employed for two purposes, misleading and 27. Ppxxiv + 272 , continuously paginated. when (as on p I4) both are employed in adjacent (I982 and I984). £8 per vol from Asst. Secy. c/o passages: (i) for a tenant's name repeated after a first Devon and Exeter Institution, Exeter. occurrence but (ii) for every place-name when its 'It is remarkable that the archive of a great modern spelling is identical with that in the agricultural estate such as the Duchy of Cornwall has document. never been very fully published.' Thus astonished is The place-name index is very full, and will assist Charles, the present duke, in his Foreword to this the elucidation of names in the older unpublished edition of the surveys of I649, I65o and I652. The surveys. There are inevitable slips in a work of this editor gratefully acknowledges the financial help of complexity: Portpigham (ie West Looe) becomes the Duke and his Council: let us hope that when the East Looe in the headnote to no 32 even though the heir apparent succeeds to his wider kingdom he will document itself three lines below reads 'alias display the same enthusiasm and generosity to Westlooe'; while on the very first page of the facilitate the publication of the estate records of tile Introduction (p ix) a reader might think that the Crown proper, to say nothing of the Duchy of confiscating Parliament of I649 was that of Mr Lancaster. He will then get a loyal huzzah at his Attlee's government, since it allegedly met in coronation from agricultural historians. 'November I946'. Neither of these slips had been 2:1!i:i 96 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW i!i:i[ noted by the time of the Corrections on an unnum- mercers, who seem to have been motivated by a i,.:,j: bered page of Part II. On p xviii the former mixture of snobbery and fear of competition. Dr Courtenay lands incorporated in the Duchy 'be Spufford admits that there was a disreputable i: :.i! almost wholly devided [sic] into small copyhold element whose actions influenced attitudes towards i~ i: tenements': Table I on the facing page below shows, the whole class but emphasizes the positive contri- !! however, that there were I56 freehold tenements as bution that the chapmen made in bringing essential against I45 copyhold. household supplies and little luxuries to large num- MAURICE BERESFORD i: bers of people. Concentrations of chapmen existed, often in centres of textile manufacture, but they demonstrably could be found in the remotest parts of MARGARET SPUFFORD, The Great Reclothing of Rural the kingdom. Villages were mostly served by England: Petty Chapmen and their Wares in the pedlars on foot but significantly some chapmen's Seventeenth Century. The Hambledon Press, I984. shops were located in settlements smaller than xiv + 258pp. 28 illustrations. £I8. market towns. Credit underpinned the system and It is only recently that historians have begun was practised throughout the entire distributive seriously to examine what Dr Spufford calls the network from the wholesaler at the top down to the domestic framework of living and this study, humble pedlar who offered easy terms to his clients. following on from Dr Thirsk's seminal work, Dr Spufford has written a well-researched book Economic Policy and Projects, extends our under- that provides many insights into the social and standing of this important but neglected subject. In economic life of early modern Britain. She handles particular, she describes the great variety of goods the disparate and fragmentary sources with skill and which the chapmen made available to the ordinary makes deft use of examples to illustrate her general consumer and the minute differences in the prices of points. Her analysis of the inventories is particularly items of varying quality. (At times, however, it is judicious and her discussion of their limitations difficult to know if wholesale or retail values are should be read by all those looking at these im- being referred to.) Cloth, especially linen, pre- portant but deceptive records. The book itself is dominated, although a range of drapery and haber- well-produced and the long appendix comprising a dashery ware was also carried. On the basis of this number of inventories (partly included, one sus- evidence Dr Spufford suggests that a revolution in pects, to make the book of viable length) provides a the standard of clothing and soft furnishings oc- useful source of reference and a valuable teaching aid curred in the post-Restoration period, extending at for comparison with other occupational groups, least as far down the social scale as the poorer although the inclusion of a glossary of terms would sections of the population who left inventories. have been helpful. There is a wealth of illustrative The term 'chapman' was given to anyone acting in material but the maps depicting the areas covered by a middleman capacity but interestingly dead ones individual chapme,a would have been improved by tended to be the people discussed in this book, the addition of sonic basic geographical detail to presumably because the others were normally (but make the seemingly eccentric circuits intelligible. not always) given an occupational label that corre- There arc also a few ntis-spellings and the anachron- sponded to their particular specialism. Dr Spufford's istic use of the place name 'Telford' jarred with this chapmen varied in wealth and status, even if their native Salopian but these are minor blcmishcs in median wealth in the years I66o-I7oo, £28 (ex- what is an immensely enjoyablc and informative cluding debts), put them on a par with (Cam- book. bridgeshire) husbandmen. In contrast to many of the PETER EDWARDS specialist chapmen, however, they had little con- nection with agriculture. Most worked on foot, although a career cycle is discernible, with the DONALD HARMAN AKENSON, The Irish in Ontario: A successful ones purchasing a horse to extend the Study in Rural History. McGill-Queen's University scope of their activities and then eventually establish- Press, Kingston, Montreal, I984. Ppxiii + 268. ing themselves in a shop. Some spectacular examples 35 Canadian dollars. are recounted in the book but they were exceptional Professor Akenson's industry is fast becoming an and one must sympathize with the majority who cmbarrassment to other, especially native, Irish continued on foot, growing old in a young man's historians. This is his tenth book in field since The occupation. They all experienced the hostility felt Irish Education Experiment (I97o); he has also found towards middlemen at the time; those travelling time to be a novelist, publisher, academic, and editor around the country were treated with suspicion by of the excellent Canadian Papers in Rural History. Till the authorities, whereas in the towns shopkeeper- 7 now he has specialized in the story of the Irish at chapmen met opposition from the linen-drapers and home, but here the focus shifts to Akenson's own i I;i-~L iI; BOOK REVIEWS 97 back yard near Kingston, Ontario. The change has similarities between Catholic and Protestant in produced a forceful and stimulating, if sometimes Ireland than usually conceded. The claim is based on idiosyncratic, book. relative economic performance in Canada only, for Readers who judge books by their titles and expect these similarities rarely led to partnership or inter- another exercise in grand SPSS history ~ la Them- marriage. Akenson also claims a basis for attacking strom or Katz, are in for a disappointment. Nor is the traditional notion of Irish 'failure' in the New this really mainly about 'the Irish in Ontario' either: World, which goes back to Oscar Handlin and still it is more an essay in the economic history of a small finds many supporters. For Upper Canada, this township- population 36I in I8o3, 3586 in I846-- seems fair enough: the evidence from myriad recent in eastern Ontario in the century after I776. A quick local US studies remains confusing, however. overview shows this. Chapter I does a useful job of CORMAC 6 GR,~.DA debunking the myth that Irish emigrants were averse to having a go at farming life abroad; in Ontario the great majority of them ended up on the land. It also D H AKENSON (ed), Canadian Papers in Rural History, reclaims a role for Catholics in emigration to Upper Vol IV. Langdale Press, I984. 338 pp. $I9.95. Canada, long stereotyped as a haven of Ulster-Scots. The papers in this volume range widely in subject By r87I Irish-descended Protestants and Catholics matter, methodology, and purpose. Some analyse together, in a ratio of roughly two-to-one, made up broad trends and developments; others deal with one-third of Ontario's population. Chapter 2 relatively narrow questions. Some employ quantita- narrows its focus to a specific area, Leeds and tive data and theories from the social sciences; others Landsdowne township. For almost scventy pages, rely primarily on qualitative evidence and personal the Irish do not feature at all. Nor is there much intuition. Some suggest explanations of historical about them in Chapter 3, mainly an interesting and circumstance; others offer solutions to research often amusing account of yankee loyalist entre- problems and aid in using historical records. All, it is preneur Joel Stone (pp66--78, roI-3). Chapter 4 is the editor's implied hope, will further our under- about another anti-hero, Dublin-born Ogle Gowan, standing of rural history and its relationship to other who arrived in Canada in r 829 with loyalist creden- fields of Canadian history. tials as impressive as any of the earlier settlers, and Several of the papers investigate issues related to quickly climbed the local political ladder through his the economics of farming. Based on responses to a Orange connections. Wounded during the uprising detailed questionnaire sent out by a British colonial of r837--8, though 'from a bayonet in the buttock', official, R E Ankli and KJ Duncan plausibly estimate the tale of this dcmagogue's rise to respectability that farm-making expenses in Ontario in the mid- takes another thirty pages to tell. nineteenth century were, at the very minimum, £~oo Akcnson's excuse for the long excursus on Gowan plus the cost of land, which ran from a few shillings is that it is 'a metaphor for the radical upgrading in to £7 per acre, depending on the amount of im- status of the Irish immigrant community'. None provement, location, and quality. Their findings such is needed: the next section of this chapter makes suggest that for a young Canadian to enter farming the case cffectivcly enough with some generaliz- with a reasonable prospect of success required a ations about farming from ccnsal manuscript data in substantial, though normally not unattainable, in- I842. Akenson's admittedly small sample shows the vestment. W L Marr's comparison of owner- and Irish to have had more land, more acres cleared, and tenant-operated farms in York County, Ontario, in higher average yields than the average settler. That I87I reveals support for the agricultural ladder much is interesting and will comc as a surprise to thesis, minor differences (favouring owners) in farm some, though perhaps Akenson overargucs the case: size and capital stock, and similarity in overall Marvin Mclnnis's Ontario-wide data base for I86I productivity. The evidence sustains the conclusions, (PP 339-344) puts the Irish slightly below the average but Marr misses an opportunity to relate them to by similar criteria. The rest of the chapter is about those of corresponding studies of the nineteenth- confessional history, again with little specifically century United States. E C Gray and B E Prentice, Irish content. Finally the township becomes morc using land transfers in the original deed records, industrialized after a fashion, and, curiously enough, trace movements in rural land prices from I842 to the Catholic Irish fared rather poorly -- more to I98I, and speculate that successive farm improve- form! -- in the main town in the area. ments and the rising demand for agricultural pro- Chapter 7 spells out the significance of all this. On ducts were the principal factors in the secular the assumption that emigrant communities are good appreciation of values. Their time series employs, laboratories for testing hypotheses about life at inexplicably, current rather than constant prices, home, Akenson's perspective from Leeds-Lans- which unnecessarily complicates its interpretation; downe prompts him to argue for greal:er cultural the authors might also have developed more 98 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW rigorous tests of their explanatory hypotheses. The models because it allows for an analytically appro- inclusion of K Kelly's study of commercial agricul- priate subdivision of the area under investigation and ture in northern Bengal, India, during the nineteenth for more precise definition and selection of represen- century is curious, as it is the only piece that does not tative communities and regions; moreover, the deal with Canada. Still, this is a deftly argued, if resulting grid has predictive capabilities for identi- somewhat overdrawn, account of the change from fying locations of special linguistic interest or an emphasis on export staples, especially indigo, to a importance. diversified agriculture of foodstuffs and raw Governmental action provides the unifying theme [i. materials in response to modifications in land rent for another group of papers. I MacPherson and J H payments and an end to use restrictions on leased Thompson chart the World War II transformation of land, both of which freed tenants to cultivate the agriculture on the Canadian prairies that brought a most profitable crops, and to the expansion and dramatic shift out of wheat and into feed grains and broadening of farm markets, which provided the livestock production, a more efficient organization incentives to modify cropping patterns. of farm labour, an increased pace of mechanization, Another quartet of papers deals with social- and more systematic marketing procedures. In the demographic questions. R S Dilley culled the bio- face of wartime exigencies, the federal government, graphical history of Waterloo County, Ontario, for working closely with farm organizations, imple- Mennonite settlers and their descendants, and dis- mented policies designed to promote and facilitate covered a comparatively stable subgroup within the each of these developments. The changes may have pophlation. Occupation was the main discernible been inevitable, as the authors claim, but their difference between the 32 per cent who left the suggestion that war-induced intervention provided county (most for elsewhere in Ontario) and those for a more orderly reconstruction than would other- who persisted over the three-quarters of a century wise have occurred needs further study. B M covered by the study: professionals, businessmen, Gough's informative essay recounts the efforts of the and skilled workers tended to leave; farmers, clerks, Puget's Sound Agricultural Company, a subsidiary and unskilled workers tended to stay. Employing a of the Hudson Bay Company, to settle and develop 'life course' model, which postulates that the timing the agricultural potential of the colony of Vancouver of key career transitions is a function of personal Island at the behest of the British government, which objectives adjusted in accordance with individual was anxious to secure the area against American circumstances and societal norms, D A Norris penetration. Although the company's attempt from analysed a predominantly Irish Protestant township I849 to 1857 to set up a system of corporate farming in mid-nineteenth-century Ontario. He found fami- failed, due in part to unwise policies and in part to lies with strong kinship and community bonds, and fortuitous circumstances, the concern left its mark a common migratory background that stretched on the early history of the island, played a role in back to Ireland and progressed through stages to averting American absorption, and established a what, we are told, was for many their final desti- precedent for future government-business ventures. nation. Neither the explanatory power of the model Easily the most enjoyable of this collection is C J nor the nature of the evidence, however, makes Brannigan's piece on a libel suit brought in an upper convincing the homogeneity, stability, and personal Canada frontier commmfity during the I84OS by an success that Norris attributes to this group of influential minister-cure-businessman and his family settlers. In yet another paper on Ontario in the against a local school teacher for defaming their good nineteenth century, G J Lockwood argues that Irish name. Besides making fascinating reading, the story immigrants in a township in the eastern part of the demonstrates the maturity of the legal system and its province successfully adapted to their new home by effectiveness in resolving personal disputes in responding to a variety of economic opportunities. sparsely settled outposts of the country. B Osborne That they enjoyed a steadily improving standard of and R Pike evaluate the factors behind the rising living, as Norris maintains, seems beyond question; demand for postal service in central Canada from that this was due in large part to the confidence they I85I to I9I I. Adopting a 'public works' philosophy gained from gravitating to regions of poor quality as their operative principle, provincial governments soil, where competition for land was weak and responded by expanding and upgrading the system valuations low, seems of dubious validity. E and in doing so, the authors contend, contributed Padolsky and I Pringle describe their procedures in significantly to modernization of the region. organizing a demographic data file to be used in Finally, T A Hillman has performed a valuable constructing a grid -- or areal framework -- for a service to scholars of Ontario by providing a statu- linguistic survey of the Ottawa Valley. A demo- tory chronology and genealogy that traces the graphic model, according to the authors, is superior evolution of boundaries and place-names of sub- to the more common geometric or topographical divisions in the eastern section of the province. i/i i'/ ; BOOK REVIEWS 99 Notwithstanding some unevenness in quality and materials, the roof, the hearth and chimney to floors a few editorial oversights, this anthology expands and piercing before moving into synthesis with our knowledge of Canadian (and Indian) rural discussions of house types and hearth-lobby houses history and should contribute importantly to in particular. Expanding to more general issues, the broader syntheses and general works on the subject. author reviews matters in a British perspective in D L WINTERS two chapters which must excite comment in and east of Aberystwyth and then withdraws slightly, despite a title of 'The House and Society', to his own evidence again; yet here, paradoxically, is much that is actually germane to students working elsewhere a GAItEr, Rural Houses of the North of Ireland. John and not only in studying vernacular houses. The Donald, Edinburgh, I984. x + 289 pp. 269 figs. book ends with a brief look at farmhouses, farm £25. buildings and farmyards in Northern Ireland alone, It is both a privilege and a pleasure to review Mr to which area the last chapter on conservation and Gailey's book, especially only a few months after restoration is limited, though some of the problems doing likewise for the similar book from the same are familiar enough elsewhere. publisher on the vernacular architecture of Brittany. The penultimate chapter apart, there may appear John Donald Publishers are currently doing the to be little in all this about agrarian history. The subject proud, for books covering Scotland and houses studied, however, are without exception North Yorkshire and Cleveland also come from the both expressions of and evidence for a deeply same house, releasing into the study quite suddenly a agrarian way of life. This is so from the 'creats' -- formidable mass of data and not a few ideas for many the temporary summer dwellings of transhumance to consider. -- through the stone-built thatched one-room Alan Gailey is Keeper of the Department of houses occasionally still in use to the 'degenerate- Buildings at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum; formal Georgian' farmhouses that characterize the whatever official backing he may have received, his countryside today. Embedded in them too is not just book is clearly the result of enthusiasm, application, a local vernacular but much material relevant to and many a busman's holiday. It has too an im- wider issues such as the origins and development of peccable, and quite distinctive, pedigree, acknowl- the long-house (here called the 'byre-dwelling'), the edged in the dedication to Estyn Evans and rooted variations on the lobby-entrance house, and the throughout in long-term examination of the range and extent of different roof structures among subject-matter by personal fieldwork. The approach which the cruck in several forms bulks large. Given is cultural, geographical, archaeological, ethno- the Anglo-Irish connection, there is also much logical, anthropological, folk-lorist, rather than his- implicit here of a 'compare and contrast' nature for torical or architectural in the senses of trying to arguments about models of diffusion or invasion, in narrate or make value judgments about design. this context of course politely called Plantation. Indeed, the distinction is one of which the author is The book is well-written and well-produced. The well-aware, drawing attention to it in his brief line drawings are unfussy and clear, though as a discussion (p I I) of the different traditions under- medium of communication they suffer from non- lying the development of studies of vernacular standard reduction to different scales; the far larger buildings on either side of the Irish Sea. This occurs number of in-text half-tones are on the whole in a stimulating, wide-ranging first chapter, reproduced much better than in many another offset 'Vernacular Housing and the Built Environment' litho production and are a crucial component of the which, as well as providing a pertinent opening to presentation. Misprints are almost entirely absent, the book, deserves a life of its own as a general paper which makes 'neotholic' (pI6), a gem by any for an audience wider than that which will be standards, the more remarkable. Following inter- attracted by the geographically-limited subject- national scientific practice, all measurements are matter itself. given in metric, an irrelevance as far as the builders The book is otherwise largely arranged on a of Northern Ireland's rural houses were concerned, thematic basis. Chapter Two deals with early and and without their imperial equivalents significant medieval houses in I2 pages, not summarily but dimensions, such as a house width of I6 ft expressed completely: how satisfying it must be to be able to as 4.88m, can actually be obscured. Any major discuss every single known example of one's subject work, however, can absorb such pinpricks without from the early Neolithic to c.ADI6oo from a whole its integrity being questioned or its status impugned. country (not just Northern Ireland) in such a com- Alan Gailey has produced a scholarly landmark in pass. Thereafter, abandoning chronology, we pro- the study of rural houses in the British Isles; that it ceed from construction and size through wall comes from and is about an area whence, for the ....!li '~ I~!:(;:ii IO0 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW outsider, most news is currently bad news makes it work rather than an agrarian one that relations I?< all the more stimulating, both intellectually and as a within the county deteriorated in the W8os and portrait of another kind of reality. 179os. L>[:,; P J FOWLER On the whole, while the book recognizes the cultural forces behind unrest and changes in its pattern, they do not get as much explicit recognition SAMUEL CLARK and JAMES S DONNELLY JR (eds), Irish as the essays on the early period themselves suggest Peasants: Violence and Political Unrest 178o-1914. they merit. However, the agenda for further work Manchester University Press, I983. Pp viii + 454. does recognize the possibility of parallels with £29.5o. societies such as those of southern Italy and Corsica This is a very substantial volume of essays, (p42i). The essays on post-I848 politics are on confirming incidentally, as it was printed in orthodox political activity. The editors themselves America, the high quality of American book pro- recognize a marked contrast between the nature of duction. It is a less unified volume than the title protest activity before and after the I84os, and this suggests, consisting of a group of essays dealing with may to some extent call in question their own the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, emphasis on the late I87os as 'a great turning point in closely related to the themes of the volume, and two modern Irish history' (p273). The problem of the other groups of essays, one dealing with orthodox social historian lies in part in the fact that the politics of a rural or agrarian character, the other approach in Irish political history has tended to concerning itself with the rural labourer, the trader unduly accentuate the episodic character of events at in rural life and politics, and turn-of-the-century the expense of attention to the remorseless transition conflict between graziers and smallholders. The real which runs through all of nineteenth-century Irish strength of the volume lies in the solidity of the history. individual contributions. However, a unifying In their own demesne the editors somewhat framework is created by a general introduction, uncharacteristically contradict their own interest in separate introductions to the three sections into long-term trends by an emphasis on the which the book is divided, and a concluding agenda 'rancher'-peasant conflict as a novelty of the post- for research. The chapters by Donnelly on the I84os, drawing a correlation between this phenom- Pastorini prophecy -- a strange prophecy foretelling enon and the mass evictions of the I84OS and i85os. conflict and final overwhelming of the protestants This emphasis is derived from the essay by Jones on which caught a grip on the rural mind around I82O 'The cleavage between graziers and peasants in the -- and by Roberts which goes a long way to making land struggle, 189o--I9~O', which is the least happy sense of the confused and confusing conflict of the piece in the volume. However, this issue was a real Caravats and Shanavests which was so prominent in but relatively minor one of its day, pursued in highly Munster in the first decade of the nineteenth century, coloured language by its supporters. The editors are both admirable studies. Miller's essay on the themselves elsewhere recognize that it had ante- agrarian or sectariat~ conflict in county Armagh in cedents in the eighteenth century (p 423), and indeed the I78os is an equally effective piece of writing, and one of the articles in the volume, Roberts's, per- these three essays are supplemented by a pioneering suasively relates the Shanavest-Caravat conflict to a article by Dickson on the impact of growing fiscal class divide between larger and smaller landholders burdens in the I79os. in Munster, a region in which the class theme had What these contributions bring out collectively is a already become persistent in the second half of the substantial amount of popular politicization, justi- eighteenth century. fying the editors' observation that 'the Irish case The achievement of this volume is to have com- gives little support to the view that peasants are missioned a substantial number of solid contri- incapable of political organization' (p I5). While butions which are likely to become standard sources recognized on a number of occasions, this insight is of reference for both social and political historians. not elaborated though it clearly merits further The introductory and later editorial commentaries examination. Professor Miller's study of county are probably also the best guide to the large but Armagh points to the political framework of the uneven literature on rural unrest and politics. county's troubles, and it is within a political frame- L M CULLEN ; i ! ; i I : ~i4 I Shorter Notice F W J MCCOSH, Boussingault. D Reidel Publishing background, made important contributions to agri- Company, 1984. xviii + 28opp. £35.50. culture, agricultural chemistry and agricultural edu- Of the sciences, chemistry had an early import- cation. Dr McCosh has produced a straightforward ance in the understanding of agriculture and in account of Boussingault's life that sets his career in a solving problems in agricultural production. social as well as a scientific context. Boussingault (I8O2-I887) , from an unconventional JEREMY ELSTON IOI ~l' |5~" : ; ; Books Received i i: i: ! ]: ! , i i t : C G A CLAY, Economic Expansion and Social Change: CELIA MILLER (ed), Rain attd Ruin: the Diary of an England 15o0-17oo. CUP, I984. 2 vols, xiv + 268 Oxfordshire Farmer, John Simpson Calvertt pp; xii + 324 pp. £20 (cloth); £6.95 (paper) each 1875-19oo. Alan Sutton, Gloucester, I984. volume. 285 pp. £8.95 (cloth); £4.95 (paper). T M DEVINE (ed), Farm Servants and Labour in Lowland DAVID NEAVE (ed), Winteringham 165o-176o. Win- Scotland 177o-1914 . John Donald, Edinburgh, teringham WEA Branch, I984. vi + I57pp. £5. I984. ix + 262 pp. £i6. SUE NEEDHAM, A Glossari,for East Yorkshire attd North ALEXANDER FENTON, Loads and Roads in Scotland and Lincolnshire Probate Inventories. University of Beyond: Road Transport over 6ooo years. John Hull, Department of Adult Education, Studies in Donald, Edinburgh, I984. vii + I44 pp. £8.5o. Regional and Local History, 3, I984. 28pp. JOAN M rRAYN, Sheep-rearing and the Wool Trade in £I.50. Italy during the Roman Period. Francis Cairns, DAVID PAM, The StorI, of E~(field Chase. Enfield Liverpool, I984. ix + 208 pp. £2o. Preservation Society, I984. I68 pp. £6.95. DAVID GRIGG, An Introduction to Agricultural Geog- SANDRO ROGARI, Ruralismo e Anti-Industrialismo de raphy. Hutchinson, I984. 204 pp. £I2.95 Fine Secolo: Neofisiocrazia e Movimento Cooperativo (cloth); £5.95 (paper). Cattolico. Le Monnier, Firenze, I984. L. 2o,ooo. NIGEL HARVEY, A History of Farm Buildings in England ELEANOR & REX C RUSSELL, MakitL¢ New Landscapes in and Wales. Second edition, David & Charles, Lincolnshire. Lincolnshire Recreational Services: Newton Abbot, 1984. 279 pp. £I7.5o. County Library Department, Lincoln, 1983. p D A HARVEY (ed), Tke Peasant Land Market in I27 pp. £5 plus p & p. Medieval England. Clarendon Press, Oxford, DAVID WARREN SABEAN, Power in the Blood: Popular I984. xvi + 375 pp. £28. culture and village discourse in early modern Germany. ROBIN HILL, Shropskire Skew, a History. Shropshire CUP, I984. x + 25o pp. £22.50. County Museum Service, Acton Scott Working PAUL SERVAIS, La Rente Constitu6e dam le Ban de Farm Museum, I984. I6 pp. £I.5O (+ p & p 25p). Herve au XVIIIe Si?cle. Credit Communal de R H HILTON & T H ASTON (eds), Tke English Rising of Belgique, Collection Histoire, 62, I982. xxx 1381. CUP, I984. vi + 22opp. £22.5o. 39opp. 75o FB. W G HOSKINS & DAV!D HEY, Local History in England. JOHN SHAW, Water Power in Scotland 155o-187o. John Third edition, Longman, I984. xiii + 3oi pp. £I2 Donald, Edinburgh, i984. xi + 606 pp. £25. (cloth); £5.95 (paper). MORRIS SILVER, Enterprise and the Scope of the Firm. ROGER J P KAIN & HUGH C PRINCE, Tke Tithe Sm'vQ,s of Basil Blackwcll, Oxford, 1984. xii + IDI pp. England and Wales. CUP, I985. xvi + 327 pp. £17.5o. £27.50. Somerset Villages: The Vernacular Buildings of West and SUSAN A KNOX, Tke Making of the Shetland Landscape. Middle Chimwck, with some account of the i,habi- John Donald, Edinburgh, I985. x + 255 pp. £I8. tams, their kistor), and livelikood. Somerset and NORMA LaNDaU, The Justices qf the Peace 1679-176o. South Avon Vernacular Building Research University of California Press, I984. xv + Group, Glastonbury, 1984.64pp. £3.75 (plus 7op 42I pp. £35.4o. p& p). DAVID MABEL, Good Cider. Whittet, I984. vi + JOAN THIRSK, Tke Rural Economy of England. I43 pp. £7.95. Hambledon Press, 1984. 420pp. £22. EILEEN& DONALMCCRAKEN (eds), A Register of Treesfor D M WOODWARD (ed), The Farmit~ attd MemoraHdttm Co Londonderry, 1768-1911. Public Record Office Books of Henry Best of EImswell 1642. British of Northern Ireland, Belfast, I984. x + 80pp. Academy, Records of Social and Economic £5.50. History, new series, VIII, OUP, 1984. lxxiv + SAMUEL PYEATTMENEFEE, Wivesfor Sale. Basil Black- 347 PP. £33. well, Oxford, I984. ix + 336 pp. £6.95 (paper)• IO2 • i Notes on Contributors A R BRIDBURY, Senior Lecturer in economic history at eighteenth- and nineteenth-century historical ge- the London School of Economics, is the author of ography. His PhD was entitled, 'Town and Country Economic Growth (I962), Medieval English Cloth- in Surrey I8oo-I87O'. In I982 he was co-author of a making (1982) and various articles on medieval topics report funded by the SSRC on aspects of poverty in mainly in the Economic History Review. Birmingham in the mid-nineteenth century. His recent publications include papers dealing with the DR MAVIS MATE graduated in history at Somerville Surrey Hearth Tax as evidence of population dis- College, Oxford and subsequently emigrated to the tribution, Poor Law out-relief records as indicators USA, where she received her PhD at Ohio State of poverty in Birmingham, and the migratory University. She is currently professor of history at patterns evidenced in the diary of a Victorian artisan. the University of Oregon. She has published a He is currently working with Poor Law settlement number of articles on estate management in the certificates as evidence of migration into and out of thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and has made a Birmingham during the first half of the eighteenth particular study of the estates of Canterbury Ca- century. thedral Priory. At present she is working on prob- / lems relating to the fifteenth century. OR STEWARV RICrIARDS studied zoology and physi- DR ALAN NASH read geography at Cambridge, and ology at Leicester, London and Yale Universities. received his PhD in I984 from that institution. He has taught at Wye College, University of London Between I979 and I98I he was a junior research since i967, publishing Temperature Regulation fellow in the Department of Geography, Sheffield (Wykeham, i973) and a range of research papers in University. He then went for three years to Queen's the physiological journals. More recently he has University in Kingston, Ontario, as a post-doctoral become interested in 'science studies', writing a research fellow and lecturer, teaching historical thesis o11 the role of science in agricultural education geography and demography. At Queen's he was also for the MSc degree of the University of Kent at a research associate on a project, funded by the Social Canterbury in I982, and publishing Philosophy and Science and Humanities Research Council of Sociology of Science (Blackwell, ~983), an introduc- Canada, investigating the decline of fertility in tory text for undergraduates. His current research is nineteenth-century Kingston. His doctoral thesis in the history of physiology and of higher education was on population change in Wiltshire from IO86 to in agriculture. I524, and he has published a number of articles on Sussex open fields. He is currently working on a J K BOWERS is Senior Lecturer in econoniics at Leeds book with Dr R Woods on historical demography to University. He graduated in Philosophy, Politics be published by Oxford University Press. and Economics at Oxford University in I966 and worked for three years as a research officer at the J M MARTIN, a former lecturer in economic history at National Institute of Economic and Social Research the Universities of Bath and Belfast and at the before going to Leeds. He was for five years an Middlesex Polytechnic, has just completed a year as Associate Fellow of the Economic and Social Re- education archivist in the Gloucestershire Record search Council Industrial Relations Research Unit at Office. He has recently completed studies of the Vale Warwick University. He has published articles on of Evesham gardeners, and of Bedworth, a War- regional policy, labour economics, agricultural wickshire weaving and mining community. He is policy and environmental economics and is co- currently studying agricultural innovation and rural author of Labour Hoarding in British Industry (Black- protest 1815-5o in Gloucestershire and neighbouring well, 1982) and Agriculture, the Countryside and Land counties. Use (Methuen, ~983) and editor of I~ation, Develop- ment and Integration (Leeds UP, I979). He is currently DR ALAN PARTON is Co-ordinator for Modular chairman of an Economic and Social Research Degree Courses in Sciences at Coventry (Lanchester) Council working group on research needs in the field Polytechnic. His research interests are mainly in of rural land use. 103 :i! i.~ Notes and Comments WINTER CONFERENCE, I984 Abbot, Devon, from 7-9 April. Offers of papers The Winter Conference was held on 1 December in should be made to Dr M Overton, Department of the Institute of Historical Research, University of Geography, The University, Newcastle upon Tyne, London. Over eighty members of the Society and NEI 7RU. the Historical Geography Research Group heard four papers on the theme of the 'Conservation of the agricultural past'. Dr P F Brandon introduced some INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF HISTORICAL SCIENCES, 'New approaches to landscape conservation'; Dr J 1985 Sheail explored the relations between 'Nature con- The XVIth International Congress of Historical servation and the agricultural historian'; Dr P Fowler Sciences will be held in Stuttgart in August I985. posed some questons about 'Buildings on the farm'; The International Commission on Historical De- and Mr R Brigden discussed 'The preservation and mography is organizing a colloquium at the con- interpretation of agricultural object material'. The ference on 'Agricultural development and popu- conference was most successful, not least because it lation growth'. Further details are available from attracted a larger than usual number of members Professor Dr A E Rod, Departmento de Historia from outside universities and polytechnics. The Moderna, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, papers proved to be provocative by questioning the Santiago de Compostela, Spain. criteria which could be used to decide whether particular objects, buildings or landscapes should be conserved. Understandably, the speakers tended to INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC HISTORY CONGRESS, I986 make their questions rhetorical ones, though doubt- The IXth International Economic History Congress less the Conference would have been even more is to be held in Berne from 24 to 29 August I986. provocative had they chosen to answer them. There are a number of sessions at the Congress The I985 Winter Conference is to be organized by which will be of interest to members, including a 'B' Mr A D M Phillips, Department of Geography, Theme on 'The structure of internal trade, 15th-I 9th University ofKeele, Keele, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG. centuries', jointly organized by Dr J A Chartres (University of Leeds), and a 'C' Theme on 'Agricul- SFRING CONFERENCE, 1985 ture in the Industrial State: the shrinking sector', The Society's Spring Conference will be held at the organized by Professor F M L Thompson (Institute College of Ripon and York St John, Ripon, I-3 of Historical Research, University of London) and April 1985. The speakers will be as follows: Mrs Dr E J T Collins (Institute of Agricultural History, Christine Hallas (Open University), 'Agricultural University of Reading). Further information about change in nineteenth-century Wensleydale and the Congress as a whole may be obtained from Swaledale'; Mr Richard Hoyle (Corpus Christi Neuvi~me Congr~s International d'Histoire College, Oxford), 'The Pilgrimage of Grace as l~conomique, Neubruckstrasse IO, CH-3oI2 Berne, Peasant Movement'; Dr John Chapman (Portsmouth Switzerland. Polytechnic), 'The Impact of Parliamentary Enclosure: a Reconsideration of the Statistics'; Dr Brian Outhwaite (Gonville and Caius College, HISTORIC FARM BUILDINGGROUP Cambridge), 'Progress and Backwardness in English An Historic Farm Buildings Group, devoted to all Agriculture, I5OO--I65O'; Dr Cormac O Gr:ida aspects of the study of farm buildings, is to be (University College, Dublin), 'Patterns of succession formally launched in I985. Further information may to Irish farms after the Famine'; and Dr John Perkins be obtained from the Co-ordinator of the Steering (University of New South Wales), 'Contemporary Committee, Mr J Weller, 152 High Street, Bil- German Perspectives on British Agriculture before deston, Suffolk, IP7 7EF. 1914'. Mrs Hallas will be leading an excursion through Swaledale and upper Wensleydale. Any enquiries should be addressed to Dr J A Chartres, NOTES AND COMMENTS School of Economic Studies, University of Leeds, This section of the Review is edited by the Secretary Leeds LS2 9JT. Booking forms are inserted into this of the Society, Dr M Overton, Department of issue of the Review. Geography, The University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NEI 7RU, who would be glad to receive items for SVRING CONFERENCE, I986 inclusion. He would also welcome members' com- The I986 Spring Conference of the Society is to be ments on 'Notes and Comments' or on any aspect of held at Seale-Hayne Agricultural College, Newton the Society. i: 1 Io4 !ii!: Irish Peasants: Violence and Political Unrest 178o--1914, edited by Samuel Clark and James S Donnelly L M CULLEN I00 Shorter Notice IOI Books Received 102 Notes on Contributors lO3 Notes and Comments lO4. m = THE BRITISH AGRICULTURAL HISTORY SOCIETY = Articles and correspondence relating to editorial matter for the Agricultural History Review, and books for review, should be sent to Dr J A Chartres, Editor, Agricultural History Review, School of Economic Studies, The University, Leeds Ls2 9JT. Correspondence about conferences and meetings of the Society, and about more general matters, should be sent to Dr M Overton, Secretary BAHS, Department of Geography, The University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NEI 7RU. Correspondence on matters relating to membership, subscriptions, details of change of address, sale of publications, and exchange publications should be addressed to E J T Collins, Treasurer, BAHS, Museum of English Rural Life, The University, Whiteknights, Reading, Berkshire. Correspondence on advertising should be sent to Dr R Perren, Department of Economic History, ~University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB9 2TY. m VOLUME 33 1985 PART II Rural Change in the Dutch Province of Drenthe in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries J BIELEMAN Dearth and the Marketing of Agricultural Produce: Oxfordshire c. I75O-I8oo W THWAITES A Neglected Scottish Agriculturalist: the 'Georgical Lectures' and Agricultural Writings of the Rev Dr John Walker (173I-I8O3) CHARLES W J WITHERS 'A Fiendish Outrage?': A Study of Animal Maiming in East Anglia: 183o-187o JOHN E ARCHER Harvest Fluctuations in an Industrializing Economy: Japan, I887-1912 P K HALL Trade Agreements and the Evolution of British Agricultural Policy in the I93OS T ROOTH List of Books and Pamphlets on Agrarian History 1984 V J MORRIS and D J ORTON Book Reviews THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW VOLUME 33 VART II 1985 Contents Rural Change in the Dutch Province of Drenthe in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries j BIELEMAN 10 5 Dearth and the Marketing of Agricultural Produce: Oxfordshire c. 175o-18oo W THWAITES I 19 A Neglected Scottish Agriculturalist: the 'Georgical Lectures' and Agricultural Writings of the Rev Dr John Walker (I731-18o3) CHARLES W J WITHERS 13 2 'A Fiendish Outrage'?: A Study of Animal Maiming in East Anglia: 183o-I87o JOHN E ARCHER 147 Harvest Fluctuations in an Industrializing Economy: Japan, 1887-1912 P K HALL 15 8 Trade Agreements and the Evolution of British Agricultural Policy in the I93Os T ROOTH 173 List of Books and Pamphlets on Agrarian History 1984 V J MORRIS and D J ORTON 191 Book Reviews: The Orli~ins of Agriculture ~ An Evolutionary Perspective, by David Rindos M L RYDER I98 Sheep-Rearing and the Wool Trade in Italy during the Roman Period, byJ M Frayn JEREMY PATERSON 199 Loads and Roads in Scotland and Beyond, edited by A Fenton and G Stell GERARD TURNBULL 200 The Rural Economy of Etlqland: Collected Essays, by Joan Thirsk MARK OVERTON 200 The Peasant Land Market in Medieval England, edited by P D A Harvey IAN BLANCHARD 20I The English Rising of138I, edited by R H Hilton and T H Aston R H BRITNELL 202 Economic Expansion and Social Change: England 15oo-1700, by C G A Clay MICHAEL HAVINDEN 203 Water Power in Scotland 155o-187o, by John Shaw JENNIFER TANN 205 Farm Servants and Labour in Lowland Scotland, 1770,-1914, edited by T M Devine ANN KUSSMAUL 205 Making New Landscapes in Lincolnshire: The Enclosures of Thirty Fore" Parishes in Mid Lindsey, by Eleanor and Rex C Russell MICHAEL TURNER 206 (continued on page iii of cover) Rural Change in the Dutch Province of Drenthe in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries I By J BIELEMAN URING the Republic the state of about :tooo inhabitants, Coevorden even Drenthe extended as far as the fewer. The Landschap had thirty-six par- D modern province of Drenthe does ishes and about ~rSO villages and hamlets, (an area of 266,278 hectares). At that time it most of which had between ten and twenty was more or less a sovereign entity, and a farms. In 163o Drenthe had about 22,0oo member of the confederation of states inhabitants; no more than 8.3 people per which formed the Republic. The Land- km'-. Its population was about r per cent of schap, as it was called, lay in the north-east the Dutch population at that time.'- When of the Netherlands against the German studying aspects of its social-economic border, and was surrounded by Groningen history we always have to keep these to the north, Friesland to the west, and figures in the back of our mind. In Overijssel to the south (see map I). It was a seventeenth-century Drenthe there were rather isolated region, surrounded by vast three main types of settlement- the esdorp blanket bogs. Its geological structure had or open-field settlement, the streekdorp or mainly been formed during the penul- linear settlement (found on the low-lying timate Ice Age when it was covered with land at the edge of the plateau) and the an ice sheet stretching south from Scandi- veenkolonie or fen settlement. This paper is navia. It consisted mainly of a boulder clay concerned mainly with open-field settle- plateau which was later on partly eroded ment, although some contrast with the by melting streams and then covered with linear settlements is made. an infertile layer of sand. During the The main components of the esdorp Holocene, blanket bogs started growing settlements as can be seen on a detail of the and formed an important component of the first topographical map (1851/2) were: natural landscape. I. the open fields or essen, 2. the meadows, In the early seventeenth century the on the silty and peaty soils beside the Landschap must have been an almost empty streams in the eroded parts of the plateau, steppe of heath and blanket bogs over 3. waste-lands. Then of course there were which small villages and hamlets were villages themselves (see map 2). The cadas- scattered like islands in an ocean. It is tral map for 1832 of the hamlets of Garm- important to realize that it was a very inge and Balinge in the parish of Wester- sparsely populated area. There were no bork clearly shows the typical pattern of towns except the small town of Meppel in the open field with its fields and furlongs. the south-west and the fortress of Coevor- The holdings of one farm were spread den in the south-east. Meppel had only evenly over all the fields. This article is an adapted version of a paper given at the Spring Conference of the British Agricultural History Society held from I I " Faber a M (196 5) estimated that the totahmna ber ofinhabitants must to I3 April, 1983. More on this subject will be published as a thesis have been about 1.4 to 1.6 million in 1600. A Faber, H K Rocssingh, called 'Agrarische ontwikkelingcn op de Drentsc zandgronden, B H Slichcr van Bath, A M van dcr Woude and H J van Xantcn, 16oo.--t 9t o. Ecn nicuwe visie op de oude landbouw' (Rural Change 'Population changes and economic development in the in Drcnthe, x6oo-I9/O: a new outlook on 'traditional' agriculture) Netherlands; a historical survey', A A G Bijdral!en, 12, Wageningen, which is in course of preparation. t965, pp 47-x t3. IO5 106 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW ~ "Essen"or open-fields ~ Stream valleys GRONINGEN [~ Peat-moor ;...,' I f," / I , ,,I ~"L 0 10 20 km MAP I Province of Drenthe. The map shows tile most dominant features of the physical landscape of Drenthe. Tile open fields (indicated by black spots) are situated in close relation to the stream valleys. The places mentioned in the text are indicated by number , Garmingc--Balinge 4 Ruinerwold 2 Beilen 5 Nijeveen 3 Peize 6 Rolde RURAL CHANGE IN THE DUTCH PROVINCE OF DRENTHE '1o7 .... ,~'...i",;.:.. "'~+ +"" i: ~.. ::7 ;. : ,:k;?, ...~:.. +L .;~ .... , ,i ~"".ii "~,.:'.. C~~ ," ~, .' i ++: ~>...... ~,...... +,.i,~++lllt+,.. ' '~Tkt 7i :;;!:i:'.:~:!'~ : t''" ., • ' ~; ."'' " :~ +~:_' L-~L.-.... "...1". ~ • . .--_.~..~?.;.- .,.: --..,,~>++:,, .!;~ !" :,.. I.+--4 ;"::'~'t : ' "~":+"~" i i"( 0 .".:~"., "L ~'..7'? ", . ! "l ~ : ' ~i'-...... ~..,:~: ,.LL: I.I .u.'... J":-'~l " " " "' ,.l " . U :.: "-+.~ ,-,+~ Z+, O"Cl f i r,~, J #" ~~. 'i'..: .~, ,, # i'll •:. J • ° i ~ • ...,...~,...,-'..~!~ , , ~, 0 ', ~., ."v';. 'N °..~ .2 +.,,. b,+ '," '~,,+.+.J',f,i.S~ .] i ,. : . J"¢ll~i+'i~ :r 'I ¢+ ... , • ..~ • . %, ~ ~' ,7~;~ '' • \, 108 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW 0 250 500m I BALINGE MAP 3 Small essen (open field)of the hamletsof Balingeand Garmingeaccording to the first cadastral maps (1832). The holdings of each farm are equallyscattered over the open field I shepherd with his flock of sheep on the Until recently there has been very little heath (horned cattle played hardly any role systematic research done on early farming according to the traditional view) and the or on the agricultural economy as a whole continuous rye cultivation based on an on the sandy soils of the Netherlands. intensive system of turf manuring Authors simply contented themselves with (pla~enbemestil~). There was supposed to projecting some of the external aspects of be a stringent division between contin- the late nineteenth- and early twentieth- uously cultivated arable land and pasture. century farming back into former centur- The rural economy of Drenthe was presen- ies. They assumed that what they saw as a ted as an ahnost closed, self-sufficient primitive way of farming had been the subsistence economy hardly related to any same for centuries. Implicitly or explicitly market. Recently however some authors they ignored the existence of dynamism in like Roessingh have queried this traditional the old rural community, and so a picture outlook. -~ Examination of the records in emerged which was in fact no more than a the State Archives in Assen, the province's caricature of the historical truth; a picture present capital, gave us a far more realistic often painted in romantic colours. In the '~ H K Roessingh, 'l)e vcctdling val~ ~5~-6in her k',vartier va~ Vduwe' traditional view of agriculture in Drenthe, (The Cattle Census o( 1526 in the Veluwe Quarter of Gclderland). important features were that of the A A G B(idraqen, 22. Wageningen, 1979, pp 3-57. RURAL CHANGE IN THE DUTCH PROVINCE OF DRENTHE ro9 view on farming and the rural community contemporary notice tells us that a typical as it was in the seventeenth and eighteenth Farm in the early seventeenth century con- centuries. Much of our knowledge of sisted of 32 mudde (r mudde = o.27 ha) of agriculture in that period stems from arable land and twenty-Four cows (includ- sources which were put together for other ing the young cattle). However tax-records than statistical reasons. Nevertheless they show that around I65o only about 22 per have proved to be useful and have helped cent of farms were that size. The records us unveil a far more differentiated, and in also show that remarkable differences many ways, a completely different picture could exist between villages and hamlets in of farming in Drenthe in the past. The one and the same parish. The small farmers research enabled us to solve problems like: were often to be Found in the churchvil- the extent of agricultural land; the size and lages. Those who had hardly any land and number of farms; the ratio between only one or no horse were called keuters or freeholders and tenants; the characteristics cottagers. The shopkeepers and artisans of the farming system; and the relation were also found in these villages. In the between cattle, sheep and field system. satellite-like hamlets around the main vil- In 1642 at the insistence of the States lages the farms were mostly about 32 General of the Republic, the government mudde. They had four horses and were of Drenthe started to make arrangements usually described as een vol bedriy'f, a com- for a new system of taxation based on plete farm. immovables, in addition to existing taxes. Of course not all the farmers were All over the Landschap surveyors were sent freeholders. But herein lay the remarkable out to make records of everyone's prop- character of Drenthe compared to the erty. These records give us a splendid view neighbouring provinces Overijssel and of agricultural land, and the size of the Friesland. Drenthe had comparatively farms in every village and hamlet. By speaking many freeholders. A tax record of studying this material, we were able to 163o shows that in the esdorpen about 55 per calculate that by about I65o Drenthe had cent of the farmers were freeholders. approximately 15,46o ha or 5.8 per cent (Slicher van Bath found that in the arable land. Besides this, there was a adjoining province of Overijssel this was certain amount of land registered as pri- only about IO per cent.) 4 Of the remainder, vately owned meadow land. This was as 7 per cent of the farms were owned by the much as three-quarters of the area of the nobility and 5 per cent by the stewards' arable land. But there must have been more office of the government. These had meadow land still in common use. Many formerly belonged to the monasteries and of the private meadows had been divided clergy. But these are only general figures. among the share-holding farmers during There were considerable differences the first half of the seventeenth century due between parishes and between the villages to improvement of the agrarian economy and hamlets within them. In the of Drenthe. Not all of the arable land streekdorpen, in south-west Drenthe, the however was actually ploughed. Some of it percentage of freeholders was even higher we find registered as fallow land. From a than in the esdorpen. special record dated I643 we deduced that Apart from the early seventeenth- over all the Landsdzap about 16 per cent of century notice indicating that twenty-four the arable land lay fallow. But there were cows were held on a 32 mudde farm, we of course important local differences. In hardly have any information about live- some hamlets this percentage was as high 4B H Slichcr van Bath, Een samenlevin2 onderspanning, Assert, 1957, or higher than 3o per cent or even more. A pp 612-41. IIO THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW stock on farms. It seemed almost open-field region must have consisted of impossible at first to reconstruct the re- young bullocks. These were sold at the age lation between livestock and arable. But of two or three years and driven to Holland what we did have were records of revenues or elsewhere where they were fattened on of about seven imposts paid in each parish the better pastures around the towns and over a period of about two centuries, and sold for slaughter. some of these were taxes on livestock. We Although cattle was mainly grazed on decided to use the yield from these imposts heathland the open fields were also used. as reflection of the data we most needed. It What was the open-field system in Drenthe seemed to us that the important imposts during the seventeenth century like? Not were those on cattle, on sheep and on the all the arable land on the open fields was exportation of bullocks, the so-called actually ploughed. By about 1643, 16 per uitdrifi. From the revenues of the impost on cent of the open field lay fallow and in horned cattle, we deduced that during the some parishes this was 3o per cent or first half of the seventeenth century the higher. On the maps drawn by surveyors, stock .of horned cattle kept in the open field we can see that these fallow lands were area must have been considerably larger often to be found along the fringes of the that it was in the nineteenth century. When open fields. It is obvious that in these cases we calculated the yield of this impost per a period of fallow was used to improve the household, it was much higher in the open quality of these marginal fields. In some field villages than in the linear villages. other cases the fallow land is found on parts This was rather remarkable as in the late of the open fields which were enclosed. nineteenth century the latter were by far Here it was possible to keep cattle for the most important dairying regions. The grazing. In the codified law of Drenthe and seventeenth-century figure of twenty-four in some local by-laws we find regulations cows on a 32 mudde farm must have been a concerning the enclosing arable land in the rather good example of the average open field. The individual profit to one number of cattle kept on a farm of that farmer enclosing some of his land was not type. allowed to hinder other farn:ers in But it was not only the revenues from ploughing their furlongs nor in:pair the the impost on horned cattle that were interest of the whole con:mul:ity. There- comparatively high in the open-field fore it must not be forgotten that the open regions. The revenues from the impost on fields may have been less open than we the exportation of cattle, the uitdrift, were thought. also higher, and much higher than they But there were other ways in which were in some of the parishes on the lower farmers could graze their cattle on the open fringes of the Landschap. This meant that fields. In a number of local by-laws we find cattle husbandry must have played a much regulations concerning common grazing more important role in the open-field o1: the stubble. From these by-laws and farming in Drenthe than has until recently other sources we tried to reconstruct how been assumed. But it was of a completely this common grazing worked and how it different nature from what we are used to was linked with crop rotation. We came to nowadays or from what we know of the the conclusion that apart from those sec- early twentieth century when the area of tions of the open fields that were enclosed, sandy soils had become an important dairy they must have been divided into two parts farming region. It appeared that in the first of roughly equal size in which the arable half of the seventeenth century, an import- strips of each holding were more or less ant part of the horned cattle stock on the equally apportioned. One year, one part RURAL CHANGE IN THE DUTCH PROVINCE OF DRENTHE III was meant for winter cropping and the Drenthe can also be seen from a graph other half for a spring crop, the next year showing the revenues from the impost on they changed. This system allowed for sheep (see Fig I). This shows how often common grazing on at least one half of the and to what extent the flocks were deci- open fields after the winter crop had been mated by diseases like liver rot. In 162o and harvested, that is from August to March. 1621 for instance farmers were hit by bad Apart from this we also know from other harvests and wet weather and large num- by-laws that pigs were allowed on the bers of their livestock died. In the eight- newly-sown winter crops if the ground eenth century there were the three succes- was frozen and if they were properly sive cattle-plague epidemics which threw cramped. In the seventeenth and eighteenth the agrarian community out of its balance. centuries, the winter crop was rye. Although the main spring crop was also rye, some buckwheat was also grown II though probably not on a large scale. It is What developments took place in the rural likely that the arable land on the open field community and in farming during the was manured mainly by this method of seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and crop rotation and common grazing. More- what were their possible causes? To answer over, we are inclined to assume that the this it is useful to separate endogenous system of turf manuring (which in general factors from exogenous ones. One of the is believed to have been introduced during main endogenous factors we took into the later Middle Ages) 5 played only a account was the growth of the population minor role in this period. But we will and its consequences for the structure of return to this later on. Common grazing, the rural communities. In I63o Drenthe ahhough it had undeniable advantages, on had about 22,000 inhabitants. By 183o this the other hand must have been one of the number had grown to 63,868. But this was causes why average yields were very low. not linear growth. From I63o until about The farmers could not plough and harrow I74o we found a regular increase, but after their lands just after the harvest. So weeds that it remained static. It was not until the could not be fought adequately. In fact beginning of the nineteenth century that farmers chose to let these grow and spread, there was a rise of the annual growth rate. just for the benefit of comnaon grazing. In the nineteenth century Drenthe was the According to a contemporary notice in the fastest growing province in the Nether- early seventeenth century the yield ratio on lands. It seems that the increase of popu- the open fields in Drenthe must have been lation in the seventeenth and eighteenth no more than 1:3. Only in very good years centuries, slow as it was, was mainly due did it go up to 1:4. And we must remember to a growth outside agriculture. We can that every fourth harvest was a bad har- demonstrate this trend with the help of the vest. So one can imagine that the farmer's records of a tax that was based on the income was dependent to a large extent on number of horses per household. In the selling some of his cattle every year in the seventeenth century the four-horse farm early spring. was the most common type of farm in the The unsteadiness and vulnerability of open field region. By the early nineteenth farming in those days in a poor region like century the number of this type of farm had decreased considerably, the two-horse sJ (" Papc, 'Plaggensoils in the Netherlands', (;eoderma; ,In farm being more usual, many of the tra- international iour, al of s,,il science, 4 Amsterdam, 1970, pp 229-~. H de Bakkcr A'hql,s; soils and soil regions in the Netherlands, "~lle ditional large farms had been divided and Hague, t979, pp 39-54. those farmers whose land remained whole I I2 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW 5000 Guildem 4000 3000 2000 1000 1650 1700 1750 " " ' 1800 ' FIGURE I Revenues of the impost on sheep (162 I-I 8o2). The graph shows to what extent the nu mbcr of sheep dcpcn dcd on the loss of animals caused by diseases like liver rot were a small minority amidst a great TABLE I number of small farmers, shopkeepers and Social structure of fourteen villages and artisans. We also found that the population hamlets in the parish of Rolde growth between I67~ and I742 was mainly A Nmnber of la~:~erfarms classed b), 1n,nber of horses caused by the growth of the group com- 1672 18o4 prising cottagers (keuters), shopkeepers and artisans. The figures in Table I, based on four-horse farms 7I 29 three-horse fhrms 9 [ 3 these tax-records, show this growth in two-horse farms 18 52 fourteen villages and hamlets in the parish of Rolde in the central parts of the open- total 98 (Ioo%) 94 (96%) field region. When we looked at the size of the farms B Number of holtseholds (excluding lal~e farmer~) in terms of their area, we found that the classed b), occnpation number of traditional 32 mudde farms in 1672 1804 Drenthe had declined from 22 per cent to shopkcepers and about 5 per cent in 1807, while the number artisans 21 46 of small farmers with half or less of this small farmers 9 72 area had increased from 47 per cent to 62 poor 4 l I per cent. Beside the population growth total 34 (Ioo%) 129 (397%) there were of course other factors that influenced the rural community, such as Total A + B 132 (1oo%) 223 (I69%) RURAL CHANGE IN THE DUTCH PROVINCE OF DRENTHE If3 8.00 Guilders 6.00 \/i 4.00 A V CLA/ I IL 2.00 i I i i i i I i 1 i i i i i i i 1600 1650 1700 1750 1800 FIGURE 2 Annual prices of rye in Drenthe (1598-I 8o7) in guilders per mudde (~ mudde = o.9I hl) and the ten-year moving average prices of agricultural products. We were Unfortunately we do not have reliable lucky to find a series of rye prices in the price series for meat or cattle; the ones we accounts of the stewards' office of the do have are not complete or are not usable government (see Fig 2). It was quite for other reasons. amazing to find how closely the prices in But farming results depend not only on Drenthe followed those of Prussian rye oll prices but also on costs. And in the period the corn exchange in Amsterdam. Farmers we are talking about these costs of produc- were indeed very dependent oll the prices tion were not constant. After the real-estate reached oll this important international tax had been introduced in I643, and market. It also became clear how the especially after I67o, the government was period of depression between 165o and forced to raise its rate. New taxes were 175o affected the farmers. This long period introduced and others were doubled. All was only interrupted by two short periods this happened because Drenthe had to of recovery around the turn of the century contribute its share to the wars the Repub- during the Nine Years War (1688-97) and lic was fighting. But all these taxes placed a the War of the Spanish Succession heavy burden on the farmers. Just after the (I7O1-I4). When prices were at their turn of the century the tax burden became lowest the difference between the two price extremely heavy because of the very low series was the greatest. This price lag was corn prices. probably mainly caused by the cost of Fig 3 shows the yield of five imposts and transport and the amount of grain that four other taxes, calculated in the regions like Drenthe could produce. equivalent quantity of rye according to THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW stubble was abolished or limited. The folding of sheep behind hurdles for some 3OOO "Lasten- nights after the harvest was the only thing that remained of the common grazing of all livestock. Farmers were now able to cultivate their arable land much better. 2000 They could plough and harrow their land more often and in doing so they could better control weeds. As a result yields increased. In the early seventeenth century 1000 nf the average yield ratio was about I:3, but by the early nineteenth century we find ltll yield ratios mentioned of about I:6 or even I:8 in good years. So within the frame- 1650 1700 1750 work of traditional farming, farmers had FIGURE 3 managed to double their average yields. Increase of the tax burden in Drenthe in the period This was also achieved by more intensive 16Io-1759. Total yield offiveimposts and four taxes expressed in lasten (I last = 3o hl); five-year moving turf-manuring. Sods were cut from the averagc waste and brought into byres as litter where they became mixed with the animal market prices. It shows that just after 17oo droppings. It was then taken to the fields. the actual tax burden was about three to In the course of time, more and more sods four times higher than it had been during were mixed with the manure. The farmers the first half of the seventeenth century. hoped that by bringing more vegetable After ~75o the almost constant tax burden humus to their fields they would get a in money was compensated by increasing better yield. By-laws of the hamlet of corn prices. Although it is still rather Anloo support this theory. In 17oo a hypothetical we have reason to believe that farmer was allowed to cut two cartloads of the extreme burden of taxation was one of sods per quarter share in the common land. the forces that gradually changed the farm- Some thirty years later this number was ing system in the open field region. We do raised to six, while in 18IO we hear com- not know exactly to what extent these plaints of farmers cutting twenty cartloads taxes were a part of the total costs a farmer or more per quarter share. had to meet, but it seems plausible to During this process of intensification, assume that in order to cope with this farmers in the open-field region gradually heavy burden of taxes during a period of managed to enlarge the comparative area low prices, farmers were forced to increase under winter rye, which was their cash the productivity of their farms. This could crop. At the same time buckwheat became not be done by enlarging their farms. more important, and they tentatively start- Between I65o and I75O the area of arable ed growing spurry and turnips. In the early land increased by less than 4 per cent. The nineteenth century the main crops and their only way left to them to increase produc- relative area were: winter rye 6 4 per cent; tion was to intensify their farming system. summer rye TO per cent; barley 1 per cent; As a result the number of cattle in the open buckwheat (sand) I4 per cent; oats 5 per field region slowly decreased while arable cent; potatoes 6 per cent. farming increased. By I8OO there were How large was the cultivation of buck- hardly any farms left that had twenty-four wheat on the moorlands within the total or more cows. Common grazing on the framework of the agriculture in Drenthe? I: ¢ RURAL CHANGE 1N THE DUTCH PROVINCE OF DRENTHE II 5 Beilen Rulnerwold ...... \ 200 Guilders r I 150 .../...,,,.A .. • .',, ( f v /l. !v\ ,..U I ; i I~ : 100 ,,.-.-, :,,iiI! i/I¢:~ il li v ~' /.. I. l7' 7 50 t"i:i'k'~J ,% = = = = = L i = 1620 1650 1700 1750 1800 FIGURE 4 Export of cattle (mainly bullocks) and pigs based on the annual yield of the impost on the uytdrifi van ossen en verckem (: 624-: 8o2) from the parishes of Beilen (open-field region) and Ruinerwold (linear village) Although the method of cultivating moor- lower fringes of the plateau however, land by draining, burning of the top layer especially in some of the linear villages, and sowing buckwheat immediately after farmers were forced to intensify their was already known by the beginning of the pasture. By the beginning of the nineteenth seventeenth century, it was probably not century these regions had become import- until the middle of the eighteenth century ant centres for dairy farming. In parishes that this crop was sown on a larger scale. like Ruinerwold and Nijeveen -- both The culture of moorland buckwheat linear villages -- the area of arable reached its peak in I877. In I85O the decreased between I65O and I832 , while at moorland buckwheat cultivation was I8.5 the same time the number of horned cattle per cent of the total sown area compared to increased. In Nijeveen, the only village of other main crops. which we have an early seventeenth- So far we have tried to show how the century record showing the number of rural community in the open field region horned cattle, this number increased from changed in the seventeenth and eighteenth 3571/2 (younger cattle counted as half) in centuries and how the farming system :6i5 to 58ol/2 in I8oo; an increase of 62 per gradually changed at the same time. These cent. At the same time the percentage of changes were caused to a great extent by a farms with six or more cows rose from 24 rise in production costs due to increased to 4o (see Table 2). taxes. As a result, more emphasis was The different ways in which farming placed on the arable farming. Along the evolved in the open-field region on the one I16 THE AGRICULTURALHISTORY REVIEW TABLE 2 Number of farms in the linear village of Beilen, in the open-field region, and in the Nijeveen in south-west Drenthe in 1615 linear village of Ruinerwold. It shows in and 18oo, classed by number of cattle what way the significance of the uitdrifi (younger cattle counting as halt') decreased dramatically after 166o in Beilen while in Ruinerwold it increased. Number of cattle Number offarras Fig 5 shows the decrease and increase of the impost on horned cattle and the total 1615 1800 number of cattle in the same parishes. This I 3 I3 2.1/2 II :8 last graph also shows the three periods 3-51/2 48 27 when the cattle-plague infested the country 6-101/2 19 23 to a great extent. Unfortunately we do not 1>151/2 i2 have any exact records showing the 16-201/2 3 damage done by these epidemics in Total 82 (I0o%) 96 (II7%) Drenthe. But by examining data concern- ing the neighbouring provinces we can Total number of cattle 3571/2 (Ioo%) 58ol/2 (I62%) assume that mortality among cattle must have been very high in the Landschap too. 4 hand and in the lower parts along the plateau on the other, can be seen in the. figures. Fig 4 shows the yield of the impost III on the exportation of cattle in the parish of Although we have already mentioned the Beilen 500 Guilders 400 ,' /' J W-s%, i 300 200 100 , , , I , , mm=B , i,Cattle-plague , 1620 1650 1700 1750 1800 FIGURE 5 Horned cattle population ix: the parishes of Bdlen (open-field region) and Ruincrwold (linear village) based o,1 yield from the impost o11 horned cattle (I625-I 8o2) i: RURAL CHANGE IN THE DUTCH PROVINCE OF DRENTHE II7 TABLE 3 Number of farms classed by number of cattle in March I8OO Number of cattle Total number 1-3 4-6 7-9 1o--12 13-15 15 offarras Open-field villages -- churchvillages 868 360 166 I3i 84 86 I695 -- other than churchvillages 456 36o 19o 263 252 287 I8O8 Subtotal 1324 720 356 394 336 373 3503 Linear villages Group I 37 35 17 24 25 1ii 249 Group II io2 84 53 44 36 49 368 Drenthe 1827 IO27 525 530 454 634 4997 differences in the social structure that could differentiation in agricultural pattern exist between the villages and hamlets in developed by the beginning of the nine- one and the same parish, we have been teenth century can be seen from the figures suggesting that the farming economy in of the cattle census held in March : 800. the open-field region had an almost uni- These figures show the distribution of form character. However, in the north of farms in classes according to the number of Drenthe there were four parishes which cattle that were kept. First it clearly shows deviated from this. the difference between the main villages in I1: these parishes the growing of hops the parishes and the remaining hamlets in was important. The parish of Peize, which the open-field region. It shows to what had about eighty-seven households in :63o extent the small farmers and cottagers was socio-economically almost completely dominated the social structure of these dependent on the hop culture. More than churchvillages. In these villages more than half of the hop hills in north Drenthe were 50 per cent of those who kept cattle had no to be found in this village. Around the more than three cows (including calves and middle of the seventeelath century eighty- heifers). I have already mentioned that seven hop growers cultivated an average of there were hardly any farms left in the IO5O hop hills per household. The four open-field region with the traditional num- parishes together had about I61,4oo hop ber of twenty-four cows. The other figures hills. I1a Peize hops employed I4 per cent of show to what extent cattle husbandry had arable land. Because of a decrease in beer developed in some of the linear villages like consumption in the seventeenth and Ruinerwold (Group I). Other linear eighteenth centuries the cultivation of hops villages (Group II) show an almost similar had almost vanished by the beginning of pattern to that of the open field region as a the nineteenth century. whole. Finally the way in which the process of II8 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW ETUDES RURALES Sommair~, dun ° 95.96 - juillet-d6cembre 1984 ETHNOGRAPHIE DE LA VIOLENCE J.-F. Bard. - Fantbmes de la violence : dnigmes tahitiennes. S. Amunugama et E. Meyer. - Remarques sur la violence darts I'iddologie bouddhique et la pratique sociale/t Sri Lanka (Ceylan). P. Bonnafd et M. Fidloux. - Le dddain de la mort et la force du cadavre, Souillure et purifi- cation d'un meurtrier lobi (Burkina/Haute-Volta). C. Aids.- Violence et ordre social dans une soci6t6 amazonienne. Les Yanomami du Venezuela. J. Robert-Lamblin. - L'expression de la violence darts la socidtd ammassalimiut (cbte orien- tale du Groenland). I~. Claverie. - De la difficultd de faire un citoyen : les ~acquittements scandaleux>~ du jury darts la France provinciale du ddbut du XIXe sidcle. Y. Pourcher. - Des ~assises de gr~iee~ ? Le jury de la cour d'assises de la LozAre au XIXe sidcle. A. Morel. - Une socidtd sous tension. La grande ferme picarde. M. P. Di Bella. - La ~violence~ du silence dans la tradition sicilienne. M. Segalen et B. Le Wita. - ~ Notes critiques et comptes rendus LES SCIENCES SOCIALES ET LE PAYSAGE J. Cloarec. - Des paysages. ETUDES ET RECHERCHES F. Chauvaud. - L'usure au XIXe sidelc : le fldau des eampagnes. G. Lutz. - Techniques pastorales d'hier et d'aujourd'hui : chiens de conduite et chiens de ddfense dans les Amdriques. CHRONIQUE SCIENTIFIQUE Le systdme alimcntaire mexicain ~ la lumidre de la crise agrieole de l'Amdrique latine (R. Bareelo, R. Martner, A. Rivas-Espejo). Revue publide par le Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Socialc R#daetion : Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Sociale Collkge de France, 11 place Marcelin-Berthelot - 75231 Paris cedex 05 T~l. :329 12 II (poste 24.22) Diffusion : CID, 131 boulevard Saint-Michel- 75005 Paris i: f !, Dearth and the Marketing of Agricultural Produce: Oxfordshire c. 17 5o-18oo By W THWAITES MAJOR problem for anyone contem- to indicate how it can be used to reveal plating a local study of marketing patterns in marketing and trade prevailing and internal trade is to find a signifi- in non-crisis periods. The second is to cant collection of source material. In fact, point out when the evidence may not be almost no evidence at all is available from representative of normal times, by show- periods of good or average harvests, mod- ing the role which scarcity itself played in erate prices and adequate supplies. When influencing marketing and trading prac- staple items were reaching the consumers tices. Dearth will be seen to have had not at prices they could largely afford to pay, only a radical short-term impact on mar- very few people ever bothered to analyse keting and trading practices but also a such everyday concerns as the sale, pur- possible longer term effect, providing a chase and consumption of food. Thus, stimulus to new developments while caus- N S B Gras suggested that the 'people' ing neglected practices to be re-established. failed to recognize the value of the corn middlemen, 'because in times of plenty they do not consider the matter at all'.' It seems that only when the system was I unable to achieve its task of satisfying the The range of evidence surviving from needs of the consumer was serious atten- periods of scarcity is considerable. At the tion paid to the process of marketing and national level each crisis witnessed the internal trade. It is consequently to periods publication of numerous books and of harvest failure and supply difficulties pamphlets offering analyses of the causes of that one must look for the principal data on the scarcity and possible remedies. While which to base studies of marketing, par- these are usually too general to be of value ticularly the marketing of corn. in a local study, it is nevertheless almost Much of the material which proved most always possible to find one or two using useful in nay study of the marketing of evidence from the particular area one is agricultural produce in the inland, food- researching. Thus, J S Girdler, whose producing county of Oxfordshire-" was Observatiorls on the Pernicious Consequences of produced during the four major periods of Forestalling, Regrating and hlgrossitlg was dearth in the second half of the eighteenth published in I8OO, lived at Hare Hatch, century, I756-7, I766-8, I794-6, and near Maidenhead and used examples to I8oo-oi. The aims of this article are two- illustrate his points from the nearby town fold. The first is to examine the types of of Henley on Thames. There is, for material surviving from these periods and example, a description of what might be termed an inverted corn riot, when in ' N S B Gras, The Evolution q/'clte English Corn M,Irket,fi',~m the Tu,e!/ih ¢o che .ff'(llhteellth Centtu T, Cambridge, 1913, p 206. I796, Girdler attended Henley market to -' WThwaiws, 'TheMarketingofAgricultural Produccin Eighteenth Century Oxfordshire'. Unpublished Phl) Thesis, University of buy oats and was attacked by farmers and Birmingham, 198o. mealmen over his attempts to enforce II9 120 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW traditional laws for consumer protection. 3 subjects connected with food prices and Also included is a detailed account of a case supplies. Details of local authority of regrating at Henley, when Richard measures to deal with the crises, accounts Jemmett was convicted for buying wheat of prosecutions for marketing offences and at 85 shillings per quarter and selling it in descriptions of the operation of charitable the same market on the same day for Ioo schemes to relieve the poor are also always shillings. 4 Central government bodies available. With the exception of the corres- investigating dearth likewise drew pondence, Quarter Sessions bundles and evidence from all parts of the country. The record books contain a similar range of Committee of the House of Lords Appointed to material. Enquire into the Scarcity of Provisions Sessions A number of individual market towns 1765,5 for example, collected some are generally well-documented. The bor- valuable data on the size of the corn ough records of Henley on Thames, for measures used in Oxfordshire markets. example, contain detailed accounts of This is essential information for anyone changes made in the physical arrangements contemplating an analysis of price series. of the market. 7 Once again, however, a The several Public Record Office collec- greater range and quantity of evidence tions normally used in studies of popular survives from periods of dearth. Henley's disturbances are also informative. Classi- records include a detailed opinion on fied under Assizes, Home Office, Privy purchasing corn outside the market place Council, War Office and Rail6 one finds written in I768, s an account of a case of much of the legal data and correspondence forestalling pigs in I8OO,9 and a bundle of generated by food shortages. Letters are twenty papers on a variety of subjects available on riots and on local authority relating to the high price of bread and responses to the difficulties; on attempts by provisions in the years I795, I799 and the major urban and industrial areas to 18o0. ,o procure supplies; on the protection demanded by millers, farmers, dealers and wharf supervisors; and on dietary habits. II All such documents throw at least as much While all the evidence detailed above was light on the operation of marketing and produced in what were essentially abnor- trade as they do on the behaviour, compo- mal circumstances, it is nevertheless poss- sition and suppression of the eighteenth- ible to deduce much about the normal century crowd. situation and standard practices from it. A At the local level newspapers always few examples will suffice to show this. turned their attention to marketing and First, it is not easy to discover the exact trade during dearth. Jackson's Oxford Jour- location of food dealing in the eighteenth hal contains very full accounts of the century: were corn sales still centred on the mid-century food riots and while more market place or had they, as many writers circumspect in its reporting of disturbances suggest, shifted to the inns and wharfs with by the I79os still includes, during the later their superior facilities and valued privacy? crisis years, letters on a whole range of An examination of the location of riots and 'lqenley Borough Assembly 1722-1799', Oxtbrdshirc Record j s Girdler, Observations on the Pernicious Consequences qfForeshdli,lg, Office (ORO), Ms 1) 13 Henley A V 8. Regrating and Ingn,ssi,tg . . . 180o. p 2 Jo. 'Mr Hayes Opinion about Forestalling', ORO, Ms 1) D Henley A * lbid, p214. XXII 3. 'Papers and Letters of the Committee of the House of Lords 'J 'Town of Henley upon Thames. Case of Forestalling Pigs', ORO, Appointed to Enquireinto the Scarcity of Provisions Sessions 1763', Ms D D Henley A XV Xl/l. House of Lords Record Office. ,o 'Bundle of Twenty Papers Relating to the High Price of Bread and ~' For the records of the Oxford Canal Company. Provisions 1795, 1799 and 18oo', ORO, Ms D D Henley C IV 7. i DEARTH AND THE MARKETING OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE 121 the specific targets of riotous crowds can Norton mealman, produced a similar state- help to pinpoint the changes which took ment swearing that his dealings, 'are and place. Thus, riots which occurred in were with those in this Part of the Country Oxford in 1693 were centred firmly on the and with Bakers within the Distance of market place, ix However, in 1757 a riotous Birmingham and Coventry'. ~7 Finally, crowd in the city visited three inns, the demonstrating that even in this period King's Head, where they seized two loads there were still dealers concerned solely of wheat, the Mitre and the Star. x-" In with their own localities, Thomas Hudson, conjunction with the evidence that a no- a mealman of Wood Green near Witney, table corn dealer, Richard Williams, was declared that so far from being concerned master of the King's Head from 1772, x3 with exporting, his trade has been confined this would suggest that by the mid eight- to Witney and its vicinity. ''s Statements eenth century City inns had definitely made by Atkins and by Hudson concern- come to play a central role in Oxford's ing their dealings with bakers also help to corn trade. Again, during the Banbury illustrate the declining role being played by riots of 18oo, the Red Lion inn, occupied the baker in the late eighteenth-century by the corn dealer William Pratt, was set corn market. on fire by, 'a Mob of (the) Town joined by Finally, an analysis of the foodstuffs Boatmen of the Canal'. ~4 This would which rioting crowds either seized or suggest that the inn, certainly the centre of regulated in price can be very revealing of corn dealing in Banbury in the nineteenth changes in the dietary habits and purchas- century,'5 was already by the late eight- ing behaviour of the poor. For example, in eenth century closely connected with the all food riot years between 1693 and I766 town's corn trade. crowds in Oxford and the County's other The organization of the long-distance towns appropriated wheat or fixed the corn trade is another subject for which price at which it was to be sold to the poor. evidence is not normally available. How- On the other hand, in all food riot years ever, in the I79os persistent rumours from I766 onwards rioting crowds fixed among a disturbed populace that local the prices at which bread, flour and meal mealmen and dealers were engaged in were to be sold or seized these products in exporting corn to France forced several of addition to or instead of corn. ,,2 Moreover, them to defend themselves by issuing several periods of disturbance from 17Io denials of the charges in the newspapers. onwards saw moves to ensure that bakers, These statements provide important as well as consumers, were provided with insights into the normal business dealings corn and from 1767 onwards witnessed of local food processors and dealers. In attempts by the poor to influence the I795, for example, an Oxford corn chand- setting of the assize of bread. -'° This shift in ler, John Borlase, declared, 'nay Dealings the interest of the urban crowd from in Corn, Grain, or Flour, were and have unground corn to wheat derivatives by the been with Persons who resided within the disturbances of the I76os is almost cer- Distance of Coventry, Birmingham and tainly indicative of a change in their Dudley'. ~ William Atkins, a Chipping purchasing behaviour during normal times " Thwaites, op cit, pp 468-9. and is much the most useful data available ': lbid, pp 474-9. l)uring the same riots the wharfs were also visited. to suggest the period in which poor con- u Ibid, p317. ,4 'l)avid Hughes to Duke of Portland, 15 September 18oo', Public sumers ceased to be purchasers of wheat. Record Office (PRO) Home Office HO 42:5 l, 154. 'vJOff l August 1795. ,s A Crossley (Ed), The Victoria History of the Colmtl, of Oxford, X, 'xjOJ 8 August 1795. Banb.ry Hundred, Oxford, J972, p 60. '" Thwaites, op cit, p 213. "jackson's O.xf, rdJournal (]OJ) x l July I/9~. 2o Ibid, pp 211-12. i 122 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW In the examples outlined above it is example, in 18oo a case of conspiracy to almost certain that the picture revealed enhance the price of wheat was brought during the period of dearth was the one before the County Quarter Sessions after a which prevailed at normal times. The yeoman had tried to persuade a vendor of information is too incidental to have been corn at Bampton fair to raise his asking the product of the manipulative reporting price from 35 to 4o pounds the load.-'-" so common during scarcity. The emotions Rumours of farmers and dealers holding and moral considerations to which dearth back corn from the market in the hope of gave rise are most unlikely to have distor- generating further price rises or ted witnesses' perceptions of the location of maximizing profits by offloading as prices riots or the foodstuffs seized during dis- peaked, were also rife, although firm docu- turbances. Moreover the patterns in mar- mentary evidence of speculative hoarding keting and trade found to have prevailed in is difficult to find. In fact, when the Earl of Oxfordshire are much the same as the Guilford required the steward of his estate patterns described in regional and national at Wroxton to discover if the crisis of I767 studies. It is also possible to find occasional had encouraged his tenants to hold back extra data from non-dearth periods to corn in the hope of increasing the price, the support the arguments. steward reported that there was no evi- However, it is equally certain that not all dence of hoarding. -'3 However, a reference of the evidence surviving from periods of to a sale of'old' wheat in Oxford market in scarcity can be used to indicate normal February r757 suggests that in that partic- practices and attitudes. Thus, the very ular crisis some farmers had waited eight- conditions which caused people to investi- een months and for prices in excess of eight gate the subject of the food supply may shillings per bushel before they soid. -'4 have been causing a distortion of normal Better documented is the way in which patterns. Dearth was exceptional and the dearth conditions produced an extension in behaviour it produced must often have the area which looked to Oxfordshire for been exceptional also. supplies of foodstuffs. In I795, for exana- There is much evidence that marketing ple, not merely was there greatly increased and internal trade did operate along demand for corn from Birmingham, War- different lines during a period of high wickshire and Staffordshire but there is prices and food shortages. Many con- also evidence of the acquisition of temporaries believed that crop failures and Oxfordshire corn for Derbyshire and Lan- ! ) food shortages had no real existence. This cashire with which trade seldom normally view was doubtless unduly cynical. Never- took place. Thus, Christopher Wil- -i theless, there is no doubt that scarcity, by loughby, a county Justice, referred to the acting both to encourage and to facilitate 'vast export of grain' from Oxfordshire to various types of speculative activity, did Lancashire and Derbyshire "--s and com- acquire an artificial element. Berthold plained that, 'A great deal of ore" wheat has Brecht's comment, 'Famines do not occur, they are organized by the grain trade',-" illustrates clearly the view, as relevant in -" 'Quarter Sessions 13tmdlcs, Michaehmls ~800' ORO. -'.~ 'Letters from Stewards of Estates 2. 1765-18oo', Bodlcian MS the eighteenth as in the twentieth century, North d 3, p88. that scarcity can be exploited for profit. -'a 'Corn Book of the ('lurks of the Market ~751-1767 ', Oxford University Archives MR 3/5/2. lain indebted to the Keeper of the Crude attempts might be made to keep up University Archives for permission to refer to this material. or enhance already inflated prices. For Further research on farm accounts might reveal more on the extent to which farmers held back their corn from market. " Quoted in S George, H01v the Other Ha{f Dies. The Rt'al l~t,a.~olls.lbr -'5 'Christopher Willoughby to Duke of Portland, 29June t795' PRO. World Huneer, Harmondsworth, 1977, p 46. Privy Council PC 1:26 A 51. ,i DEARTH AND THE MARKETING OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE 12 3 lately been purchased for Liverpool', 26 his policy of enforcing the old regulations for emphasis suggesting that this was an consumer protection. Regulation had, in unusual threat to local supplies. Accom- fact, been very largely a response to dearth panying complaints of upsurges in demand fforn the sixteenth century onwards. Thus, for Oxfordshire corn were references to the A Everitt suggests that even in the six- activities of dealers or jobbers. An analysis teenth and early seventeenth centuries little of the clientele of Oxford City market for restraint was imposed on the activities of the period I692-I8OO shows a corn market private traders in times of plenty.3' dominated by the local community. City Moreover, N S B Gras,3~ J Chartresfl 3 food processors, particularly bakers, andJ Walter and K Wrightson 34 all indicate formed easily the majority of the that the enforcement of regulations to purchasers. 27 However, in I757 we find a control marketing and internal trade in reference to the 'locusts' buying corn in the Tudor period and the seventeenth Oxford market and preventing local bakers century was primarily a response to dearth. from purchasing. 28 Again, from June I795 Eighteenth-century Oxfordshire magis- we have the comment by Christopher trates seem on the whole automatically to Willoughby, 'Wheat is Io/6 the bushel and have followed the approach which had Dealers from Derbyshire, Staffordshire, been evolved during the previous two Warwickshire etc etc now attend our Mar- centuries. kets and will give the Farmers their own The authorities did not always require price'. 2<) He provided the stress on the the spur of scarcity before enforcing the word now, making it clear the problem law, however. 35 Commitments to ensur- was exceptional. Not merely was it felt ing minimum standards of honesty from that the open markets were threatened by traders and hygiene and good order in the the dealers but it was also firmly believed market place were very largely unrelated to that these non-local dealers and factors price levels. The assize of bread continued were buying corn at the farm gate and to be set regularly throughout the period in making contracts for crops still growing in Oxford and in Henley no pattern is visible the fields. In I795 Willoughby reported in prosecutions for offences connected with that it was a 'positive fact' that dealers from the sale of bread. Moreover, the Commit- the Midlands and North, 'buy up all our tee responsible for the control of the cov- wheat from the Farmers at their oum price ered provisions market in Oxford seems and without takirtg it to Market'. 30 Even if the always to have possessed a firm commit- anxiety aroused by famine caused some ment to public marketing institutions; an exaggeration and unreliability in reporting, antagonistic attitude towards speculation there is sufficient evidence to indicate that and even a belief that the concept of a [just dearth conditions led to greatly increased price' might have a permanent validity. pressure on local resources and an upsurge Nevertheless, the enforcement or in speculative activity. attempted enforcement of most types of This shift to more aggressive and com- petitive marketing techniques was counter- "ll A Everitt, The Marketing of Agricultural Produce' in J Thirsk (Ed), The Agr, lri,ltt Histor), of Enk#and and Wah.s, IV, 15oo-164o, balanced by a return by the authorities to a Cambridge, z967, pp 579, 581. •~: Gras, op tit, p 229. :" 'Christopher Willoughby to I)uke of Portland, 5Ju!y 1795', PI~,O, .u j A Chartres, Internal Trade in Englamt 15o~7o0, 1977, pp 6o.-4. HO 42:35, 93. ."J Waiter and K Wrightson, 'l)earth aud the social order in early -'v Thwaites, op oil, pp 183-8. modem England', Past amt Present, 71, May 1976, pp 37-42. "-xJOJ 18June 1757. .~s These conclusions have been drawn by using tables illustrating the "J 'Christopher Willoughby to John King, 28June 1795'. PRO, HO chronological pattern in the enforcement of various types of law 42:35, 54. and regulation in conjunction with tables of Oxfordshire corn 3,, 'Christopher Willoughby to l)uke of Portland, 29 June 1795'. prices. For the tables see Thwaites, op tit, pp 398-466; Appendices, PRO, PC z:26A 51. Oxfordshire Corn Price Material. i:li 124 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW regulation was almost entirely dearth local consumers and the supplies of the i related. Thus moves to enforce the statute, local community in z766 were also 5 and 6 Edward VI c 14, repealed in 1772, designed to appease the crowd. Again, and to prevent the common law offences of except perhaps in Oxford, a') attacks made forestalling, engrossing and regrating or in in z80o on the forestalling, engrossing and C R Fay's phrase 'the unpopular manipu- regrating of all types of provisions seem to lation, in time or place, of the people's have resulted from disturbances. All food', 36 were made in response to scarcity. announcements of measures to reduce In addition, the reintroduction of measures prices made in I766, z795 and r8oo, almost for the protection of the local consumer the only years in the eighteenth century and the restoration of the 'just' price of the which witnessed attempts to bring about type detailed in the Book of Orders, y~ was price reductions, appear to have been made also closely related to food crises. at the instigation of food rioters. However, the statement that regulation Moreover, and perhaps most un- was a response to dearth is incomplete. expectedly, moves to ensure that correct Thus, there is no evidence of a return to weights and measures were employed in regulation in Oxfordshire during the crisis the towns of Woodstock and Witney in of I74O--1. In fact, for law enforcement to z 800 seem to have been a concession to the take place the presence of an additional crowd. Finally, a sudden upsurge in prose- pressure was usually required, the compel- cutions for assize of bread offences in ling one of popular disturbance. I757-8 may have been influenced at the Under three sets of circumstances it very least, by disturbances in Bicester. would appear that it was the food riot Thus, five of the ten prosecutions which rather than scarcity per se which precipi- were at county level took place in tated the return to regulation: first, when Ploughley Hundred of which Bicester was the authorities actually admitted that their a part and one of those who gave evidence measures were to appease rioters; second, was ahnost certainly the wife of a Bicester when the announcement of law enforce- food rioter. It is also possible that the ment was accompanied by a commitment pro-consumer slant given to the assize of to prevent riots; and third, when an attack bread in dearth years was partly an attempt on marketing abuses occurred, after an to appease riotous crowds and there is no outbreak of rioting, in an area in which doubt that the crowd was able to influence regulation was otherwise wholly excep- the assize by bringing about reductions in tional. 3s the price of wheat on which it was set. Disturbances and crowd pressure must then bear responsibility for a whole series of measures. Thus, almost all announce- III ments from z757 onwards that the auth- Hitherto it has been suggested that the orities were intending to suppress specu- patterns in marketing and trade revealed lative dealings in corn or to restrict the during a dearth period can be regarded as trade in corn to the market place were either standard or very specific to the made in response to outbreaks of rioting. scarcity period itself. Other patterns which Two attempts to protect the interests of emerge are much less easy to interpret in ei&er of these two ways. Under two sets ,m C R Fay, The Corn Lau,s amt Social h'n.elaml, Cambrid go, w93 a, p 54. of circumstances more caution is required •~7 According to N S B Gras the Book of Orders consolidated in one document, 'the regulations embodying the Tudor policy of restraint'. Gras provides a summary of the 'Book'. Gras, op tit. pp •~'J The more complex relationship between crowd actkm and -'37-40. measures by tile authorities to control marketing and internal trade -~a For evidence on these points scc Thwaitcs, op tit, pp 5a:-4. in Oxford is discnsscd ill Thwaiws, 0p cir. pp 499-504. ¢, DEARTH AND THE MARKETING OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE 12 5 in handling the material surviving from a account of an urban tradesman purchasing dearth period. The first is when the earliest at the farm-gate on a casual basis occurs in evidence on a particular process or Mr Hayes Opinion about Forestalling in 1768: development comes from a scarcity period 'One Pitman, a Maltster in Henley went to but when the pattern continues to be found a Farmer's House at Shiplake and at his after the crisis subsides. The second is Barn Door purchased sixteen quarters of when a specific pattern in marketing or Barley'. .2 Again, the first eighteenth- trade which had apparently been aban- century account of the speculative purchase doned re-emerges during a crisis and, of growing crops comes from J S Girdler, unlike the measures which were definitely who recorded the purchase by a maltster dearth-related, continues to prevail after and farmer of Benson of eleven acres of the problems of scarcity have been over- wheat growing on a farm at Roke during come. The first type of developments will the crisis of 1795. `*3 be called progressive because they were There are a number of ways in which the new and forward-looking. The second evidence might be explained. For example, type will be called retrogressive because we may simply be seeing the effects of the they looked back to past models rather publicity which standard and well- than breaking new ground. In this context established marketing and trading practices retrogressive does not necessarily mean suddenly received in dearth. Thus, no one backward-looking in the sense of merely may have thought it necessary to comment old-fashioned or inappropriate. on the development of the canal-borne Several examples show progressive trade with the West Midlands while that changes being recorded initially in a period trade was having no significant impact of dearth. Thus, our first evidence on the upon local consumers. However, once the canal-borne corn trade with the West Mid- trade appeared for the first time to threaten lands comes from 1795, although the canal supplies required in the locality, public was opened from Banbury to Warwick- attention became focused upon it. Interest shire in I778 and from Oxford in I79O. and emotions were perhaps seldom stirred The trade continued to be mentioned after until the adverse side-effects of a new 1795 . Again, the period May-October development became apparent. Certainly, 1795 provides four reports that short- an Oxfordshire farmer who mentioned the weight butter had been seized in Oxford. canal trade in 1795 did so in tones sugges- Further cases appear in .Jackson's Oxford ting that it had become established before Journal between 1796 and 1798, `*0 and there the crisis of that year: 'Some corn has is considerable evidence that short-weight certainly been purchased within these few butter was seized by the Clerks of the years for the use of Birmingham, and the Market in the early nineteenth century. `*z various manufacturing places in Staf- Before I795, however, only one case was fordshire and its neighbourhood, more recorded, in March I783, itselfa high price particularly since a communication has period. Moreover, the earliest Oxfordshire been opened by a canal to those evidence on practices generally thought to countries'.`*4 have become prevalent in the eighteenth The publicity given to the long-distance century is frequently found in a period of scarcity. Thus, the first unequivocal 4: 'Mr Hayes Opinion about Forestalling', ORO, Ms D D Henley A XXII 3. 4~ Girdler, op tit, p 289. "~° lbid, pp 41 t-13. 44 An Oxfordshire Farmer, A Repl), to the hlstructions given b), the 4, 'Perambulations of the Clerks of the Market, z8o8-z 8;:8', Bodleian Common Council of O.xford to F Burton and A Annesley Esqrs their Ms Top Oxon f2. 'Papers relating to the Clerks of the Market and Representatives in Parliament, on the Present Scarcity of Provisions .... their Work, z82 z-t 85 z', Bodleian Ms Top Oxon e 98. 1795, p z2. l i 126 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW corn trade was likely to exacerbate popular that the authorities in Oxfordshire only discontent. To counter this, local auth- implemented certain new and forward- orities may sometimes have decided to looking laws several years after they were publicize equally standard procedures passed and during the next period of which operated in the interests of scarcity subsequent to their passage. For consumers. This may provide the explan- example, the Act requiring the appoint- ation for other apparently new develop- ment of Inspectors of Corn Returns was ments. Thus, seizures of short weight passed in I791 but it was not until Septem- butter may have been a normal occurrence ber 1795 that an inspector was appointed in eighteenth-century Oxford, reported in for the City of Oxford. 46 J the newspapers in years of high prices, not Turning to retrogressive change, we because they were unusual but because of again find several examples of this type of their possible soothing effect on an out- development recorded during scarcity raged public. periods. Thus, attempts to revive decayed However, it is possible that dearth may open markets were rare in eighteenth- sometimes have had a greater impact than century Oxfordshire. Apart from two simply helping to focus attention on nor- moves to re-establish a cattle market in mality. It may also have provided a chal- Oxford, only three other revival attempts lenge to old-established methods of were recorded, at Charlbury in September conducting business and a stimulus to look 18oo and at Bampton in both November for new and more efficient ways of I766 and October 18oo. The notice con- organizing marketing and internal trade. cerning Bampton in 1766 declared, Like war it may have played an active role Whereas the Market at Bampton... hath for some in generating change. In our present state Years been discontinued This is to inform the of knowledge it is not really possible to Publick that the said Market is now going to be say. Nevertheless, it is conceivable with revived, and will be kept every Wednesday for both farm-gate selling and the pre-harvest Corn, Cheese, Butter, Eggs, Fish, Poultry and all contractual sale that dearth did do more other Provisions, 47 than simply encourage an ignorant popu- showing clearly that a traditional, local, lace to interpret normal and acceptable open market was envisaged. It cannot be business practices as sinister and amoral. It coincidental that the only recorded may well have acted as a spur to a relative attempts to restore the old open market increase in these private sales techniques. ideal were contemporary with the most J S Girdler, for example, certainly felt that difficult periods of two of the major food there was a considerable increase in the crises of the eighteenth century. Moreover, practice of buying growing crops between in support of the view that we cannot the crises of I795 and 18oo. 4s Moreover, if afford to regard such measures as necessar- the pressures of scarcity encouraged trades- ily inappropriate, we may note that R men and dealers to explore new markets Dumont and N Cohen in The Growth of and new trading techniques there is little Hunger, concerned with an appropriate likelihood these would have been discarded agriculture for the I98OS, suggest 'local had they proved profitable or convenient. markets selling local goods', 4,~ as one In addition to its effects on the commer- acceptable solution to the problems. The cial community, dearth may also have market revivals in Oxfordshire were prob- influenced local authorities to pursue pro- gressive change. Thus, we have evidence 4".]oj ~2 September 1795. 'w JOJ 8 November 1766. 4, R Dunmnt and N Cohen, The Givu,th qfHmager. A New Politics ql" 4~ Girdler, op tit, p 289. A~ricnlmre, 198o, p 198. i ( q., DEARTH AND THE MARKETING OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE I2 7 ably only marginally successful although circumstances, it seems likely that the both Charlbury and Bampton did retain adverse publicity received by sample- the remnants of their markets throughout selling during the crises of the mid-fifties the first half of the nineteenth century. and mid-sixties had helped to ensure that Again, on the whole, the eighteenth the final extinction of bulk-selling was century witnessed a decline in the old postponed. pitched markets, to which farmers had Finally, it is possible, that the dearth of taken all their corn to sell in bulk and saw I757 may have led to a revival in the their replacement by sample markets, to enforcement of the laws requiring the which farmers took only purses filled with licensing of provisions dealers, corn bad- wheat, disposing of entire crops on the gers and cattle drovers. This cannot be strength of these examples. stated with certainty because licence data In Oxford, which had certainly are not always easy to interpret.Ss possessed a pitched market in the I74OS, Nevertheless, while there is little evidence sample-selling must have begun by I755, to suggest that the laws were enforced when corn dealers using the City's market between 1696 and I757, they were cer- declared their opposition to the practice. 4') tainly observed in Oxfordshire throughout Their action appears to have had little the 176os and until their repeal in 1772. 56 impact, however, for by the crisis of I757 In conclusion, unlike the progressive the development was again arousing hostil- developments which seem, at the most, to ity. During the Oxford riots of that year a have been accelerated by the pressure of crowd in the City stopped a waggon scarcity, retrogressive changes may well outside Trinity College and, alleging that not have taken place at all without the the wheat the waggon contained had been influence of dearth. Scarcity appears to illegally bought up by sample, shared out have made consumers and local market the contents. 5° After a quiet period, the authorities very aware of the changes crisis of I766 brought revived opposition which had gradually been taking place in to the sample markets. Persons interested their relationship with the business com- in the corn trade declared their determin- munity. Brought up sharply against the ation, 'not to suffer Wheat or other Grain erosion of traditional rights and protec- to be sold as formerly, by Sample, in the tions, which had occurred virtually unno- several Markets of (Oxfordshire) and the ticed in previous years, they were occas- adjacent Counties', 51 and in January I768 ionally able to restore aspects of the old the authorities in Henley expressed the fear system and so stave off for a few years the that, 'if persons are allowed to buy at growth of a more impersonal economy. Barn-Doors and by sample, Henley will only have the name of a market Town without the Use or Profit of it'. 5-" IV In spite of the severity of the problem, The final question to examine is whether however, bulk sales continued at Oxford the implementation of crisis measures and until approximately 178os3 and Henley interventionist policies was appropriate in retained a large and notable pitched market the peculiarly difficult circumstances of into the nineteenth century.54 Under these dearth or whether a return to restraint 4'~JOJ 18 October t755. involved damaging and unacceptable inter- '°JOd 18June 1757. s, joj 18 October 1766. ference with perfectly reasonable business s-. 'Mr Hayes Opinion about Forestalling', ORO, Ms D l) Henley A practices. XXII 3. s3 Thwaites, op tit, pp 252-3. ss lbid, pp 391-4. 54 lbid, pp 4o-1. so, lbid, pp 430-8. ili 19.8 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW While doubts about the value of tra- over Devon, 'social peace required a dur- ditional measures for consumer protection able solution of popular grievances'. 59 i i were definitely beginning to be expressed Central government guidelines were by the mid-eighteenth century, it neverthe- clear. First, it was openly admitted by a less remained the policy of the central Home Office representative to an -i government to recommend the enforce- Oxfordshire magistrate in 1795 that the ment of the sixteenth-century protectionist government was not really in a position to statutes up to the dearth of 1766. It was assist an inland county like Oxfordshire: only after the repeal of the laws in 1772 that It is difficult to know in what manner to convey any the authorities in Oxfordshire and most quantity of wheat for the use of the more interior notably in the City of Oxford found that parts of the kingdom -- the expence of the carriage their attitudes were no longer necessarily in and the time which it will require to convey it to accord with government thinking. This distant places by land, or by canals would render this discussion is therefore confined to the relief both uncertain and difficult. 6° period when the views of central and local In spite of this, however, it was expected authorities had diverged and the question that Oxfordshire magistrates should pro- of which policies were the most beneficial tect those removing grain from the county. for Oxfordshire is a relevant one.57 Thus in 18oo the Duke of Portland criti- The first point is the rather obvious one cized the Mayor of Oxford for permitting a that the most serious dearth years, 1795 crowd to enter the canal wharf when it was and I8OO, witnessed genuine local crises. his duty, 'to have protected the free pro- There was considerably ificreased demand gress of grain and other provisions, from for Oxfordshire corn, particularly in 1795, one part of the country to the other'. 6' and this when crops had already fallen Second, the government produced an short. 5s Prices were vastly inflated. Food emphatic denunciation of the paternalist riots were widespread. In 1795 Oxford, view. After rioting had died down in Henley, Burford, Banbury, Deddington, Oxfordshire in 18oo the Duke of Portland Bloxham, Witney and Long Hanborough declared to the Vice-Chancellor: were all affected. In 18oo disturbances I incline to hope .... that the people in general occurred or were threatened at Oxford, begin to be convinced that perfect security of Henley, Woodstock, Weston-on-the- property and the discouragement of those pernicious Green, Bicester, Burford, Banbury, Wit- and destructive opinions which attribute the dearness ney, Charlbury and Fawler. Not only were of Provisions to engrossers and forestallers ctc arc the forces of law and order inadequate but absolutely and indispensably necessary to cnsure a tolerable supply of the Markets.c'" magistrates were also aware that they could not afford to suppress disturbances too It was also stressed that all attempts to harshly when they had to continue to live influence price levels were unjust, foolish in the community afterwards. Given this or illegal, o3 combination of circumstances it was A major problem with these govern- obvious that, as John Bohstedt declared ment guidelines was that the crowd found ~7 For more general accounts of changing attitudes see, E P ~'~J Bohstedt, 'l)evon Food Riots and the Politics of Community Thompson, 'The moral economy of the English crowd in the Conflict ca. t 8oo', unpublished paper, p 48. I should like to thank eighteenth century', Past and Prest'nt, 50, February t97t. A W DrJ Bohstedt for allowing me to rise this paper. Coats, 'Debates. Contrary moralities: Plebs, paternalists and "° 'lohn King to Christopher Willoughby, 3 July 1795', PRO, FIO political economists', Past aml Present, 54, February 1972. E F 43:6, 507. Genovese, 'Debate, The many faces of moral economy. A "' 'Duke of Portland to l)avid l)urrcll, t9 September tSoo', PRO, contribution to a Debate'. Past amt Present, 58, February 1973. I) E HO 43:12, t44. Williams, 'English Hunger Riots in 1766', Unpublished l'hl) ~" 'Duke of Portland to Vice-Chancellor, 4 October tSoo', Thesis, University of Wales, t978. University of Nottingham, 3rd Duke of Portland. Copies of .~" Letters concerning the shortfall in the crops of 1794 and t 795 can be Private LettcrsJuly 1797-18m, PWV 111. found in PRO Home Office 4z:36. ~'~.]QJ I November 18oo. DEARTH AND THE MARKETING OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE 129 them unintelligible. Thus, in 18oo David Riots were also about prices and the Hughes of Jesus College confided to Port- right and need of the poor to be able to land a remark he had overheard in Oxford, afford sufficient food to avoid hunger. 'the House of Commons despaired of Under these circumstances it cannot be doing any good with the farmers -- so we supposed that the view that the farmer must do it ourselves -- Mr. Pitt had said so should be allowed to charge whatever he -- Mr. Pitt had said everything must be left wished for his corn would have been to find its own level'. 64 Moreover, Cyril appreciated by the crowd. Commitments Jackson, the influential Dean of Christ- to the ideal of the 'just' price may not church felt that such confusion was not necessarily have brought long-term advan- unreasonable. He complained to the Home tage but in serious crises short-term price Office that, 'Government is strongly reductions were often sufficient to pacify remiss in informing the publick mind', and the poor until charitable schemes for their that, 'They seem to me not given to know relief could take over the task of feeding the importance of doing so'. 65 them. Thus, in 18oo, ultimately even those Of course, even had the crowd been able who concurred in government thinking to understand the government viewpoint it finally acceded to crowd demands. For is most unlikely they could have accepted example, in Banbury, where the Mayor it. Thus, riots were in part about adequate was apparently in agreement with the food supplies and an insistence on the free Duke of Portland, rioting did not actually movement of grain and that the activities subside until the free market economy had of the engrosser were essential if markets ceased to operate and farmers had agreed to were to be supplied could not be acceptable sell their wheat at the reduced price of ten in a county like Oxfordshire where the shillings per bushel. 68 implementation of such a policy in dearth Coupled with the desire for food at would ensure that corn needed by the local prices they could afford, was the idea of community would be sent away to feed justice, E P Thompson's 'moral economy' distant consumers. As Christopher Wil- of the crowd. The poor expected to see the loughby declared very simply in I795: 'If authorities preventing the exploitation of Government had wished to have had corn dearth conditions and 'if the officials failed from this country, care should have (been) to suppress market 'abuses' no alternative taken in the beginning to satisfy the inhabi- philosophy on marketing would dissuade tants that sufficient was left for their own the crowd from regulating the markets for consumption'. 66 Moreover, Warwickshire themselves. magistrates who were suffering through So on the purely practical grounds that it the protectionism in the neighbouring helped to restore order while preserving county could, at least, appreciate this point good relationships within the community a of view: return to the old protectionist regulations I cannot believe the Country Gentlemen in was necessary. Oxfordshire will act heartily in protecting Corn or More complex an issue is whether it had Flour sending out of their neighbourhood whilst the a deeper justification. A decisive answer price is so high as very much to distress their own Poor. 67 would be difficult, but there are a number ',4 'David Hughes to l)uke of Portland, 7 September t 8oo', PRO, HO of points which might be made. 42:5t, 60. First, if as has been suggested, marketing "~ 'Cyril Jackson to Home Office, at October t8¢o', PP,O, HO and trade operated differently in dearth, 42:32, 202. e,e, 'Christopher Willoughby to Thomas Carter, 7 August 1795', PRO, HO 42:35,368-9. ~,s ,p, Bignell to Charles Butler, 16 September 18oo', enclosure i,1, e,v 'Samuel Garbett to Heneage Legge, 29July 1795', PRO, PC 1:29, A 'George lsted toJohn King, [7 September t 8oo', PRO, HO 4a:St, 64. 230. ~3o THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW with an upsurge in speculation and profi- ucts to a free market economy and treating teering, it was perhaps not inappropriate them as 'commodities in the interest of that different policies should have been profit', 7~ is a morally defensible policy. It applied to these crisis periods. Moreover, was seen in the eighteenth century, as now, in times of rapid inflation, it is possible that that laissez-faire both permitted the com- the offences which the old protectionist mercial communities to profit from neces- legislation operated to prevent did, in fact, sity and prejudiced automatically in favour lead to price increases. Thus, in I795 the of the wealthier, more influential Oxford Market Committee stated categor- consumers. As Barbara Ward declared ically that regrating had been responsible recently, 'Leave grain to an uncontrolled for an increase in the price of meat. 69 market and only the rich will eat'. 73 For Second, central government seems to many in the eighteenth century these fac- have been at fault in two ways. Less tors rendered the idea of a free market for seriously it almost certainly over-reacted to food in a period of scarcity morally unac- the dangers both of riots and of the en- ceptable. It is difficult to avoid the forcement of protectionist legislation. conclusion that one is still looking at an They do not seem, as was suggested, to ethical problem. 74 have discouraged agricultural invest- Finally, it should perhaps be noted that, ment. 70 Moreover, the farmers and even to in Oxfordshire, there may not have been a some extent the commercial community full commitment to the free-market econ- who presumably preferred the principle omy even in times of reasonable prices and that their profits and activities should not adequate supplies. Thus, it has already be restricted seem nevertheless to have been suggested that Oxford's covered mar- been prepared to go along with the view ket was very carefully regulated and, as late that m dearth their prices should be as 1824, one can find the market committee reduced and their produce dispersed attempting to prevent forestalling, engros- through the local markets. Sometimes, sing and regrating. 7s Moreover, in other indeed, such groups actually appear to have towns, authorities were sometimes pre- taken the initiative in the reintroduction of pared to offer farmers incentives in the protectionist measures, as in I795 when form of toll abolition, the construction of farmers around Burford agreed to sell their new market buildings or premiums on the corn only to mealmen and bakers consum- sale of certain commodities, to persuade ing the corn locally and not to supply them to use public marketing institutions. dealers sending corn from the county, vl Perhaps where authorities found it practic- More seriously, central government seems able to continue with the old methods of to have taken insufficient care to protect condtlcting marketing and trade there was the interests of consumers in producing an acceptance that this was still desirable. counties. Underlying their attitudes was the dangerous principle that, if necessary, the urban, industrial consumers should V feed at the expense of the rural, agricultural In conclusion, unless we are simply the workers. victims of the way in which evidence has Arising from this last point is the ques- survived, dearth and developments in mar- tion of whether leaving agricultural prod- keting, internal trade and market regu- ¢"; 'The Book of the Oxford Market Committee, t 77 t-x 835', Oxford v: Dumont and Cohen, op eli, p 44. City Archives (OCA) FF 2. la, pp 99-10o. v.~ Quoted in ibid, p 44. vo Thwaites, op cit, p 516. 74 C Tudge, The Famine Business, Harmondsworth, 1979, p 9. v, JOJ 4July 1795. 7.~ 'Papers of the Market Committee, 1774-1824', OCA 133 I x (26). i i [ DEARTH AND THE MARKETING OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE 13 I lation were related to each other in a commercial communities were given the complex and significant way. We do not challenge of exploiting new markets and see simply a smooth transition to the free finding quicker and more efficient means market economy interrupted by short of supplying distant population centres periods when consumer action caused a while simultaneously having to accept their repressive straitjacket to be placed on the duties to the people amongst whom they activities of farming and commercial com- lived. A period of dearth should not there- munities. Dearth was, in fact, a time fore be seen as wholly negative in effect or during which both consumers and market as wholly against the normal flow of events authorities became conscious of the organ- but as a time in which awareness ization of marketing and trade and how developed, changes were assimilated or changes in organization had affected them. rejected and future patterns were thrashed Farmers and commercial communities out. were made aware of the social implications of their marketing and trading policies and were expected to face the moral as well as the material aspect of food sales. The Acknowledgements building blocks of which marketing and My thanks are due to DrJ Thirsk for inviting trade were made were taken apart and me to read an earlier draft of this paper at examined and when the crisis was over Oxford in May I982 and to Dr EJ Evans for they were rarely reassembled in precisely all his encouragement over this work. I am the same way. A new consensus had also indebted to the members of the developed. Apparently old-fashioned and University of Birmingham Social History unacceptably rigid practices were given a seminar for their interest and advice; Mr E P new lease of life. The need for more Thompson for first introducing me to many modern consumer protection was brought of the sources and Dr M Prior for drawing home to the authorities. Farming and my attention to Rail. Notes and Comments SI'RINC, CONFERENCE, ~986 organized under the aegis of the Historical Geography The Society's Spring Conference is to be held at Research Group and is a sequel to the Exeter Seale-Hayne College of Agriculture, Newton Abbot, Conference convened on the same theme in July I983. from 7-9 April 1986. The full programme and booking It is conceived as a discussion forum for those with forms will appear in the next issue of the Review but the active research interests in this period. As the emphasis Conference will feature a discussion of "file Agrarian will be upon the presentation of substantial papers in Histor), of England and Wales Volume V, 164o-175o in seminar format attendance will be limited to 5o. Papers addition to at least five other papers and an excursion to will be given by Dr Alan Carter, Dr Paul Glennie, Dr some farms owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. John Langdon, Dr Christopher Dyer, Dr Derek Keene, and Dr Richard Smith. Professor Guy Bois will give a guest lecture. Booking forms will be available in April I986 from the Convenor, Dr Bruce Campbell, Department of Geography, Queen's University, SEMINAR ON LATE MEDIEVAL ECONOMY ANB SOCIETY Belfast BT7 INN. This meeting, to be held from 25-28 July 1986, is (continued on page 146) A Neglected Scottish Agriculturalist: the 'Georgical Lectures' and Agricultural Writings of the Rev Dr John Walker (I73 I-I8o3) By CHARLES W J WITHERS HE eighteenth century witnessed important and prestigious Highland and many changes in Scottish agricul- Agricultural Society, founded in I784, T ture. Several related components of epitomize the close links between insti- change may be identified. New ways of tutionalized scientific enterprise and the managing and working the land -- for development of Scotland's rural economy example, the more widespread adoption of in this period. ~- enclosure and use of lime, and changing Published works on agriculture likewise practices of rotation ~ occurred alongside mirrored the widespread interest in the a variety of shifts in Scottish rural society local and national improvement of the involving such things as the passing of the land. Books and pamphlets outlining the 'fermtoun' and the move from single to established methods of husbandry or multiple tenancies. These changes were urging the adoption of new practices and paralleled by, and were, in part, the result better principles had appeared before I7oo, of the active involvement of forward- but it was in the eighteenth century in thinking 'improving' landowners and particular, and in concert with these other farmers. These themes occurred together elements, that changes in rural society and with an increase in the number of scientific, on the land were increasingly reflected in predominantly agricultural, 'improve- papers in societies' transactions and in ment' societies, and a growth in the published books. 3 literature on Scotland's agriculture and Important as these trends are, any ap- rural economy. ' preciation of the advances made in agricul- The improving movement in agriculture ture in eighteenth-century Scotland should found its first institutional expression in also consider the role played by prominent The Honourable the Society of Improvers individuals whose membership of im- in the Knowledge of Agriculture in Scot- proving societies, practical involvement in land, begun in I723 . Other bodies con- land management and authorship of agri- cerned with agricultural topics such as the cultural texts marks them as key figures in Edinburgh Society for Encouraging Art, :S Shapi,~, 'The audience for science in eighteenth century Science, Manufactures and Agriculture, the Edinburgh' HistoryofSciellce, Xll, 1974, pp 9~..v-Io4. Edinburgh Philosophical Society and the •~ A number of important works may be noted in this regard: Lord Belhaven's Tilt, Countryman's Rudiments, Edinburgh, 1699; W Mackintosh, An Essay on Wal,s and Means for lnclosimb Fallowing, ' There are a number of general works on agricultural improvement Planting etc, Edinburgh, 1729; F Home, The Principlesqf Agriculture in eighteenth-century Scotland, several of which are footnoted atld l/egetation, Edinburgh, 1757; Dickson's two volume Treatise of throughout the text. Recent works include M L Parry and T P, Slater Agriadmre, Edinburgh, 177o; H Home (Lord Kames), The (eds), The Makillg of the Scottish Countryside, 198o; D Turnock, The Gentleman Farmer, Edinburgh, x776; A Wight's six volume Present Historical Geography of Scotland sillce 17o7, Cambridge, 1982 (esp ch State qfHusbandr), in Scotland;and not least, J Sinclair (ed), Statistical 4); G W Whittington and 1 D Whyte, An Historical Geo.~raph), of Account qfScotland, published in twenty-one volumes between 179 l Scotland, t983. and 1799. I32 A NEGLECTED SCOTTISH AGRICULTURALIST 133 this period. Henry Home, Lord Kames, Manufactures and Agriculture for an essay author of The Gentlemen Farmer (I776), and on marls and of the Highland and Agricul- The progress of flax-husbandry in Scotland tural Society for an essay on peat. 7 His (W76), a committee member of the man- lecture notes also reveal his appreciation, agers of the Forfeited Annexed Estates and shared by other writers, of the practices of of the Board of Trustees for Fisheries, plantation and woodland management. Manufactures, and Improvements in Scot- Walker may also lay claim to be the land, and himself an improving landlord is principal agent behind the establishment, perhaps the best example. Less known to in 1783, of the Royal Society of Edinburgh us now, but much involved at the time in which, in its intended plans at least, consid- all the areas mentioned above, was the Rev ered agricultural improvement part of their Dr John Walker. scheme for 'extending useful knowledge'. 8 John Walker was born in Edinburgh in As a teacher, Walker tutored Robert Dar- I73I and died there in I8O3. He was, at win (Charles Darwin's father), Tobias various times of his life, a mineralogist, Smollett and Robert Jameson and several botanist, a parish minister and Moderator men who rose to prominence in American of the General Assembly of the Church of science in the late eighteenth and early Scotland, and, from I779 to I8O3, Profes- nineteenth centuries. Among his corres- sor of Natural History in the University of pondents were Linnaeus, Arthur Young Edinburgh. 4 Throughout his life, and and William Cullen. In addition, Walker during this quarter-century in particular, carried on an extensive correspondence he was also greatly concerned with the with improving landowners and farmers improvement of Scottish agriculture. This throughout Scotland and with several involvement is apparent in a number of like-minded men in England. Some, like ways. Walker was the first person in an Archibald Bruce, who was both a corres- English-speaking university to give lec- pondent and a student of Walker's, were tures on agricultural topics as part of his themselves to produce texts upon agricul- natural history course, s He was a candidate ture; 9 others, like George Drummond of for the Chair of Agriculture in Edinburgh Kincardine, put what they learnt from in 179o. Several of his essays on the Walker to more practical use. Prominent agriculture and natural productions of among his contacts was Henry Home, Scotland appear in the early Transactions of Lord Kames. the Highland mtd Agricnlt.ral Society.c' He Both Kames and Walker shared a deep was a medal winner of the Edinburgh interest in the improvement of Scotland's Society for Encouraging Art, Science, agriculture through the establishment of better principles of management and the 4 Biographical sources i"or Walker include: FI Scott (ed),John l.Valker: promotion of practical advances: both were Lectures on geo(ogy , htdltding hydrogl"al.,hy, mim'raiogy and meh,oroh~y , Chicago, 1966, pp xvii-xlvi; (; Taylor, 'John Walker, 13D, FP,SE, part of that scientific community in late 1731-18o3 ', Transacrhms of the Botanical Society qf Edinbu13,h, eighteenth-century Scotland for whom XXXVIII, 1959, pp 18o--2o3; DictiomW of National Biography; W hmcs Addison, .q Roll ql'tlu' Gr, lduates o.f ihe University qf Gla.,.eow agricultural improvement was the basis of 17..'7-1,¢97, Glasgow. 1898, p 625; M M McKay (cd), Thr Rrv. Dr. national prosperity. Kames was both friend John 114~lker's Report on the Hebrides qf 1764 aml 1771, Edinburgh, 198o, pp 1-3o. ~I-1 W Scott, 'john Walker's lecnlres in agriculture 079o) at the "~ l/,amsay, op tit, p 35: H Mackenzie, Prize Essays and Transactions ofthe University of Edinburgh', Agricultural History, XLIII, 1969, pp Highhmd Society of Scothmd, Edinburgh, 18o 3, 11, pp t-137. 439--45. William Cullen, himselfa farmer on a small scale, had given x S Shapin, q~ropcrty, Patronage, and the Politics of Science: the some lectures o11 agricultural topics o11 a private basis in 1758; see i"ounding of the Royal Society of Edinburgh', British Journal for the Shapin, op tit, p 1o 3. Histoe), of Science, 25, 1974, p 25: N Campbell and R Martin S " A P, anlsay, History qfthe HighhlM,lnd A.ericultltral Society o.l'ScMand, Smcllic, The Ro},al Soeiet), o.f Edillblmlh (1783-1983), Edinburglt, Edinburgh, 1879, pp 35, 46, 449. Curiously for one m involved in t983, pp41,1o3,113, 116, 118. agricultural affairs, Walker was not an original ha,ember of this v A Bruce, A General View of the Agriculture qfBerwick, Edinburgh, society. t 794. ~i ii:~i¸ 'J ::i i! I34 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW and patron to Walker. io In his capacity as a eighteenth-century Scotland; the extent commissioner to the Forfeited Annexed and nature of his correspondence on Estates and member of the Board of Trus- agrarian topics; and his friendship with tees, Kames, in I764, directed Walker to Lord Kames. To understand the man and tour and report on the Scottish Highlands. his significance as an agriculturalist, how- Walker made six trips to the Highlands ever, it is necessary to set Walker and his from W64 to I786, the most important ideas in the wider context of scientific being those of r764 and I77I. The obser- enterprise and agricultural knowledge in vations made and the material collected that period. were important in the improvement of those areas as well as being of value to Walker as a botanist and geologist. ~ I Moreover, the information formed the The improvement of agriculture in the basis to Walker's two published works, eighteenth century was part and parcel of both of which appeared posthumously, i'- broader changes affecting Scotland at that Walker's reputation as a scientist and his time. In literature, chemistry and belles observations upon Scotland's rural lettres, in manners as much as on the land, economy made him a valuable source of Scotland was embracing a whole variety of information. Several letters to Kames show new 'ways of doing': ideas of 'cultivation' Walker advising his patron on a variety of and 'improvement' meant modifying the agricultural topics: on the siting and grow- native Scots language as well as bettering ing of fruit trees, for example, and on the yields. Yet changes in farming were climatic limitations to plant growth. perhaps the most dramatic of all: as Fenton The inclusion of agricultural topics in his has noted, 'The net effect.., of the gen- lecture syllabus, his correspondence on eral creation of farms with enclosed fields agricultural matters and his friendship with and new buildings was to give Lowland Kames and others suggest Walker to have Scotland a face-lift that was probably more been an important figure in agricultural thorough-going than in any other country circles in eighteenth-century Scotland. Yet of Europe in the course of the eighteenth apart from brief mention of his lectures,'3 century'. Is and an edition of his Hebridean reports, 14 Though Lord Belhaven had written as little attention has been paid to Walker and early as I699 how 'There needs no Rhetor- his agricultural work. It is the purpose of ick to illustrate the many and great Advan- this paper to draw to the notice of a wider tages that accresce [sic] to a Nation by the audience the agricultural writings and diligent Practice and due Incouragement of work of the Rev Dr John Walker. Three Husbandry', 16 the transformation of Scot- related themes are examined in this respect: land's agriculture and rural landscape was the agricultural content of his Natural particularly apparent in the second half of History lecture course and its relationship the century. Donaldson, writing in I795, with contemporary agricultural writing in expresses an opinion that had increasingly ,o It is uncertain when the two men were first acquainted. Walker's found favour during the century: 'By early essay on marls would have drawn him to Kamcs's attention. agriculture, barren deserts are converted McKay, 198o, op cit, p t has suggested they met when Walker was at Glencorse as a minister from 1758, and there is no reason to doubt into fertile fields, covered with innumer- this. able herds and luxuriant crops, or are " McKay, 198o, op cir. clothed with stately timber. The indus- z~j Walker, An Economical Historl, of the Hebrides and Highlands of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2 vols, 18o8; h'ssays on Natln'al History and trious husbandman not only enriches him- Rural Econonty, Edinburgh, 2 vols, 18 ~2. ,3 Scott, 1969, op cir. '~ A Fenton, Scottish Country L!li', Edinburgh, t976, p 16. "~ McKay, 198o, op cie. '¢' Lord Belhaven (J Hamihon), 1699, otl tit, p 1. ii; A NEGLECTED SCOTTISH AGRICULTURALIST 135 self, but also advances the general pros- the works of creation contained in the perity of the community'.I7 This terrageous globe'. ~° The subject was 'utilitarian impulse' to agricultural divided into six branches; Meteorology, advancement was itself part of the Hydrography, Geology, Mineralogy, expansion of scientific enterprise in Botany and Zoology: 'The three first, Scotland, most notably the development of constitute the History of the Terrageous a Scottish earth science tradition embracing Globe in general: that is, of the Atmosphere, geology, chemistry, mineral discovery and of the Waters, and of the Earth. The three natural history. '8 The universities, with last, contain the History of what are called the development of a lecturing tradition the three Kingdoms of Nature: the Fossile, and the undoubted ability of men such as the Vegetable, and the Animal Kingdom'. = .Joseph Black, William Cullen and John Walker's agricultural sections fall within Walker, were an important influence 'Botany' in the 'Vegetable Kingdom'. behind the development of a scientific Underlying all of Walker's work and his foundation to the improvement of Scottish remarks on botany, the 'vegetable king- culture and economy. And societies and dom' and agriculture in particular is the cultural institutions such as the Highland utilitarian philosophy of the eighteenth- and Agricultural Society and the Royal century improver. Walker noted that 'The Society of Edinburgh were important enquiries respecting the vegetable King- agencies by which new knowledge and dora in general will be concluded with a new techniques I in ploughing, crops, specific account of such plants as are pos- methods of nutrition and rotation I were sessed of any rare or remarkable properties mediated through an elite group of land- or are useful or noxious to Mankind'. ~= His owning gentry and disseminated into treatment of natural history and, in turn, of principles and practice for the benefit of the agriculture was explicitly utilitarian. His nation. Shapin has pointed to a common lectures aimed at a specific audience and interest in the themes of horticulture, were set within a social and cultural con- agricultural chemistry and the scientific text geared to improvement and economic basis to agriculture held by those advancement. improving individuals dominating My leading idea in Natural History is to render it scientific societies in Edinburgh. ''J As so- subservient to the Purposes of Life; to which great ciety member and university professor, End, it is indeed eminently adapted. With this View, Walker holds a position of special interest. when I first drew out the general Plata, I was to Walker was elected to the Chair of follow in teaching; I engrossed in it three favourite Natural History in Edinburgh in Novem- Subjects; Agriculture, Plantation, and Gardening • . . 1 had Experimented and written to a consider- ber 1779, a position he held until his death. able Extent, upon these Subjects and wished greatly Natural history at that time was not as we to teach them .... I have for some time proposed; know it. The subject was based upon a to give a Course of Georgical Lectures upon Agricul- strict system of order, classification, and ture .... 1 expected, that among the Gentlemen of practical observation; themes likewise the Parliament House, the Landed Gentlemen re- siding in Edinburgh, their Sons pursuing a general apparent in Walker's works in mineralogy Education, and among the IntelligentFarmers in this and botany as well as on agriculture. Walker understood natural history to be 'the arrangement, description & history of "° Institutes qf Natural History containing the Heads of the Lectures in , r j Donaldson, Moeh'rlt Agrictiltlirt'; or, the Present State oJ'bll~sbandryin Natm'al History J Walker, Edinburgh, 1792 MS in tbe Walker Great Britain, Edinburgh, 179~. p 4. Collection, Special Collections Room of the Library of tile ,s R Porter, The Makin.e, o.]'(Jt,oh~[~},:Earth Sciellce bl Bri,ain 166o-1815, University of Edinburgb. Cambridge, i977, pp i47-56. 2, Ibid. ,v Shapin, 1974, op tit. -'-" Edinburgh University Library (herdnafter EUL), Ms De. Io.33. I36 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW neighbourhood, I might find an Audience that propagation & destruction of weeds. Of pasture & would reward my Labour. aa meddow lands, of the culture of Artificial grounds. Of the discovery of some grounds & other plants Walker appreciated that he could not treat not now in use, but which are fltt to be tried as Green of all agricultural themes equally. or Dry forage. Of the reclaiming of wild land, & to these we shall The Topics in this Syllabus are so numerous, that add a review of those obstacles which obstruct the they must necessarily vary much, in their Degree of improvement of Agriculture in Scotland. Importance. Some of them perhaps, might be There is another Agrestic Art which is nearly entirely omitted; and many of them may require to allied to Husbandry as depending on the Natural be only slightly touched. But those certainly are History of plants viz' Gardening. entitled to the fullest Illustration, which are most material to the Interest of the Country. -'~ Here we will begin with observing the effects of cuhivation on plants which in consequence of the The following section, quoted at length variation of climate & the course of ages exhibit to us from Walker's manuscripts, illustrates the that vast variety & considerable improvement which material covered by Walker in his 'Georgi- nature may be brought to when assisted by art. [Gardening to include] the stiles of gardening; the cal Lectures' and the utilitarian emphasis he Kitchen & flower Garden; the management of the gav~ it. ~s The Syllabus of a Course of Lectures fruit Garden; the construction of Fruit Walls & the on Rural Oeconomy "-6 affords a more different sorts of shelter for Fruit Trees: the Orchard, detailed picture of the structure and content the Shrubery, & the Botanic Garden; the Green of Walker's lectures (see Appendix). house, the dry & Cork stoves & other conservatories for tender plants. & the propagation of valuable As a course of Lectures of this kind should be of fruits. public as well as private utility every opportunity We shall then bestow some observations on that should be embraced that can in any way be applied to higher species of Gardening the laying out of the advantage and improvement of the useful arts -- pleasure ground, an Art that not only requires an and such an opportunity occurs here. extensive knowledge of natural history but of the The observations to be made & the principles to be human heart established from the several subjects now enumer- Lastly, we shall come to the art of planting, & this ated may be of great use in the several arts dependent requires particular attention in a Country which like on Georgics. this is advancing & give way to fields & pastures We These consist of two parts shall attempt a history of the rise and progress of ist The Cultivation of Plants plantations in Scotland with remarks on its present 2d The managenlent of domestic Animals state, & the means of its further advancement. -'v Of Georgics the first & most important branch is Agriculture, which tho only an art in its practise may Given the importance of these lectures and be justly considered a science in its Theory and the social and scientific context in which Principles . . . they were given, it is pertinent to examine their relationship with the work and ideas We shall treat of the nature of soils in general & of of contemporary agricultural writers. these in Scotland in particular, with their particular properties and names & distinguishing marks, & the particular plants each of them is fitted to rear. Of the operation of Natural and Artificial Manures II especially of Quicklime. Of the effects of Tillage. There is no doubt that Walker's lectures Of the differences between Horse and other were highly regarded. The Caledonian Mer- methods of husbandry. cury carried the passage below Oll 3 April Of the structure of Roots. Of the change of Species & rotation of Crops. Of the comparative I79o. merit of the different grains & other profitable crops. LECTURES ON AGRICULTURE Of their different effects on the soil & of the nature On Thursday last, 1)r. Walker, Professor of Natural :J EUL, MS Lalll 352/3. History in the University here, concluded the first .-4 Ibid. course of lectures on Agriculture, which has ever ~ For a general review of Walker's utilitarian views in the broader field ofeartb sciences, see 1orter, 1977, op tit. : :(' Aberdeen University Library, MS 56. :7 EUL, MS, I)c. lo.33. A NEGLECTED SCOTTISH AGRICULTURALIST I37 been delivered in Britain as a branch of Academical of artificial manures and fertilizers was education. The gentlemen who attended that class becoming increasingly common in the invited him afterwards to an entertainment, that they might have an opportunity of expressing to him latter half of the century: 3° Donaldson in collectively their acknowledgements and thanks for his Modern Agriculture of 1795 noted that the instruction they had received; and at that meeting the subject of manures was 'of the greatest an Agricultural Society was projected, which under importance; for on a thorough knowledge his patronage and direction, may prove essential of it depends, in no small degree, the service to the practical farmer, and tend to the general diffusion of Georgical science over the further extension of agricultural improve- country. ments'.3t Lord Kames, perhaps more than anyone else, was concerned with the scien- The Edinburgh Agricultural Society was tific underpinnings of agriculture. 32 Like established that year and it is through his Francis Home, Hutton, Donaldson, involvement in this body that Walker Wight, Ure (to name only a few), and engaged in correspondence with Scottish Walker, Kames recognized the virtues of farmers (see below). But Walker was far what may be termed agricultural chemis- from being the sole source of knowledge try: 'To be an expert farmer, it is not on 'Georgical science'. In his emphasis necessary that a gentleman be a profound upon the 'Chymical Principles of Plants' chymist. There are however certain chymi- and the 'Chymical Analyses of Soils' and cal principles relative to agriculture, that no on manures, Walker is of significance for farmer of education ought to be ignorant his advocacy of a scientific approach to of'. 33 Kames's The Gentleman Farmer agriculture and the search for principles reveals the author to be conversant with behind the practice, but he is also agricultural subjects through years of prac- mirroring the work of others. tical involvement and as a theorist. In his Francis Home's The Principles of Agricul- preface, Kames writes 'I have not men- ture and Vegetation (1757) was a pmneer tioned a single article as certain, but what I work in the scientific study of agriculture. have practised many years with success: the His book considers a number of topics instructions contained in this book, are shared by Walker: the natural and artificial founded on repeated experiments and dili- methods of providing manure and veg- gent observation'. 34 His aim, 'of com- etable food, the effects of climate and plant bining deep philosophy with useful diseases, farming instruments, and types of practice' in agriculture was also assisted by crop in relation to soil. Though the limited the scientific knowledge of men such as nature of contemporary knowledge on William Cullen and Joseph Black, both chemistry and plant physiology prevented professors of Chemistry, and Walker. him from a detailed understanding of the (Kames even tried to persuade Black to scientific basis to agriculture, Home's ~o See, for example, R A Dodgshon, 'Land improvement in Scottish work is nonetheless of great importance in farming: Marl and Lime in Roxburghshire and Berwickshire in the Eighteenth Century', Ag Hist Rev, XXVI, 1978, pp 1-14. the history of Scottish agriculture. -~8 The l)odgshon cites several authors contemporary with Walker, topics of soil fertility and sterility, the including Kames; see, for example D Ure General View of the Ae. "iculm " in the County of Roxbuli~h Edinburgh 1794 p 26." virtues of particular plough types and the .~' Donaldson, 1795, op tit, p 202. chemical basis to artificial manures, par- •;: On Kames's significance as an agriculturalist and in the wider context of improvement in eighteenth-ce,ltury Scotland, see G ticularly marls, are also important topics in Bryson, Man amt Society: the Scottish Inquiry of the E(t?hteenth the agricultural manuscripts of James Hut- Cam,ry, Princeton, 1945, pp 33-77; Handley, 1953, 0p dr, pp 14o-1;J E Handley, The A gria,lmral Revolution in Scotl,md, Oxford, ton. 29 Liming and the regular application 1963, pp 39-49; W C Lehmann, Henry Home, Lord Kames, and the '~J E Handley, Sconish Farmin.~ in the E(~htecnth Ccntur),, Oxford, Scottish Enlightemncnt, The Hague, '971; I S Ross, Lord Kames and 1953, p 129. the Scodand of his da},, Oxford, 1972. :'~ J Hutton, 2 vols MS Principh's qfAgriculll,'e, The P,oyal Society of .u Home [Kames], 1776, op tit, p 292. Edinburgh. J~ lbid, p ix. I38 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW include agricultural topics in the latter's cance as an agriculturalist must also focus chemistry course: '... the principles of upon other facets of his work, principally agriculture will in your hands be one of the his status as a scientist, his travels to the most interesting articles of a course in Highlands of Scotland and remarks on the chemistry'.) 35 Kames cites Walker on the rural economy of that region, and his question of climatic influences on the correspondence with landowners and far- growth and flowering of plants in The mers. In all these areas, he was skilled and Gentleman Farmer and in correspondence conscientious. He himself noted that 'more between the two, Kames more than once knowledge may be obtained by the eye seeks Walker's advice on horticultural than can be convey'd by the ear'; 37 his matters. 36 detailed observations on husbandry in the Given the common interest in agricultu- Highlands reveal the truth of this remark. ral matters, it is not surprising that such Much of this material is collected in writings exhibit common themes. In this Walker's An Economical History of the respect, the Syllabus of a Course of Lectures Hebrides and Highlands of Scotland, on Rural Oeconomy is perhaps less import- published in two volumes in Edinburgh in ant "for what it reveals on the content of I8o8, and dedicated, by his executors, to Walker's lectures than as a summation of the Highland Society of Scotland and to the the views held by like-minded agricultural Board of Agriculture. This work, and writers. As we have seen, Walker was part Walker's other major published work, of an intellectual community in late Essays on Natural History and Rural eighteenth-century Scotland, centred in Economy, were the result of several trips to Edinburgh around the university and Scotland's north and west under Kames's scientific societies: a community whose patronage. These areas of Scotland were to membership was very largely made up of be improved in matters of industry and landowning gentry and for whom trade as well as in agriculture, and several agricultural improvement, itself part of the of Walker's manuscripts record the detailed extension of scientific enterprise, was of way he enquired into aspects of society and particular concern. Walker's agricultural culture as well as agrarian traditions and lectures may thus be considered as a review practices. of agricultural knowledge and practice in His Queries concernitlg the North of Scot- contemporary Scotland; a consensus of larld, record thirty-eight questions on the those topics to be considered in the agriculture of the Highlands. 3'~ Walker improvement of Scotland's rural economy enquired into such topics as 'the present and a guide to the wider audience of the manner of tillage and the succession of enlightened landowning and farming crops', the advantages arising from the use classes as to the best way to proceed. of the spade or cas chrom in the Highlands as opposed to the plough, the rents of dif- ferent kinds of land, and what parts of the country might be improved by draining. III His travels in the Highlands provided him Though his Syllabus also represents the with material for several of his essays on culmination and synthesis of Walker's agri- cultural work, assessment of his signifi- .w Lcctures on Natm'al Histor), gim,n in Edilthm~h Uttiversit}, 179z, 12 vols MSS, in tile care of the Library of the Royal College of Physicians, •~-~ EUL, MS Gen 873/1/83-4: see also Gen 875/t/79F-82F. Edinburgh. a~, EUL, MS La Ill 352/4. -~ EUL, MS Dc 2.16, lois 1.1-45. / A NEGLECTED SCOTTISH AGRICULTURALIST 139 agricultural topics: on kelp, a9 on peat, 4° on noted that 'Exact observations are much cattle and corn in the Highlands 4~ and on wanted, for ascertaining the Plants w ch the scarcity of grain. 4-" The Highlands had serve as wholesome Forage, to the different been badly affected by crop failure in kinds of Cattle'. 47 He corresponded on the I783, 43 and, in I800, much of Scotland was topic with Linnaeus who had been engaged likewise affected by a scarcity of grain. in 'Observations of this sort'. 48 Plants were Walker's conclusion, put forward in a of particular interest to Walker; 'I have paper dated 26 December I80044 was that been from my cradle fond of vegetable the increase of pasture land for grazing at life': 49 the opportunity to put his botanical the expense of arable for grain was the chief knowledge to practical use was of double cause of scarcity. importance. Walker's Highland trips pro- In his Queries concerning the North of duced plenty of material: he refers in one Scotland, two topics were considered of letter to '... a Harvest of Plants I had particular relevance to those parts: enclos- never before seen, many of which have not ure and artificial grasses. as yet been viewed by Botanick Eyes. I have augmented my Collection of Plants In what Tracts of the Country would Inclosures be most advantageous? Where they should be begun & even beyond what I expected', s° Though encourag'd, and in what manner they should be much of what Walker collected and ob- executed. served probably had little practical value, In what parts should Fallowing, and the cultivation there is no doubt that his scientific back- of Artificial Grasses be introduced? ground sought utilitarian ends where pos- Note. These are the two leading steps of hnprove- ment, in the uncultivated parts of Scotland, & yet are sible: 'It is the task of a Botanist to discover unknown in many places, where they might be unknown plants with a view to their future beneficially practis'd. They arc introductory to every usefulness... It is the business of a natu- Sort of polishd Culture, & urge the Farmer to ralist to discover useful qualities in those inclose; not only from Interest, but through Neces- sity. 4s that are already known'. 5' Whilst observations 'obtained by the His search for the most effectual methods eye' were an important source of infor- of improvement, in the Highlands and mation to him, so too were the landowners elsewhere, was made easier by his detailed and farmers of his audience and with scientific knowledge, particularly of whom he corresponded, before and after botany. 46 In the matter of pasture grass, he his lecture course. Walker's correspon- dence shows him as an important central '" 'An Essay on Kelp: containing the rise and progress of that figure within the community of scientifi- manufacture in the north of Scotland; its present state; and the cally-minded agricultural writers and means of carrying it to a greater extent', Priz.c l£ssa),s .utd Transactions qf the Hi¢hhmd Societ}, of Scothmd, t 799, pp t-3 I. (This improvers: to some persons imparting paper was delivered to the Society in 1788.) knowledge and counsel (disseminating '"' 'An Essay on Peat, containing an account of its origin, of its chymical principles, and general properties. Its properties as a principles of management) while enquiring manure, and ;is a manured soil. The different methods of its and asking advice of others (accumulating cultivation. Its usefulness in plantation and gardening, and as a soil', Prize Essays .... 11, 18o3, pp I-137. "' 'On the cattle and corn of the Highlands', Prize Essays .... 11, 18o3, pp 164-2o3. one letter, terms Linnaeus ' . . . a famous gentleman and Golden '~-' EUL, MS l)c t 57, fol I OI {'1 srq; see also 'Concerning the Present Knight', EUL MS La [11352] l, letters of 22 Feb 1762; 12 Oct 1762; Scarcity of Grain in Scotland', Essays, 1812. pp 617-29. 2o June 1763. For Walker's anticipatory advances in tl~e a.~ l)ocuments rdative to the Distress and Famine iz~ Scotland in the classification of algae, see R K Greville, Alyae Britannicae, year t783, BPP 1846, XXXVII. Edinburgh, t83o, p iii. 4.~ Essays, 1812, pp 6t7-29. 4v EUL, MS l)e 2 36, p 33. 4s EUL, MS De2 36, p t9. 4x See note 46 above. 4,, Linnaeus hdd Walker's ability as a botanist in particular in high 4,~ Quoted in his entry in tbe Dictionar), of National Biography, XX, p regard; several letters to Walker from Linnaeus ask tbr Walker's 531. hdp in securing plant specimens from the Highlands: Walker, in ~' EUL, MS Lall1352/I. turn, was a devotee of the Limlaean system ofdassification and, in s' EUL, MS Dc IO33. I40 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW information based on the practical experi- Distinction sake [I] shall call N ~- I & 2 ence of others). resolving to have Potatoes & Wheat upon In January I792, for example, the Jed- them alternately, and always to doung burgh Farmer Society asked Walker's [dung] to the Pottatos Crop the preceding advice on the sort of topics 'to be taken year'. He writes to Walker of how the yield under Consideration by a Society of increased, then, despite rotation, declined Country Farmers who meet here Monthly dramatically when the land was to Communicate to one another such insufficiently dunged or kept in one crop Observations as Cast up to them in the too long: 'Thus [writes Scott] I found that Course of their practice', s-~ To a request for what will appear very promising in advice from the Presbytery of Shetland in Theory, may turn out Very Differently in May I79O on behalf of farmers there practice', s7 Scott's letter shows Walker as concerning the prevalence and treatment of the gatherer of information, adding to his sheepscab, Walker took the time to reply in own experience through detailed corres- two letters: the first a series of twelve pondence. More usually, Walker was the questions enquiring as to the exact nature source of knowledge, a role he owed to his of fhe disease in those areas and the reputation as lecturer and scientist. remedies that were currently practised; the George Henderson of Craigtoun near second a recommendation to smear the Kirkliston in Midlothian, an important sheep with tar and butter. Such a practice farmer in the area, wrote to Walker in was, according to Walker, then unknown April 179I over the matter of his son, in Shetland; 'But I well know from long Peter, attending Walker's lectures in the Observation, that in the South Country, its following year: 'Your fame for Knowledge chief if not sole use is to preserve the sheep in Natural History, One of the more from Diseases, & especially from the usefull and Entertaining Studies, Draws on Scab'.Ss you this Trouble'. s8 George Drummond, Walker's surviving correspondence also actively involved in the draining of Kincar- contains letters on the draining and man- dine Moss, wrote to Walker expressing agement of moorlands,S4 the most efficient disappointment and surprise at the news of method of weeding, ss and the rotation of an appointment of a professor of agricul- crops, s6 On this last topic, Walker com- ture: 'If unfortunately this should put a municated with several farmers and Stop to the delivery of your Lectures; I improvers. One lengthy letter from Tho- flatter myself, at least, that it will not do so mas Scott, a farmer in Midlothian, docu- the Publication of them ~ And in all ments the way Scott had, since the I75OS, Events I trust, it will not interfere with varied crops to increase the yield over his your new Agricultural Society'.5') William farm. Scott records the annual rotations he Matthews, secretary to Bath Agricultural tried, from I752 on, in the growing of Society, wrote to Walker in June I79O to potatoes, oats, barley, hay, and wheat in a praise the Highland Society's work and to field divided into two plots 'which for make Walker an honorary member of their institution given the 'high sense this So- -sa EUL, MS La 111 35213, 4January 1792. .s.~ lbid, 12 May 179o. ciety entertains of your Abilities'. a° To s4 Ibid, 26 April 179o (from George l)rummond on the progress of Kincardine Moss); 9 May 179o (from John Buchanan of Captain Charles Williamson, who had Cambusmae on the state of his improvements); 7July 1790 (from been corresponding with Walker on the Alix Blackadder on Blair I)rummond Moss). ss Ibid, 25 February 1791 (from William Brodie, Upper Raith). .~r, lbid, see especially the letters from P Nelson (2 April 1789); David s7 Ibid, Letter from Thomas Scott (5 Mat' x79o). Wight (5 May t79o); A Bruce (3 November t 79o);J Fell (2 March ss lbid, Letter t'rom George Henderson (El April 1791). t791); Fell in his letter addresses Walker as 'Professor of s,~ Ibid, Letter from George l)rummond (26 April 179o). Agriculture'. "' lbid, Letter t'rom William Matthcws (7June 179o). A NEGLECTED SCOTTISH AGRICULTURALIST I4I relative merits of reaping with sickle or Scotland; his university position, particu- scythe, Walker's advice and comments larly his curatorship of the museum; and were likewise highly regarded: 'The other scientific work. To these may be scheme you mention for advancing the added his involvement in the Church of knowledge of agriculture [his lecture Scotland and failure to gain the professor- course] is certainly the best that can be ship of agriculture in the very year he gave adopted'. 6' These letters should be seen as lectures in the subject. an indication of the high regard in which Walker's Highland journeys were costly Walker was held by the audience for in time and energy. In a letter of IO scientific improvement: as an agricultural December I764, Walker informed Kames scientist of the first importance whose that he had sailed 1263 miles, 'rowd in prestige depended both upon his own open boats 280', ridden lO87 miles and intellectual abilities and upon the social walked a further 528. 62 Much of the group and utilitarian context of which he material collected was for the benefit of the was part. By the early years of the nine- Board of Trustees and the Commissioners teenth century, however, Walker was of the Forfeited Annexed Estates in their worn out by his labours. By 18o3, his sight management of the Highlands, but Walker was '... so far gone I can neither Read noted also in the letter that he had '... nor Write', and, on 31 December that year, materials also for a separate treatise upon he died. agriculture, fisheries and the linen manu- facture of the North, in which these sub- jects would be considered upon more IV general principles'. 63 The sheer amount of Given his involvement in Scottish agricul- information, collected over a trip of seven tural affairs -- as a lecturer, and practical to eight months, presented difficulties: he scientist of considerable reputation, as an wrote thus to Kames; experienced observer in the field and as a The Hardships I met with, were greater indeed than I correspondent on agrarian topics -- the would have chosen, but they were what I expected, question may be asked why Walker is not & were in most Cases unavoidable. The rich enter- tainment l had from the Business I was engaged in, better known to us today. No single reason & the surveying a sort of new World, made me even may be advanced, but several clues are bear them with Pleasure, & I expect still more in available which, taken together, suggest reflecting upon them. l am now employed in that despite being so active in agricultural preparing for the View of the annexd Board, what I and other affairs (and perhaps as a result of have written upon nay Expedition, which is a great being so involved), Walker was dilatory in Quantity, but it lies in great Disorder'. 64 the publication and dissemination of his Despite this workload, Walker could be an results and ideas outside of his lectures. In amusing as well as informative correspon- an age and social environment when pub- dent: Kames notes, in one letter of I776, lished essays and works on agrarian topics how 'Doctor Walker is so delightful as a were crucial sources of information, and literary correspondent that I could scarce conferred status on the author, Walker's wish him so near as to make writing failure to put words and notes into print unnecessary'. 6s was a major hindrance to any !ong-term But Walker could be indifferent and recognition. Several influences combined neglectful in his correspondence and in the to deflect Walker from publication during his lifetime: his travels in the north of ¢': EUL, MS La Ill 352/t, Letter to Kames (lo December 1764). ".~ Ibid. '"~ EUL, MS La Ill 352/t; see also EUL, MS l)c I 18/5. r,, lbid, Letter from Captain Charles Williamson (~ 2Junc .!79o). r,~ EUL, MS La Ill 332/4, Letter from Kames (29July t776). m 142 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW publication of material. In a letter of I782, World'. TM This work was doubtless useful William Cullen noted how Walker seemed to his natural history lectures, but drew '... to be obstinately resolved against him away from his agricultural writings: answering letters'. 6e Kames, in a letter of 'The Preparation and Preservation of the I778, chastises Walker in similar fashion: Bodies in this Collection, and recording 'you are dilatory in the affairs of other them in a Register has for Six Years people, as well as in your own'. °7 The employed much of my Time'. 7' clearest indication of Walker's tardiness in Moreover, his early years in the profes- the matter of publication appears later in sorship were spent while still a parish this same letter, in regard to the chair in minister in the village of Moffat in Dum- natural history then still held by the first friesshire. Walker had been ordained as a incumbent, Robert Ramsay. In Kames's minister in the Church of Scotland in I754 view, Walker's delay in publishing would and given the charge of Glencorse near stand against him: 'If you are disappointed, Penicuik in I758. From I762 until I783 he which I am afraid will be the case, blame was minister at Moffat and it was as parish none but yourself. Had you announced the minister that he made his journeys to the natural history of Scotland [see note I2], Highlands. In I783 he was moved to and published part of it, according to my Colinton parish near Edinburgh. His repeated solicitations, all the world would church duties -- he was, in addition, have been for you; you would not have had moderator of the General Assembly of the a single competitor. Take a hint to what is Church of Scotland in I79o -- do not seem past: proceed to your publication; and then to have been hampered by his absence in you will be prepared for what may cast the Highlands or the long periods he spent up'. 6~ But Walker did not thus proceed while in Moffat walking the local hills to during his lifetime; even his plans to pro- search for plant specimens. His parishion- duce a general text on the botany of ers considered him a picaresque figure: his Scotland were laid aside, after much field frequent botanical excursions earned him work and thought, following the publi- the sobriquet 'the mad minister of cation, in I777, of Lightfoot's Flora Scotica. Moffat'. 72 But his twin involvement as His position as university professor church man and utilitarian scientist, the involved lecturing and curatorship. The one role demanding local residence and the university museum had been begun in I697 other necessitating lengthy absences from with material from Sir Robert Sibbald's parish or notebooks, ineant that Walker collection. By I78O, there was, in Walker's had little time in which to pull together his words ' . . . really nothing to keep'. ~'') 'By manuscripts into publishable form. attention and many personal Applications', Even allowing for these commitnaents, it as he put it in a letter of I793, Walker is difficult to know why he was not elected sorted and improved the collection. Doing to the professorship in agriculture in so necessitated correspondence with con- i79o. 73 His lectures were well-received; he tacts in many countries. 'The new Profes- sorship in which I am placed here, oblidges r,, National Library of Scotland. MS 5,540. f34, letter frmn Walker m me indeed to intrude upon every Acquain- R Liston, Minister l;lenipotcntiary, Madrid (24January t 7s4). v, EUL, MS La 111 352/2, lbid (see IlOte (1()). tance I have in distant parts of the 7: j Kay. Or(@lal Pore'airs. 11, Edinburgh. 1842, p 179. r.~ The Chair was endowed by Sir William Pultency. The first incumbent was Andrevc Coventry who held the position until oo EUL, MS La 111352/4. 1841: Coventry's two works arc themselves valuable sources for ov EUL, MS ka 111 352/4, Letter from Kames (2 February 1778). the agricultural history of early nineteenth-century Scotland; o8 l/rid. Discom'ses exphmawry ql'fl"' h'alm,s o11 a i.,ric.h.re and IJIIl'll/ ('{'tlHtlllly, 0~ EUL, MS La 111 352/2, Letter from Walker to Robert l)tmdas (2 Edinburgh, tSoS; ,X'ous on flw cubm'c and cnv~pht,i ,, ql'aral, h' land, September 1793). Edinburgh, t g I t. A NEGLECTED SCOTTISH AGRICULTURALIST r43 had considerable status within the dlite Present State of Husbandry in Scotland is and cultured circles of Edinburgh and a valuable for the picture it reveals at a reputation as a scientist. His age probably crucial stage in the evolution of Scotland's stood against him and his failure to pro- agriculture. duce a text on the agriculture of Scotland It is, of course, difficult to know or the rural economy of the Highlands whether any involvement by Walker in this despite the knowledge and experience project and the resultant publication would almost certainly did. One further reason have secured for him the professorship in may be put forward in regard to Walker's 179o and whether that in turn would have failure to secure the chair of agriculture in guaranteed a more lasting place in Scot- 179o and to his being little known in the land's agricultural history. That Walker is longer term. In the I76OS and I77OS, Lord not more widely known may stem quite Kames had set in motion a project to simply from his own breadth of interests survey the state of agriculture throughout and laxness in preparing work for publi- Scotland. Perhaps because he was absent cation despite the patronage of Kames and during the planning, or engaged in other the support of important cultural and work or because Kames was trying to scientific institutions. What cannot be reduce the commitments upon his friend, doubted is that such work as Walker has Walker was not selected to undertake this left us -- both published and in manuscript work. The person who was, Andrew form -- reveals him to have been, as Wight, himself a successful and enthusias- lecturer and agricultural scientist, tic farmer, was initially instructed to utilitarian philosopher and tutor to the enquire into the state of agriculture on the 'improving classes', a figure of farms of the forfeited and annexed estates. considerable significance in an important The survey was later extended to include period in the history of Scottish the remainder of Scotland. Though pub- agriculture. lished over a period of years, Wight's 74 Handlcy, 1953, op tit. p 143; 1963, 0p tit, p 39. APPENDIX Syllabus of A Course of Lectures on Rural Oeconomy I Io Nutrition of Plants II Vegetable Oeconomy Vegetation 1 OrganicalPartsofPlants Their constituent Parts 2 The Chymical Principles of Plants Agriculture 2 Seeds 3 Roots Introduction 4 Stems Leases 5 BarkandWood Farm Buildings 6 Pith Instruments 7 Leaves a Ploughs 8 Fructification b Harrows 9 Sexes c Roller I44 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW d Fanner c Turnip Cabbage e Semoirs F Roots f Thresher G Flax and Hemp g Farm Carriages H Crops for Manufacture& 4 Inclosures Medicine a Walls I Crops for Thatch, Litter &c b Hedges K Diseases of Crops c Draining 9 Weeds Soils ~o Rotations a Staple dearth a Fallowing b ChymicalAnalyses of Soils b Horse Hoeing c General Division of Soils c Meliorating& Deteriorating d Causes of Sterility Crops e Means to procure Fertility d Succession of Crops 6 Manures II Husbandry oftheRomans a Animal Manures I2 The Old and New Husbandry • b Vegetable Manures I3 Sowing c Fossile Manures a Choice of Seed d Water b ChangeofSeed e Composts c Steeps f Operation of Manures d Season 7 Tillage e Quantity a Ridges f Depth b Deep & Shallow Ploughing I4 Reaping c Ribbing I5 Qualities of Grain d Bouting I6 Preservation of Grain e Procission f Sarrition Crops 3 A White Crops a Wheat Management of Grass Grounds, b Barley and of Cattle c Oats I Hay d Rye 2 Pasture B Green Crops ofGrain a Pasture Plants a Beans b Pasture Grounds b Peas c Summer& Winter Feeding c Buckwheat 3 Black Cattle C Green Crops for Summer Forage a Breed & Hay b Fattening a Red Clover c Stall Feeding b Rye Grass d Diseases c Lucern 4 Dairy d Sainfoin 5 Sheep D Grass Crops to be introduced a Breed E Green Crops for Forage in Winter b Food a Turnips c Stock b Coleworts d Summer& Winter Feeding [ A NEGLECTED SCOTTISH AGRICULTURALIST I45 e Smearing 5 f Wool Gardening g Diseases 6 Horses History 7 Hogs I Situation-- Soil-- Manures 8 Goats 2 Operations in Gardening 9 Plants poisonous to Cattle a Slipping :o Rabbits b Laying : i Poultry c Grafting I2 Bees d Inoculation :3 Fish Ponds e Marching :4 Animals to be introduced into 3 Pruning Scotland a Its Uses b General Principles c Season 4 d Practical Directions Plantation 4 Caprification 5 Transplanting Introduction 6 Diseases of Garden Plants I Plantation in General 7 PreservationoftenderExoticks 2 CultureofTrees 8 The different Styles of Gardens a Seminary a Kitchin Garden b Nursery b Flower Garden c Transplanting c Shrubbery 3 Pruning 9 Fruit Garden 4 Evergreens & Perdifols a Standards 5 ProgressofTrees b Espaliers a Age c Walls b Size IO Hot Houses c Growth a Peach House 6 Qualities of Timber b Vinery a Felling c Pine Stove b Duration d Muschrome Bed c Mechanical Properties II Botanick Garden 7 Products from Forest Trees I2 Policy a Bark a Style of Places b Charcoal b Characters of Places c Potashes c Disposition d Resin d Grass e Tar e Walks 8 Management of the Forest Trees in f Water Scotland g Trees 9 Fruit Trees in Plantations h Buildings IO Underwood 13 Idea of an Ornamented Farm I I The Culture of Willows 14 The Formation of a Village 12 Forest Trees to be introduced into Scotland I3 The Cyder Orchard 146 THE AGRICULTURALHISTORY REVIEW ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For permission to quote from manuscripts the University of Edinburgh; and the in their care, I am grateful to the Librarian Keeper of the Manuscripts in the Univer- of the Royal College of Physicians, Edin- sity of Aberdeen. burgh; the Keeper of the Manuscripts in Notes and Comments (contbmed fi'om page UI ) ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND AGM, I985 on 7 Decelnber and the I986 Spring Conference was to The Spring Conference saw a return to the College of be at Seale-Hayne College, Newton Abbot, from 7-9 Ripon and York St John at Ripon from I-3 April 1985. April. On Tuesday Mr Richard Hoyle examined the The Treasurer presented the audited accounts of the Pilgrimage of Grace in some detail, discussing whether Society to the meeting which demonstrated that or not it could be classed as a peasant movelnent; Dr finances were satisfactory in that income roughly John Chapman reported some of the results of his equalled expenditure. Sales of the volume on Horses i, analysis of a Io per cent sample of parliamentary European Economic History had gonc very well as had enclosure awards while later in the day Dr Brian the bibliography, Farm tools, implements, aud machines i, Outhwaite speculated on notions of progress and Britain. The accounts were adopted and the meeting backwardness in English agriculture during Tawney's congratulated the Treasurer on his skilful handling of century in a paper which succeeded in provoking its the Society's finances. after-dinner audience. Mrs Christine Hallas led a most l)r Chartres reported that the healthy state of the successful excursion into Wensleydale aim Swaledale balances enabled the sizc of the Review to be maintained which she prefaced by a paper on Monday evening at 1 I2 pages for Volume 33 part 2. The flow of articles describing agricultural change in the two dales during continued at a satisfactory rate and the Society would the nineteenth century. Finally, on Wednesday, Dr be publishing a supplement to the Review in due Cormac 0 Gr.~da continued his explorations of Irish course. demographic history with a paper on farmers and At the conclusion of the meeting thanks were demographic adjustment after the famine, and l)rJolm expressed to the staffat the College of Ripon and York Perkins demonstrated how commentators are con- St John tbr their hospitality and to 1)r Chartres ~br ditioned by their own experiences in a discussion of organizing a most successful conference. German views of British farlning before 19I 4. The thirty-third AGM was held on 2 April 1985. Dr Thirsk was re-elected as President of the Society, l)r WINTER CONFERENCE, 1985 Collins re-elected as Treasurer aim I)r Overton Booking forms for the I985 Winter Confe,'ence to be re-elected as Secretary. Dr Chartres was re-appointed held jointly with the Historical Geography Research as Editor of the Review. The four vacancies on the Group of the Institute of British Geographers on 7 Executive Committee were filled by the retiring l)ecember 1985 at the Institute of Historical Research, members; Dr Baker, Mr Havinden, Professor Senate House, Malet Strect, London WCIE 7HU, Mingay, and Dr Phillips. should be inserted in this issue of the Review. The The Chairman of the Executive Committee, Mr theme of the Conference is 'Rcgionalism in agricul- Havinden, presented the Committee's report. Mem- tural practice and agrarian society'. Additional bership of the Society stood at 845 on i January 1985, a booking forms may be obtained froln Dr A 1) M net decrease of 2 over the year during which 40 new Phillips, l)epartment of Geography, The University membersjoined the Society. The Executive Commit- ofKeele, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG. tee had decided that Dr George Fussell aim Miss Gillian Beazley be made the first Honorary Members of the Society. Once again the Society's finances were in a WINTER CONFERENCE, I986 healthy state and no increase in subscription was From I986 Winter Conferences will be organized by necessary, Some 20,0o0 copies of a leaflet advertising 1)r M E Turuer, Departinent of Economic and Social the Society were to be distributed with History Today in History, The University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX. The exchange for an advertisement in the Revie:v. The next 1986 Conference will again be a ]oiut one with the Winter Conference was again to be held jointly with Historical Geography Research Group oll the theme of the Historical Geography Research Group in London 'Agricultural statistics'. 'A Fiendish Outrage'? A Study of Animal Maiming in East Anglia: I83O-I87O* By JOHN E ARCHER HE study of animal maiming has Maiming could be a bloody business as been, and still is, a subject which well as a noisy and tiring one, especially if T social historians have ignored. The the maimer was attempting to subdue the standard works on rural protest by Dunba- struggling animal within earshot of the bin, Horn, Hobsbawm and Rudd invari- farmhouse or the proverbial sleeping guard ably make a brief reference to this crime dog. While it is difficult to conceal a sense but in so doing they create misconcep- of outrage when reading of the many and tions. 1 The reader is left with the impres- varied tortures the animals had to suffer, sion that cattle, in the non-legal sense, moral outrage on the historian's part does more than apy other anilnal, were singled not add to our understanding of this crime. out for mainaillg, and furthernaore, that It would be best therefore to restrict moral maiming consisted largely of hamstringing value judgements to an absolute minimum. or 'hocking' their forelegs. The purpose of There are other reasons which have kept this paper is to examine animal naaiming in maiming from historical scrutiny. First, East Anglia between 183o and I87o when the common assumption that rural people the crime was at its peak in order to have a certain affinity for animals, either of identify the different types of animals a sentimental nature, or more commonly maimed and the diverse methods of a hard practical kind that would ill- employed by the maimers. It will be dispose them to harm or maltreat their possible then to put forward some explan- own or others' sources of profits. Second, ations for this peculiar, complex and maiming was neither as common as universally condemned activity. incendiarism nor was it so widely reported Before endeavouring any further, a in the local newspapers. If there was such a word or two needs to be said on the thing as submerged crime then animal reticence of historians. Without doubt they maiming was the epitome of it. It is tend to echo the sentiments of contempor- possible to state with conviction that the aries. They feel little sympathy with, let examples cited below formed only a part of alone understand, the perpetrators of such what actually took place, how large a part 'abominable acts'. The maimers were and is impossible to tell. Animal maiming are seen as perverted and inexplicably remained especially secret because it bore cruel. It takes little imagination on the all the semblances of vengeance crime 'par reader's part to re-enact, let us say, the excellence'. It was a more personal act of stabbing of a carthorse with a dung fork. violence by the maimer on the victim than * This article is taken from chapter five of the authol's thesis: 'l{ural any other protest crime. One can view it Protest in Norfolk and Suffolk [83o-187o ', unpublished Phi), University of East Anglia 0982). ahnost as a form of symbolic murder, and 'J P 13 l)tmbabin ed., Rm'al Discolttent ill Nim'tmtth Cemtlry Brit,lill the animal's owner was little inclined to (t974); ibid, chapter by A J Peacock, 'Village Radicalism in East publicize the existence of some private Anglia, 18oo--[85o'; P Horn, The Rural II'orhl, 178o-,85o: Soci, tl Cl~,m,~e i. tlw h'tl21ish Colmtrj,side ( 198o); E l-Jobsbawm and G Rud,5. feud. In short maiming could be an Capt,aiH Su,ill 2 (Harmondsworth 1973). extreme form of psychological terror 147 I48 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW which could leave the victim appalled and TABLE I fearful for his own safety. Cases of Animal Maiming in Norfolk, Despite the obvious difficulties in Suffolk and parts of Cambridgeshire collecting evidence, a cursory glance at the 183o--187o newspapers, by far the best source Year No of Cases by County material, has shown that nearly every Cambridge- conceivable type of animal from the Norfolk Suffolk shire Total domesticated cat to the most important 183o 4 2 1 7 working animal, the horse, was a target. 1831 o 3 o 3 One should not be misled by the phrase 1832 I I 0 2 'cattle maiming' for this term was some- 1833 z 3 o 5 times used in the narrow legal sense to 1834 5 5 z 11 include all kinds of domesticated animals 1835 1 z 1 4 1836 3 6 o 9 and not simply bulls, cows, heifers and so 1837 1 3 I 5 forth/ Another misconception was that 1838 I I o 2 animal maiming was an act of social protest 1839 7 1 3 ~I rather like incendiarism. It will be shown 184o z 3 o 5 that maiming was not always committed 1841 3 1 o 4 1842 4 2 o 6 by the working class against members of 1843 0 2 o 2 the ruling class. Finally, it became evident 1844 3 5 1 9 that in order to understand maiming it was 1845 z 1 o 3 necessary to understand animal care and 1846 2 1 o 3 grooming. Although opposites the two 1847 3 z o 5 1848 3 1 2 6 had a close relationship as will be seen 1849 8 2 o 1 o below. 1850 4 z 1 7 185t 1 1 I 3 I 185 2 1 0 0 I Animal never a common 1853 2 2 1 5 maiming was 1854 o 3 o 3 crime. In East Anglia, more especially 1855 i o o Norfolk and Suffo!k, between I83O and 1856 o 1 o 1 I87o only 176 separate cases have been 1857 2 o o 2 documented, eighty-nine in Norfolk and 1858 2 o o 2 sixty-eight in Suffolk. A further nineteen 1859 o o 1 1 1860 I 0 1 2 cases were known to have occurred in the 1861 2 o 2 4 Cambridgeshire villages close to the 1862 2 0 2 4 Norfolk-Suffolk border. 3 Reference to 1863 2 4 o 6 Table I below shows that the incidence of 1864 2 2 o 4 1865 o 3 o 3 " Fur example see 3 Gco, IV c,7 t t822 Act to Prevcut tile Cruel aud 1866 1 o o 1 hnproper Treatment of Cattle; 'Whereas it is expedient to prevcm the cruel and improper treatment of Horses, Mares, Geldings, 1867 o I 0 I Mules, Asses, Cows, Heifers, Steers, Oxen, Sheep and other Cattle 1868 1 o o 1 1869 2 1 o 3 ~l~, •, S/drcesco,,sur,ead,Âr~,,g courseoCt,,is rese,~rch,,,.e: ~,,,'~',,,,,t 187o o 1 o 1 ], Norwich Post (BNP), Cambridge Chronicle (CC), East Anglian (EA ), Ipsu,idi Journal (IJ), Nor.lblk Chrouich' (NC), Norlblk News ¢NN), Norwich A,lercury (NM), Su.ltblk Chronicle (SC). F'ublic Record Total 81 68 19 168 Office (Kew): HO 64/2-3 (Correspondence Rewards and Pardoos); HO '7/36,52,68,76,88 (Criminal Registers); HO "23 (Constabulary Unspecified Commission 183(v-38), PRO (Chancery Lane): Assi 33/~2-|4 Year 8 o o 8 (Norfolk Circuit Gaol I)elivery Books); Assi 35/285 pt. t (Assize papers South East Circuit). Assize records for Norfolk and Suffolk are not extant and tile Quarter Session papers were of very limited TO TAL 176 value and gave little additional information. ! A STUDY OF ANIMAL MAIMING IN EAST ANGLIA I49 Som'ces: See footnote 3 for details of local uewspapers and PRO existence for many years associations for documents. Norfolk papers can be found at the Norfolk and Norwich Local History Library (NNLHL); Suffolk the prosecution of felons. These self-help papers at Ipswich and East Suffolk Record Office societies, made up of farmers and land- (IESRO) and the West Suffolk Record Office (WSRO) at Bury St Edmuuds. owners, turned their attention after I83o to the capture and prosecution of sheep steal- the crime followed no immediately ers, incendiaries and animal maimers. In obvious pattern, except to say that in 1834, in the Fakenham area of Norfolk, Suffolk it declined after 1854 with the maiming became such a serious problem notable exception of I863. In Norfolk the that a meeting was called to form an same general pattern is discernible but to a association 'for the mutual assurance lesser extent. against loss by the felonious killing or Suffolk experienced a more than usual maiming of Horses and Cattle'. Norfolk's amount of maiming in the three-year leading landowner, Thomas William period I834-6, and later in I844 and I863. Coke, presided over this meeting which Norfolk had only two peaks in 1839 and had pretensions of forming a county-wide I849; in the latter year there were eight association. The newspaper report oll the trials• If the figures for the two counties, meeting interestingly linked incendiarism together with Cambridgeshire, are com- and maiming. A part of the report ran: bined we find peaks in I834, I836, I839, • , . and in the actual commission of several similar I844, 1849, thereafter the magnitude outrages just ground for apprehending that the dropped off considerably until I863. Some Incendiary, finding his diabolical acts fail to inflict individual injury to any extent in consequenceof the of these peaks coincided with periods of protection afforded by the offices established for extreme tension and social protest as in Insurance against Fire, would probably seek to 1834, 1836, 1844 and 1849 when incendiar- gratify his malignant passions against Individuals ism and anti-Poor Law disturbances were engaged in Agriculture by the even more fiendish frequent. 4 The 1839 peak is misleading to outrage of killing or Maiming Horses and Cattle...7 some extent because one individual was responsible for six separate acts of maiming A few weeks later all the leading land- in the village of Buxton, Norfolk. s owners attended another meeting at Further research may show that animal Fakenham where an association was maiming along with other forms of indi- formed whose subscription was 1~2d/acre. 8 vidual protest expanded in the third and About fifteen months later in Suffolk fourth decades of the nineteenth century. another association was called for in the Three small yet significant pieces of evi- Mildenhall district, after William Poulter dence suggest as much. First, uncompleted of Worlington had two cows and a filly research on the I815-3o period seems to stabbed, a sheep's throat cut and a donkey suggest that maiming was becoming a maimed, and his farming implements cut regular, albeit infrequent, East Anglian to pieces. 9 speciality in the mid to late I8zos. c' Second, Animal maiming is commonly referred up to and until I83O there had been in to as cattle maiming. This was and is obviously a misnomer as the following i 4 The number of incendiary fires in Norlblk and Suffolk in 1834 was Table 2 shows. All forms of animals, fifty; in 1844 z18 fires; 1849 seventy-eight fires. 1836 was a year of widespread anti-Poor Law rioting in the regiov. 1839, however, domestic pets, game and farm animals was a very quiet year as there were only five fire,.'. SceJ E Archer, were targets. "Rural Protest in Norfolk and Suffolk, 183o-7o, ' tmpublishcd Phi), UEA (1982), chs 3-4. s See p 154 below. 7 NC 8 November 1834. Peacock, op cit, p 45 also believes the crime " Research on the prc-183o period shows so far that there wcrc six increased in the 183os. cases in t 825, eight cases in 1826, five cases in t 827 and nine eases in s NC29 November 1834. 1828. '~ BNP 13January J836. z5o THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW TABLE 2 category; stabbing, a colt belonging to G Number of Animals Maimed in Norfolk Holl of New Buckenham, Norfolk, was and Suffolk, T83o--7o found on the common with a Iol/2 inch Animal No Maimed piece of a rat catcher's spear in its side to the depth of eight inches. The animal died Horses (all types) I8o plus two days later. In a similar case at Denston, Sheep I57 plus Suffolk, in I848, a pony was seen wander- Game ~~z Pigs 82 ing with its entrails hanging from its belly Cattle (all types) 76 plus and dragging along the ground. Sheep Dogs 23 plus were often killed by having their throats Poultry (various) 23 plus cut, as in the case of four owned by King of Donkeys and Asses I2 Gazeley, Suffolk in I844. I-" Horse poison- Cats a number Fawn I ing will be dealt with in greater detail later Others unspecified 47 in the paper but one example taken from I847 is representative of its type. Three Total 713 plus horses were found dead at Rattles&n, Suffolk, after eating their bean meal which Sources: Table 2 was constructed on tbe evidence froln the local press. For horses, poultry and cats no exact nulnbcr can be had been impregnated with arsenic. In given and therefore the figures quoted represent ininima. other cases of poisoning, cattle, pigs, dogs, cats and game were found dead. 13 The third category of tail and mane cutting was It should be pointed out that although the not as serious as it sounds, in fact it was the killing of game appears high on the table, only form of maiming which did not there were in fact only two cases, one at seriously injure the animals. For this and Denham, Suffolk, and the other at South the following reasons it could be argued Runcton in Norfolk. ,o As a general rule the that tail cutting was not maiming at all but smaller the animal the easier it was to maim theft. In these cases the hairs from the tails in larger quantities at a single stroke, as in and manes of horses and cattle were drawn the cases of sheep, pigs and poultry. The or cut. Apart from giving the animals a larger animals, such as horses, cattle and slightly unusual appearance no other dam- donkeys were rarely maimed in large num- age resulted. The hair was presumably sold bers, unless a certain method of maiming by the maimer. This activity was carried was employed. '~ out on a large scale, for example at Kil- The method employed by the maimer verstone, Norfolk, in I83O farmer Wright was as diverse as the number and type of had the tails and manes of nineteen of his animals he chose to focus his attention on. horses cut. In the same year Gilding of Again a misconception has grown up that Tuddenham, Norfolk, had the same done hamstringing was the rnost frequent form to sixteen of his horses and bullocks. 14 of injuring animals. This was far from the However not all tail cutting was theft as truth as the following Table 3 shows. fifteen pigs found to their cost and pain in Without wishing to go into unpleasant I857. ts detail some examples of each method The shooting of animals was far less would be both helpful and explanatory of ambiguous. In 1839 at Buxton, Norfolk, the terms used in Table 3. ha the first ': NC 17Jtdy t841; NM27 May 1848; BNP6 March 1844. ',~ lbid 3 March t 847; ibht 3 June t s62, ibid s February 1863. ,o Denham -- U z3 April 1842 when six brace of pheasants were .4 N?,I 2o February I83o; EA 26 October I:q3o. This type of theft poisoned; for Soutlt Runcto11 see BNP 14 I)ccember t 842 in whirl1 virtually disappeared in the t 83os. too pheasants died. '~ NN 2oJune 1857. The pigs bdonged to Fyson of Scuhhorpe, " See below for examples oflnanc cutting and hair drawing. Norfolk. ¢ A STUDY OF ANIMAL MAIMING IN EAST ANGLIA 151 TABLE 3 Different Methods of Maiming and Number' of Animals Maimed T),pe of Animal p Method of Maiming Poison 56 23 o 2I+ a I+ I9 65 o II2 0 0 296+ Stabbing & throat slitting 37+ 23 5 I o o I 32 o o o 99+ Tails cut 42+ 9 2 o o o I5 o o o o 68 Drowning o o o o o o o 5z+ o o o 51+ Shooting 8 5 o i+ o o o o o o o 13+ Tongue-cutting 6 o I O O 0 O I O O 0 8 Hamstringing 2 6 0 0 O 0 O 0 0 0 0 8 Stick thrusting 5 I o 0 o o o I o o 0 7 Suffocation 3 2 0 O O O O I O 0 0 6 Run over o O 0 0 O 0 O 22 O O 0 22 Beaten 2 o o o o o o 38 o o o 40 Bones broken I o o o o o o 3 o o o 4+ Ears cut off I o I o o o o o o o o 2 Burnt alive o o o i o o o o o o o I Savaged o o o o o o o o o 1 o I Decapitation o o o o o o o I o o o I Innards drawn o 0 0 0 0 0 0 I 0 0 0 I Others unspcc. 17+ 7+ 3 o o 4 + I 6+ o o 47 85 TOTAL i8o+ 76+ r2 24+ I+ 23+ 82 I57+ t12 i 47 713+ Sources: based on local newspapers as in Table I. +" denotes an unspecified number five leading landowners and farmers had even more painful wrenching out of the animals shot during three summer months. complete tongue, as occurred at Stowe, The Norwich police had to be called in to Norfolk, in 1866. ''J Moving further down investigate. 16 Sheep were deliberately the anatomy we come to hamstringing drowned in the Fens by being driven into which is, as the name suggests, the cutting the many ditches, pits and dykes found in of the leg muscles of horses and cattle so as that area. t7 Suffocation of animals required to make them lame. Three horses were cut rather more personal attention from the at Sporle, Norfolk, in 1841 in this manner, maimer than did shooting or drowning and again a year later, Aldous of Redenhall since the perpetrator of such acts had to had two bullocks mutilated in this stuff wool down sheep's throats, or block fashion. -'° A horse and a number of sheep the windpipes with large stones, or con- had leg and neck bones broken, -~' whereas struct a complex series of nooses in the donkeys were maimed in rather a peculiar stalls which would eventually hang the manner. Their ears were cut off at the base beasts. ~'~ Horses were invariably the vic- where they met the head. An example of tims of the tongue-cutting which was this occurred in I838 at Lavenham, Suf- carried out in a number of ways. It varied folk, where two donkeys were stolen and from the slitting of tongues up the middle, later found at Harling mutilated in this the cutting of the tongues in half, to the manner. 22 ,9 NN 20 January 1866; see also BNP l 3 November ,850 at '" NC 18 May 1839 and 24 August 1839. Whepstead; NM 16 October 183o at Wimbotshan~. ,7 lbid 23 February 1839. 2. NC i January 1842; ibid 31 December 1842. ,x BNP IO January t844; NN 8 May t869 a horse .~tranglcd at " lbid t8 November 1837; BNP 6 March 1844. Narborough; NM 8Jtme 1844 at Sotterlcy, Stiffelk. 2.- NC 8 l)ecember t 838. I5z THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW We come now to those acts of mutilation the whole a fairly bloodless affair unless that outraged people's sensibilities more attention was focused on one particular than any other form of maiming. The animal. anatomical region of horses and cattle which held a strange fascination for maim- ers, who in these instances may have been II in need of psychiatric attention, were the The method of maiming, the choice of genital organs. Maimers resorted to the use target and the ownership of the animals all of two-foot knotted sticks in the case of provide valuable clues as to the interpre- mares which they then thrust into the tation and nature of this little known and animal's womb and proceeded to vigor- little understood crime. Peacock has ously rent it out. A nine-year-old boy was argued emphatically that animal maiming found guilty of such a crime at Nayland in was a crime of protest. There was, he said, 1842. The same occurred at Bodney, Nor- 'no other way of explaining some of the folk in 1845. ~3 At Bressingham, Norfolk, dreadful incidents that occurred'. -'~ He had, i in I84o labourer John Long entered the however, failed to note a number of T stable with a knife where he cut the penises important features. In the case of donkeys of a cart horse and donkey and then cut the and asses it should be remembered that 'bearing' of a mare. He was transported for they were commonly owned by working fifteen years. -'4 In one other case it is men. It is therefore not surprising to find difficult to escape an emotive term to the majority of donkey owners were describe the form of maiming. The only labourers and craftsmen. We find examples descriptive term to come to mind is savage. of blacksmiths, a cordwainer, a butcher It involved labourer Robert Key of Rey- and labourers who suffered such depre- don, Suffolk, who tore out a sheep's dations. -~') The fact that such cases existed entrails with his bare hands from the hind would seem to suggest the maimings were parts of the animal. He was transported for due to personal feuds between members of ten years. 25 the same social class. The poisoning of cats In most of the examples briefly outlined and dogs usually indicated that farmers and above the maimers played an active part in gamekeepers were clashing over the rear- the maiming or destruction of animals. ing of game birds. Farlner W Sewell of There was, however, an example where Caldecote, Norfolk, told the I846 Select the maimer played a slightly more passive Committee Otl the Game Laws that he had had role. Near the Fenland town of Downham his dogs shot twice in one year. He pre- someone drove 107 sheep onto a railway sumed the gamekeeper was to blame. 3° line, hurdled them in and left the train to The same occurred but on a greater scale in do the rest. Twenty-two were run over. 26 the Cambridgeshire villages of Cheveley, There were, however, rarely mass killings Stechworth and Wood Ditton for a num- where blood ran freely. 27 Maiming was Ol1 ber of years. Rewards were offered by farmers but to no avail. The fact that these "J BNP 7 September x842; ibid 2 November 1842; NC 26July 1845. three villages lay on one of England's most An interesting case has recently come to light at I)unstable, Beds, in which nine horses have suffered similar attacks, The Observer, 8 famous game estates, owned by the Duke May I983. A psychiatrist was called in to help the police of Rutland, may have been more than mere investigations. Such cases bring to mind Peter Shaffer's play, ]21~qfllI$. "-4 NC x x April x840. ~5 NN6 August 1853. ..x Peacock, op oil, p 45. ~¢' BNP24July 185o. "~ For exa topics of blacksmiths see BNP 17 October 1849, NN 7 April ~v One of the bloodiest exantples occurred at Worlington, BNP 13 ~849; a cordwainer, NC I August z835; a butcher, NM 27 May January 1836, where a filly and two cows were stabbed, a sheep's 1848; and labot, rers NN23 October E852, BNP24June 1846. throat cut and a donkey injured (by unknown method). .~° British Parliamelltary Papers IX Pt t, 1846, p 440, qu 9052. A STUDY OF ANIMAL MAIMING IN EAST ANGLIA I53 coincidence, a* There were other examples The regard for his horses and his pride in their which appeared to be devoid of class hatred appearance leads the horsekeeper into trouble, by and social protest. At Beccles, Suffolk, two tempting him to steal corn or oilcake for his favourites among them. In his code of ethics there is men killed a horse and then went to its no immorality in taking the master's corn..36 owner and asked for the job. of flaying the carcase. >" And again at Harling, Norfolk, a We have therefore on the one hand horsekeeper lost his patience with a restive evidence to suggest that teamsmen pam- horse and cut its tongue out in a fit of pered their horses to such a degree that gaol temper. 33 could often be the result, whilst on the In a sizeable number of horse maiming other hand we have the simple fact that cases, around fifty cases, there may not over 180 horses seemingly met their deaths have been any ill-will intended. The ani- or were severely maimed. mals' deaths may have been the result of There would appear to be a contradic- accidents. East Anglia being an arable tion. The answer may lie in the fact that region had an enormous number of horses many of the maimed horses were poisoned on the farms, the care and grooming of to death. One aspect of the teamsman'sjob which were in the hands of the most skilled was grooming. The end result of groom- and highest paid labourers, the teamsmen ing was to achieve a 'bloom' or shine on or horsekeepers. George Ewart Evans in the horse's coat. In order to create a good i his oral history studies based on a more 'bloom' he needed more than mere brush- recent period has recorded the skills of such ing to achieve the desired result. Secret men whose pride in their work and the recipes or prescriptions were handed down turnout of their teams was a by-word in from father to son, head teamsman to dedication, a4 These men may have been junior teamsman, which obtained a good members of secret societies which kept shine on the horse's coat. The trouble with from the uninitiated the secrets of 'horse- many of the secret recipes was that they magic' and recipes to make the horses' often contained poisonous concoctions, coats shine. Horsemen risked gaol in order which taken in small amounts, may not to keep their horses up to a high standard have seriously harmed the horses but if the of turnout, a standard forced on them not measurements were wrong death was often by their employers but through competi- the result. Among the poisonous ingredi- tion with other teamsmen. Lord Leicester's ents two stand out, arsenic and brake root. entire workforce of teamsmen was gaoled The last mentioned root was put into the I_ in I863 for stealing corn with which to feed horses' litter by Robert Hewes of Market the horses. And the local newspapers were Weston, Suffolk. Hewes and other were filled with other examples ofgaoled teams- imprisoned or fined for these accidents men who were over-indulgent at their under the law, 39. Vict. I3.s. 37 This would masters' expense. 3s Later in I893 William explain those cases where horsekeepers left Little in his Royal Commission Report on suddenly after the deaths of their teams. A i Labour wrote: gaol sentence awaited them whether or not the deaths were the results of accidents. 38 We must therefore treat some of the cases ~' BNP 24 September t86t; ibid 3Jtmc 1862. of horse maiming with extreme caution for •~" NC t August t 840. In London gangs killed animals with the view to buying the carcases for dog meat, see PRO HO 64/6, letter from Atlas Assurance Office 9 March 1836. -*" BPP, Royal Commission on Labour, General Report from tile Senior .u NM 28June 1845. Assistant Agricultural Commissioner, Mr W C Little, x893--94, •~'~ See George Ewart Evans' books, especially The Horse ill the Furrou, p37. (196o). .w BNP8 April x835 and 22 April t835;NC7July 1855;NN3 May 3s Five teamsmen were gaolcd for six weeks for stealing oats and peas. 1862. NN 2 t Fcbruary 1863. js NC 9 December 1837; NM 7 March 1846. 154 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW !i they may have been the result of misplaced ever, significant statements in the press did care and affection. There was, however, appear which may lead us to certain con- little doubt where mares had their wombs clusions. Only on one occasion did a ripped out, or stallions their penises cut off, convicted animal maimer actually state his or where tongues where slit or cut in two. reasons for committing the crime, and he These acts either signified a serious break- did this in a defiant manner in the open down in social relations between farmers court room. The case involved William and workers, or else were the result of Watts, who on receiving a sentence of some private vengeance feud of a more transportation (he had already served seven personal nature. years in the Antipodes) spoke from the dock that: • . . he was perfectly satisfied with his sentence but III to such a state had they brought the poor of this It is almost impossible to discover the country by oppressing them with taxes, poor rates, motivation of animal maimers because and other things, that it was impossible for a poor over the whole period only forty-nine of man to live by honest means, and all this was to support big-gutted relieving officers, and other therfl were found guilty, or twenty-eight folks connected with them and the unions)° per cent of all known cases. Their occu- pations, where known, are listed below in Watts had shot six horses and cattle in Table 4. Buxton in the summer of I839 .41 In the following cases the motives were, TABLE 4. to some extent, obscure, but their actions Occupations of 24 Convicted Animal were the result of real grievances. The first Maimers* example involved the only farmer suspec- Labourers I I ted of maiming, Thomas Wilson of Cook- Horsekeepers 8 ley, Suffolk, who had been evicted from Blacksmith i Builder's labourer I his farm at Michaelmas, I835. He sought Farmer I his revenge on the incoming tenant, a Mr Hawker I Foulsham, by poisoning and killing seven Shoemaker I horses. Wilson, however, skipped bail and fled to America. 4-" Others in official pos- * Sources: taken from local newspapers itions of authority in village life were Interestingly enough the average age of obvious targets. Holmes, a constable at twenty-eight of those convicted, who were Monks Eleigh, Suffolk, had some animals all male, was 18 years old. This is remark- maimed in I83I as did an assessor at ably similar to the age grouping of the Wicken, Cambs, in I859. 43 The rector and convicted incendiaries.39 The most notable a preacher of Field Dalling, Norfolk, had feature of the above table is that farm work one horse stabbed to death and another oriented occupations provided the majority stolen in I848. 44 The majority of cases, as of those convicted maimers. Returning to with incendiarism, were disputes between the question of motivation one has an employers and employees. 'Norfolk Jack' impossible task since the court cases were was held responsible for the death of seven never reported in any great detail• How- horses in the Norfolk-Lincolnshire border 4,, NC 19 October 1839. •'" The average age of convicted incendiaries ill Norfolk and Suflblk 4, lbid 18 May and 24 August t 839. between t 83o--70 was 24 years, Archer, op cit, p 275. Tile average 4: NM 16January 1836. age offarnl workers convicted of incendiary offences was 22 years, 43 BNP :3July x831;NC6 August x859. over one third of them were in the age grouping 17-21 years. •*4 NN IS July 1848. I,i I ! A STUDY OF ANIMAL MAIMING IN EAST ANGLIA I55 village of Elm in 1848. He had been given word for two days later the barn, stables the sack a few weeks earlier. 45 Likewise and four animals were burnt. Samuel Bolton jun. wounded his former Animal maiming was a secretive method master's horse after being given the sack. 46 of protest. The larger animals were diffi- Others felt aggrieved for a variety of cult to steal but easy to destroy, and as reasons. David Norfolk's master had such, maiming had the added bonus of issued a warrant against him for poor creating financial hardship for the owners. work. Charles Winn's grievance was of A good horse was worth anything up to much longer duration. After killing a lamb I5o guineas and they were not so often he confessed that Fowl (the owner of the insured as farm buildings were against lamb) 'had ill-treated him when a boy, and destruction. Animals should also be regar- he had now only repaid a portion of the ded as property, farmers' property, and as injuries he formerly received'. 47 such, they were also legitimate targets for In only one case did a convicted animal protesters. It would be wrong to assume maimer leave behind some kind of written that country people had any sentimental testament. Edmund Botwright, a farming attachments towards animals (generally blacksmith, left the following note to speaking this is a nostalgic urban view of Watling, his employer, after he had hanged rural life) because the purpose of animals two bullocks. was to create or make profit for the farmers. E P Thompson suggested in his Mr. Watlin Sir, -- This come as a wornin for you and the police it is the entenshun [intention] if an essay, 'Crimes of Anonymity', that ani- alteration is not made verry quick you shall have a mals were 'rarely' burnt in incendiary tutch of Carlton ]reference to a village where an fires. 4'2 The evidence would suggest that incendiary fire had recently taken place], for wee hav this was far from the truth. In some prepared ourselves for you all. I understand you have accounts the incendiary went out of his got a wheat hoe and wee have got a life hoe prepared for you and not you alone, but will the first if you do way to work as much havoc and damage not make an altershun [alteration], we will make an among the farming stock as possible. exampel of you enstead of you making an exampel Before a fire at Stonham Aspal, Suffolk, in for the pore to be kept alive, your Exampel is, to hav July I844 the incendiary locked up six them all starved to deth you damd raskell. You bluddy farmer could not live it was not for the carthorses in a stable and then fired the poore, tis them that kepe you bluddy raskells alive, building. And the events at Little Cornard, but their will be a slauter made amongst you verry Suffolk, in the same year emphasized the soone. I shood verry well like to hang you the same country people's lack of regard for live- as I hanged your beastes You bluddy rogue I will lite stock. The incendiary in this case fired a up a little fire for you this first opertunity that I can make, and I shood lik to have their at the present sheep pen where I2O sheep were burnt. time. If the pore be not employed different to what The newspaper report went on: they have bin, it shall bee as the pronms is made. 48 A number of labourers after the flames had nearly subsided, were seen cutting off the hind quarters of The basic grievance of Botwright's power- those less damaged, and afterwards carrying them ful letter was concerned with Watling's away for their families to eat, but they were at length latest piece of machinery, a scuffling prevented from repeating so disgraceful an act. s° plough, referred to as a 'wheat hoe', which Concern for animal life came in every had replaced the labour intensive work of case but one from the middle class, whose hand hoeing. Botwright was as good as his sentimentality was later to be depicted in Landseer's paintings. One anonymous far- •,s lbid 28 October 1848. mer when writing to the Home Secretary *" BNP I August 1849. •,v NN 28July 1849; BNP 5 August 1846; NN 1 June 1850. '~'~ I) Hay and others (Eds), Albion's Fatal Tree 0975), ch 6, p 278. ~x NM 8June 1844. ~" M,,rniH¢Chronich', 25 July 1844; Times, 17 April 1844. I; ! 156 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW in 1844 was presumably hoping to move or Cattle and there is a fresh plan laid to distroye the latter to action when he wrote: your sheep .... My intention is to kill your poney and to do you all I am sure sir if you had been the spectator of some the mischef I can...s4 fires as I have your heart would have been melted to hear the cry and groans of the dying animals burning by inches. I am a small farmer but I darst not put my horse in the stable at night not knowing how soon IV the hand of the incendiary may visit me. s~ It is difficult to know where animal maim- The Home Secretary, Sir James Graham, ing lies in the hierarchy of protest crimes, if was, however, made of stronger stuff and indeed a hierarchy existed. However in remained unmoved by the events or the some instances maiming could have been descriptions. There may well have been a the response to the most serious break- close relationship between maiming and down in personal relations between master incendiarism as the above examples and men. This was especially true of indicate. There were also two trials where horsekeepers, s5 Maiming may therefore defendants were tried for incendiary have been the nadir of social relations. This offences. In the first, it was reputed that point can be further emphasized by inter- Aaron Wright had declared to his friends preting maiming as a kind of symbolic that he was going to 'stick' a sheep, but murder of the farmer; Botwright had eventually decided on firing a haulm stack written, 'I shood verry well like to hang much to their amusement. The second case you the same as I hanged your beastes...' involved three labourers who successfully and the anonymous writer who wrote to evaded conviction for a fire at Winfarthing Green threatening to '... make ind of you Lodge, Norfolk. The newspaper reported and your stock'. Whether or not the one of them as having confessed to the maimer could actually bring himself to intention of wanting to cut the throats of commit murder is not really the point. The twenty-three horses that same night. 52 farmer, when confronted with the carcas- Maiming was also carried out in conjunc- ses of his dead stock in the early morning, tion with other crimes of social protest, probably did not question the subtleties of especially harness cutting. This occurred at the maimer's motives and ultimate objec- Woodbridge, Suffolk, in 1832; Lavenham, tives. Dead animals meant an act of killing Suffolk, in -~835; and Wacton, Norfolk and had occurred and it was only a question of Worlington, Suffolk, in 1836. s3' In four time and degree before the maimer turned threatenmg letters reference was also made on him or his family. Maiming, as an act of to the killing of the stock if the writers' transferred or symbolic murder and as a wishes were not carried out. The general weapon of psychological terror, was, one tone of the letters ran along the following has to admit, a powerful, effective and lines: unequivocal statement. The epitome not only of animal maim- ... and mind we dont poison your Warter and make ind of you and your stock. ing, but perhaps of all crimes of social • . . you are trettened to be burned and as shurc as it protest, was the destruction of small dis- is spoke it will be done and very soon By your corn posable and consumable animals such as poultry and sheep. It was the supreme act ~' PRO HO 4o/59, 222-225. The exception concerned a convicted incendiary n~med Wodehouse who expressed sorrow at having ~4 1711,O HO 4o/29(2) sent to Green of Walpole St Peter, Norfolk, burnt some pigs, NC 24July 1858. 183 I; HO 4o/29(2) sent to Oldroyde of Walpole St Peter in 183 t; s~ CC 26 July ~85L Wright's friends gave him some matches and HO 52110(35-36) sent to W Smythe of Brandon, Suffolk, 183o. asked him not to fire their homes. EA 22 May 1832. ~s No horsekeeper was convicted of incendiarisnl irl tile region sJ NCz7 August 1836;BNPHJanuary 1836;ibid16Scptcmber 1835; between 183o-7o. Shepherds, too, had a propensity to steal sheep ibid27June 1832. rather than start fires. 'i: J A STUDY OF ANIMAL MAIMING IN EAST ANGLIA I57 of hatred and revenge in which an element method of protest than incendiarism as of self-sacrifice (ie leaving the dead meat) animals were rarely insured against such was involved on the maimer's part. In only attacks. It also had the added force of one form of maiming was there any profit appearing much more evil and sinister accruing to the maimer and that was the since it involved the killing of living crea- cutting of horses' tails, for horse hair was at tures, and not, as in many cases of incen- this time a valuable and saleable commod- diarism, the burning of inanimate objects. ity. s6 Historians must not lose sight of this fact To conclude then, animal maiming and they should dwell for a second or two while never as common as incendiarism on the outraged sensibilities of Victorian displayed similarities but it has to be farmers who experienced a mixture of emphasized that it was not always, as is horror and disbelief. The sufferer may also usually thought, an expression of social or have thought that the death, often by very class hatred. In the case of horses, mis- violent means, of his stock symbolized in placed care and attention could often result some way a death or murder-wish directed in death. In other examples the grievances at himself. Furthermore, before historians could be of a more personal and private shudder at these violent deaths of animals nature. But where grievances existed and pass moral value judgements on the maiming was, perhaps, a more successful maimers, they should remember that the maimers often had grievances and that the ~" However see footnote 32 which suggests that in urban areas animal death of an animal was, perhaps, preferable killing may have becu com~cctcd to the dog meat trade. to the murder of a human being. CONTENTS MR. AUDITOR'S MAN: THE CAREER OF RICHARD BUDD, ESTATE AGENT AND EXCHEQUER OFFICIAL. By Madeleine Gray DID FRIENDLY SOCIETIES MA'H'ER? A STUDY OF FRIENDLY SOCIETIES IN GLAMORGAN, 1794-1910. By Dot Jones THE WELSH VICTORIAN CITY: THE MIDDLE CLASS AND CIVIL AND NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN CARDIFF, 1850-1914. By Neil Evans LABOUR AND LIBERALS IN THE GOWER CONSTITUENCY, 1885-1910. By David Cleaver i!~i: i[ [: Harvest Fluctuations in an Industrializing Economy: Japan, 1887-1912 By P K HALL HV. question of how fluctuations in workshops. 3 At the opening of the twen- the harvest of the staple cereal affect tieth century, the mercantile marine was T a newly industrializing nation has small, and few modern ships were con- long been discussed within the context of structed. While there were many 'country English history without a firm consensus banks', and a number of city financial being reached. I Explanations differ institutions, branch banking was little co.ncerning the influence of abnormal developed. As in eighteenth-century Eng- harvests on births, deaths, and marriages, land, agriculture was an important if rela- on the level of prices, farmers' incomes, the tively declining sector, and was commer- fortunes of certain industries, and on the cialized. 4 It produced a staple grain, rice, level of activity in the economy. Research which, though other grains and root crops into these problems might be advanced by were cultivated and were important in the extending the geographical field of enquiry diet in certain regions, exceeded in volume to Japan. and value any other farm product. Rice During the Meiji period (1868-1912), was nationally marketed, and as most Japan's economic structure was not unlike settlements were on the coastal plains that of eighteenth-century England. Popu- much was transported by sea, though a lation increase was moderate, but there was railway network evolved from the a marked expansion in urban areas.-" mid-I88os. Dependence on foreign trade, Although by I912 the economy had while still limited, was growing; and, like achieved a degree of complexity, much of England earlier, Japan changed from the advance came during and after the exporting to net importation of the food Russo-Japanese War (I9O4-O5). Yet textiles staple, though normally the great bulk of remained foremost among the modern supply was home grown. 5 industries, and important processes For the student of harvest fluctuations, continued to be carried on in cottages and Meiji Japan has one advantage over eighteenth-century England, where the ' Among works touclfing on these questions are : T S Ashton, An only available evidence consists of grain Ecolo tic History ~f E ~la h Tie E(~lteenth Century, 1955 attd Economic Fluctuations in England, 17oo-18oo, Oxford, 1959; J 1) prices, contemporary impressions and Chambers, Population, Econouly and Society in Pre-hldustrial h'ngland, unsystematically compiled yield figures 1972; W G Hoskins, 'Harvest Fluctuations and English Economic History, 162o--t 759', A qHist Rev, XVI, [, 1968, pp t5-31 ; E LJones, Seasons and Prices: The Rob' qf the Weather in Entllish Agricuhural Textiles' percentage contribution to manufacturing output was: Historl', ' 964; E A Wrigley and R S Schofield, The Population History Japan 1874--26. 4, 1912--33.8; England t77o--36.o, t8oo--4o.o. of Enqland 1541-1871, x981; W Bagehot, Lombard Street, 1915; T See K Ohkawa et al, Estimatesof Long Term Economic Statistics qfJapan Tooke, A Histor}, of Prices and ofthe State ofthe Circulationfi'om 1793 to since 1868 (hereinafter LTES), Tokyo, 1965-, Vol Io, Table l; 1837; preceded b), a Brief Sketch of the Corn Trade in the Last Two l)eane and Cole, op tit, p 163. Centuries, x838, Vol 1. Agriculture's percentage share of national output was :Japan 1885 -" Population growth per annum was: Japan, 1873-1912- o.95 per --42, x912--36;England 1761--45, 1801--32. SeeLTES, Voll, cent; England, 1761-I 8ol --o.8 x per cent. The urban percentage of Table 9, and Deane and Cole, op cit, Tables 35, 36. the population was:Japan, 1888-- 12.9, 1912 --27. 6; England,, 75o s Exports as a percentage of national income were:Japan 1874-- 3, -- [5-16, I8OI -- 25. See I Taeuber, The Population qfjapan, x9H -- 15; England 17oo-- 5.5, 18oo-- H. See W W Lockwood, Princeton, t 958, Tables 6, 9; P Deaneand W A Cole, BritishEconomic The Economic Development qfModernjapan, Princeton, 1954, P 315; Growth 1688.-1059, Cambridge, 1964, p 7, Table 2. Deane and Cole, op tit, p 3o9. 7 I58 il~ !:i! HARVEST FLUCTUATIONS IN AN INDUSTRIALIZING ECONOMY I59 TABLE I Cereal Production in Years of Abnormal Rice Harvests Output (ooo koku) Percentage of trend (trend = Ioo) Year Rice Other Cereals Total Rice Other Cereals Total I889 33194 18337 51531 84-35 95.46 87.99 I890 43084 19820 62904 IIO.09 IO2.67 IO7.64 I897 33039 20661 53700 82.70 94.17 86.77 1898 47388 23382 70770 II6.51 IO5.62 I12.67 I902 36932 2O715 57647 85.86 94.8I 88.88 19o4 51430 21997 73427 II4.I9 98.84 Io9.II I9O5 38173 2o93o 59103 83.43 93.78 86.82 Note A: Trend values obtained from a seven-year moving average. Note B: Other cereals -- wheat, barley, naked barley, millets. Source: K Obkawa et al, Estimates qf Lot~g-term Eamomic Statistics of japan since t868 (hereafter LTES), Vol 9, Table I2. from a few localities. 6 Dependent on a typhoons and floods. 9 Only the last two Land Tax for the bulk of its revenue, the directly shut down industrial plants, and Meiji government annually collected even they hampered manufacturing less statistics of the area cultivated and produc- than did frost and drought, causes of bad tion of the principal crops. Before the harvests in England. Z° mid-I88os, however, the accuracy of the returns was questionable; and so this enquiry will be confined to the period The output of other cereals: I887--I912. 7 a compensating factor? In the late Meiji period, rice was the Abnormal harvests: definition, measurement, preferred cereal, but wheat, barley, and causes millets were eaten, particularly by the An abnormal harvest has been defined as poor." Doubtless, people would have one where the crop diverges from the been prepared, when rice was scarce, to norm by at least ten per cent. s Employ- increase consumption of other grains. ment of a seven-year moving average to However, as Table I reveals, their harvest trace the trend reveals deviations in actual history was similar to that of the staple. output of this order in seven of the Consequently, production of all cereals twenty-six years between I887 and I912. was II-I3 per cent below average in years As Table I shows, a bad harvest was of low rice yields, and between 7.6 and immediately preceded or followed by a I2.7 per cent above when rice harvests good one; thus its economic and demo- were good. graphic impact would have been lighter than that of a succession of poor crops. Serious rice production shortfalls were the '~ T Matsuo, Rice Culture its Japan, Tokyo, t961, pp 72-3; G T Trewartha, Japan: A Geograph),, Madison, 1965, pp 213, 2.17; T result of unusually severe insect and disease Ogura (ed), Agricuhural Developnwnt in Modernjapan, Tokyo, 1970, attacks or an exceptionally cool summer, p 457. ,o T S Ashton, EconomicFluctuations it, England, t 7oo-1800, p 34. " Ogura, op cit, pp 181-2, 18(v-7, cites contemporary sources showing that rice in the main producing areas formed 80 per cent of ¢' The first agricultural census was in 1866. cereal intake; elsewhere the 'lower class' ate a nfixture of two parts 7 SeeJ Nakamura, AgricuhuralProduetionandtheEconoolicDeveh,pment of barley or millet and one of rice in 1885. By the 19oos, millet had of japan, t873-19ee, Princeton, 1966; S Yamada and Y Hayami, disappeared from the diet. But Basil Chamberlain found that in the 'Agriculture' in Ohkawa and Hayami (eds), Eamomic Growth: The extreme south sweet potatoes still formed 'the chief food of the japanese Experience since the Meiji Era, Tokyo, t 973, Vol 1. common people', Thin.qsjapanese; being Notes on Various Subjects s Tooke, op tit, pp 12-13. comtected with Japan, 19o5, pp :z I-2. i6o THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW TABLE 2 Production and Supply of Rice and Total Food Grain Supply Quantit}, (ooo koku) Percentage of Trend" (trend = IOO) Rice Rice All CerealJ' Rice Rice All Cereals Year Output Supply Suppl), Output Suppl), Supply I889 33:94 34909 53246 84.35 89.39 91.39 ~89 o 43084 42781 62601 IIo.o9 1o9.69 io7.36 I897 33039 38138 58799 82.70 93.06 93.45 I898 47388 467o5 70087 xI6.5I I:I.66 Io9.57 19o2 36932 42t72 62887 85.86 91.42 92.5I I904 5143 O 568II 78808 114.19 116.5I IIO.97 I9o5 38173 41444 62374 83.43 86.64 86.59 NOle a: seven-year nloving average. Note b: wheat, barley, naked barley, millets, rice. Sources: LTES, Volume 6, Table II; Volume 9, Table ~2. The influence of food grain imports on domestic The effects on local food supply, income, supply and demography of losses of one-third to Of the grains, only rice was traded in one-half of the normal crop, experienced notable quantities. In eight of the thirteen by Tohoku ill 1902 and 19o5, Aomori in years between I887 and I899, Japan was a I9o2 and 19o6, Saga in I893, and Kagawa net exporter; thereafter it became a net in 1894, certainly warrant an investigation importer. Through foreign commerce, beyond the scope of the present study. supply fluctuations were normally modi- fied: in :889, 1897, and :9o2, deficiencies Harvests arid demograph), in the total quantity of cereals anmunted to While national data on births and deaths is no more than 6.5 to 8.6 per cent; hence ill available from 1872, and ola marriages these years there was no widespread famine from I883, compilation methods, as well even if dearth afflicted some households as culture traits, limit its usefulness for an and localities. enquiry into possible links between har- vests and dmnographic fluctuations.'-" Abnormal rice harvests: regional differe,ces Local returns were annual, not monthly. Seasonal swings ill rice production wider The births and deaths of many short-lived than for Japan as a whole were experienced infants are thought to have gone by the two regions and five prefectures unrecorded since infanticide continued to selected for study (see Table 3)- But be widely practised, and published crude whereas after 19oi yield oscillations in the birth and death rates were well below those south became more muted, in the northern of more economically advanced nations. region of Tohoku and tile prefectures of Some vital events were not registered in Nagano and Aomori they strengthened. the year of their occurrence. For example, Although all the areas had lean and bumper 1906 was unpropitious for female births; crops when Japanese production was consequently, many were assigned a around its trend value, their output tended different date, and despite later official to move in the same direction as that of the adjustments errors may remain. Analysis country during years of abnormal national of nuptiality is frustrated by the custom of harvests; the districts suffering most in tile registering marriages nlonths after tile denoted poor seasons doing rather better than others in times of national abundance. ,2 Taeuber, 0p oil, pp 42, 5o--2, discusses the probk, nl. HARVEST FLUCTUATIONS IN AN INDUSTRIALIZING ECONOMY I6I wedding ceremony, and only those which insufficient to noticeably affect national had proved 'suitable'. mortality figures. What do the published statistics of vital Marriage registration rates were subject rates reveal after removal of the trend by to several extreme swings -- in I896, use of an eleven-year moving average? I898-I9OO, and I9O5-O6. The last was Between 1887 and 1913 there are no perhaps due to wartime conscription but discernible extreme fluctuations in births the others may be partly the result of and deaths. When death rates are high, as in official efforts to improve recording of I893 or earlier in the Meiji era, they are conjugal relationships. Understandably, as associated with epidemic outbreaks, not registration did not entail additional short- bad harvests. 13 Only two of the four worst term social costs and referred to marriages crop seasons (19o2 and I9o5) are accompa- previously entered into, no significant cor- nied by mortality rates above trend (both relation between it and harvests emerges in deviations are small) whereas all were the period I887-1913. immediately followed by death rates below Only fertility appears in any way sensi- trend. A regression analysis demonstrated, tive to crop fluctuations. A regression of not surprisingly, the absence of any birth registrations lagged one year on statistically significant relationship below average rice yields indicates, with a between rice harvests and registered mor- 95 per cent level of confidence, that over tality in late Meiji Japan. But defects in the one-third of their variance can be attributed data may not be the cause. Accounts of the to harvest size. Nevertheless, it should be aftermaths of Tohoku's terrible crop noted that two of the three lowest birth seasons of 19o2 and 19o5 show why rates were not associated with poor crops, starvation-related deaths were probably and after one of the worst harvests the rare. ~4 Farmers consumed wild plants and fertility rate was above trend, while not seed rice, slaughtered draught horses, and only the previous season's rice production mortgaged property. Meanwhile, the auth- but the Russo-Japanese War has to be orities disbursed accmnulated funds ear- considered ill an explanation of the I9o6 marked for famine relief to provide daily result, when the deviation below trend of rice rations to the destitute. Suspension of registrations was at its maximum for the land tax and reduction of rents lessened the period. number of applicants as the region's farm sector habitually planted rice well in excess Rice: crop flHct~latiolzs and prices of its own or local urban needs to meet Exploration of the relationship between these obligations. Water and rail transport rice prices and harvests in late Meiji Japan were well developed, and eye-witnesses might help assess the validity of the indicate that ample food supplies were method adopted in England of using price available commercially, except in remote as a proxy for production statistics. districts. There, famine indeed struck hard According to one proponent of this but the hundreds of deaths reported were technique, a thirty-one year moving ' ~ Cholera, which had afflicted three millionJapancsc between t,~58 average eliminates the effects of monetary and t 860, killed 250,000 in Tokyo in ~S60, raised the death rate to and population changes. IS Thus, an actual t 7.5 and 21.1 per c~211tabove trend ill 1885-6, ceased to be a scourge after 1895. Mass vaccinations conquered smallpox. In IS93, the price signalled, if it was over 5o per cent increase in :all epidemic disease deaths raised the mortality rate by above the trend value, a dearth; if 25 to 5o no more than 3.6 per cent above trend. Scc Tacubcr, 0o tit, p 51 and R?smm; Statistiqlie de I'Empire &l Japot+, Tokyo, hnperial Cabinet, per cent, a bad harvest; Io to 25 per cent, a various issues. Only at the time of the 185S-6o pandcwic wcrc rice deficient crop; whereas a price of 3o per prices rising rapidly. '+ Sce.]ap,m IVeekl), ,lhlil, Yokohama, XXXIX, 7, 14, -~l February, 7 '~ W G I-Ioskins, 'Harvest Fluctuations and English Economic March, 2 May 19o3, 6, -'oJanuary, 3 February 19o6. History, 148o-+1619', A.~ Hist Re*,, XII, I, 1964, pp 28-46. I62 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW cent or more below trend proclaimed an Harvest fluctuations and the farming abundant crop; and one between IO to 30 community per cent below, a good harvest. A much Did Japanese farmers benefit or suffer earlier writer suggested that when price financially as a result of abnormal har- rose by 30 per cent, the crop was IO per vests? x7 Were fluctuations in rice earnings cent below average; while a price increase offset by changes in monetary returns from of 8o per cent indicated a deficiency of 2o sales of other farm products? To answer per cent. ,6 these questions calls for some reference to The proposition that price movements the pattern of agricultural production at are a mirror image of output changes has national and regional levels; the size distri- been tested against Japanese price and crop bution of farms; and the influence of data. As rice is not harvested until changes in prices, wages, rents, taxes, and September-November (and as crop year the value of money. figures are unavailable before I896), the From production data and Shinohara's price taken to be affected is that of the estimates of farmers' own consumption following calendar year. The thirty-one and seed requirements, the volume of rice year moving average method detects the sales can be calculated, t8 The results show abnormal harvests of 189o, 1897, 1898, and that in the poor years of 1889, 1897, and 19o4, but it fails to show up those of 1889, 19o2 cultivators were able, because of 19o2, and 19o5 (see Table 4). It also finds favourable shifts in the rural/urban terms 'good' and 'abundant' crops when actual of trade, to moderate the cuts in their own yields were not far from average, in 1891-4 consumption, and to reduce the proportion and 19o7--o8. Substitution of a seven-year of the crop marketed. Conversely, it moving average or the use of the least would seem, when nature was bountiful in squares technique produce no better 189o and I898, farmers could afford to let results; while a twenty-five year moving their share diminish and yet consume a average is even further off the mark. larger quantity. As imports built up in I9O4 The discrepancies noted may be due to and 19o5, growers appear to have eaten weaknesses in the Japanese raw data but more in the first year; while in the second more probably result from the employ- they responded to a stronger market ment of a theory only applicable to a closed demand by lowering their own rice intake economy, where staple output equals mar- so that the quantity and share of the crop keted supply and no factor other than offered to the market did not decline as output of the staple changes. In late Meiji much as in previous bad harvests. Japan, however, rice prices were affected Aided by Shinohara's estimates, certain by imports and exports, inventory conclusions can be reached concerning changes, and the proportion of the crop money income obtained from rice deliver- retained by farmers for their own con- ies. Measured in current prices, there were sumption, as well as by changes in income, increases in both abnormally good and bad the prices of other goods, and tastes. The seasons before I9OO, due to more acute thirty-one year moving average price tech- inflationary pressures. But a deceleration in nique, therefore, is an unreliable guage of the upward movement of producer prices the annual oscillations in production dur- early in the present century led to falls in ing the period. nominal earnings in 19o2 and 19o5, when '~ For conflicting views on how abnormal wheat harvests affected English farmers see: Ashton, op tit, pp 42-4; Chambers, op cit, p 3o; Jones, op cit, p 13o; Tookc, op cit, pp 12, IS. ,x LTES, Vol 6, Tables 9, 12. Descriptions of data deficiencies and '" Gregory King, cited in Tooke, op cit, p t2. their treatment are given in this and other volumes. HARVEST FLUCTUATIONS IN AN INDUSTRIALIZING ECONOMY 163 farm sales were exceptionally light. In the per cent in the second, and by 13.3 per cent three years of abundant harvests not only in the third nationally bad rice harvest nominal but real earnings rose, whereas the period. years of sparse yields (other than 1889) Regional experience would have varied saw, despite the generally improving in nationally abnormal seasons. Apart from rural/urban terms of trade, decreases in differences in the degree of yield fluctu- real terms. More generally, a delivery ations, already noted, rice had a larger heavier than that of the preceding season share in the cropping pattern in some areas. produced a gain in purchasing power; a In 19o7, it occupied 59.9 per cent of the lighter one, in most instances, resulted in a cultivated land in northern Honshu, where loss. Thus, at the national level, the con- the wildest swings occurred, but only 34.4 clusion is that a good crop and an increase per cent in Kyushu, in which the Saga in sales were usually more beneficial to prefecture is located. 2° farmers than an enhancement of prices in How did good or bad harvests affect poor seasons. large and small farmers? If we assume each The general relationship between yield household planted the same proportion of and income also applied in Kinki and its land to rice and obtained the national Tohoku. ~9 However, in each of the nation- average yield, then the contribution to total ally poor harvest years, except the third, output of each scale of growers can be Kinki producers' income from rice sales calculated. In I9OO, some 37.2 per cent of rose, as its crop losses were smaller than households (those with farms of under o.5 the average for Japan as a whole. In hectare) produced only lO.7 per cent of the contrast, Tohoku's different yield pattern crop. °-' Hence, if they had the national meant that region suffered revenue losses average number of members and con- in two of the three nationally good seasons. sumed the national per capita quantity of When the Japanese staple cereal harvest rice, even in an ordinary year they would was bad did the agricultural community have grown less than 43 per cent of their succeed in offsetting the fall in real earnings requirements. 2" The remaining 62.8 per by obtaining higher returns from other cent of households would all have pro- farm products? The task was not easy for duced some surplus, though 38 per cent of during the period rice provided 45 to 55 per the total harvest was reaped by only lO.6 cent of gross agricultural income; the only per cent of the farmers. other important money earners were seri- Use of national data on yields, farm cultural products (16-23 per cent) and prices, agricultural wages, labour require- industrial crops (I3-2o per cent). As can be ments, and per capita consumption, per- seen in Table 7, both rice and non-rice mits charting of the effects of abnormal rice income, in real terms, rose in I889 but fell harvests on large and small producers. -'3 in the period 1895-7, while in 19o2 the gain The more normal crop years, 1895 , 19Ol, from other produce sales did not cover the :° Computed from data in R&ton~ Statistique, 23 ° annt~e, 19o9. loss in staple grain deliveries. Even the -" For the t888 statistics, see K Shibusawa (ed),Japanese Society in the Meiji Era, Tokyo, 1958, Vol 6, Table 1o; for 19o8, see One Hundred 19o 5 result is unsatisfactory when com- Years of Agricultural Statistics in Japan, Tokyo, 1969, Tables 3, 6. pared not with the previous year but with -'-" S Tobata, 'The Japanese Rice Control', in W L Holland (ed), Commodlty Control in the Pacific. t935 ppt62-3 statesin. that ,, 19o3, a more normal rice season. Deflated 193o-1,32 per cent of farm households had tobuy some nee, and .. by the farm household price index, total per cent purchased more than three months' supply. In 1933, 49 per cent bought some rice. See T Yano and K Shirasaki, Nippon -- A earnings from agricultural activities rose by Chartered Survey, Tokyo, 1936, p I92. 1.5 per cent in the first and last, feil by 9.6 -'-~ Data sources: Ore' Hundred Years of Agriodtural Statistics in japan; LTES, Vol 6, Tables 8, 12; Vol 8, Table 25; H Seko, Lowland Rice ,v For yields, see Tablc 3. From 1892, prices are given in R&um~ and Upland Farming in japan, Japan, Central Agricultural Station, Statistique, atmually. 1923. 164 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW and 19o3, are taken as the bases for the Nonetheless, all probably preferred a comparison. The sizes of rice farms consid- heavy than a light crop. ered were: of 5 hectares, dependent on In prefectures where yields were much hired labour (a rarity); I hectare; o.4 hec- lower than the norm in I889, 1897, I9O2, tare, and o.25 hectare; the latter three and 19o5, farmers would have experienced relying entirely on family labour. Results losses irrespective of the scale of their in the case of the largest farm are ambig- operations. Likewise, where the yield did uous. In money terms, income, minus not rise above its norm to the national labour costs, increased by 25 per cent in the extent, income earned could be less than bad harvest of 1897, and by 35 per cent in from the previous poor harvest, as hap- the good year of I9O4, but fell by 35 per pened in Aomori and Nagano in I898. cent in the good harvest of 1898, and by 2I Thus, circumstances were sufficiently and 2o per cent, respectively, in the bad varied that the experience of some farmers years, 19o2 and I9O5. However, deflated and some localities would have run counter by the farm household price index, the to the national perspective in any given gains in 1897 almost disappear, while the year. previously mentioned losses increase, in Many farm households derived income real terms. Evidence from land tax returns from non-agricultural activities. =5 Their suggests that the larger farmers may have prospects of increasing these earnings to been disadvantaged by the abnormal har- offset crop losses were slight. Although vests of 1889 and I89o for fiscal land continuous estimates of receipts do not valuations were revised downwards, and in exist prior to 1921, when the Farm House- 189I the number of rural landowners pay- hold Economic Surveys commenced, it ing sufficient tax to be on the electoral roll should be clear from the next section of this fell by z6.6 per cent, the largest annual study that rural industries suffered and the change between 188I and z894 .24 On I prospects of temporary urban employment hectare and o.4 hectare holdings gross were diminished following an unfavour- money income from rice increased in abun- able season. dant and declined in poor harvests. The o.25 hectare plot or;net, who had to work Harvest flllCtllatiol,lS and the economy off the holding in order to purchase the It has been claimed that a good crop balance of his family's food needs, would boosted and a bad harvest reduced activity have had to increase time spent in outside in a newly industrializing economy not employment by 75 to 2oo per cent follow- entirely unlike that of ]ate Meiji Japan. -'~ ing the bad seasons of I897, 19o2, and The scenario might well have run as fol- I9O5, whereas after the good harvests of lows, A bad harvest, by raising the price of 1898 and I9O4 he could have reduced it to a demand-inelastic staple foods and because quarter of the normal. In real terms, the farmers hoarded windfall gains, brought income of cultivators of ~ hectare and o.4 about a shift in the pattern of personal hectare plots would have been cut in all consumption expenditure towards food three bad harvests. Tenants, who usually and away from alcoholic beverages, had to hand over about half of their rice as clothing, and household goods. rent, would, in many cases, be excused Subsequent rises in stocks of these latter from paying part In a poor season. commodities, obtained on bank credit by :4 E H Norman,Japan's Emel~ence as,i Modern State, New York, 194o. as Rural textile production, petty trading, and temporary work ill Those who organized rural industries suffered, too, from the tow;1s. subsequent trade rect, ssiou. :" See works cited ill note I. HARVEST FLUCTUATIONS IN AN INDUSTRIALIZING ECONOMY I65 distributors, would provoke a financial important market for the more common crisis leading to production cutbacks and manufactured goods, such as clothing, falls in employment and earnings. These processed foods, and household utensils. would result, as purchasing power de- Calculations suggest that abnormal har- clined, in further changes in consumption vests would have directly increased or expenditure, and so would be set off reduced the supply of goods by 4 to 8 per another round of cuts in manufacturing cent in Meiji Japan, though if services are output, employment, and earnings. Large included the immediate real GDP effect quantities of grain might have to be im- would have been only 2 to 3 per cent. ported, creating balance of payments Factors other than abnormal harvests difficulties and bringing about a specie were also responsible for the long swings outflow which would lead to further tight- and short cycles found in the Meiji ening of credit. The downward spiral period. -'9 Structural transformation, too, would eventually be reversed, if not by was occurring. Hence the influence of stock replenishment, or an exogenous annual variations in the rice crop could be factor, such as war, then by a good harvest. expected to alter as Japan became more A bountiful crop, by holding down food- industrialized and linked to the world stuff prices and hence manufacturing economy, and as disturbing elements, such wages, would have allowed industrial as wars, made their presence felt. The stage products to be sold at lower prices, reached in the trade cycle when the abnor- stimulating demand for them and thereby mal harvest occurred also would have had reviving activity in the economy. some bearing on its effects. Application of the above analysis to the In I889, the poor rice crop was reaped Meiji economy would not be inappropri- when manufacturing was booming. The ate. Of the goods produced (including boom centred on the cotton industry: some buildings) in the period I889 to I9O3, more 24 spinning mills started up between I887 than two-thirds emanated from the agri- and I889. Their advance, though partly at cultural sector, rice making up half of this the expense of imports and hand spinners, figure. Over one-third of the manufactur- was mainly stimulated by increased local ing sector's 2o per cent share of total output demand, for there were then no exports. consisted of textiles; processed foods pro- Capacity expansion at this rate would have vided another one-third. -'7 Capital goods eventually brought about over-production, industries were still in their infancy. The but before this could happen disaster struck urban proportion of the population -- the rice fields. dependent on non-agricultural earnings In I89o, the retail price of rice rose by 54 was small, 13 per cent in I888 and 27 per per cent, and estimated expenditure on this cent in I912. Very few townspeople were staple by 5o per cent. Meanwhile, clothing factory workers, many more were and household goods prices dropped. Were employed in workshops or at home, rely- rice excluded, the Consumer Price Index ing on merchants for credit, raw materials, would have fallen 8 percentage points, and orders. 2s Much industrial production, instead it climbed by almost 7 per cent. a° in particular, of raw silk and cotton cloth, Food items, on average, increased by I9 was undertaken as a rural by-employment. The rural sector, by its sheer size, was an :9 See K Ohkawa and H Rosovsky, 'Economic FluctuationsinJapan. A Preliminary Analysis of Cycles and Long Swings', Hitotsubashi .v Computed from LTES, Vol l, Table 9; Vol m, Table t. Journal of Ecom,mies, 3, 1, October 1962, pp Io-33; S Fujino, '~ According to S Tsuru, Essays onjapanese Economy, Tokyo, 1958, 'Business Cycles in Japan, 1868-t962', Hitomd,ashi journal ~" there were I13,ooo factory workers in 1886; G C Allen, A Short Economies, 7, l,June 1966, pp 5(~79. Economic Histor), o.fModer..lapan, 4th cd, t98 I, Tabh, V, shows •~" Unless otherwise shown, price information in this section comes 948,ooo in I914; many were in small establishments. from LTES, Vol 8. 166. THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW per cent, and sake (rice wine) by 16 per financial crisis which must be linked to the cent. Efforts to maintain food consump- contraction of rice output. The bad harvest tion forced up the prices of other grains, temporarily halted staple grain exports, and the poorer members of the community which in the previous year had earned I I may have spent one-third of their income million yen, and required expenditure on on cereals, compared with a norm of imported rice of z2.3 million yen, a total one-quarter. Foodstuffs' share in personal foreign exchange cost of 23.3 million yen. consumption expenditure nationally is cal- The trade balance, favourable since I882, culated to have expanded from 60.9 to 66.3 recorded a 25. r million yen deficit, leading per cent, while that of clothing contracted to a specie outflow of I2.6 million yen. 3s from 9.7 to 7.2 per cent. 3t Purchases of These changes in money income, specie clothing, sake, charcoal and fuelwood, reserves, and rice importers' credit furnishings and utensils, tea and sh6chfi, demands descended on a banking system, appear to have slumped. which, due to generous assistance to share Of the 34 manufactured commodities speculators in the boom, was already fea.turing in the LTES Volume Io produc- over-committed. Too late, the Osaka tion time series, about one-quarter show a banks, in March, lifted their lending rate to decline in output in a normal year. In 1890, I8.25 per cent. Initially unable to accept half had production cutbacks, including company stock as collateral, the Bank of sugar, flour, various alcoholic beverages, Japan could not accommodate the ; processed foods, wood products, oils and commercial banks, thus many new firms fats, paper, indigo, and cotton fabrics. collapsed. 36 A fall in raw silk export Shionoya indicates that the output of stone, earnings of I2.8 million yen, due to clay, and glass products also fell. He currency appreciation following American estimates that manufacturing production legislation raising the price of silver, overall was reduced by more than 6 per exacerbated the crisis. 3v But the silk trade's cent. a2 The official Statistical Yearbook problems came in the second half of I89O. records that the number of factory workers Undoubtedly, it was the bad rice harvest declined from 346,o79, at the peak of the which set off the economic downturn. In boom in z889, to 321,624 in I89o, and, a Tsuru's words, 'It had the immediate effect sign that recovery was slow, to a low of of depressing the business outlook. '38 The 294,425 in I892. Though statistics are small gains the rural community made unavailable, Tsuru considers unemploy- from rice sales were soon lost as earnings ment in small workshops must have been from raw silk, sake brewing, and cotton more acute, a3 spinning and weaving declined. Fujino's dating, July I89o, of the start in Subsequent economic recovery owed the downturn in economic activity accords much to the I89o record rice crop, though well with an explanation of harvest caus- a silver price downturn also helped. ation, as it allows an adequate time-lag for Exports of rice resumed, those of raw silk consumption expenditure pattern shifts recovered, and the trade surplus in I89I and stock accumulation of certain goods. 34 reached the 1889 figure. Yet despite some Since February, there had been a severe fall, the retail price of the staple cereal remained 26 per cent above its pre-I889 3, Consumption expenditure data, except where noted, is from harvest level, delaying full restoration of LTES, Vol 6. .~" Y Shionoya, 'Patterns ofhtdustrial 1)evelopmcnt', in L Klein and .~s For foreign trade statistics, see L TES, Vol 6 and Ore' Humh'ed ~'ear K Ohkawa (¢ds), Econonlie Growth: theJalmnese l£.~:periencesillce the Statistics oftheJapanese Econonl),, Tokyo, t 966, Table t x4. Meij'i Era, Homewood, I11., 1968. 3,, T F M Adams, A Fillancial lqistor), o.l'Jalmn, Tokyo, 1964, Part 1. 3.~ Tst, m, op cit, p 137. .,7 Japan was on the sih, er standard until 1897. ~4 Fujino, 0p cit. 3~ TsunL 0p cit, p 135. / HARVEST FLUCTUATIONS IN AN INDUSTRIALIZING ECONOMY 167 the consumer spending pattern until I892. Haruki Yamawaki commented: 'Trade in The continued drop in bank loans and rise general became greatly depressed on in deposits, seen in Tsuru's statistical account of the poor crops of rice happening series, 39 suggests that business confidence in successive years'. 45 was slow to recover, even if industrial Awareness of a bumper grain crop may production in I89I surpassed that of have induced the speedy revival of business 1889 .40 confidence in 1899. From a peak in August The economic situation in 1898 was 1898, the rice price returned to the 1896 complex. Two years of poor crops pushed level. But government, too, seems to have up the rice price by 51 per cent, and led to a assisted recovery by facilitating a consider- shift in the consumer expenditure pattern: able expansion of the money supply, which the share of foodstuffs went up from 61 to in turn induced a general fall in interest 64.7 per cent, whereas that of clothing rates. 46 There was, as well, a big increase in dropped from I1 to 9.3 per cent. Signs of exports, and a further sign of better times pressure on the lower and middle income was an increase in the number of accounts groups can be seen in the statistics of the held by each category of depositer in the Post Office savings bank. Between I896 Post Office savings bank. and 1898, farmers, small nqanufacturers, Even in the early 19oos rice crop fluctu- merchants, factory operatives, and public ations could still disturb the economy. A servants withdrew deposits. The decline in British observer reported, 'The spending funds held ranged from 2o per cent for power of the people was exceptionally cultivators to 4o per cent for officials. All reduced by the extremely bad harvest of sections, except farmers, closed a signifi- I9O2 and this . . . may well have contrib- cant proportion of their accounts." How- uted to the present depression in trade. '47 ever, forces countering the harvests' effects Retail prices of household goods fell by were operating. Unlike in I89O, rises in over 9 per cent as that of the staple grain wages partly compensated for price climbed by I4 per cent. Output of yarn hikes. 4-" Temporarily, Chinese reparations was down by 15 per cent, and of cotton had eased constrictions on capital goods cloth by more than 8 per cent. Annual imports. Cotton spinners' successes in reports of 45 spinning companies reveal foreign markets enabled a 5o per cent that 22 made losses. Poor results stemmed expansion of yarn production. 43 Yet even in part from a Chinese devaluation affect- if the volume of manufacturing output ing exports but were mainly due to a increased in I898, there were more than the decline in domestic demand commencing average number of goods, including in the last quarter of 19o2 and attributed to sh6chfi, processed foods, tea, indigo, the sorry situation in the paddy fields. 48 lacquer, oils and fats, camphor and waxes, Funds accumulated in banks and lending paper, pig iron, and cotton fabrics, whose rates had to be reduced. 49 Business activity production contracted. 44 Overall economic tapered off after April I9O3, but aggregate activity was dampened between Novem- manufacturing output, which, according ber I897 and November 1898, and bad to Shionoya, declined between I9OO and harvests must be held responsible for it. As 19o2, did not shrink further in I9O3, and by .~sJapan in the Begimting o/'the 2oth Century, Tokyo, 19o3, pp 58 I-2. ~'~ Tsuru, op tit, statistical appendix. 4¢, See Shibusawa Eiicbi, 'The Revolution of Banking in Japan', in 4o Shionoya, op cir. Count Okuma, F(li), Years ol" New japan, 19o9, and Financial and "~' Financial am/Ecom,mic Ammal q/Japan. IV, Tokyo, 19o4, Table 54. Economic Ammal q]'Japa., IV, Table 49. .l: LTES, Vol 8, Table 25. 4v Board ofTradejou.M, XLIV,January-March 19o4, p 17. 4.1 SJ Koh, Stages qfl,dustrial Development in Asia, Plfiladelphia, t966, 4~ Anglo-japanese Gazene, September t9o3, p 57. statistical tables to chapter one. "J japan Weekll, Mail 12September 3J October ,9o3 Japan Brewery 44 LTES, Vol m, and Shionoya, 0p cir. Company sales were also down. !I I68 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW 'i December the recession was over. s° An output of other cereals and rice imports above average rice crop and an off-loading only moderated, they did not eliminate, abroad of yarn stocks helped to cut it short. supply deficiencies after a bad rice crop. The Russo-Japanese War had a much Secondly, shortages were not such as to greater impact on the economy in I9O5 cause a national famine, though the local than the abundant harvest of the previous impact of the far greater prefectural and year, though slightly falling rice prices regional yield variations deserves investi- reduced inflationary pressures. Taxes on gation. Thirdly, analysis of somewhat textiles were introduced, saving was of- deficient data suggests below normal har- ficially encouraged, production was vests influenced birth rates but reveals no affected by the absence on military service association between oscillations in rice of several hundred thousand men, but war production and national mortality and increased machinery imports and kept the nuptiality. Fourthly, statistical techniques manufacturing sector fully occupied, s' using price as a proxy for output give Despite the poor harvest of I9O5, the unreliable results in the Japanese case. cessation of hostilities was accompanied by Fifthly, farmers appear to have varied rice unusual commercial activity, and 'cotton deliveries in accord with crop and price mills had their most successful year' with conditions, and thereby generally increased large dividends being earned and order their income. Sixthly, wide yield swings books filled for several months ahead, s-" and differences in cropping patterns meant One reason why the natural calamity had that some areas gained less or suffered little effect was because stocks of imported more than the national figures indicate. rice, accumulated during the War, were Seventhly, in bad harvests, real earnings released. from other agricultural commodities did Clearly, by the mid-I9OOS a bad rice crop not increase sufficiently, except in I9O5, to had become a much less economically offset rice income reductions. As to significant event in Japan. Thereafter, rice whether farms employing labour would was never again to constitute such a high have profited from a poor national rice proportion (I 5-I7 per cent) of total imports crop, the evidence is inconclusive owing to as it had in I889, I898, and I9O2. Further- the unstable rice pricelagricultural wage more, as the country became more indus- ratio. A light harvest undoubtedly injured trialized and urbanized, the farming com- small farmers, whereas a bountiful crop munity's contribution to GDP and market benefited them. demand steadily diminished. After I912 Abnormal harvests happened at different there would be further fluctuations in stages in the trade cycle and sometimes in Japanese economic activity, but excep- the presence of stronger factors. The effects tional harvests would cease to play any seem to have been most potent at the major role in them. beginning of the period, when, with the forces behind the I887-9 boom already Conclusions largely spent, they played a significant role Several conclusions can be reached both in the serious recession and the concerning the effects of abnormal staple subsequent recovery. In the mid period grain harvests on the population and their impact on the economy was less. economy of newly industrializing Japan Industrial expansion continued through the during the period I887-I912. First, the first poor harvest season, in 1896, although to Fujino, op cir. that of 1897 appears to have brought on 5, Board of TradeJournal, LI, October-December x9o5, p 1o. along with government monetary s: Board of Trade journal, LVII, April-June 19o7, p 575; LVIII, July-September 19o7, p z34. restrictions -- the temporary difficulties HARVEST FLUCTUATIONS IN AN INDUSTRIALIZING ECONOMY I69 experienced shortly afterwards. The brief following poor season had no discernible period of prosperity in 1899 must be effects. However, between 1889 and the attributed to expansionist policies and new early I9OOS (even if the pattern of long export opportunities, and not just to the swings was determined by other factors) s3 good rice crop of I898. Yet the deficient sharp fluctuations in rice yields initiated, harvest in 19o2 seems to have been the accentuated or reversed several short-term trigger for a brief recession in the early cyclical movements, and in the newly I9OOS. On the other hand, the bountiful industrializing Japan of that period the lives 19o 4 crop, because it coincided with a of bankers and businessmen, factory work- wartime boom, was a minor influence on ers and farmers were all affected, to a economic activity, even if welcome to a greater or lesser degree, by the state of the government that had restricted expenditure harvest. on other consumption goods. This gen- erous harvest, along with stockpiles of imported grains, partly explains why the " See Ohkawaand Rosovsky, op cir. TABLE 3 Rice Yields: Percentage of the Trend (trend = IOO) Year Japan Kinki Tohoku Nara Nagano Sa~a Kagawa Aomori 1887 109.4 II5.6 109.3 101.7 I15.3 I17.4 116.6 IO3.9 I888 IO2.9 103.9 95.3 93.2 93.5 II6.2 I14.O 103.9 1889 84.4 75.8 89.5 75.5 87.4 70.0 7O.6 88.8 1890 IIO. I 113.8 IO4.1 I27. I 106.7 I33.8 106.8 II8.4 1891 97.5 99.7 97.6 11 1.2 102.9 90.0 89.6 86.4 1892 105.6 IO2. I 106.O IO2.2 99-3 I17.8 I26. I 113.6 1893 93.8 96.3 95.1 80.9 99.6 46.3 I08.9 74.5 1894 IO9.3 115.6 It3.2 I21.o I10.7 IIO.6 63.1 117.3 I895 IOO.9 IOI.O 107.8 1OO. 3 IO2.6 94.2 1IO.3 110.9 I896 92. I 8o. 1 96.7 89.3 9I.I 121.3 lOO. 1 99.5 1897 82.7 83.9 78.8 83.8 87.6 96.o 70.5 88.o I898 116.5 I24.8 103.2 II4.8 IO7.1 I28.9 132. 7 I00. I I899 98.7 91.6 101.I 96. 3 96.5 90.2 79.3 I12.2 19OO 99.4 98. I I I0.5 92.7 109.9 76.O I03.4 I02.8 I9OI IO5.8 IO6.8 I14.4 II1.8 io5. 3 88,1 IO5. 4 111.6 19o2 85.9 93.5 66.2 93.8 88.2 IO9.7 94.6 49.2 19o3 IO5.7 98.8 II6.4 97.4 Io6.7 II5.6 96.7 II3.5 19o4 II4.2 IO7.9 I29,5 IO6.2 II8.9 99.4 11o.3 145. 3 I9O5 83.4 96.o 55.3 97.8 75.5 8o.2 97.6 8o.o 19o6 96.5 IOI.3 84.7 96.6 88.1 IO7.7 97.5 60.5 I9o7 IO2.2 96.6 112.1 99.0 IO7.3 IO8.9 IOO.I II2.8 I9O8 IO8.I lO6.8 11o.6 IO8. 4 1oo. 4 II6.7 lO9.1 lO5.1 19o9 lO5.4 IOI.4 I12..9 lOl.6 ii7. 5 92.7 lO7.1 IO7.6 191o 92.7 96.7 95.7 96.6 97.5 89.4 91.5 117.1 1911 IOO. 5 99.7 IO4.6 IO3.3 IO2.9 IOI.6 IOO. 9 I15.6 Sources: computed from data in LTES, Volume 9, Table 12: T Ogura ed, Agricultural Deveh,pment in Modern Japan, figs 24.2, 24.4. E 17o THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW TABLE 4 Rice Output and Price: Percentage of Trend (trend = too) /: Price: Percentage of Trend, based on: 31-Year 25- Year 7-Year Least Squares Moving Moving Moving Trend Year Output Average Average Average Value I889 84.4 IOI.4 A IO6.3 A I34.o B I31.3 B I89O IIO.I 77.9 G 8I. 4 G 94.2 A 96.0 A I897 82. 7 I32.o B I39.7 B I29.8 B 135.1 B 1898 116.5 87.3 G 9o.8 A 84.2 G 87.8 G 1902 85. 9 108.7 A 112. 9 D 1o9.7 A lO7.6 A I9o4 114.2 81.2 G 94.9 A 89.7 G 89. I G 19o5 83.4 88.8 G lOI.4 A io2.o A 98.4 A Note a: Price is of the year following the harvest. Note.b: Hoskins' classificationof the harvest:- A -- average, D -- deficient, B -- bad, G -- good. Sources: Prices: E H Norman,japan's Enlel:~enceas a Modern State, New York, 194o, pp 41-2; Output: LTI:.'S, Vol 9, Table 12. TABLE 5 Rice Production and Estimated Quantity Marketed (ooo koku) Consmned (3) as a Farm (6) as a b), per cent Seed Sales per cent Year Output Farmers of(2) Reserve (2) - ((3) + (5)) of(2) (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) 1887 413 °8 21690 52.51 2065 17553 42.49 I888 39474 20218 51.22 I973 17283 43.78 1889 33194 18849 56.78 I659 12686 38.22 I89O 43084 23388 54.28 2154 I7542 40.72 1891 38181 20123 52.7 ° 19o 9 16149 42.30 I892 41429 21591 52. I2 2071 17767 42.89 1893 37267 19682 52.81 I863 15722 42.19 1894 41859 21361 5I.O3 2092 18406 43.97 1895 39960 1940o 48.55 1998 18562 46.45 1896 36240 18213 50.26 I812 16215 44.74 1897 33039 18168 54.99 1651 13220 4o.o1 I898 47388 23203 48.96 2369 21816 46.o4 I899 39698 19565 49.28 1984 18149 45.72 1900 41466 19883 47.95 2073 1951o 47.05 I9Ol 46914 23266 49-59 2345 213O3 45.4I I902 36932 2o631 55.86 I846 14455 39.14 19o3 46473 256O2 55.o9 2323 18548 39.91 I9O4 5143o 28433 55.28 257I 2o426 39.72 19o5 38173 19220 50.35 19o8 17044 44.65 1906 46302 2293 ° 49.52 2315 21057 45.48 I9o7 49052 23936 48.80 2452 22664 46.20 Source: computed from LTES, Volume 6, Tables 9 and 12. / HARVEST FLUCTUATIONS IN AN INDUSTRIALIZING ECONOMY 171 TABLE 6 Farm Income from Rice Sales Estimated National Farmers' Real Farm Household Farm Sales Farm Price Rice Income hlcome Price Index Year 'ooo koku Yen/Koku 'ooo Yen 'ooo Yen (1887 = lOO) I887 17553 4.33 76oo4 76oo4 lOO.OO 1888 17283 5.4o 93328 88833 IO5.O6 I889 12686 8.o5 1o2122 9o462 II2.89 I89O 17542 6.37 111742 IO4412 I07.02 1891 16149 6.59 106421 96738 IIO.OI I892 17767 6.75 119927 107751 1II.3O 1893 15722 8. I2 I27662 111049 II4.96 I894 18406 8.21 151113 119817 126. i2 I895 18562 8.89 I65016 12172O I35.57 1896 I6215 II.26 182580 117984 I54.75 I897 13220 I4.O6 185873 111022 167.42 1898 21816 lO.44 227759 143951 158.22 I899 18149 11.43 207443 117286 I76.87 I9OO 19510 IO.79 21o512 121172 I73.73 19oi 21303 12.o2 256062 142012 I8O.3I I9O2 14455 13.7o 198033 104542 I89.43 I9O3 18548 I2.56 232962 120028 194.o9 I9O4 20426 I2.21 249401 121357 2o5.5I I9O5 I7O44 I3.98 238275 115326 2o6.6I I9O6 21057 I5.66 329752 145099 227.26 19o7 22664 I5.19 344266 157235 218.95 19o8 24663 16.42 4o4966 192392 2IO.49 I9O9 25160 I6.24 4o8598 193035 2II.67 I9IO 22178 21.1I 468177 206409 226.82 I91I 24878 23.99 396823 249591 239. I2 I912 23614 25.80 609241 246996 246.66 Som'ces: computed from data in LTES, Vols 6 and 8. TABLE 7 Estimated Gross Agricultural Income ('000 yen) At current prices Real income Ye,~r Rice Other Total Rice Other Total i888 93328 93634 186962 88833 89124 177957 1889 I02122 101790 203912 90462 9oi67 I8O629 I89O 111742 106970 218712 IO4412 99953 204365 I895 I65OI6 167933 332949 121720 123872 245592 I896 182580 160522 343102 117984 10373O 221714 I897 185873 185701 371574 111022 110919 221941 I898 227759 193812 421571 143951 122495 266446 I9OI 256062 219599 475661 142012 121790 263802 I9O2 I98OO3 235376 433409 104542 124254 228796 i9o3 232962 267098 500060 120028 I37615 257643 I9O4 2494o1 262728 512129 121357 127842 249199 19o5 238275 284668 522943 115326 13778o 2531o6 Sources: computed from LTES, Volmue 6; Volume 9, 'Fable 12. .C i ~ 172 THE AGRICULTURALHISTORY REVIEW TABLE 8 Fluctuations in Vital Rates, 1887-1913 Percentage of the trend (trend = IOO) Year Births Deaths Marriages 1887 96.18 95.18 lO2.52 1888 lO4.27 92.1o lO2.26 1889 lO5.84 96.83 lO4.48 I89o 98.6o 96.86 97.52 189I 93.55 IOO.I9 91.81 1892 lO2.16 IO5.O8 97.38 I893 97.48 lO9.57 96.76 I894 98.4o 96.51 98.3o 1895 IOO. I6 96.73 99.2o 1896 99.97 lO2.73 134.28 1897 99.74 97.37 96.o6 1898 lol.97 98.53 lO9.87 1899 IOI.O6 lO2.55 I23.o3 "I9OO Ioi.5I 98.62 89.86 I901 I03.72 99.08 96.09 1902 I03.80 I01.44 I01.72 I903 99.97 96.88 93.52 19o4 95.30 97.60 1Ol.47 19o5 93.78 lol.59 86.50 I9O6 91.88 95.72 lO9.78 19o7 lOI.92 IOl.O6 lO3.94 19o8 lO3.76 lol.68 lO9.87 19o9 lO4.72 lO6.12 lO2.39 191o IO2.43 IO2. I3 lO2.O6 1911 lO2.65 98.53 98.2I 1912 lOO. 15 95.73 97.59 1913 99.85 91.2o 96.36 Note: Derived from an ix-year moving average. Based on regis- trations. Sources: computed frop: Rc;sum~ Statistiqm. various years, and Taeuber. i~ :! " i Trade Agreements and the Evolution of British Agricultural Policy in the I93OS* By T ROOTH IlE plight of the farming community volume eight of The Agrarian History of during the depression was an England and Wales.~ The availability of T important dement in the protec- documents in the Public Record Office tionist campaign gathering momentum in allows greater insight into the objectives of the UK from I929 onwards. Britain was government and the way in which policy caught up in the world crisis of primary evolved. Making use of these records, this producers. With her open market, she paper attempts to show that there were became a dumping ground for surplus formidable obstacles in the way of imple- world food production. Imports of menting full-scale agricultural protection. commodities also produced by British In the first place, such a policy had to be farmers increased in volume by as much as carried out by a government with substan- seventeen per cent between I927-9 and tial National Liberal and Labour represen- i93I. l In the three years from September tation in Cabinet. Until the death of Mac- I929, farm prices fell by thirty-four per lean in June I932 and the resignation-of cent, and by June I933 were back at the Snowden, Samuel and Sinclair at the end of level they had been before the First World the following September, there was ex- War. Although touching the sympathies of plicit defence of free trade within the successive Ministers of Agriculture in the Cabinet, and in later years there remained a minority Labour administration of pronounced wariness among ministers 1929-3 I, and of Ramsay MacDonald him- about the likely impact of agricultural self, proposals for assistance foundered on protection on prices. Secondly, the the rock of Snowden's opposition. The incompatibility between protection and Conservatives, however, fully pledged to imperial preference, a contradiction that agricultural protection from October 193o, had dogged tariff reformers in the past, were a dominant force in the National also stood in the way of effective support Government which came to power in the for UK farmers. Finally, the legacy of autumn of .1931 . When, in the winter of Britain's nineteenth-century industrial, 1931-2, Britain abandoned free trade, an financial, and political supremacy was era of protection and subsidized support reflected in a structure of departmental for farmers was inaugurated. interests in Whitehall which militated The measures taken by government have against the ambitions of the Ministry of been discussed in several works, including Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) for Edith Whetham's authoritative account in " E H Whethanl, The Agrarian Histor), qfEngland and Wah's, Vol VIII: 19t4-]939, Cambridge, 1978, esp pp 241-72, 325-9; S Pollard, The ' K A H Murray, Ae.ricultlm' 1944, p 3i. Devdopment of the British Econom),, 1914-1967, 1969, pp 134-45; Viscount Astor and B S Rowntree, British Agriculture: The Principles * ! have had the benefit of comments on an earlier draft of this paper of Futm'c Poll0, 1938; C H Mowat, Britain Between the Wars by Dr Ed Early, Dr Cliff Gulvin, and two anonymous referees. 1918-194o, 1955, pp 436-41; J H l~,ichardson, British Econonlic They are not, of course, responsible for any shortcomings. I am also Foreign Policy, 1936, 156-98. I M Drummond, bnperial Econonlic grateful to tile Nuffield Foundation and to the ESRC for financial Polio' 1917-1939: &udies in Expansion aM Protection, 1974, does use assistance, and to the Keeper of the Public Records fi3r access to government papers to discuss the interaction between British docklnlelltS. agricuhural and imperial policy. 173 q ~i : ~ii I74 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW British farmers. Britain remained pre- duties. Moreover, under pressure from the eminently an industrial nation. Assistance Dominions, the government decided to to UK agriculture had therefore to be exempt imperial produce from any of the accommodated within a framework that new tariffs pending the results of the gave priority to industrial protection, and Ottawa Conference to be held in the sought to stimulate industrial exports as summer of 1932. Between passage of the well as to facilitate the servicing of overseas Import Duties Act and the Conference, the investments. This is nowhere more most important piece of agricultural legis- apparent than in the series of trade agree- lation was the 1932 Wheat Act. Cereal ments that Britain made in the I93OS: these producers had been the earliest and worst were exclusively with primary producers, affected by the collapse of world prices. and involved a series of concessions by The Wheat Act provided for subsidies of Britain almost wholly on food and raw up to ten shillings per cwt to be paid to UK material imports, in exchange for advan- wheat farmers, funded by a levy on all tages for her industrial exports.3 This paper flour whether imported or milled in Brit- aims to show that these trade pacts not ain. only represented the continued subordin- The Ottawa Conference did little to aid ation of agriculture to industry, but that British agriculture, s It is true that the the terms of the treaties dictated the principle was established that home far- eventual shape of agricultural policy in the mers were to have first claim on the UK UK, helping to determille the emergence market, that the Dominions were to be of Exchequer-financed subsidies as the entitled to an expanding share of imports, principal support device between the late and that foreign producers were to supply I93OS and the I97OS. the residual. But implementing this was another matter. Certainly British farmers obtained scant additional protection. The I major beneficiaries of the Conference were The foundations of agricultural protection the Dominions. Free entry for imperial were laid in the Horticultural Products produce was confirmed, for many prod- (Emergency Duties) Act of November ucts for the full five year duration of the I93I and the Import Duties Act of Febru- treaties. There were some new duties, ary I932. Tariffs were applied to certain notably a levy of two shillings per quarter flowers, fruit and vegetables, to barley, on foreign wheat and flour imports, and and oats, and to dairy products and eggs. tariffs on dairy products and eggs were The Cabinet's Agricultural Policy Com- raised. There were also some new quotas: mittee had recommended either low foreign shipments of frozen beef, mutton, wide-ranging duties or selective but higher and lamb were to be cut back by thirty-five ones. 4 The Cabinet chose selective but low per cent. But quotas and higher duties were an attempt to meet the demands of the The most important treaties were those with Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and Sot|th Africa at Ottawa in 1932, and, Dominions, and for the most part were between 1933 and t935, with Argentina, l)emnark, Norway, aimed at switching trade to the Empire at Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Trade treaties with Germany (t933) and France (1934) were of very limited the expense of foreign suppliers. The. major scope, while that with the USA 0938) involved concessions by consequence of Ottawa for British farmers Britain on agricultural commodities and reductions of imperial preference. PRO, CAB -7/465, Agricultural 1 olicy Committee Report, 16 A (till and authoritative account of the Ottawa Con(erenc¢ can bc Ja,mary '932. Evidence of a lack of sympathy for agricultural found in I M I)rumnmnd, op L'it, Chs 5 and 6. Drmnmond would not protection is suggested by tile Minister having on two occasions to necessarily support the view that British agriculture received little apologize for statements to the Cabinet or to redra(t a public benefit (ton| the agreements. This is argued in T Rooth, 'British statement that was too protectionist in tone. Cabinet meetings of 25 Commercial Policy in the ~93os with Special Re(crence to Overseas November 1931 and 3 February 1932. Primary Producers', Univ Hull unpubl PhD thesis, 1984. TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE EVOLUTION OF BRITISH AGRICULTURAL POLICY I75 was not the negligible additional protection quota of up to two and a half million cwts, they received but the way in which conces- had also to be accommodated. sions to the Dominions put a straitjacket on This advance for the Ministry of Agri- British agricultural policy. Not only were culture viewpoint therefore threatened the Empire products to be duty-free, but mar- planned foreign negotiations. The most gins of preference were guaranteed. important of these were held with the Moreover, the majority of imperial sup- Scandinavians and the Argentine in late plies were granted freedom from quanti- I932 and in r933 .6 Broadly, what foreign tative controls. The one major exception to suppliers wanted was as much security for this was meat, where Britain only pledged their food exports as they could induce herself not to introduce import quotas on Britain to concede. For food they Dominion shipments before July 1934. In demanded guarantees of duty free entry for practice the Dominions were so hostile to meat, including bacon, and the mainten- such controls that they had to be ruled out. ance of duties on dairy products and eggs. Sir John Gilmour had not been successful They were also very anxious about the at Ottawa, his colleagues generally over- threat that quota controls might pose, and ruling him when he sought to preserve the sought either guarantees that these would interests of British agriculture. Walter not be used at all (eggs and dairy produce), Elliot, taking over his job as Minister of or, where they already existed and were Agriculture, did have a greater measure of inescapable, as on meat, that they would success in helping British bacon producers, not be tightened further. The Board of and also in restraining the largesse of the Trade, aiming at valuable export conces- Board of Trade in the foreign trade nego- sions for coal and industrial products, tiations that followed the Imperial Con- would have been glad to have granted all ference. this. Only too aware of the Board of Trade The principle of priority for UK agricul- attitude, the Minister of Agriculture tural expansion was given substance in one attempted to postpone the negotiations. important case, that of bacon. A Reorgan- Overruled on this, he tried to block any isation Commission for Pigs and Pig guarantees of free entry or freedom from Products, reporting in the autumn of I932, import controls for foreign supplies. This recommended that bacon prices should be was an impossible negotiating stance for forced up in an effort to stimulate UK Britain, particularly in the wake of output. The main method of raising prices Ottawa. A senior Board of Trade official was to be a cut-back in foreign supplies. minuted that if the Ministry's views were The proposals, eventually implemented to prevail, 'we do not stand any chance of within the framework of the Agricultural making any agreement with the Argentine Marketing Acts legislation of I933, under- at all'. 7 A pact with Denmark on these line the emphasis that was placed in gov- terms would also have been difficult if not ernment at this time on supply restriction impossible. 8 The MAF were persuaded to as a solution to the agricultural crisis. The agree to existing free entry and duties. It prospects for foreign supplies of bacon was more successful in inserting clauses were dismal. Total bacon supplies were to " R Gravil and T Rooth, 'A Time of Acute Dependence: Argentina in be reduced from their I93I level of I3.3 the t93os',Jnl Eur Econ Hist, 7, 1978, pp 337-78; E F Early, 'The million cwt to lO.7 million. Within this Roca-l~,unciman Treaty and its Significance for Argentina, t933-4x', Univ London unpubl Phi) thesis, 198t. T Rooth, 'Limits total, not only was domestic output sup- of Leverage: The Anglo-Danish Trade Agreement of 1933', Econ posed to increase, but the Canadians, cur- Hist Rev, 2nd scr XXXVII, 1984, pp 2x 1-28. 7 PRO, BT I t/t43, Sir Henry Fountain, 3tJanuary t933. rently supplying only minimal quantities, s PP,O, FO 37t/17212, minute by F Ashton Gwatkin, 6 February yet extravagantly promised at Ottawa a t933. i ~ , 'i,q~ !i i, I76 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW :ii that would allow physical import Controls gins were fixed until 1937. Because exist- on dairy products and eggs, although ing duties were stabilized until 1936 in the subject to the proviso in the treaties that various foreign agreements, it was there- Britain would only be able to impose these fore impossible to tax Dominion supplies if they were combined with UK marketing without infringing the preferential tariff schemes for the product concerned. margins. The scope of action available to the MAF was thus severely curtailed, although more II so for import levies than in the field of By the time the first major series of trade quotas. This accorded with Neville Cham- treaties had been completed, the British berlain's idea that producer control offered government had burdened itself with a the best prospects for raising prices. As range of obligations that limited drastically early as November 1932 the Pacific its freedom of action in assisting home Dominions and South America had been farmers. For meat, foreign supplies of induced to cut back their meat shipments, frozen mutton, lamb and beef were being and these arrangements had been continued progressively reduced so that by mid-I934 in i933 .9 Mutton and lamb prices were they would be at sixty-five per cent of their fairly well maintained, partly because of Ottawa Year (the twelve month period restricted supplies, partly because demand ending 3oJune I932)level. From July I934 trends were favourable. Beef prices Whitehall would, in. theory at least, be able continued to fall during I933 however, and to control Empire supplies by quantitative pressures built up from domestic producers regulation; Argentina had rights in effect to and landowners for further help. '° The ninety, or in some circumstances IOO per structure of the industry was such that the cent of her Ottawa Year chilled beef fatteners, principally located in the East supplies, although she might be restricted Midlands (summer grazing) and East below ninety per cent if Dominion meat Anglia (winter feeding), were able to wield imports were cut by similar proportions. greater political influence than the But Britain had also bound herself not to breeders, geographically more remote and tax meat imports during the currency of operating on a smaller scale. The fatteners the Argentine and Ottawa agreements, ie were also worse hit by price falls. The until November 1936 or August 1937 cattle they bought cost them seventy-five respectively. The bacon situation was to eighty per cent of the price they hoped easier: Canada was guaranteed a market for to realize for the finished beef. When prices 21/2 million cwts, but foreign supplies fell at the pace they did in I932 and I933, theoretically could be cut to whatever level this margin could be eliminated during the was thought wise or desirable. Here too, six months the animals were normally though, free entry had been conceded, so if kept. x~ Elliot's solution to these problems, duties were to be introduced this would first mooted when the ink on the agree- involve the acquiescence of the trade ments with Argentina was barely dry, partner. A mixed bag of obligations on '* PP, O, CAB 27/495, Cabinet Committee on Meat Policy. This dairy products and eggs also hampered COllllllitte¢ IllCt (lilly OlleC and produced no reports. Tile one meeting, at which Elliot pressed for the Board of Trade to be given freedom of action. Foreign supplies could powers to regulate meat supplies from abroad produced the usual be quantitatively controlled only if opposition from the Board of Trade, I)ominions Office and Treasury as well as from the Prime Minister. Tile vohmtary domestic sales were also regulated by a restrictions, also involving bacon, did serve to firm prices marketing scheme. Dominion produce was tentporarily. '" PRO, CAB 27/560 PMS(33), 1" meeting, t I)ecember 1933 (the to be free of duties or quotas until landowners inchlded tile bursars of Oxford Colleges). mid-I935, but minimum preference mar- " Viscount Astor and B Seebohm P,owntree, ~W tit, p 194. B; : TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE EVOLUTION OF BRITISH AGRICULTURAL POLICY I77 proposed the introduction of a levy- up in farms, and opportunities for subsidy, and, as an inducement to alternative employment in industry were Argentina's acquiescence, suggested the virtually non-existent. ~4 Governments waiving of British rights to reduce chilled committed to maintaining agriculture and beef imports below ninety per cent of the rural population frequently had resort to Ottawa Year level. At this stage Ministers subsidies, particularly for export crops. were lukewarm about, or opposed to the Overseas exchange depreciations could idea of a subsidy. Chamberlain asserted nullify tariff imposts. In the circumstances, that if beef producers had one, every other therefore, lower prices would either fail to industry would demand a subsidy.t~ Ideas reduce output, or, at best, do so only very reverted to supply restriction. The slowly. Canadians were to be persuaded to stabilize Yet if the price mechanism was a weak their cattle exports, and a fifty per cent cut instrument of adjustment, neither were was made on the imports of Irish cattle. import controls alone likely to render Although this arose out of the dispute with much assistance to British farmers. This the Irish Free State, it involved a reduction was because of the high price elasticities of over five per cent in total supplies of that characterized several imported meats fresh beef, the type most directly and probably dairy products as well. The competitive with home produced meat, result was that only very severe cuts in and was aimed at helping British beef supplies would be successful in raising producers. prices significantly. Also relevant is the The emphasis on restriction of supplies degree to which products were readily as the main method of holding or raising substitutable for each other. Forrest Capie, prices lasted until the middle of x934. It has working on a priori assumptions about been criticized by I M Drummond who quality, found it was the preservative argues that it failed to generate budgetary category (fresh, chilled or frozen), not the revenue, and 'raised everyone's price'. animal, that proved a more reliable group- Because price elasticity of demand was ing. 's For example, consumers regarded high, cut-backs in supply would lead to British lamb and fresh beef as good substi- less than proportionate increases in price: tutes for each other. '6 A second quality the total sales revenue of overseas suppliers grouping included Argentine chilled beef would be reduced, and their purchasing and New Zealand lamb -- these also power, together with their ability to ser- showed a high degree of substitutability. vice debt, would be impaired. Instead, a fall in prices might have done the trick. "~ For a review of various explanations of supply inelasticity of agriculture during depression, see D GaleJolmson, 'The Nature of Drummond suggests that policy makers, tile Supply Ftmct o 1for Agrict tt ral Products', AmerEet n Rev, 40, although aware that lower prices would t 950, pp 539-64. Johnson argues that during a depression it is tile absence of" alternative uses for factor inputs that accounts for stimulate consumption, failed to appreciate inelastic supply functions. The price elasticity of land is practically their power in reducing production. ,3 But zero for a period of five to ten years, disinvestment eventually leading to reduced output; capital equipment is generally specific to perhaps this is to romanticize the efficacy agriculture, and with high unemployment in the other sectors of the economy, the supply curve for labour becomes nearly vertical. of the price mechanism, for in the Farm prices, wage rates and land rents thus fall in roughly the same conditions of the I93os supply elasticities proportion, and output and employment are thereby maintained. for agricultural output as a whole were It must be stressed that this argument applies to agricultural output as a whole -- there may be greater elasticity for individual low. Certainly prices fell dramatically, and products, but ifcftbrts to restrict supplies of one commodity are successful, presumably they would cause aggravated problems for output did not contract. Capital was tied inlothgr. ,5 F H Capie, 'The British Market for Livestock Products, '" PP, O, CAB 27/560 PMS(33) 2 memorandum, 5 1)ccembcr 1933, t92o-t939', Univ London unpubl PhD thesis, 1973, pp 64.-5, and 3'a meeting, 14 l)ecembcr 1933. 7(~82. ,3 l)rtnnmond, op tit, pp 302 and 329. '" Ibid. Cross price elasticities were positive and high. ~):,1 , I78 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW tl At the low quality end of the market, involved almost continuous wrangling Australian beef and Argentine mutton with the Dominions, and both the admin- were readily interchangeable and replaced istrative burden and the costs to imperial by each other. Therefore cutting back goodwill were high. imports of Argentine frozen beef, for ins- The experience of attempting to limit tance, was unlikely to engineer a sizeable meat imports helped to shape Whitehall's switch of demand to high quality British attitudes to butter regulation. The problem fresh beef. Thus both on grounds of price was less serious than for meat because elasticity and because most imported meats home production was only a small propor- were not directly competitive with British tion of UK consumption. Imports rose by supplies, only savage import restrictions 3.9 million cwt, or sixty-seven per cent, were likely to be very effective in raising between I927 and 1934, and the price of the price of home produced meats. More- New Zealand imports, for example, fell over, such moves were liable to be attacked from lO3 shillings per cwt in I933 to an because they hit hardest the poorer house- average of 73s 3d in I934 .'s The first holds, the main customers for cheap initiatives to deal with the price falls came imported meat. Furthermore, it was from New Zealand, and involved supply understood at the time that when dealing restrictions. It soon became apparent that with products of which Britain was the the New Zealanders were really only inter- major buyer, the incidence of tariffs was ested in cutting back foreign dairy supplies. likely to be borne by producers rather than Britain, wanting a good treaty with Den- reflected in higher prices. Nor, as was mark and already nervous about the deal suggested above, was there reason to think she was to offer on bacon, was not pre- that this would have any immediate impact pared to accept the New Zealand scheme, on production. Thus the objective con- although the Danes were induced to agree ditions of supply and demand, together to a possible 2 to i ratio restriction scheme. with the maze of treaty obligations, But by mid-I933 the initiative in seeking severely restricted the scope of the British supply cuts came from London: pressure government in protecting its farmers from was building up from British farmers. the crisis. Already involved in the meat discussions, Quite apart fiom their relative ineffec- Whitehall was not prepared to push the tiveness, there were other problems in matter hard. Because Danish supplies regulating imports by quota. The govern- could not be cut without the Dominions ment found the actual implementation of reducing their shipments, the Danes had voluntary supply regulations fraught with Antipodean obduracy to thank for escaping difficulties. After Elliot's proposals on British pressure. The low prices led Elliot levy-subsidies for meat producers had been to suggest a levy-subsidy scheme for milk rejected in 1933, London remained com- products. Walter Runciman anticipated the mitted to restricting the quantity of Danes would argue that the present duty imports by direct methods. Foreign meat could be applied for the subsidy. The supplies were being compulsorily reduced. Donainions were thought unlikely to But the Dominions had been guaranteed favour a levy or be prepared, in early I934 unrestricted entry until July 1934; until anyway, to restrict production: but further then their co-operation in regulating their anticipated price falls in the spring might shipments was necessary. Through 1933 make them more pliable, even to the extent and I934 efforts were made to control meat imports on a quarterly basis. ~7 This 's Imperial Economic Committee, Dair), Prodm'e Supplies in 1934 pp ,7 The process is traced in Drummond, op tit, pp 3o7-I 7. 12, 17, i!,[i !i:: TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE EVOLUTION OF BRITISH AGRICULTURAL POLICY I79 they would approach the UK for regu- challenged by those from Runciman. 2I But lation of supplies. I9 Quantitative regu- in effect Elliot lost the battle for any lation remained in the ascendant, but notable agricultural growth. While Elliot, circumstances were compelling a search for as Eyers suggests, may have contributed to new expedients in helping British agri- this failure by poor tactical leadership and culture through its problems. mobilization of argument, the real problem Emergency assistance to the UK farmer for the MAF was the formidable array of was one thing. But how far should British assumptions and departmental interests agriculture be allowed to expand? In what ranged against it. Britain's long reliance on directions should it expand? With a slowly a free trade policy, a tendency to regard growing population and with food con- agriculture as an industry much like any sumption virtually static, the answers to other industry, a tradition of cheap food these questions were clearly vital for all for the urban population, coupled with the suppliers. Two key reports were produced long period of British expansiveness over- in the autumn of 1934, one by the Com- seas during which export levels had been mittee on Economic Information (the built up and investments made- all this Stamp Report), and the other by a power- militated against a sudden development of ful interdepartmental committee chaired agriculture at the expense either of overseas by Leith-Ross. The production of these producers or of domestic consumers. High reports has been fully and ably analysed by unemployment made the government all J S Eyers. -~° The gist of the reports, stated the more wary of losing markets for more clearly ill the Stamp Report than in industrial products. The Board of Trade the Leith-Ross document, was that there was the main guardian of the export inter- was little scope for a substantial increase in est, but received frequent assistance from British consumption of agricultural prod- the Foreign Office and Dominions Office. uce, that a rise in domestic production The Treasury was keen to safeguard over- would entail a corresponding reduction in seas investments and also, when subsidies imports, and that this in turn would lead to were introduced, not to make them so reduced exports. Other, broader, ap- generous as to stimulate a large increase in proaches to stimulating economic activity, subsidized output. From early I935, there- advocated by Keynes, were abjured by the fore, although discussion did not end, a rest of the Stamp Committee. Eyers major growth in British output was ruled argues that Elliott was unable to challenge out, and the main thrust of policy was successfully the assumption that agricultu- directed merely to propping up British ral expansion at home must entail lower agriculture. imports. Although the reports were dis- Yet this left vital issues unresolved. The cussed in Cabinet and at a series of meet- actual method of agricultural support was ings of the Produce Markets Supply obviously of crucial concern to farmers, Committee (PMS), no explicit decision and was also likely to affect British con- was taken on the larger issues of policy. sumers and taxpayers. Furthermore, in the Elliot's memoranda on the possibilities and conditions of the I93OS, even a policy implications of agricultural expansion were directed largely towards stabilizing home agricultural output might incur consider- "~ PRO, CAB 27/560 PMS(33) 3, memorandum, 7 December 1933; able costs for overseas suppliers -- much PMS(33) 7, menmrandum, 15 December 1933; PMS(33) 8, appendix: memorandum by interdeparm~ental committee. 12 would depend on the choice of technique. February 1934. One of the outcomes of the policy reviews -'~'J S Eyers, 'Government Direction or" Britain's Overseas Trade Policy, 1932-37', Univ Oxford unpubl l)Phil thesis, 1977, pp " PRO CAB 27/560 PMS(33) 26 and 28. I November 1934 and 8 99-147. January 1935. ~8o THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW of autumn and winter I934-5 was the meat restrictions, and by the Foreign confirmation of the government in its Office which stressed the damage caused to switch to levy-subsidies as the main tech- relations with Northern Europe and South nique of agricultural support. Disillusion America. ~v with quantitative controls stemmed from Although deficiency payments for the the fact that they either failed to work or, if Milk Marketing Board had been they did work, did so at a heavy cost. The announced in Parliament in I93¢, import bacon restriction scheme had been edu- quotas had then been the favoured cational in that respect. Here was one case instrument of Ministers. By the summer where British agriculture was being expan- though, for the reasons suggested above, ded, and directly at the expense of foreign opinion was swinging towards levy- imports. By I934 these had fallen from subsidies, and on I3 June the Produce their r932 peak of eleven million cwts to Markets Supply Committee of the Cabinet only 6.3 million cwts. = In contrast to decided in principle to introduce them for other meats, Danish bacon had a distinct beef producers. brand image and low price elasticity, and the result was sharply rising import prices. ~s The Leith-Ross Committee was III strongly against quotas, and had been If British Ministers had hoped such pro- influenced by the operation of the bacon posals would be more acceptable to the quota restrictions which had been Dominions, they were soon to be disil- 'admittedly a failure'. -~4 Runciman and J H lusioned. Curiously, when Thomas had Thomas both expressed the resentment felt first suggested to the Dominion High by consumers at the increasing price of Commissioners that in order to protect bacon, reporting that the Danes and the British livestock farmers additional and Dutch were selling surpluses abroad at tougher import restrictions would be thirty shillings per cwt below the London necessary, the Commissioners themselves price. ~s Another major source of had put forward the idea of a preferential disillusion had been the trouble and ill- levy. 2'~ The proposals were formally feeling generated in the regulation of meat published in a White Paper in July. 29 They imports from the Dominions. It was were presented in the form of alternatives widely felt within government that the cost and show how far Britain had travelled was too heavy and that alternatives, more since Ottawa: (a) drastic restriction of acceptable to overseas suppliers, should be imports by quantitative regulations; (b) a sought. In June I934 Elliot had brought levy on imports of meat (apart from bacon forward the idea of deficiency payments and ham) without import regulation; (c) a only because the 'political difficulties with levy on imports 'coupled with some degree the Dominions in regard to restriction of of direct supply regulation in the interests imports were of so grave a nature'. =6 It was of all suppliers'. The threat of tougher a view shared by Chamberlain, worried quantitative controls was essentially a about antagonizing the Dominions with device to induce the Dominions and Argentina to waive their treaty rights and :-" Imperial Economic Committee, Dairy Pro&~ee Supplies in 1934, p agree to the levy-subsidy. But the attitude 46 . -'.~ W Beckerman, 'Some Aspects of Monopoly and Monopsony in International Trade as Illustrated by Anglo-Danish Trade, :7 See Ibid. PMS(33) 30, Simon to Baldwin 9January 1935, lbr an t9zl-38', Univ Cambridge, unpubl PhD thesis, 1952. emphatic account of the difficulties caused in rdations with those -'~ PRO T 188/mI, Leith-Ross papers, memorandum by Leith-Ross countries, and tbr a demand that quotas be abandoned to Runciman, 6 l)ccembcr 1934. immediatdy. '~ PRO CAB ~-7/56o PMS(33), 12'h meeting, 7 l)eccmber t934. :s Ibid. 9 a' meeting, 2July 1934. :~' Ibid, 7*~ meeting, It June 1934. :'~ Cmd 465 I, 'The Livestock Situation', July ~934. i i. !, :i: ' li;;a i TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE EVOLUTION OF BRITISH AGRICULTURAL POLICY I8I of the High Commissioners was a false population strongly reinforced such augury of Dominion and Argentine realizations. reaction. The proposals stirred up a storm The Pacific Dominions therefore felt of protest.3° intensely this blow to their underlying The Australian reaction was particularly assumptions about national development. vehement. Already agriculture was But if heavy shadows were cast over their severely depressed. Long term prospects long term future, more immediate and were clouded by fears of stagnant or urgent pre-occupations sharpened their declining population in the UK. Now reaction. Acute balance of payments diffi- Britain proposed to shore up its livestock culties could be relieved by export expan- industry in ways which were directly at the sion. Exports appeared to offer the only expense of Australian output. These trends route out of the depression. J A Lyons, the and actions cut right across prevailing Australian Premier, purported to believe Australasian assumptions. Australians that 'only by full restoration of our especially had long assumed that if they exporting industries can internal could produce foodstuffs and raw materials purchasing power be re-established, lead- then a grateful world would buy them. An ing to the employment of the workless and Inter-State Commission, discussing in to renewed progress'. 34 This explains the 1916 the tariff and employment prospects, force of the Pacific Dominions' reaction, had stated: and their negotiating tactics. In a frame- We need have no anxiety in regard to our export work of virtually stagnant demand the trade in those natural products for which there is an main prospect for recovery and for the increasing world wide demand... Fortunately, continuation of traditional patterns of Australia offers the possibility of unlimited expan- national development appeared to be in the sion in agricultural, mining and pastoral industries, progressive displacement of the foreigner for the products of which the world's demand is practically unlimit6d) ~ in the British market. Wherever it was technically possible or economically feas- To many Australians the whole basis of ible Britain, they thought, should help national development still appeared to them to achieve this by use of commercial depend on the expansion of such produc- policy. tion and exports; the growth of It was in this context that the second population, central to Australian national challenge came to the post trade agree- aspirations, was seen as stemming from the ments' status quo. After considerable associated settlement. Broadly similar experiment, it at last became technically views were held in New Zealand. 3-~ Neville possible to ship chilled meat from the Chamberlain thought that it was at Ottawa Pacific Dominions and to land it in the UK that the UK had first shaken 'the com- in a marketable state. 35 This transformed placent Dominion assumption that the the prospects for Australian and New United Kingdom would continue to afford Zealand beef. Previously they had been an unlimited market for their product, or at confined to frozen beef, the demand for any rate a market in which no limit was in which was shrinking rapidly. By I93O sight'. 33 If so the prospect of stagnating Australian frozen beef had been virtually eliminated from the UK retail trade and depended on institutional demand; even •" PRO, l)O 35/255/9xos/t9S. Response summarized. ~' Quoted by AJ Reitsma, Trade Protection in Australia, 1 eiden, 196o, p2o. .~4 CPP, x932-4, Vol IV p 51o Quoted by C B Schedvin, Australia and .1., See, for example, PRO, I)O 35/317/95t3/98, Telegram from the Great Depression, Sydney, 197o, p 317. Governor-General of New Zealand to Thomas, 9July 1934. "~ See eg K Burley, British Shipping and Australia 192o-39, 1968, pp .~3 PRO, CAB 27/619 TAC(36), 8th meeting, t7 December 1936. 85-7. I82 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW then, irregular shipments made it difficult considered Whitehall unduly sympathetic to secure large contracts. 36 It is true that to Argentina. Britain was accused of there remained a formidable range of favouring the Argentine because her problems for Australian beef producers -- investments there were largely in trading poor quality stock, bad grazing conditions, companies with variable returns while including sporadic droughts, and the fact those in Australia were mainly in fixed- that breeding and fattening were carried interest securities. 3s out on the same ranches and at considerable The Australians used a combination of distance from the meat works. 37 But with threats and cajolery to secure concessions. the first wholly successful shipment of The main threat was to play on British chilled beef from Australia in 1934 the fears of the Australian Labour Party, which prospect, at least to Australian eyes, was strongly protectionist and highly criti- became brighter. Instead of an unyielding cal of the Ottawa agreements, regaining market for frozen beef, offering little or no power. But the Australians also offered chance of expansion, there was now the inducements, notably some steep tariff opportunity to supplant Argentina as sup- increases on Japanese textiles, the major plier of the huge British market for chilled purpose of which seems to have been to beef. direct trade to the UK.39 This move prob- Australian energies were turned to the ably encouraged London to treat the twin tasks of holding off UK attempts to Australian beef demands more kindly. 4° restrict beef imports generally, and of But if the Australians were able to resist seeking the gradual displacement of Argen- UK demands, the Argentines had also been tine chilled beef supplies. Given the state of recalcitrant. Australian beef, and to a lesser extent that It is interesting to compare the original of New Zealand, they were only going to UK proposals with the final result. At one be able to supplant Argentina if the British time, in 1935, when the levy-subsidy prin- could be persuaded to use their commercial ciple was in favour, Britain wanted levies armoury to improve the Australasian pos- of 1V4d per pound on foreign chilled beef ition. and V4d on imperial supplies. Various Considerable pressure was put on the proposals were outlined for additional UK to secure her beef producers' problems levies if shipments increased and prices fell at Argentina's expense rather than that of further, and there were to be smaller levies the Dominions. London's response to these 011 frozen beef. 4~ The final arrangements pressures is significant: while wanting a allowed Empire beef free entry, and solution to the low prices crippling British charged duties of only 3/4d per pound on livestock producers, it did not want one foreign chilled beef and 2Ad on frozen that penalized foreign suppliers markedly supplies. In addition, there was to be a five more than imperial countries. The conces- per cent cut in foreign chilled beef ship- sions to the Empire had been made in 1932 -- after Ottawa there was extreme reluc- •~" J Curtin speaking on Meat Export Control Bill in A usn alian House of Commons, quoted by UK representative, 19 November 1935. tance in London further to endanger PRO, DO 35/259/91o5/3/157 and l)O 35/256/91o5/446, Lyons foreign markets for the benefit of the to Baldwin, 17Jtme 1936. s" For further details and discussion of the motivation behind these Dominions. Consequently the Australians measures see l) F Nicholson, Australia's Trade Relations, Melbourne, 1955; l) P Copland and C V Janes, Australian 73"ade 3~, p, Duncan, 'The Australian Beef Export Trade and tile Origins of Polio),- A Book o.fDocumems 193e-1937, Sydney, 1937; N F Hall, the Australian Meat Board', The Australian Jolmlal of Politics ,1rid "Trade l)iversion -- An Australian Interlude', Economica n s 5, History, V 1959, p 192. 1938, pp 1-1 I; H Burton, 'The Trade I)ivcrsion Episode of the +v R Duncan, 'The Australian Export Trade with tile United 'Thirties', Australian Outlook, 22, 1968. Kingdom in Refrigerated Beef, t 88o--194o', Busim'ss Ardlives and 40 PP, O, CAB 27/619 TAC(36), 6 th meeting, 24June 1936. Histor),, 2, 1962, especially pp toS-t t. 4, Eg PRO, CAB 3a/126, 3~d draft of meat proposals, 6June t935. TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE EVOLUTION OF BRITISH AGRICULTURAL POLICY I83 ments, staged over three years, and meat, were in theory more promising replaceable byEmpiresupplies, because a larger import ratio could generate funds more readily. 43 An inter- departmental committee further examined IV the practicalities of various alternative Most significantly, the refusal of Australia levy-subsidy schemes for meat, and this led and Argentina to accept London's original to the adoption of the scheme as the proposals drove the UK towards long term preferred long term policy for beef, 44 the Exchequer-financed agricultural subsidies. difficult and largely unsuccessful The government had to assist British beef implementation of which is detailed above. producers I but it became clear that the The MAF was less certain about bacon, subsidies involved could only be paid for recommending a sub-committee to by a level of import duty that was totally investigate the issues more closely. Leith- unacceptable to Argentina and the Domin- Ross summarized the considerations that ions. The obduracy of her overseas sup- influenced the ministerial sub- pliers, protected by their treaty rights until committee. 45 A major factor was that 1936 and I937 respectively, and the refusal while foreign bacon imports had been of the UK to endanger markets and invest- halved prices had increased sharply. 'The ments in these countries, created a stale- restriction of supplies of foreign bacon are mate. It was broken only by the important unpopular with the foreign countries but decision of May 1936 that the Treasury the increase of foreign bacon has would be prepared to subsidize cattle pro- compensated them, in monetary value: so ducers on a long term basis. 42 The we get the odium of restriction, without immediate result was to remove pressure any financial benefit'. Higher prices were on UK negotiators to raise all the money not only unpopular at home and difficult to from the levies; re-negotiation of the defend, but British bacon producers had Anglo-Argentine treaty in 1936 was there- not experienced anything like the same fore eased. But more profoundly, price increase as the foreign supplier. Chamberlain's decision established the The sub-committee's recommendations fundamentals of British agricultural policy represented a considerable advance for the between 1936 and the early I97OS. Board of Trade argument. Significantly, a Yet Whitehall did not abandon the levy- two-year virtual cessation to the expansion subsidy concept immediately. It had been of home production was suggested, the attempts to grapple with the problems although admittedly at a figure slightly of Britain's beef producers which had led above the estimated production of 1935, to greater acceptance of levy-subsidies in which itself represented roughly an eighty mid-I934. The MAF was asked per cent advance on home output before subsequently to investigate the possibilities the scheme was introduced. 46 This would of their wider application. One such allow for the 'momentum' of expansion, a scheme, for wheat, was in effect already reference to the higher proportion of operating. Some products such as oats and breeding sows in the British pig popula- potatoes, imports of which supplied only a tion. But the sub-committee adopted a small part of total consumption, were modified version of the Board of Trade's dismissed as unsuitable. Others, such as scheme which allowed for a liberalization +-' PRO, CAB 27/619 TAC(36), 3'" meeting, 4 May t936. 45 PP, O, T 188/1t2, Leith-Ross papers, uote by Leith-Ross to .13 PRO, CAB 27/560 PMS(33) 29, ulemoranduul, l ! Jlmuary J935. Ruucinlan, 5June 1935. "~'~ lhid, PMS(33) 35, memoraudum, I February 1935 al~d PMS(33), 4,, Pl~O, CAB 27/561 PMS(33) 39, Report of Sub-Committee on x6~h meeting, 4 February 1935. Pigs and Bacon, 15 May I935. I84 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW ;ii:i of foreign imports together with fairly to maintain its expansion in the face of high levies (TS 6d to lO shillings per cwt), rising fodder prices. 49 and kept in reserve a more restrictive MAF Countries had again been able to use scheme which proposed minimally higher their treaty rights to ward off unwelcome foreign imports, but, with price levels developments in British agricultural more easily maintained, lower levels and policy. Although the British bacon indus- subsidies. The Ministry concurred, try wanted the scheme implemented, it though, in the virtual standstill of bacon was decided not to attempt re-negotiation production for at least two years -- of the treaties until future British agricul- additional output would be discouraged by tural policy as a whole was clear ~ a much distributing the subsidy only for an agreed higher price would have to be paid if there output of 3.3 to 3.5 million cwts. were to be two sets of negotiations, one for Adoption of either scheme involved the bacon and one later for other products, renunciation by foreign suppliers of their than for one comprehensive set.5° rights to free entry. It was hoped that the Empire suppliers were rescued by their inducement of bigger quantities, together treaty rights from duties on butter imports. w;th at least a temporary stabilization of The original subsidy to the Milk Market- British output, would be persuasive. The ing Board was paid on the assumption that implications for the price of foreign bacon a levy would later provide reimbursement. could have been severe however: on the But although the Dominions were guaran- Board of Trade's plans for an increase in teed free entry only until August 1935, and foreign bacon imports of over two million by 1935 were worried about UK intentions cwts, prices were thought likely to fall by towards their dairy supplies, they were in between thirty and thirty-two shillings, fact saved by guarantees that preferential and, when the levy was added, the reduc- margins would be maintained until the tion in foreign suppliers' receipts would expiry of the Ottawa Agreements. Since have been nearly £2 per cwt.47 the UK had conventionalized dairy duties Negotiations with the foreign suppliers in the 1933 and subsequent agreements, the were undramatic but unsuccessful. Nine Dominions could on this occasion hide countries had treaty rights to free entry for behind the foreign treaties. their bacon, and discussions took place with three of them, Denmark, Poland and Sweden (generally the others were pre- V pared to follow Denmark's lead). The The trade agreements, both imperial and Danish farming community was particu- foreign, had thus been a major obstacle to larly hostile to the idea of directly financing the realization of plans for protecting Brit- the subsidy of British bacon, but all ish agriculture. This was especially true of countries objected and all agreed that there the inability of the government to imple- was no advantage in sending more bacon ment levy-subsidies once they had to the UK if their total receipts were to emerged as the central instrument of fall. 48 The Danes now gave explicit policy. acknowledgement that market regulation Yet the farming community had been brought them advantage. They also promised that levy-subsidies would be doubted the ability of the British industry 4,~ PRO, FO 37ff3o3-'3, A W E Randall (Chargd d'affaires) to Eden, •2"7 August 1936, Survey by the Commercial Secretary of the 4~ Ibid, Appendix to report. Economic and Financial Situation in Denmark, January to July 4s PRO, FO 37t/2o326, Ramsay to Eden, Ammal Report on t936. Denmark and Iceland for 1935, 25 March 1936, and CAB 27/620 ~o I)RO, CAB 271620 TAC(36) a3, n~emorandum, zaJune 1936 and TAC(36) 28, memorandum, at July t936. ibid, 6"' meeting, 24Junc 1936. i[ ,] TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE EVOLUTION OF BRITISH AGRICULTURAL POLICY I85 introduced as soon as was feasible. It had entry for Dominion produce was been decided in principle to use them in becoming crystallized, argued powerfully protecting the British bacon industry. Far- for the insertion of a clause in the treaty ming organizations had made applications specifically reserving British powers to to the Import Duties Advisory Committee impose duties. 53 While he was successful in (IDAC) for new or higher duties on butter, obtaining the Committee's agreement that cheese and eggs, and, in addition, a free entry was not a Dominion right, he Re-organization Commission had recom- failed to persuade them that a clause should mended higher egg tariffs. If these duty be added to the impending agreement. changes were to be made, the treaties Insistence on such a clause was thought would need revision. Since the agreements likely to jeopardize the treaty, still uncer- with foreign countries expired in I936, and tain of acceptance by Canada, and under- the imperial agreements in r937, there was mine C A Dunning's support for it. an opportunity, at least in theory, to Apart from the re-negotiation of the re-negotiate terms that would allow new treaty with Argentina, I936 had passed tariff schedules. without denunciation of the foreign trade In practice, it was clear that the MAF agreements, all of which expired that year. was going to have a battle in Whitehall to It was still accepted, albeit reluctantly by secure its objectives. The first setback for the Board of Trade and Foreign Office, the Ministry came when Walter Elliot that the European trade treaties would have attempted to obtain the agreement of the to be revised as soon as agricultural policy Cabinet's Trade and Agriculture Commit- was settled. These departments had been tee (TAC) to denounce the treaties at the successful in insisting that there should be earliest practicable opportunity. 51 He was only one set of negotiations, and that the overruled by opposition from the Board of new bacon scheme would have to wait Trade on the grounds that this action until other aspects of agricultural policy would give no possible additional bargain- had been decided. However, in I937, the ing leverage. In December r936 a Minister bacon contract arrangements in the UK of Agriculture was defeated again when he broke down. This induced the MAF to [ attempted to preserve maximum freedom bring forward a modified scheme. The of manoeuvre in the formulation of policy. original arrangements had failed largely The issue revolved around a proposed new because rising feed prices had pressed Anglo-Canadian agreement, negotiated on against bacon prices, squeezing the profit Canadian initiative before the expiry of the margins of the curers. 54 The Ministry original Ottawa treaty. When in evolved a complicated scheme whereby all opposition MacKenzie King, a strong bacon suppliers (home, Dominion and opponent of the Ottawa agreement, had foreign) would pay a levy of up to 2s 6d per announced his intention of revising it if he cwt to be distributed to pig producers returned to power. The negotiations with and/or curers according to the behaviour Canada had been difficult, partly because of feed costs and bacon prices. These of constitutional objections in the proposals first came before the TAC where Dominion, and partly because Canadian they were widely attacked. 55 The Cabinet demands for their bacon and beef then decided to create a separate body, the conflicted with Britain's desire to limit supplies. 5-" Elliot's successor, W S s.* PRO, CAB 27/620 TAC(36) 32, memorandum, I Dec 1936. ~4 E S Whetham, op cit, pp 248-9. Morrison, worried that the principle of free ~s PRO, CAB 27/620 TAC(36) 43 and CAB 27/632 AP (37) 4, memoranda by Minister of Agriculture on 'The United Kingdom •1 lbid, TAC(36), 6 a' meeting, 24Jtme 1936. Bacon Industry', 24 May and 6July 1937; CAB 27/619 TAC(36), ~" Drummond, op tit, pp 378-85. 13d' meeting, 23June 1937. I86 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW Agricultural Policy Committee (APC), to inexorably but reluctantly to Exchequer- i ): %,, consider the complex issues affecting the financed subsidies. In practice, therefore, bacon and milk industries. The long-term Whitehall was moving away from levy- milk policy advocated by the MAF aimed subsidies, but had still not abandoned them at cleaning up the herds and taking other in principle. Issues came to a head with the measures to improve the quality and safety publication of the milk proposals in a of milk, using Exchequer-financed boun- White Paper published on 29 July I937. 57 ties as an inducement to farmers. The I934 The government's difficulties were aggra- Milk Marketing Act had aimed at achiev- vated by the need to announce before ing this and had made provision for gov- Parliament's summer recess that they were ernment loans which it was hoped later to accepting IDAC's recommendations repay when prices rose. Now discussion against new duties on imported butter and centred around how long a subsidy should cheese. This, together with an expected be paid, and whether it should be financed IDAC decision against higher egg and by a levy on milk product imports. A levy poultry duties, had been discussed might well be imposed on Dominion anxiously in an Agricultural Policy sui~plies as well as involving higher duties Committee meeting on 26 July.S~ on foreign imports. As with the bacon Ministers clearly thought that the rejection plan, it was the likely impact of these of applications for higher duties would be proposals on the Dominions that appeared unpalatable to farmers, but that the milk uppermost in the minds of the Secretary of plans would prove more welcome. They State for the Dominions and the President were correct on the first count, wrong on of the Board of Trade. ~6 Dairy levies the second. Publication of the White Paper would have hit the Antipodean Dominions raised a storm of protest. The National hard, falling with particular severity on the Farmer's Union (NFU) promptly de- New Zealanders. The treaty with Canada, nounced the scheme, and during the signed in February I937, had included a summer county branches expressed three-year guarantee of free entry for her widespread opposition.S~ The NFU bacon. It was unthinkable to approach the meeting on I6 September, registered Canadians for the cancellation of this treaty the strongest protest against the indefensible depar- article. The introduction of low duties on ture of the Government from its previously declared European bacon might have been nego- policy, the promised introduction of which induced tiable without great cost, but if levies on the overwhelming majority of the producers to give domestic and imperial producers were their support to the Milk Marketing Scheme: in view of the intense dissatisfaction evinced by the county ruled out, and if the scheme was to be branches it recomnaended the council to call for the self-financing, a duty of between 5 shillings immediate withdrawal of the White Paper policy and and 7s 6d per cwt was needed on foreign the introduction in its place of the Levy-Subsidy imports. The President of the Board of policy announced by the then Minister of Agricul- Trade warned that the price of re- ture in July I935/'° negotiation on these terms would be paid Two aspects of the White Paper particu- by British exporters of coal, cottons, wool- larly upset the dairy farmers: one was the lens and herrings. absence of any levy, the other that the Unwilling to introduce bacon duties or raise those on butter and cheese imports, s? C,nd 553.t: 'Milk Policy'. ~, PRO, CAB 2716.12 AP(37), 3 ''1 meeting, 26July 1937. yet under pressure to assist domestic ~'~ Tilt' Times, 3 IJuly 1937. For instance, the policy was denounced as industry, the government was driven 'a betrayal of promises' by the Dorset Farmers Union, which planned to send an emphatic protest to the Government, ibid, t3 August 1937. :+" PRO, CAB 27/632 AP(37), 2 ''a meeting, 19July 1937. m, Ibht, 17 September 1937, )) i(: i: i:i TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE EVOLUTION OF BRITISH AGRICULTURAL POLICY I87 Exchequer subsidies were to be only tem- Trade and Agriculture Committee. 63 A porary. Behind this, however, lay a sus- number of reasons were advanced for picion among farmers that the govern- dropping the levy-subsidy plans. First, the ment's avowed policy of putting the cost of living was rising, so any measure domestic producer first was being likely to exacerbate this should be avoided. abandoned, and that home output was Secondly, the Treasury objected in prin- being restricted in favour of overseas ciple to assigned revenues. competitors. Agriculture, the agri- However, it was probably the third set culturalists argued, was being treated far of considerations that was decisive in the less favourably than industry: not only did rejection of levy-subsidies, and this was the farmers have to pay for industrial inputs impact on overseas suppliers. Duties on the prices of which might well be milk products were likely to fall with artificially inflated by import duties, but particular severity on New Zealand, nearly industry's protection, unlike that of major forty per cent of whose exports would be sectors of agriculture, was permanent. affected. Amongst the Dominions this Faced with the danger of serious political amounted to virtual discrimination against agitation developing in the rural constitu- New Zealand products, and was made encies, with the establishment by farmers worse because government marketing of of a political fund to fight for effective tariff dairy supplies meant that the levy was protection, and with the prospect of angry paid, in effect, from the New Zealand deputations, the Prime Minister and Treasury. The timing could hardly have Minister of Agriculture set up an inter- been worse. A Labour government had departmental committee under the chair- been elected in I935 at least in part because manship of Sir Horace Wilson to consider of the failure of earlier administrations to the whole issue of levy-subsidies. The solve the crisis of the dairy farmers. 64 It committee was to investigate what attitude had reflated the economy, introduced to take to the demands for levy-subsidies, exchange controls, and was about to and, if it was decided to abandon them, launch an accelerated programme of what line to take to meet the farmers' case. industrialization. This threatened British It was hoped that in the process they would exports. Walter Nash, the Finance Minis- provide some ammunition for MPs ter, had been in London for much of I936 besieged by agricultural constituents. and I937 attempting to secure the British The committee's report listed the advan- government's acceptance of a bilateral tages and disadvantages of levy-subsidies, clearing scheme. The proposals were both and, in the event of the Cabinet choosing impracticable, and, to Whitehall, unwel- to reject them, outlined some other ways come, but Nash had pursued them with of tackling the milk crisis. ~I The report, great tenacity. 65 In the wake of refusing the submitted to the Cabinet, was referred Nash proposals, the introduction of levy- back to the APC for immediate consider- subsidies on dairy products would have ation. 6-" The debate in the committee re- made the renewal of the New Zealand peated many of the Wilson report's argu- trade agreement all but impossible, and ments, and, indeed, with few changes in British exports to New Zealand would the script, rehearsed again many of those have been endangered. Exports to Aus- heard in the I936 and I937 meetings of the tralia and Canada were also at risk. In each I'l PRO, CAB 24/272 CP 268(37), mL;morandun~ by an interdepart- ".~ PI~,O, CAB 27/632 AP(37), 4'h meeting, I t November 1937. mental Committee of Officials, 5 November 1937. ,,4 K Sinclair, A History qfNew Zealamt, 1969, pp 267-9. ~': PRO, CAB 23/9o 41(37) 9, io November 1937. r,s Dru,nmond, op tit, pp 358-6t. 188 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW case, therefore, commercial issues were exports were at least equally important in involved. But there was another vital governmental thinking. The Wilson com- aspect of imperial relations influencing mittee had emphasized how valuable the British action. This was the planned trade agreements had been in boosting UK Anglo-American trade negotiations. If the exports and stated that it hardly seemed negotiations were to have any hope of worthwhile hazarding an export trade of success, meeting American demands over £80 million for the sake of raising £I would mean the Dominions surrendering million on imports of dairy produce. preferences in the British market without Oliver Stanley, Runciman's successor at receiving any tangible reciprocal benefit. the Board of Trade, stressed that in the Australian-American relations were context of trade relations levy-subsidies strained, and any benefits to the were the most onerous form of agricultural Dominions from an Anglo-American protection. Overseas suppliers, both for- accord looked remote. Indeed, because of eign and Dominion, objected with particu- likely adverse public opinion in the lar vehemence to a system which forced Dominion, Britain had to wait until after them to subsidize directly their British the Australian elections of November I93 7 competitor. He asserted that a heavy price before making formal overtures to the would have to be paid in the trade agree- United States. 66 ments. This was all the more likely, the Hardly less important was the likely Wilson report suggested, because Britain's impact on European countries. After all, if bargaining position was no longer so it had been merely a question of avoiding strong as it had been in I933. trouble with the Dominions, additional The APC therefore recommended the levies could have been raised from foreign Cabinet to abandon the levy-subsidy prin- suppliers. The Wilson Committee report ciple for meat, bacon, milk and dairy did not elaborate on the political impli- products. This the Cabinet agreed. 7° Stan- cations of levies on Northern Europe, but ley was keen to use this decision in trade contented itself with a reference to the negotiations, but the Cabinet also wanted Foreign Secretary's memorandum to the to retain the right to impose quantitative TAC. 67 The Board of Trade was worried regulation of imports in case of emergency. about the dangers of pushing the Baltic The precise wording of this reservation of States into the arms of Germany, 6s powers, left to Stanley and Morrison to although its officials later dissuaded the draft, occasioned difficulty. Eventually, Foreign Office from circulating another with Chamberlain's assistance, a com- memorandum to the TAC. This had said: promise was reached. 7~ The Board of The political importance of these agreements con- Trade had wished to retain existing pow- sists in the part they play in maintainingthe influence ers, linked to internal marketing schemes, of the United Kingdom against rival influences, rather than upset overseas suppliers by mainly that of Germany, potentiallyperhaps that of taking oll additional powers. The Minister the USSR. As neutrals or even as alliesin a European of Agriculture, conscious perhaps of the war, the friendly attitude of the Scandinavian and Baltic States could be of the highest iriaportance.69 failure in I936 to introduce quantitative restrictions of egg imports, wanted a less The immediate dangers to British circumscribed commitment. It was clear, "'M Ruth Megaw, 'Australia and the Anglo-American Trade however, that the powers to limit imports Agreement of 1938',j0urnal oflmperial and Commomvealth Histor),, by quantitative regulation were simply for 3, 1975, pp 191-21L ¢'7 PRO, CAB 27/62o TAC(36) 29, 2oJuly 1936. ~ PRO, CAB 241272 CP 275(37), 12 November 1937; CAB 23290 • i r,s lbid, TAC(36) 23, memorandum by Runciman, 25June 1936. 42(37), x7 November 1937. The Cabinet later recognized that eggs r.~ PRO, BT t l/735, draft menmrandum, enclosed in Ashton and poultry were also in this category. Gwatkin to Brown, 4January 1937. v, PRO, CAB 23/90 44(37), 24 November s937. :!: ,:/! J TRADE AGREEMENTS AND THE EVOLUTION OF BRITISH AGRICULTURAL POLICY I89 crisis conditions: they were no longer After increasing in thefirst two years of the envisaged as being part of the regular decade, they fell in volume by twelve per system of import control. 72 cent between I931 and I935. (The measure By the end of I937, therefore, the UK of trade diversion is remarkable, for within government had accepted the principle of this total foreign supplies slumped by Exchequer-subsidized agriculture. It thirty-two per cent while those from the appears as an inevitable consequence of the Empire increased by forty-two per cent.) obligations that London had entered into in Moreover, UK agricultural output is esti- the trade agreements of 1932 and 1933. If mated to have expanded by seventeen per major sectors of British agriculture were to cent between I93o-I and I936-7. 73 Yet the be preserved, and the increasingly effective whole policy was circumscribed by the agricultural lobby was to be appeased, need to preserve the interests of Britain as protection was necessary. Quotas had been an industrial nation. In the new protection- ii disastrous, either because they raised prices ist era, agriculture continued to be subordi- unacceptably to consumers, or because nated to industry. The government was i! they involved constant wrangling with wary of taking measures which raised suppliers, above all suppliers in the prices too overtly. Because of the need to :i Dominions. Moderate duties on foreign maximize exports, a major expansion of products were possible, but particularly if UK agriculture was rejected. Similar combined with Dominion free entry, gen- objectives lay behind the trade agreements erally did not provide adequate protection. programme, conducted almost wholly Duties on imperial produce, if the prefer- with primary producers. These treaties ential margins were to be maintained, determined the way in which Whitehall meant high tariffs on foreign imports -- eventually resolved the dilemma of recon- this might have raised consumer prices to ciling assistance to farmers with maintain- ,! politically unacceptable levels at a time ing industrial exports and low food prices. when prices were rising again and been In general, this solution was helpful to very harmful to overseas relations. Levy- British economic recovery in the I93OS. subsidies looked as though they might The collapse of food and raw material provide a way out, but the reaction of prices between I929 and I933, by contrib- foreign and Dominion countries was hos- uting to rising real incomes for the tile. The political and economic cost was employed, was of central importance to the simply too great. The maintenance of the revival of the UK economy. A policy of trade agreements in the late I93OS was insulating British domestic agriculture by regarded in Whitehall as essential: the forcing up the price of imported food could abandonment of the levy-subsidy plans have stifled industrial expansion. As it was, was the price. the devaluation of sterling should have raised import prices, but was largely nulli- fied by the currency depreciation of most VI of Britain's suppliers. The small size of the In the I93OS government agricultural agricultural sector (it employed only 6.4 policy was revolutionized, and British per cent of the workforce in I93I) meant farmers were protected for the first time in that it was easier to avoid a highly protec- nearly a century. Protection appears to tionist farm policy. Farmers had less politi- have had some success in limiting imports. cal muscle than their counterparts in Conti- 7: This does not mean that the British government abandoned all nental Europe, and their comparatively attempts to limit supplies. The International Beef Conference, set small numbers made it possible to find a up in t937, operated under instructions which included the stipulation that total beef imports were not to exceed'recent' levels. 73 Whetham, op cit, p 315. 19o THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW :,! /:i!i solution to their problems without impos- quota restrictions on imports could have ::ii ing heavy burdens on the rest of the raised the price of food to British community. consumers and have slowed the pace of Such a relatively costless outcome was recovery. This should not be exaggerated by no means certain in 1932-3. More because it was not until mid-I932 that the restrictive policies would not only have Ministry started to press for such undermined expansion of the domestic measures, and by then the fall in import economy but might have threatened prices had already made a major contribu- treaty-making prospects as well. At tion to rising real incomes. But that quotas Ottawa the demands of British agriculture could raise prices was shown by the effect placed no serious restraint on the ability of of the bacon scheme, and the widespread the UK ministerial team to conclude trade and harsh application of such measures agreements. Ministers were inhibited in would almost certainly have restrained the meeting Dominion demands more by con- continued revival of the British economy. sideration of their impact on the cost of That they were not generally adopted was living or on foreign suppliers than on UK in large measure a consequence of the agricultural output. But by the time it terms and operation of the various trade came to negotiate with the Scandinavians treaties. Either the stipulation of the pacts and Argentina the Minister of Agriculture prevented Britain from applying quotas, or was presenting his case more effectively, the experience of attempting to operate and it played a prominent part in the quotas was shown to be costly to discussions. Nonetheless it is doubtful consumers and to relations with the whether agricultural protection seriously supplying countries. From early 1935 any affected the value of the agreements that major expansion of UK agricultural output Britain was able to make with foreign had been ruled out, but farmers had still to countries. Imperial trade diversion did hurt be protected. As an alternative to quotas, foreign competitors, but it was only in the levy-subsidies were given serious consider- case of bacon and egg production that UK ation. At least the British consumer would agriculture threatened total imports from not have borne the burden, but overseas Northern Europe. Moreover, it was not suppliers would have done so instead. But the attractiveness of the offers that Britain they made clear their hostility, and used could make to her trade partners that was their treaty rights to delay the introduction the crucial determinant of the outcome of of levy-subsidies. London, considering the the negotiations, but the capacity to maintenance of the trade agreements as threaten or blackmail them. Denmark, essential, paid the price for this in along with Argentina, was the principal abandoning levy-subsidies. So, faced with victim of imperial preference and protec- apparently incompatible objectives -- the tion, but yielded probably the most valu- need to assist British farmers, to keep able of the agreements. living costs low and to preserve valuable Therefore British agricultural policy, export markets -- Whitehall was driven to although both complicating the trade Exchequer-financed subsidies. The negotiations, especially with foreign ultimate form of agricultural protection suppliers, and dictating the actual terms of was thus shaped by the agreements. They the agreements, did not seriously reduce helped ensure that low price policies Britain's bargaining leverage. More impor- prevailed, that consumption was tant was the likely effect of agricultural encouraged, and that British farmers were protection on UK economic recovery as a maintained in a way that inflicted whole. Here the fondness of the MAF for minimum damage to exports. i ¸. ::! ! ~9~ List of Books and Pamphlets OI"1 Agrarian History I984' Compiled by V J MORRIS and D J ORTON Brynmor Jones Library, University of Hull BIBLIOGRAPHY 17o4-194e and their subsequent editions. Tewin, Welwyn. CHALONER, W H. Bibliography of British economic and HOSKIrqS, W G. Local history in England. 3rd edn. social history, znd ed. Manchester UP. Longman. COLLINS, R and GRIFFITHS,D. British economic and social HUMPHRIES, S. Handbook of oral history: recording history 175o-195o: a guide to sources. The Library, history. Inter-Action Imprint. York U. I983. Index to Cornish probate records 16oo-1649. Pt. I. CORNWALL COUNTY AND DIOCESAN RO. Handlist of Cornwall RO, Truro. records: turnpikes canals ferries. Cornwall CC, KINGSLEY, D. Printed maps of Sussex 1575-19oo. Truro. I983. Sussex Record Soc, Lewes. I982. CRAGgS, S a. Theses Otl North East England. The MACrARLANE, a. A guide to English records. Cambridge Library, Sunderland Polytechnic. I983. UP. I983. DERBYSHIRE FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY. 1851 censlls MACKAY, J. Collecting local history. Longman. name index. Vol 5. Derbyshire Library Services, MANCHESTER, A H. Sources of English legal history Matlock. I983. 175o-195o. Butterworths. East Sussex Record Office: a short guide. East Sussex OVERTON, M. A bibliography of British probate inven- CC, Lewes. 1983. tories. Dept of Geography, University of ESCOTT, A. Cettslls retm'ns and old parochial registers Oll Newcastle. I983. micr~hn: a directory qf public library holdings in the Probate records and the local community. Sutton, West of Scotland. 2nd edn. Glasgow District Gloucester. Librarics. I983. RIDEN, P. Local history: a handbook for beginners. FARRANT, J H. SIIssex in the 18th and 19th centuries: a Batsford. I983. bibliography. 4th edn. Centre for Continuing ROOM, a. A concise dictionary of place-names in Great Education, Univ. of Sussex. Brighton. I982. Britain and Ireland. Oxford UP. I983. FAULL, M. Medieval manorial records. Yorks Archaco- Sources of information for local studies in Perth and logical Soc., 73 Lake Lock Drivc, Stanley W Kim'oss District. Perth & Kinross District Li- Yorks. r983. braries. I983. Folklore research: a re~ister of research in folklore and Staffordshire family collections: a handlist of family papers related disciplines. Centre for English Cultural in the Staffordshire CRO and the William Salt Tradition & Language, Univ of Sheffield. I983. Library Stafford. Staffs CRO. I983. FUSSELL, g E. Agricnltural history in Great Britain and western E,,'ope before 1914: a discm'sive bibliography. Pindar. I983. Ft3SSELL, C E. The old English .farmi,g books, vol. 4, GENERAL ECONOMIC & SOCIAL 184o-186o. Pindar. HISTORY G,ide for family historians. West Yorkshire Archives Joint Committee, W Yorks Archives Service, BAKER, A R H and GREGORY, D. Explorations in historical Wakefield. I983. geography: interpretive essays. Cambridge UP. Guide to the Kent Corn W Archives Office, 2nd supple- BELLAMY, J. Criminal law and society in late medieval ment, 1969-I98o. Kent CC, Maidstone. I983. and Tudor England. Sutton, Gloucester. Handlist of parish poor law records. Cornwall County BROWN, a J. The English country cottage (I979), reprint and Diocesan RO, Truro. I982. Hamlyn. HODSON, D. Comny atlases of the British Isles: p,blished CAMPBELL, B. Human ecology: the story of our place in after 17o3: a bibliography. Vol. I, atlases published nature fi'om prehistory to the present. Heinemann Educational. I983. CLARK, P. The transformation of English provincial towns *Unless otherwise stated the date of publication is 1984 16oo-18oo. Hutchinson Education. ii'!ii 'r?i',, I92 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW COPLEY, S. Literature and the social order in 18th century eROPP, V. Theory and history of folklore. Manchester ~ii: J England. Croom Helm. UP. The country house: an exhibition of views of country ROGERS, P. Literature and popular culture in eighteenth houses and their gardens, views of their interiors and century England. Harvester, Brighton. architects' plans and perspectives. Christopher Wood SIMMONS, J. The Victorian hotel. Victorian Studies Gallery, I5 Motcomb Street, London SWIX Centre, Univ. of Leicester. 8LB. STEEDMAN, C. Policing the Victorian community: the cox, A. Adversary politics and land: the cot~ict over land formation of English provincial police forces and property politics in post war Britain. Cambridge 1856-188o. Routledge & Kegan Paul. UP. STEVENSON, J. British society 1914-45. Lane. DARKWELL, C P. Studies in the social history of sport in Social history of nineteenth century sport: proceedings of 18th century England. pt i. The Author, lO the Inaugural Conference of the British Society for Haslemere Road, Bexleyheath, Kent DA7 4NQ. Sports History. Liverpool 1982. School of Physical I983. Education, Univ. of Liverpool. 1982. Domesday book: text and translation, general ed J. STROUD, D. Capability Brown. New edn. Faber. Morris. Vol. 1: Kent; vol. 4: Hampshire; vol. 15: VESEY-FITZGERALD, B. A country chronicle (1942), Gloucestershire; vol. 16: Worcestershire. Phillimore, reprint. Sutton, Gloucester. Chichester. I982-3. WATKINS, D. Country sayings & superstitions. Stock- ELIAS, N. The history of manners. Blackwell, Oxford. well, Ilfracombe. I978. WILKES, J. United Kingdom: a social and economic history The English rising of 1381. Cambridge UP. of modern Britain. Cambridge UP. GELLING, M. Place names in the landscape. Dent. WILSON, M. William Kent, architect, designer, painter, GIROUARD, M. Robert Smythson: the Elizabethan country gardener J685-1748. Routledge & Kegan Paul. house. Yale UP. I983. WRIGHT, A C and WRIGHT, J A. Domesday Book: the HANSON, H. The canal boatman 176o-19t4 (I975), unwanted bequest. The Authors, Chelmsford reissued. Sutton, Gloucester. Essex. I983. HARDY, D. Arcadia for all: twentieth century plotlands YOUINGS, J. Sixteenth century England. Penguin, Har- revisited. Mansell. mondsworth. HARRINGTON, E. The meaning of English place-names. Blackstaff, Belfast. HARRISON, J F C. The con,non people: a history f'om the COUNTY AND REGIONAL HISTORY Norman Conquest to the present. Croom Helm. HILL, C P. British economic and social history 17oo-198o. Adaptation of change: essays upon the history of nine- 5th edn. Arnold. teenth century Leicester and Leicestershire, ed. by D HOULBROOKE, R A. The English family 145o-17oo. Williams. Leics Museums, Art Galleries and Longman. Records Service. I98O. HUSSEY, C. English country houses (I955-I958), Avon's past.firm tile air. Avon CC Plamfing Dept, reprint. Antique Collectors' Club, Woodbridge. Bristol. McCANN, J. Clay and cob building. Shire, Aylesbury. BATES, H E. The country of white clover. (Kent) (I952) ~983. reprint, Sutton, Gloucester. McLEAN, T. The English at play in the Middle Ages. BENDAM, K. The undated village handstamps of Kensal, Windsor Forest. I983. Yorkshire. Yorks Postal History Soc, 848 Banner MARSHALL, S. Everyman's book of English folk tales. Cross Road, Sheffield SII 9HR. 1982. Dent. I98I. BILLETT, M. Thatched buildings of Dorset. Hale. MEYER, A. John Wooton 1682-1764: landscapes and BIRCHALL, D. The diary of a Victorian squire: extracts sporting art in early Georgian England. Greater firm the diary and letters of Deaman and Emily London Council. I984. Birchall (Gloucs). Sutton, Gloucester. 1983. Paintings of the countryside by Fred Hall 186o-1948. CAMERON, D X. Cornkister days: portrait of a land and its Newbury (Berks) District Museum. rituals (Scotland). Gollancz. Plant-lore studies: papers read at a joint cot~rence of the CHARLES, B e. The English dialect of south Pembroke- Botanical Society of the British Isles and the Folklore shire. Pembrokeshire RO, Haverfordwest. I982. Society held at the University of Sussex, 083. DEW, g J. Oxfordshire village life: the diaries of George Folklore Society, University College London. James Dew 0846-1928) relieving qOTcer. Beacon PLATT, C. The abbeys and priories of medieval England. Publications, I I Harwell Road, Sutton Courte- Seeker & Warburg. i¸ , nay, Abingdon, Oxon OXI4 4BV. I983. i' POWELL, C. Discovering cottage architecture. Shire, DIXON, G M. Folktales and legends of Suffolk. Minimax, !. Aylesbury. Peterborough. I982. ~; i' ! L1ST OF BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS ON AGRARIAN HISTORY 1984 I93 !li" EARDLEY-WILMOT,H. Ancient Exmoor: archaeology and Lincolnshire: the enclosures of thirty-four parishes. pre-history. Exmoor P., Dulverton, Somerset. Lincs County Library. Lincoln 1983. 1983. SHUTTLEWORTH, B M. A gazetteer of Dorset place names. EDDY, M R and PETCHLEY, M R. Historic towns in Essex: Dorsct Environmental Records Centre, Dorches- an archaeological survey of Saxon and medieval towns ter. with guidance for their filture planning. Essex Plan- SKINNER, J. Diary of a Somerset rector, 18o3-1834 ning Dept., Chelmsford. I983. (197I), reprint. Oxford UP. Folklore in north west Lincolnshire. Scunthorpe Bor- Studies in modern Kentish history presented to F Hull ough Museum. I983. and E Melling, ed. by A Detsicas and N Yates FOWLES, J. Thomas Hardy's England. Cape. Kent Archaeological Soc, Maidstone Museum. FRASER, R. hi search of a past. (Somerset) Verso. 1983. GILLESPIE, D. Clackmannanshire an anthology. Clack- SYLVESTER, D. A history of Gwynedd. Phillimore, mannanshire District Library, Alloa. I983. Chichester. 1983. Glamorgan county history. Vol. 2, Early Glamorgan. TOWNSEND, T W. Seventeenth century trademen's tokens Glamorgan County History Trust, Cardiff. of Lincolnshire: the issuers. Lincs Museums. 1983. HAGGARD, L R. No~folk notebook (I946) reprint. Sut- TRINDER, B. A history of Shropshire. Phillimore, ton, Gloucester. Chichester. 1983. HALL, L J. The rural houses of north Avon and soudz TURNER, T. The diary of Thomas Turner (Sussex village Gloucestershire 14oo-172o. City of Bristol shopkeeper) 1754-1765. Oxford UP. Museum & Art Gallery. 1983. Victoria history of the county of Essex. Vol. VIII, ed. by HARRISON, B and HUTTON, B. Vernacular houses in W R Powell. Oxford UP for the Institute of North Yorkshire and Cleveland. Donald, Edin- Historical Research. 1983. burgh. Victoria history of the county of Wiltshire. Vol. XII ed. HASTINGS, R P. Essays in North Riding history by D A Crowley. Oxford UP for the Institute of 178o-185o. North Yorks CC, Northallerton. Historical Research. 1983. I98I. Victoria history of the county of York, East Riding. Vol HORN, P. The tithe war in Pembrokeshire. Preseli, V ed. by KJ Allison. Oxford UP for the Institute Fishguard. I982. of Historical Research. HOWES, H. Bedfordshire mills. County Planning Dept, WARD, J C. Medieval Essex community: the Lay Subsidy Bedford CC. 1983. of 1327. Essex RO, Chelmsford. 1983. HUNT, P. Devon's age of elegance (18oo--19oo). Devon WARREN, C H. A boy in Kent (I937), reprint. Sutton, Books, Exeter. Gloucester. JENKINS, P. The makit(~, of a ruling class: the Glamorgan WATSON, A. The place names of upper Deeside. gentry 164o-179o. Cambridge UP. 1983. Aberdeen UP. LAMBERT, W R. Drink and sobriety in Victorian Wales. Welsh society and nationhood: historical essays presented c.182o-1895. Univ of Wales P., Cardiff. 1983. to Glanmor Williams. U of Wales P., Cardiff. LAMPLUGH, L. Barnstaple: town on the Taw. Philli- WITHERS, C W J. Gaelic in Scotland 1698-1981: the more, Chichester. I983. geographical history of a language. Donald, Edin- MOLLOY, P. And they blessed Rebecca: an account of the burgh. Welsh toll-gate riots 1839-1844. Gower P, Llandy- WlTHRINGTON, D. Shetland and the outside world, sul. I983. 1469-1969. Oxford UP for the Univ of Aberdeen. MOODY, D. The poorhouse and poor relief in East 1983. Lothian. East Lothian Department of Leisure, WRIGHT, S M. The Derbyshire gentry in the fifteenth Recreation & Tourism, Haddington. I983. century. Derbys RO, Chesterfield. I983. NORTH, D J. Studies in Anglo-Cornish phonology: aspects of the history and geography of English pronounciation in Cornwall. Institute of Cornish Studies, Red- LOCAL HISTORY ruth. 1983. KING, E. Northamptonshire miscellany: Estate records of ANSTRUTHER, I. Tile scandal of the Andover Workshouse. the Hotot family, 2 Daventry tithing book 17oo-1818, Sutton, Gloucester. 3 Militia list for Nassaburgh 1762. Northants Armley through the ages. Armley Soc, Leeds. 1983. Record Society. I983. Aspects of the history of Barnetby-le-Wold (Lincs) RAWNSLEY, J E. Antique maps of Yorkshire and their 1766-19ol. Barnetby Branch of the Workers' makers. 3rd edn. Rigg, Leeds. ~983. Educational Association. 1983. RIPPON, A. Folktales and legends of Derbyshire. Mini- BACON, N. The papers of Nathaniel Bacon of Stif]key. max, Peterborough. I982. Vol. 2: 1578-1585. Univ of East Anglia Centre RUSSELL, E. and REX C. Making new landscapes in for East Anglian Studies, Norwich. 1983. ili:i: !!/i!: 194 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW '; BADCOCK, J. The making of a Regency village: origin, DEACON, M. Great Chesterford: a common field parish in history and description of Summertown (Oxon) in Essex. The Author, 72 Castle Street, Saffron 1832. St Michael's Publications, Oxford. 1983. Walden, Essex. BARNES, B. Saddleworth surveyed: selected maps of the Captain Dewhurst and his diary 1784-85 in Halliwell township. Saddleworth Historical Soc, c/o A J near Bolton, Lanes, ed by W D Billington. The Petford, Higher Goldburn, Upper mill, Nr. Editor, 8o Crosby Road, Bolton. I981. Oldham. 1983. ELLIOTT, A O. An early portrait of the villages and hamlets Barrow: the history of a Cheshire village. Barrow Local of Brighton and Hove. A G Elliott, Portslade. History Group. Chester. I983. Foss, v j. Market Bosworth (Leics). Sycamore, Barton on Humber (S. Humberside) in the 185o's. Pts. Wymondham. 1983. 3-4. Barton on Humber Branch Workers' Edu- FROST, R. A Lancashire township: the history of cation Association. 1979-84. Briercliffe-with-Extwistle. Rieve Edge P, 33 Cross BBER, G. A village called Starbeck. The author, 26 The Street, Briercliffe, Burnley. 1982. Avenue, Starbeck, Harrogate, HG1 4QD. 1983. GIBBS, J A. A Cotswold village or Country life and Berden (Essex) and its neighbours recorded: extracts fi'om pursuits in Gloucestershire (1899) reprint. Breslich the 'Herts and Essex observer' 1861-196o, collected & Foss. 1983. by C I Cherry. The author, Spoon Croft, Stock- Glenfield (Leics) probate imwntories 1542-1831. ing Pelham, Buttingford, Herts. I98I. Leicester Research Dept of Chamberlain Music & BEVIS., T. Strangers in the Fens: Huguenot Walloon Books. I983. communities at Thorney, Parson Drove, Guihirn arrd GOULD, J. Men of Aldridge (Staffs) (1957), reprint. Sandt@. Westrydale P, March (Cambs). I983. Sutton, Gloucester. 1983. BIGNOLD, R A. Tile Carlton Colville chronicles of Canon GRAYLING, C. The Bridgewater heritage: the story of the Reginald Augustus Bignold. Parochial Church Bridgewater estates. Buchan & Enrightf0r Bridge- Council of St Peter, Carlton Colville (Suffolk). water Estates. I983. Bilsdale maps 1781-1857. N Yorks CRO, Northaller- HAGAN, g. Dry Docking: being some accomrt of the ton. 1983. history of a Nolfolk village. 2nd edn. The Author, BULLER,J. Saint Just: a statistical account (1842) reprint. Sunnydene, Docking, Kings Lynn, Norfolk. Dyllanson Truman, Redruth. I983. 1983. BURTON, D. Winteringham 165o-176o: life and work in HALL, G. Pershore and district: a bibliography. Worcester a North Lincolnshire village, illustrated by probate City Library. Local Studies. I983. inventories. Winteringham Branch of the Workers HICKSON, E. Life at Laxton (Notts) c. 188o-19o3. Dept Educational Association. of Adult Education, Univ of Nottingham. I983. CARLEY, J. A history of Culverstone. Meopham Publi- Diaries of Hemy Hill of Slack:fields Farm 1872-1896 cations, Wrenbury, Wrotham Road, Meopham, (Derbys), ed by J Heath. Univ of Nottingham, Kent. 1983. Dept of Adult Education. I982. CHANDLER, K. An interim checklist of references to Morris History of Re,orLon parish (Perths). Dept of Extra- dancing in local newspapers, pt. I, 1735-1914. The Mural Education, Univ of Dundee. author. The Bungalow, Hill Grove Farm, Min- HOLTHAM, J C. Tredington (Warwicks) -- its village ster Lovell, Oxon. 1983. history. Tweenwalls, Tredington, Shipston-on- Cheddleton: North Staffordshire: a village history. Com- Stour, Warwicks. I983. piled by the Cheddleton Historical and HORN, P. A georgian parson and his village: the story of Archaeological Soc. 1983. Society, 58-6o Derby David Davies 1742-1819 . Beacon Publications, II Street, Leek, Staffs. Harwell Road, Sutton, Courtenay, Abingdon, Christchurch court rolls in the time of Henry VIII, ed by Oxon OXII 4BN. I98I. D J Stagg. Red House Museum Archives Fund, The household book of Dame Alice de Bryene qf Acton Christchurch. I983. Hall, Suffolk September 1412 to September 1413. CHERRY, C I. History of Berden (Essex). Masterson, Paradigm, Bungay. The Vicarage Mallows Greed Road, Manuden, HOUSTON, R. Records of a Scottish village, Lasswade Bishops Stortford CM23 1DG. I98o. (Lothian) 165o-175o. Chadwyck-Healey, Cam- COLEMAN, M C. Downham-in-the-Isle (Cambs): a study bridge. 1982. ofan ecclesiastical manor in tire thirteenth arrd fom'- ICELEY, H E M. Blockley (Gloucs) through twelve teenth centuries. Boydell, Woodbridge. centuries: mmals qfa Cotswold parish. (I974) reprint. COXHEAD, J R W. Honiton: a history of the manor and the Paradigm, Bungay. borough. Devon Books, Exeter. jOHN Or GLASTONBURY. T/re chronicle of Glastonbury r DAVEY, B J. Lawless and immoral: policing a co|retry rev and enl edn., Boydell, Woodbridge. !/ Abbey, town 1838-1857 (Horncastle, Lines). Leicester KELLY, S. Men of property: an arralysis of ttle Norwich i ~.' UP. I983. em'olled deeds 1285-IM1. Centre of East Anglian J LIST OF BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS ON AGRARIAN HISTORY I98 4 195 Studies, Univ of E. Anglia, Norwich. 1983. Chesterfield. 1983. Kirby Muxloe probate inventories 1547-1783. Leicester TAYLOR, A W. The history of Beaconsfield, rev. edn. Research Dept of Chamberlain Music & Books. Beaconsfield and District Historical Soc., 72 KINK, R. Historical sketch of Tullibody. Pt. 2. Clack- Wattleton Road, Beaconsfield, HP9 1RY. 1983. mannan District Libraries, Alloa. TYE, D. A village school 185o-197o: Boughton Mon- The Lower Otter Valley Devon: sketches on local history. chelsea. The Author, Boughton School, Mon- Otter Valley Association, Budleigh Salterton. chelsea, Kent. LYONS, N. The courts & yards of Bri,_~: the researches of WALKER, K. Little Clactott: an Essex village. End rev Bri&~ Local History Group, 198o-1982. Scunthorpe edn. Jarvis & Sayer. 1982. Museum Soc. 1983. WHITE, J. Bonghton-under-Blean. (Kent) Faversham MACHIN, R. Building accounts of Mapperton Rectory Soc. 2699-17o3. Dorset Record Soc. I983. WILSHERE, J. Braunstone (Leics.) probate inventories MACLEAN, A. Night f.alls on Ardnamurchan: tile twilight 1532-1778. The Author, 134 London Road, of a croftil~ff family. Gollancz. Leicester LE2 1EB. 1983. MAGGS, J. The Southwold diary of Javles Ma~s WILSHERE, J. Glenfield (Leics.): a considerable village. 1818-1876. Vol. I 1818-1a48. Boydell for the End edn. Leicester Research Section of Chamber- Suffolk Records Soc. 1983. lain Music and Books. MILWARD, R J. Early & medieval I,Vimbledon. (I969) WILSON, A R. Cocklebury: a farming area and its people in reprint. the vale of Wiltshire. Phillimore, Chichester. 1983. BARRINGER, C. North Walsham (No~folk) in the eight- WILSON, J H. Wymondham inventories 159o-164 I. eenth century. North Walsham Branch of the Centre for East Anglian Studies Univ of East Workers Educational Association. I983. Anglia, Norwich. 1983. OWEN, A E B. The records qf a commission of sewers for Within the wood: medieval Wadhurst, by the Wadhurst Wi~enhall 1319-1324: William Asshebourne's book. History Group. Centre for Continuing Norfolk Record Soc. 198I. Education, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton. 1983. PAGE, W. Holbrook, the story of a village 19oo--1983. YARROW, W. When Langley lost its greens. Bucking- Pentland, Edinburgh. 1983. hamshire CRO. I983. Parish re~ister qf Birstall, vol. I: 1558-1635. Parish Register Section. Yorks Archaeological Soc, Leeds. I983. IRISH HISTORY Parish registers of Easingwold, Raskelf and Myron upon Swale. Parish Register Section. Yorks Archaeo- BANNON, M j. A history of Irish planning. Turoe Press, logical Society, Leeds. I983. Dublin. PEEBLES, M W H. The Claygate book: a history of a County Down local history source lists for Donaghadee, Surrey village. Blackmore, Shaftesbury. I983. Tile Ards, Castlereagh Claudeboye, Killyleagh and POTTER, G J R. Life in a Berkshire village. Oxford & Crossgar. Irish & Local Studies Librarian, Library Cambridge Schools Examination Board, Oxford. Headquarters, Ballynahinch, Co Down. I98O-83. 1976. CULLETON, r. Early man in County Wexford: 5000 BC REEKS, O. A brief history of Verwood. Verwood Histori- to 3oo BC. Agricultural Institute, Dublin. cal Society, Wimborne Dorset. FERGUSON, P. Irish map history: a select bibliography of ROWLEY, S V. Poor relief in the parish of Kinnerley, secondary works 185o-~983 on tile histoly of cartog- Shropshire c. 17oo-184o. The Author, Blue Gates, raphy in Ireland. Ioth International Conference on Weston Lullingfields, Shropshire SY4 2AA. the History of Cartography, Dublin. 1983. I983. GAILEY, A. Rural houses of the north of Ireland. Donald, SANDISON, A. Rimpton ill Somerset: Loop years of village Edinburgh. history 938-1939. Abbey Bookshop The Parade, GOULD, M n. The workhouses of Ulster. Ulster Archi- Sherborne, Dorset. I983. tectural Heritage Society, Belfast. I983. SAVlLLE, g E. The parish of Spernall (Warwicks.): a HURLEY, M J. Where came dark stranger: a brief history of history. Alcester & District Local History Soc. Baldoyle (Co Dublin). Abbey Park & District SCHUMER, B. Tile evolution of Wychwood (Oxon.) to Residents'Association, Baldoyle. I979. 14oo: piolaeers, fi'ontiers and forests. Leicester UP. CLARK, S. and DONNELLY, J S. Irish peasants: violence SENAR, El. Little Gaddesden arid Ashri@e Phillimore, and political unrest 178o-1914. Manchester UP. Chichester. I983. I983. Stoke by Clare cartulary, pts. 2-3. Boydell & Brewer JOYCE, P E. Pocket guide to h'ish place names. (I87O), for the Suffolk Records Society, Wocdbridge. reprint. Appletree, Belfast. STUBBS, J. A history of Cutthorpe village, 186o-1933, KENNEDY, J M. A chronology of Thurles (Co Tipperary) pt. I. The Author, Dower House, Cutthorpe 58o-1978. Cavan County Library. 1979. 196 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW V!" LATOCNAYE, H M DE A. Frenchman's walk through Ireland Farm records 17o8-195o. Dept. of Manuscripts, Not- .:i : i 1796-7. Blackstaff, Belfast. tingham U. iff Mid-Antrim 1983: articles on the history of Ballymena Field and furrow: a local farm study, by Ewyas Harold and district. Mid-Antrim historical group, and District WEA Research Group. Hereford Ballymena. r983. District Council for the West Midlands Workers NATIONAL PLOUGHING ASSOCIATION. .50 years a- Educational Association, Hereford. z983. ploughing: a histo~y of the National Ploughing HARVEY, N. A history of farm buildings in England and Association. National Ploughing Association of Wales. 2nd edn. David & Charles, Newton Ireland. Athy. 1983. Abbot. SHArFREY, P. Buildings of the Irish countryside. O'Brien HARVEY, P D A. The peasant land market in medieval P., Dublin. England. Clarendon P Oxford. TUCKER, C. The orphans of history: twelve hundred and HORN, P. The changing counnyside 187o-1918. Athlone fifty years of Anglo-Irish synthetic history, no. 3, P. Scottish and English heathen gods. The Author, HUXLEY, A. An illustrated history ofgardeniJ(¢, Macmi]- Tongland Kirkcudbright. I983. lan in association with the Royal Horticultural WINSTANLEY, M. Ireland and the land question: Soc. I983. 18oo-1922. Methuen. JACQUES, D. Georgian gardens: the reign of nature. Batsford. I983. JEFFREY, I. The British landscape 1920-z95o. Thames & AGRICULTURAL HISTORY AND RURAL Hudson. INDUSTRIES JONES, I. From the grass roots: a lifetime in the Welsh Plant Breedi~Lf~ Station. Utliversity Colleqe Wales ABBOTT, D. Librarian in the Land Army. The author, Aberi,stwyth. Brown, Cowbridge. I982. Stratford on Avon. KITCHEN, r. Brother to the ox: the autobiography of a AMHERST, A. A history of gardening in EL(gland, New farm labourer (z94o) reprint. Penguin, Har- edn. Sutton, Gloucester. mondsworth. I983. BELL, A. Men and the fields (1939) reprint. Sutton, KNOWLES, C H. Landscape history. Historical Associ- Gloucester. ation. I983. BERESFORD, M. History on the ground: six studies in maps LAWSON, W. Tile country housew(~e's garden 1617 . . . and landscapes (I957) reprint. Sutton, Gloucester. and selections fi'om A new orchard and garden (I618) BOURNE, G. Memoirs of a Surrey labourer 0896-19o5). reprint. Breslich & Foss. I983. (I9o7) reprint. Breslich & Foss, I983. Mam~cture in town and country before the factory, ed by BOURNE, G. Change in the village (I912) reprint. M Berg. Cambridge UP. i983. Penguin, Harmondsworth. MASON, S. Agraria, Britain 17o0-198o. Blackwell, BOWERS, J K and CHESHIRE, P. Agriculture, the country- Oxford. side and land use: ay, economic critique. Methuen. MARVIN, J E. Feudalism to capitalism: peasant and I983. landlord in English agrarian development. Macmil- BREARS, e. Thc gentlewomans kitd~en: great food in lan, I983. Yorkshire 1650-175o. Wakefield Historical Publi- MEREDITH, R. Farms and families qf Hathersage Outseats cations. Derb),shire fi'om the J3th to the 19th century. Part 2: CAMERON, A D. Country people in the agricultural Gatehouse, Upper Hirst, Tholp, Birley, The Hill, revolution. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh. I983. The Old Road fi'om Sheffield to Hope. The Author, CARTER, r. Tire Victorian garden. Bell & Hyman. 67 Kingfield Rd., Sheffield. I983. William Cobbett's illustrated 'Rural rides'. (I83o), ORMROD, D. English grabl exports and tile sm|cture of reprint. Webb & Bower, Exeter. agrarian capitalism 17oo-176o. Hull UP. Country voices: life and lore in farm and village: PALMER, R C. Tire Whilton disp,te 1z64-138o: a social interviews by C Kightly. Thames & Hudson. legal study of dispute settlement in medieval England. CRANE, E. The archaeology of beekeeping. Duckworth. Princeton UP. I983. REED, M. Discovering past landscapes. Croom Helm. CREASEY, J. and WARD, S. The countryside between the ROBINSON, J M. Georgian model farms: a study of wars. 1918-194 o. Batsford. decorative and model farm buildings in the age of EDWARDS, A. Crop areas and livestock numbers, England improvement, 17oo-1846. Clarendon P, Oxford. and Wales 1939-198e Farm Business Unit, School I983. of Rural Economics, Ashford. ROBSON, K. Amwell Magna (Herts.) Fishery, EVERITT, h. Transformation and tradition, aspects of tile 183~-~98~. Chesterman Stevenage. 198I. Victorian countryside. Centre of East Anglian STUART, D C. The kitchen garden: a historical guide to Studies Univ of East Anglia, Norwich. traditional crops. Hale. 'ii I,! LIST OF BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS ON AGRARIAN HISTORY 1984 197 SWAN, W C. The diary of a farm apprentice (19o9-191o). TURNER, M E. Enclosure in Britain, 175o-183o. Mac- Sutton. Gloucester. millan. "tAYLOR, C. Village and farmstead: a history of rural TOSSrR, T. 500 points ofgood husbandry (153 I), reprint. settlement in England. Philip. Oxford UP. THWAITES, J R N. The history of the Wiltshire Horn breed WHYTE, I D. The historical geography of rural settlement of sheep. The Author, Ham Farm, Holcombe, Nr. in Scotland: a review. Dept. of Geography, Univ. Bath. 1978. of Edinburgh. 1982. Notes on Contributors IRJ BIELEMANis a member ofstaffofthe Department of DR J E ARCHER read history and politics at Swansea Rural History of the Agricultural University at University, and received his PhD from the University Wageningcn in the Netherlands. Since I979 he has o fEast Anglia in 1982. He has been a lecturer in modern been doing research on the agricultural history of the history at Edge Hill College of Higher Education, province ofl)renthe from I6oo onwards. Besides his Ormskirk, Lancashire, since 1979. His thesis was on work on his thesis, which is yet to be completed, he has rural protest in East Anglia, 183o-7o, and recent recently published two chapters on the subject in a funding from the British Academy has enabled him to handbook on the history of l)renthe, edited by j extend his research to include the period 1815-30. He is Heringa, Geschiede, is van Drenthe (Meppel, 1985). currently working on a book which will concentrate on acts of covert individual forms of protest, especially rural incendiarism. DR W THWAITES completed her doctorate at Birmingham University in I98o on 'The Marketing of DR P K HALLis a Senior Lecturer in Economic History Agricultural Produce in Eighteenth-Century at the University of Sydney. His interests include Oxfordshire'. She is currently living at Greetham, agriculture and economic development in Japan, Oakham, Leicestershire, and working on talks on Mexico, and mainland Tanzania during the nine- famine and the third world. teenth and twentieth centuries. Among his recent publications are: 'Avance del transnacionalismo japonds y America Latfna', Foro Internacional DR CHAP.LESwJ WITHERSis a lecturer in geography at the (Mexico) XXIII, 3 (Enero-Marzo 1983); and 'Japan's College of St Paul and St Mary, Cheltenham. Hc is Farm Sector, I92o-4o: a Need for Reassessment', currently working on a book about the cultural Agricultural History, LVIII, 4 (1984). transformation of the Scottish Highlands, and on the agricultural manuscripts of James Hutton. His DR TIM ROOTH iS a Senior Lecturer in Economic History publications include Gaelic in Scotland 1698 to 1981: the at Portsmouth Polytechnic, where he has been geographical history ofa language (Edinburgh, 1984), and teaching since 1967. His main research work has been numerous articles on the historical geography of on British commercial policy in the I93OS, focusing Scotland. In I986, as a research fellow in Edinburgh particularly on relations with overseas primary Unversity's project on the Scottish Enlightenment, he producers, and he has published a number of articles in is to research the social and scientific comext to the this area. Currently he is working on a study of the development of eighteenth-century agriculture in adoption of protection by the United Kingdom in Scotland. I931/2. ¸ i: :i Book Reviews :/i DAVID RINDOS, The Origins of Agriculture -- An domesticate a crop, but that they must have favoured Evolutionary Perspective. Academic Press, I984. individual plants that were most useful, and so the 325 pp. £26. author demonstrates the distinction between selection The title of this book is misleading to the British (the means) and evolution (the result). Here he begins reader. One expects it to show how the theory of to push back the origins of plant domestication into the evolution as understood by the biologist can be used to realms of primate diet preferences. explain to the archaeologist and agricultural historian 'The Evolution of Domestication' (evolution since how the domestication of livestock came about. Yet it domestication) is discussed in Chapter 4 under the turns out that this book is entirely about plant headings of'incidental', 'specialised' and 'agricultural' domestication (for which we prefer the term evolution in an ecological setting, and Rindos shows 'cultivation')just as the term'agriculture' is not strictly that through changing selection pressures a new confined to plants. taxonomy has arisen. The preface tends to confuse rather than clarify since I11 Chapter 5 on 'Feeding Behaviour and Changes in the author nowhere defines his terms, but 'throws' us Diet' he claims that if we forget 'man the hunter' and by stating that the origins of agriculture have been think of him as a vegetarian primate we might see the traditionally studied by social scientists. He points out beginnings of domestication 5o,ooo years ago. He uses that natural scientists, too, (he and I) have studied the complicated mathematical formulae to prepare problem, and states his aim as being 'to demonstrate graphic models of the changes taking place, and shows that domestication [of plants] and the origin of how the apparently sudden appearance of agriculture agricultural systems [excluding livestock] [words in can be explained by the acceleration of a change that brackets added by me] are best understood by had been going on for a long time. But as a attempting to explicate the evolutionary forces that non-mathematical biologist I find it disconcerting that affected the development of domesticates and the author cannot also explain his ideas verbally-- I am agricultural systems'. not aware that Darwin resorted to mathematics to Chapter I covers Agriculture, Evolution, and explain his elegant yet simple theory. Paradigms. On page I Rindos reminds us that Darwin The author resorts to more mathematics in Chapter based his theory on studies of 'domesticated animals 6 to discuss 'Instability, Cultural Fecundity, and and cultivated plants' [Darwin's words], and the Dispersals' by proposing a model for the spread of author stresses the unconscious nature of the agricultural systems that directly relates the evolution- domestication process, and of the first selective ary tendencies o fman-plant interaction to the dispersal breeding. He gives lengthy quotations from such of domestication and agriculture as modes of human authors as Darwin, and discusses such topics as cultural subsistence. evolution and cultural ecology. The chapter includes a section on domestication and Chapter 2, 'Darwinisrn and Culture', is an excellent demography and ends with a section on implications, scientific review of the literature since Darwin. He which acts as an epilogue. Readers of this journal will stresses that evolution takes place through natural be well aware that one aim of history is to prevent us selection of existing variation, and presents the case from repeating the mistakes of the past. Rindos points that cultural change is the result of a natural out that continued breeding of improved crops, and evolutionary process. Rindos shows that 'socio- the development of more efficient systems to guard biologists' have confused cultural variation with against food shortages, has made us very vulnerable to genetic change. famine by encouraging the reliance on fewer and fewer Chapter 3, 'The Naturalness of the Human-Plant plant species (he claims only 20) in which improved Relationship', is central to the author's treatment, and varieties are often more susceptible to pests and the easiest to understand. The author demonstrates diseases. He praises the much belated attention now that it is Ioo years since the idea was first put forward given to the conservation o fgenetic resources, and says that population pressure forced man into agriculture, that new methods will be required to counteract and that the history of cultivated plants could be instabilities in agricultural production. understood only by combining the views of the The book is altogether a tour&force dealing with the botanist, archaeologist, historian, and linguist. He subject in its most specialized form, so that chapter goes on to quote Vavilov's idea of primary summaries would have been helpful in following the domestication (the species brought into cultivation) arguments. It is a pity that animals were omitted since and secondary domestication (of the weeds present in similar principles apply to them and most agricultural field crops). The fibre-producing plant hemp was systems include livestock. There is a full bibliography, regarded as a weed becoming cultivated by accident. and a moderately good index. if: Rindos stresses that people could not intentionally M L RYDER I98 iii:i il, i~:i, BOOK REVIEWS I99 j M FRAYN, Sheep-Rearing and the Wool Trade in Italy which marks this book out as an excellent contribution during the Roman Period. ARCA Classical and to the subject. Cautious and wary of the unwarranted Medieval Texts, Papers and Monographs 15, I984. generalization, she is yet alert to the range of possible x + 2oSpp. 13 maps and line drawings. 8 plates. £20. interpretations of inadequate sources. Her overall A modern history of the development of agriculture approach is to construct a possible model of the and farming in Roman Italy has not yet been written. contribution o fsheep-rearing to the agrarian economy At first sight this may cause surprise; for the evidence of Roman Italy by using both the ancient evidence and seems as rich and varied as for any major aspect of the comparative material. The specific sources are then classical world. The works of the agricultural writers assessed against this background. from Cato in the second century BC to the Byzantine Transhumance was a fundamental feature of collection, the Geoponika, when combined with the sheep-farming in South Italy. Frayn confirms the treaties of the Roman land-surveyors, form perhaps conclusions orE Gabba and M Pasquinucci, Strutture the largest surviving body of technical literature from agrarie e allevamento transumante hell'Italia romana (Pisa the classical period after the corpus of medical writers. I979) that this form of farming is a response in these Developments and disturbances in the countryside are regions to particular climatic conditions rather than to noted intermittently by the ancient historians. political events or social change. Further, the need for Inscriptions and the law codes contain much material, large areas of summer and winter pasturage, for drove as yet under exploited, on the organization of estates roads and food en route created social tensions in the and the trade in agricultural produce. Mosaics, region between pastoralists and arable farmer. Such paintings and sculpture can add vivid details. At long quarrels lie behind the proud statement of an unknown last archaeology in Italy has turned its attention from praetor: 'I was the first to make the shepherds give way the riches of the urban centres to investigations of the to the arable farmers on the publicland' (CIL X, 695o). buildings of the countryside and to surveys of the These antagonisms can be illustrated in another way. agrarian economy of regions over a long historical Shepherds were distinctive in dress, speech and period. So evidence galore; but appearance deceives. custom and were viewed with suspicion by others. As Joan Frayn realized in her earlier book, Subsistence Out on the high hills the slave shepherd was free from Farming in Roman Italy (Fontwcll I979), the various supervision, could plot revolt with others or indulge in categories of evidence on close analysis prove to be banditry. The descent from 'pastor' (shepherd) to extremely difficult to handle and major gaps become 'venator' (hunter) then to 'latro' (robber) (Livy Ep. 52) clear. For sheep the agricultural writers have quite an was viewed by some as natural and inevitable. So in the anaount of information; but it is limited in scope, Late Empire men of low status in the major pasturage because it is concerned almost exclusively with the areas were forbidden to keep horses in an attempt to keeping of animals on a mixed farm. Apart from stamp out robberies. The Saepinum inscription (CIL isolated passages in Varro and Columella, these X, 2438), which has aroused renewed interest recently, authors betray very little knowledge oftranslmmance illustrates how jittery officials were all too ready to or of the techniques of open grazing. That point is well believe that the shepherds moving large flocks through made by Frayn, although even she overestimates the their district were runaway slaves and robbers. anmunt of information in these writers which is Shepherds, as Frayn points out, were a social anomaly. derived from autopsy. No one can make a fair estinaate From the same background of social tension come of the value of the Roman agronomists without most of the references to 'latifundia' or ranches, which realizing that a very high percentage of their have so obsessed modern commentators. Doubtlessly information is cribbed from earlier writers. Modern there was raising of sheep and cattle on a large scale in archaeology prides itself on its ability to extract some areas. But the assumption that such ranches were information from bones and other faunal remains; but damaging to the agrarian economy rests largely on Frayn offers a justified caveat about the injudicious moralizing literature about excessive wealth and on the inferences of some excavators of farm sites. Where complaints of arable farmers who sought access to there was a trade in sheep for meat, the animals may areas reserved for pasturage. Frayn is right not to take have been moved to urban consumers on the hoof or as this evidence too seriously. whole carcases. In any case the Roman predilection In some ways the most important chapters in this was for lamb and many young animals would be book are those on the wool trade. The marketing of roasted whole; few of their bones would reveal agricultural and farm produce has been extraordinarily evidence of butchering. Archaeology is also of very neglected. Yet it was the growth of urban markets limited use in revealing the pattern of" life of the which gave the main impetus to the extension of shepherd, because the cabins and other temporary sheep-farming in Roman Italy. We need to understand shelters constructed for the shepherds on their summer the mechanisms by which woollen goods reached the pastures are by their very nature likely to be elusive. consumer. In this the central problem is that It is Frayn's sensitivity to the nature of the evidence inscriptions reveal a startlingly large list of apparently 200 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW independent specialists: fullers, carders, dyers, points on which to ponder. These include Coles' i:~ii cloak-makers, even comb-menders. Who provided description of the prehistoric wooded trackways the capital and through how many hands did across the Somerset levels, and their possible ownership of a fleece pass before it reached the retail implications. Barrow's chapter on the road network of market? I do not agree with all of Frayn's rather medieval Scotland will also provoke wider thoughts, complex conclusions; but to tackle the problem at all is not least because, by reference to military and to break new ground in a vital area of the ancient economic usage, it repeats for Scotland the argument economy. made for other places that the sparseness and Frayn describes her work as 'a full summary' of inadequacy of pre-eighteenth century road transport current information on sheep-farming. While there is has been much exaggerated. Moreover, Barrow's discussion of breeding (the Romans were largely general argument is reinforced by some of the data in concerned with the quality of the wool), cheese- Ruddock's study of roads and bridges which shows making and many other topics, the main omission is an that from the early Woos bridge renewals were investigation of the status of shepherds and those increasingly constructed of a width to accommodate involved in the wool-trade. To this excellent synthesis wheeled traffic, yet another sign of an expanding Frayn has added many perceptive comments. economy producing greater quantities of traffic. However, it is her methodology and approach to GERARD TURNBULL explaining an important aspect o fclassical farming that deserves praise and approval and in some respects should become a model for future work. JOAN THIRSK, The Rural Economy of England: Collected JEREMY PATERSON Essays. The Hambledon Press, ~984. xiv + 420 pp. £22. It is probably true to say that our view of the rural A FENTON and G STELL (Eds), Loads and Roads in economy of early modern England owes more to the Scotland and Beyond. John Donald, Edinburgh, writings of Dr Joan Thirsk than it does to any other I984. vii + I44. I map; 64 Figs. £8.5o. historian. The twenty-one papers collected in this The rather generalized title of this volume proves to be volume comprise the bulk of her published papers, so quite an appropriate description of the contents of the apart from the occasional new footnote (referring only seven essays which it contains. The content, apart to work by Dr Thirsk) and a few 'postscripts', there is from a few escapees south of the border and to other nothing new here save for a six-page preface reflecting parts, is predominantly concerned with Scotland, with on the 'wayward paths of historical research'. Serious roads -- manmade, artificial routeways and not just students of the rural economy of early modern tracks beaten out by frequency of use -- and their England will be familiar with most if not all these specialised format of bridging across water; and with papers but it is nevertheless a treat to have them the provision, by both wheeled and wheel-less gathered from rather scattered sources and bound vehicles, for the movement of goods. together. For they constitute a masterly contribution One or two general principles are adumbrated in the to historical scholarship which are still essential text -- thus, Coles, 'the character and extent of a reading for new students and equally deserving of a country's roads provide a mirror of its organisation' re-reading by those who have encountered them (p I); and Barrow, 'again and again in the charters of the already. twelfth and thirteenth centuries we can pick up Unfortunately the book does not provide much stretches of this major traffic route in contexts which bibliographic help to guide new students to more make it most improbable that the clerks had in mind no recent relevant material. The short postscripts are more than a rude and fluctuating track' (p52). inconsistent. Sometimes they refer to key books and However, not a lot of more general interest is built articles published since the reprinted article was first upon these sorts of observations. The primary published, but in other cases the postscript is confined emphasis is on the physical geography -- the to tidying up matters of detail rather than of substance. archaeological, documentary and map evidence of the Other papers have no postscript at all, leaving some pre-history and pre-modern periods for the existence statements, which, with the passage of time, are of tracks and roads, down to the detailed physiography incorrect. Inventories of the Prerogative Court of of the old bridge at Bridge of Earn, finally dismantled Canterbury for example, are no longer 'not available in I976. Although that is the most specialized piece of t'or inspection' (P.7). While the book is generally well writing by far, much of the rest is in a similar, if less produced there are a number of misprints. One (p. 202) narrow mould. The book will be of interest, therefore, has John Houghton publishing his Collections in I649. to a fairly specialized audience. The more general As Dr Thirsk points out in one of her early papers historian, interested in matters of agricultural or ('the content and sources of English agrarian history transport history will, nonetheless, note a number of after I5oo') English agrarian history flourished after [, ii~! i:i BOOK REVIEWS 2OI 1945 in conjunction with local history. This close original article) and an earlier discussion of 'Tudor collaboration ensured that the national generalizations enclosures'. This work once again illustrates Dr of a previous generation of historians were replaced by Thirsk's skill in combining the general and the an awareness of the 'kaleidoscope of regional particular, and in this case the general principles of the specialities and of processes of economic change'. model are clearly delineated. Despite Titow's Thus after two papers of a more conventional sort (on comments and the recent book edited by T Rowley, 'The sales of Royalist land during theinterregnum' and the general arguments of the 'Thirsk model' are still 'The restoration land settlement') Dr Thirsk's widely accepted. attention turned to studies that were explicitly regional The remaining seven papers in the volume cover a in their approach; 'The Isle of Axholme before miscellany of topics but illustrate a concern for Vermuyden' and 'Farming in Kesteven' published in historical sources ('Sources of information on the 195os and 'Horn and thorn in Staffordshire: the population 15oo-176o'); for general surveys of economy of a pastoral county', published in I969. research themes and the origination of new research Differences in the pattern of rural industrialization and directions ('Unexplored sources in local records', 'The the linkages between agriculture and industry are family', 'The European debate on customs of developed in 'Industries in the countryside', and the inheritance r5oo-17oo', and 'Younger sons in the processes of economic and social change, often seventeenth century'); agricultural history ('Horses in exemplified through the entrepreneurial initiatives of early modern England'); and local history ('Stamford particular individuals, are explored in 'seventeenth in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries'). It is century agriculture and social change' and more remarkable that there is no real dud amongst the specifically in a trio of papers; 'The fantastical folly of twenty-one papers: all have something of significance fashion: the English stocking knitting industry, to say. The message common to them all is the variety 15oo-I7OO'; 'New crops and their diffusion: tobacco and vitality of the rural economy of sixteenth- and growing in seventeenth century England'; and seventeenth-century England. 'Projects for gentlemen,jobs for the poor: mutual aid MARK OVERTON in the Vale of Tewkesbury, I6OO-I63O'. The great danger of local history is that it degenerates into antiquarianism so that every scrap of p D A HARVEY(ed), The Peasant Land Market in Medieval information about the past is accorded equal meaning England. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1984. xvi + 375 provided that it refers to a particular locality. The pp. £28. significance of Dr Thirsk's work is that description of This volume comprises, apart from the editor's local detail is not an end in itself but used to illuminate lengthy introduction and conclusion, four abridged what is in effect a general model of the local and doctoral theses: Janet Williamson, 'Peasant Holdings regional structure of the economy and society of early in Medieval Norfolk' (Reading University, I976); modern England. Farming practice, domestic indus- Rosamund Faith, 'The Peasant Land-Market in try, inheritance customs, religion, and politics are Berkshire in the Later Middle Ages' (Leicester woven into a sophisticated framework within which University, I962); Tim Lomas, 'Land and People in local studies can be situated. Almost all the chapters in South-east Durham in the Later Middle Ages' the book provide some generalizations which (Council of National Academic Awards, I976), and contribute something to this framework but unfortu- Andrew Jones, 'The Customary Land Market in nately no single paper gives a comprehensive Bedfordshire in the Fifteenth Century' (Southampton description of it. University, 1975). Some of the authors have published As Dr Thirsk points out 'the work of one generation parts of their theses before but, in the context of this serves as an outline, awaiting improvement by the collection, this aids presentation rather than detracting next', but it is testimony to the strength of her from it, and, in the case of Dr Faith's study, previously arguments that the general model has not been only easily accessible through her 1966 article in this challenged. Although many of the original ideas journal, publication in an extended form after some within it have been incorporated into notions ot" twenty-.two years is particularly welcome. Indeed the 'protoindustrialization', her model awaits thorough whole concept of the book is an original one and the critical evaluation and development. editor is to be congratulated for rescuing these works The second major theme in Dr Thirsk's work is from fragmentary publication and for assisting in their concerned with the origins of English field systems. transformation from rather indigestible theses into 'The common fields' is one of the most important of a studies which range from the readable to the series of attempts stretching back to H L Gray to stylistically elegant. Overall, as an experiment in terms penetrate the enigmas of field systems, and i.~ reprinted of presentation the book is a great success. here along with 'The origins of the common fields' The same originality, moreover, extends to the (which is the reply to l)r Titow's comments on the editor's conceptualization of its subject matter-- the 202 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW peasant land market -- which he defines as involving have us believe, by the inadequacies of the documen- '... the transfer of land from one living individual to tation. The problem lies with the authors rather than another: the chronology and extent of these transfers their sources. As a series of intensely conservative both of free land and unfree land held by local manorial studies, rooted in a long-standing historiography custom, the procedures followed in each case, the concerning land tenure, their work is interesting and regulation of the traffic by manorial lords, and the on occasion illuminating. As an exploratory foray into effects on the land holding of the individual... ', but the new subject of peasant land transactions it is not-- excluding the reverse situation -- what happened to in this context time has passed it by. the peasant's land on his death. Questions of IAN BLANCHARD i inheritance are, accordingly, cast to one side and the reader is invited to enter the world of the halmote to discover the motivation which drove the peasant to R H HILTONand T H ASTON, (eds), The English Rising of acquire or dispose of land during his lifetime. 1381. CUP, 1984. vi + 220. £22.50. Unfortunately on entering this world, where justice The Past and Present Society was the obvious body to was dispensed on the basis of both delegated and organize a conference for the sixth centenary of the customary law, he will find doors closed to him for the Peasants' Revolt, and it was predictable that the authors have eschewed the principal directions resulting papers should be of distinguished quality. indicated by the editor. Actions within the halmote Though lacking a narrative account of the events of may, for simplicity, be divided into two categories: I38I, this short volume is a treasury of information there are those between tenants which, if only concerning the social and political conflicts which they indirectly, can provide some information on peasant expressed. Christopher Dyer examines the everyday motivation and there are those between the tenants and tensions within rural society at the epicentre of the their lord which, in the context of customary law, revolt, drawing on manorial records not hitherto served to define their rights and obligations in relation consuhed for the purpose. Then two remarkable to each other. In these studies it is the latter group of papers examine conservative features of peasant actions which assume the centre of the stage with the ideology in the later fourteenth century; Rosamund lord cast in the role of principal actor. Dr Williamson is Faith investigates the prevalent mythology concern- primarily concerned with defining peasant obligations ing Domesday Book as a bastion of ancient liberties and elucidating the problems associated with the break (chapter 2) and Alan Harding looks at the parallel up of the 'standard holding' in the thirteenth and early association between ideals of communal self-policing fourteenth centuries whilst the other authors, taking and the Statute of Winchester (chapter 7). The roots of up the same theme, examine the emergence of new these ideologies in mistrust of the existing legal system tenurial forms in the later Middle Ages. The are clearly exposed. Dyer's paper discusses the social over-riding leitmotif is the tenurial relationship tensions implicit in the administration of manorial between lord and peasant. Only peripherally are justice, and Harding's paper describes the frustration questions concerning !and transfers anaongst the and contempt with which local communities viewed tenantry touched upon and even then the investi- the operations of the king's justices. gations have a rather old-fashioned air about them. All The last paper in the book, by contrast, is a the studies of the later Middle Ages reveal that pioneering study by J A Tuck of attitudes and increasing tendency towards 'non-familial' transfers, responses to the Revolt both at court and amongst the first noted by Dr Faith in the early 'sixties. Each author, lords and commons. This paper integrates the Revolt moreover, adds his or her own particular contribution into the political history of Richard II's reign and to the controversy over 'social polarization' and 'social rejects the conventional view that the violent promotion' in the village land market, first promul- expression of social unrest in ~38I had no significant gated in the 'fifties. Yet nowhere is there more than a effect. The evidence suggests that 'the political passing mention of the work of Professor Raftis and consequences of the Peasants' Revolt were of rather the'Toronto School', which has dominated the subject greater importance, in the short run at least, than the for a quarter of a century, and there is a singular absence impact of the revolt on manorial authority'. of that sense of excitement, felt by the reviewer more The editors explain their reason for using the term than twenty years ago, with regard to the potential 'English Rising' rather than the more traditional inherent in the techniques pioneered by that School. 'Peasants' Revolt'; they are concerned that the urban Nor can this conservatism and resultant failure to aspects of the uprising should not be forgotten. With subject any of the places investigated in this volume to two such original accounts at hand as those of A F the intensive study which would reconstruct the Butcher for Canterbury (chapter 4) and R B Dobson life-histories and behavioural patterns of the tenantry for York, Beverley and Scarborough (chapter 5) the approach of the 'Toronto School' and latterly of readers will take the point readily enough. Both papers Zvi Razi -- be simply explained, as the editor would investigate the reasons for a breakdown of sympathy ilJi ;7i ii BOOK REVIEWS 203 between rulers and the ruled in urban society of this makes the inter-relationships between the subjects period, and some of these reasons were relevant only to more difficult to follow, especially when the book town life; both in Canterbury and in the Yorkshire itself appears in two volumes. The sub-divisions towns the growth of mercantile wealth had widened within the volumes, however, are well chosen. the social distance between the ruling groups and Volume I, sub-titled People, land and towns, com- ordinary tradesmen. But both these accounts are" mences with a discussion of the new population figures emphatic that the urban revolts cannot be explained and their implications for the period, especially the purely in urban terms. The question of the role of recently revealed decline between the I65os and the towns in social unrest of the later Middle Ages is I68os and the gradual rise from then on through the carried further by two papers concerning well known eighteenth century. It continues with a short analysis revolts on the continent. Raymond Cazelles, in a paper of the long-run price changes and then expands into a on the Jacquerie, describes the part played byjealousies lengthy section (I II pages) on agriculture and rural between townsmen and the nobility in fomenting society (which will be noticed in more detail below, social conflict (chapter 3). Samuel Cohn's paper since it will no doubt be the part of greatest interest to concerning Florence in the years I342-85 presents an readers of this Review). Volume I then moves to an archetype for purely urban revolt which contrasts well analysis of the reasons why most provincial towns with the English case; he stresses the exclusively urban remained small and slow-growing in this period while leadership of the Florentine risings and the capitalist London grew nearly ten-fold, from about 6o,ooo nature of the social relationships underlying them. inhabitants in 15oo to some 575, ooo in 17oo-- and this For historians of agriculture and rural society the entirely from migration since its death rate was much most useful paper here will probably be that of higher than its birthrate throughout the whole period! Christopher Dyer. His evidence of the social Volume I concludes with a short chapter on 'Society background of known rebels suggests that this was no and the Poor' which charts the rise of poverty and the light headed movcment of the young and footloose. search for solutions. Hc cxplains in detail why a rural 61itc should have In Volume II, sub-titled Industry, trade and takcn thc initiativc in resisting the authority of government, the emphasis shifts away from the rural landlords. And hc develops the important argumcnt scene, but in a society which was still overwhelmingly that it was precisely the leaders ofvillagc socicty who dependent on agriculture (even in 17oo it seems to have were best placed to generalize their local grievances involved about sixty per cent of the population directly into a comprehensive rcjcction of the legal status qtio. and even more indirectly in transporting and R H BRITNELL marketing its products) the growth of the other sectors has to be repeatedly related back to the rural sectors. Volume II begins with a long chapter on industry in C G A CLAY, Economic Expansion and Social Change: which its gradual development in the sixteenth century England 1.5oo-17oo. CUP, I984. 2 vols, xiv + 268 and steady progress in the seventeenth century are pp; xii + 324 pp. £20 (cloth); £6.95 (paper) each related to the slow growth of the market for volunle. manufactures both at home and abroad; to changes in This lengthy, up-to-date and thoroughly useful the supply of fuel and raw materials; to improvements textbook is the first general treatment of the early in capital supply, entrepreneurship, techl.ical inno- modern period since Donald Coleman's excellent, but vation; and to an increased supply of cheap labour, much briefer, The Economy of England, 145o.-175o resuhing from agriculture's inability to absorb a came out i,a I977. In the interval the interpretation of steadily rising population. The succeeding chapter on the period has becn altered in many ways by the overseas trade is deftly handled (here at last some publication of Wrigley and Schofield's massive study statistics which are more than educated 'guesstimates' of population change since ~54I, by Volumc V of The can be utilized). The rise of agricultural exports from a Agrarian History of England and Wales, 164o-~75o, share probably as small as three per cent of all exports in edited by Joan Thirsk, and by countless other articles the I66os to eleven per cent (worth an average of and studies. Nearly all this material has been effectiv ely £488,ooo a year) in the three years I699, 17o0 and 17o I; and clearly incorporated and digested by Christopher combined with the steadily falling prices of food after Clay, and students of the period will be grateful to him I65o (barring some abnormal harvest failure years in for many years to come. the I69OS) is the hardest evidence we have that The problems of organizing the burgeoning agricultural productivity really was rising more material which now has to be incorporated into a rapidly than population growth in the seventeenth textbook are always frustrating. Dr Clay opted for a century, in the absence of any production statistics. sectoral plan with chronological sub-divisions within A chapter called 'The authorities and the economy' each chapter. This makes for clarity within each then discusses the making of economic and social subject (agriculture, population, industry, etc.) but policy and highlights the government's anxieties over 204 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW the 'balance of trade', strategic supplies and shipping, farming at the end of the Middle Ages, and the nature maintaining law and order within a traditional social of peasant society and the pressures on it. He then framework still emerging from feudal hierarchies, and proceeds to discuss the growing commercialization of combating poverty and unemployment, as agriculture agriculture and the role of landlords and yeomen in the and industry became more commercialized and vanguard of change. This is followed by a discussion of dependent on market fluctuations. Till almost the end the differential pressures on the peasants in mixed of the period there was nagging anxiety about farming and pastoral districts, which usefully draws maintaining the food supply in a situation in which on Margaret Spufford's studies of contrasting harvests could (and did) fail, and in which imports of Cambridgeshire villages, showing that small hus- food were difficult, and sometimes impossible, to bandmen could survive much more easily in pastoral come by. It was this underlying fear which explains so and woodland districts, when common grazing was much of the agrarian legislation against engrossing, plentiful, than in arable districts enclosing for pasture, and free food markets, which The next chapter, called 'The achievement of otherwise seems somewhat perverse; as well as the English agriculture' is the heart of Volume I, where the reluctance to see people leave what was regarded as the constraints on productivity, which were powerful, secure safety of traditional agriculture for the vagaries have to be balanced against the undoubted gains which of industrial production for distant, unknown and arose from the reclamation of new land (especially the unpredictable markets. The famous Act of Settlement, fertile East Anglian fens in the 165os), the introduction passed as late as i662, which attempted to restrict of new crops like turnips, clovers and sainfoin, either freedom of migration was ostensibly about preventing via enclosure, or by reorganization of open-field migrants from falling on the poor rates of their new systems, the increased use of manures arising from parishes, but one wonders whether it was not also expanded flocks and herds and the widespread use of partly inspired by that ancient anxiety. lime, and the increasing efficiency which arose from The book ends with a chapter on the financing of the more specialized and commercialized farming and government which students will find very helpful in market gardening. In the final analysis Dr Clay threading their way through the maze of Tudor and proceeds cautiously. He is sceptical as to how Stuart taxation and public finance. In this section Dr widespread many of the new innovations really were, Clay is able to draw on his own expertise resulting and he notes that the continuous rise of food prices from his study of Sir Stephen Fox, that wizard of late above the general level of 6~ation before 165o indicates Stuart financial manipulation who managed to amass that agriculture was still struggling to feed the growing an immense fortune as Paymaster General in the 166os population. His final judgement on the sixteenth and I67os by lending other people's money to the century is that 'tile English economy was characterized government which was supposed to be employing by windfall profits for commercial farming, restricted him! A fair amount of the fog which surrounds royal development ill other branches of the economy, and finance in this period is blown away by Dr Clay's lucid impoverishnlent of the masses' (p. 14o). treatment of this notoriously difficult subject. However about the seventeenth century he is much To return now to farming, which remained the heart more optimistic, noting the relative abundance of the of the early modern economy. Here Dr Clay was 162OS, and the steadily improving situation after the confronted with a difficult problem, for despite the Civil Wars of the 164os. Finally he grasps the nettle and burgeoning and highly competent literature which has attempts all assessment of the extent of agricultural illuminated agricultural history since the I95OS, there achievement over tile whole period. First he makes a is still controversy and doubt at the core of the subject. courageous estimate that reclamation of fens, moors On the one hand a considerable amount of evidence, and tbrests cannot have increased the cultivated area by trenchantly summarized by Eric Kerridge in his book more than about twenty-five per cent. He then notes The Agricultural Revolution, suggests that from at least that the population rose from under two and a half the mid-sixteenth century agriculture was making millions to just over five millions (or about I20 per bold and important advances, so that by I7oo it was cent) over the period; so that only a small proportion of already effectively transformed; while on the other we the needed extra food could have come from the newly have the nagging doubts, derived from the reclaimed land. Improved production on the old lands eighteenth-century improvers, and lucidly sum- must have provided the bulk; and finally, taking a marized by Gordon Mingay, that despite much modest increase in yields into account, and assuming ':i creditable innovation in the late seventeenth century, something like a doubling of livestock numbers, he really significant agricultural change did not com- estimates that total agricultural production must have mence till after I7oo, and possibly not till after I75O. risen by about two and a half times between 150o and ii In a world without reliable production statistics, it is I7O0 -- not a spectacular leap, but a very creditable indeed a conundrum. Dr Clay lets himself into the performance nevertheless. water gently, commencing with a section describing Unfortunately restrictions of space forbid further ii[: BOOK REVIEWS 205 discussion of many other interesting topics in this of a meaningful chronology when the narrative, book, particularly the formidable rise in the number of inevitably, is constructed from a wide and exhaustive gentry -- something like a fourfold increase between range of sources. A time frame appropriate to the study 15oo and I64O, and the social and economic of one industry may be inappropriate to the study of implications which followed. another. Finally, the tables, figures and maps are all clearly Dr Shaw is at his best when discussing the relative and attractively designed, but the absence of a take-up of steam power (chapter 29). He demonstrates concluding chapter should be remedied in any new the continued development of water power technol- edition. Yet, even though the two volumes together ogy and the emergence of energy saving in the form of are not cheap, they are thoroughly good value for the turbine. He discusses reasons for the retention of money. water power by sectors in certain regions and its MICHAEL HAVINDEN displacement by steam power in others, explained in part by the nature of urban markets and the availability of coal. He contends that whilein relative terms the use JOHN SHAW, Water Power in Scotland ~55o-187o. John of water power declined, in absolute terms 'the Donald, Edinburgh, 1984. 6o6 pp. £25. amount of power derived from water continued to This book contains the fruits of a solid, detailed, piece grow until at least the middle of the nineteenth century' of research that had its origins in a doctoral thesis. No (P 544). The end of the age of water power came about, other part of Britain has been studied in such detail to we are told 'not so much on account of any inherent produce a chronological account of the many uses of weakness', though surely there were limitations, as water power. The author comments that the 'through changes in the scale of industrial units, in employment of water power in the early stages of the work patterns, population distributions and economic Industrial Revolution is well known. It has, of course, goals' (p 544)- so far, defied quantification and thus any study which There is an admirable glossary to conduct the reader uncovers new data from which a more accurate through milling terminology and the confusing assessment of the diffusion of new industrial pathways of the Scottish legal system. There is a very techniques can be made is to be welcomed. Dr Shaw full bibliography and a model index. This will be a advances the rationale for his study by reference to 'a useful work of reference but it lacks interpretation. view of the Industrial Revolution as a relatively late, JENNIFER TANN primarily urban phenomenon' in which the import- ance of steam power has been over-emphasized while T M DEVINE(ed), Farm Servants and Labour in Lowland that of water power minimized or even written off Scotland, 177o---1914. John Donald, Edinburgh, (p xi). It is difficult to conceive where such a dated view I984. ix + 262 pp. illus. £16. of the Industrial Revolution and the role of motive The theme common to most of the thirteen articles in power within it can still be current. this plump volume is the survival through the The aim of the book, we are told, is to establish the nineteenth century of antique forms of labour spatial and chronological development of the water conjoined with technical modernization. The picture mill in Scotland and to relate this to technological drawn, if sometimes inadvertently, is the spatial innovations, the impact on the landscape, the rise of continuity of labour institutions in Great Britain, with steam power and the overall evolution of the Scottish annual or semi-annual labour contracts strengthened, economy. Water Power in Scotland... is profusely if anything, by rapid industrialization. Those more illustrated by clear maps showing the distribution of familiar with farm service in England will be struck by mills according to usage but apart from showing, for the range of Scottish variants, where six- to instance, that fulling mills in the period 155o-I73O twelve-month contracts could involve either un- were mainly to be found along rivers flowing to the married men and women (and then either living in the east coast, in the Central Lowlands and the Southern farmhouse or general out-buildings or in purpose- Uplands (with not one river marked); or that there built bothies, or barracks), or married men living in were few paper mills in the same period, a small cluster tied cottages (with or without the requirement to being found near Edinburgh (Edinburgh is not supply bondagers, women workers, to the employing located) and a mere six others widely dispersed, the farmer). Again though, the continuity of the latter maps are of limited value. In short no features form across the border into Northumberland is whatever are marked on the general distribution maps striking. beside the type of mill in question. Moreover the maps This variety of forms, however, was not a repertoire are rarely referred to in the text and litde comparison is of institutions available to any lowland farmer. made of the distribution of one kind of mill as Location mattered. Four of the articles tackle compared with another. regionalization directly, with diverse results. The best, It is difficult too, on occasion to obtain an overview by Malcolm Gray on the north-east, is a craftsmanlike 206 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW survey both of change over time and of the It will be useful both for students of Scottish nineteenth-century rural economy as static concept. economic and social history and of agricultural labour Alastair Orr, faced with the more daunting task of to have available in one volume such a concentration of dealing with the most institutionally diverse region essays, many of them good, on the important topic. (the Forth Valley and south-east lowlands contained The penalties of having so many writing self- the counties least and most dominated by farm consciously on the same time, same place, and servants, by his own account, and the median county), common topic is a certain repetitiveness, a loss of a undermined his own purpose, if that purpose was sense of dynamic within the x44 years of the title, regional perspective, by framing the article as an attack despite the best intentions of the editor in his own on Hobsbawm and Rud~'s argument for southern contributions. England, especially since the region's agricultural star ANN KUSSMAUL was East Lothian, with the smallest number of farm servants relative to other forms of hired labour. Eight essays follow, on specific aspects of the rural ELEANORand REX C RUSSELL,Making New Landscapes in lowlands. Three stand out. The first is the editor's Lincolnshire: The Enclosures of Thirty Fore'Parishesin contribution on female employment, intrinsically Mid Lindsey. Lincolnshire History Series No. 5, interesting given the very high participation of women Lincolnshire Recreational Services, County Lib- in Scottish agriculture. Second, Ian Levitt and rary Department, Lincoln, I983. 127 pp. Maps. £5. Christopher Smout took on the apparently most This volume is clearly a sequel to the same authors' limited topic, the 1843 Poor Law survey, but produced I982 book about thirty-seven parish enclosures in from its wide cross-sectional view the volume's most South Humberside, that is, in North Lindsey. In perceptive analysis and regional commentary. Third, content and typographical presentation the two fan Carter supplied an entertaining polenqic on the volumes are practically identical. The important folly of framing questions about unmarried farm difference is that this latest volume is the study of servants (in this case, the unsuccessful unionization of thirty-four different parishes in the mid part of farm servants in Aberdeenshire) in terms more Lindsey. Many of the rcmarks I made in my review of appropriate to proletarianization. I am however their first book arc equally appropriate to this one (in surprised that the work ofJ P D Dunbabin was not the Review for I983, pp 73-4). discussed; his focus may have rested south of the Mid-Lindsey, by the Russells' definition, is 35~ border, but the problem addressed was otherwise square miles in extent. Of the m9 parishes it contains, identical. fifty-one were enclosed privately and eleven by a Among tile rest are articles on grain harvesting by combination of private and parliamentary means. William Howatson (good for its technical detail, and Forty-six were enclosed by parliamentary acts and commendable for its interest in the local linkages of thirty-four of these are closely studied in this volume. agricuhurc); country tradesmen (mostly traded The earliest was the enclosure of open arable fields at things) by Gavin Sprott; the housing of agricultural Binbrook on the chalk wolds in W37-47, and the last workers, with many cottage designs and one set of the enclosure of the open arable and conamon pasture at plans for bothies by Alexander Fcnton; and, the third Corringham and Spri,agthorpc in the Trent valley good paper of the editor, agricultural labour in the from I848-52. The I77Os arc the best represented agricultural depression, another instance of tile decade in the volume with nine enclosures, which is a Z politically unfortunate rule that not all classes, or all perfect reflection of the local (Lincolnshire) chrono- regions, are equally hard hit by depressions. logical history of parliamentary enclosure. Finally, the production as a whole is generally good, After opening summary chapters about the region in except for a fewinappropriatctitles to maps and figures question, on enclosure procedures, and on the detailed (eg p 3I, where a map of Scotland, complete with enclosure of Fulstow parish, there follows the analysis Shetland and Orkney insets, is labelled 'the Scottish of the thirty-tour enclosures in some depth, accompa- lowlands') and undefined terms ('location coefficients' nied by detailed reconstructions of the pro- and appear, without explanation, in the midst of an post-enclosure landscape and landownership patterns. otherwise simple recital of demographic material in These reconstructions have bccn the hallmark of Rex R H Campbell's interesting but overlong essay on the Russell's work over the years, and the same high south-west). Typographic errors arc happily uncom- quality and detail is present in this volume. The region mon; 'folksy' appears, unhappily only once, for was dominated by a two-field open-field system, with 'folksay' in David Buchan's article on expressive at least half of the parishes under this arrangement on culture. Intrusive categorization is here substituted for tile eve of enclosure. The so-called 'classic three-field the historical analysis of a wonderful topic, and readers system' of far too many textbooks is hardly cvidcnt at closer to Watford than Falkirk should be warned that all. The cnclosures were also concerned with large they are gi'en nae help wi' the folksay itself. areas of conmaon pasture, meadows, commons and i I: [!t:!ii J/ BOOK REVIEWS 207 other commonable places. For one example, the open group consists of houses with cross-passages, six fields of Corringham in I84o, the Russells not only having an internal cross-passage and four a chimney reconstruct the furlongs within the open fields but also backing onto a cross-passage, though there are two the individual strips within the furlongs of three of the houses with lobby-entrance. Most of the surviving landholders. The fifty-five acres occupied by one were houses in the parish appear to have been built in the scattered in I I I different strips or lands, and the Io5 sixteenth or seventeenth centuries whereas those in the acres of another were scattered in t62 lands. How did nearby Long Load parish, previously surveyed, are a such open field arrangements manage to survive to the century later. All the houses have stone walls and most late 184os? This book raises such intriguing questions. include some form of jointed cruck construction Like its predecessor on South Humberside, this though using elm as much as oak. volume was published through the offices of the local As well as houses, the farm buildings and minor authority Recreational/Leisure Service, and this industrial buildings related to the conversion of flax indicates the intended readership -- adult education into material for sailcloth have been included in the students, local and anaateur historians, and school survey. There are threshing barns of five bays or more projects. These readers will not be disappointed, but on three farmsteads in Middle Chinnock and one in professional scholars will also iliad much in this West Chinnock but other farm buildings appear to be volume, and at £5 it must be one of the bargains of the of fairly recent date. age. The study is brief but packed full of useful MICHAEL TURNER information, well set out, well illustrated and well-analysed. The team has been fortunate in that it included John Penoyre whose orthographic drawings SOMERSET AND SOUTH AVON VERNACULAR BUILDING are both clear and full of the character of each building. RESEARCH GROUP, Somerset Villages, the Vernacular There are no photographs but the perspective sketches Buildi,gs of West a,d Middle Chimlock. Published by again show the skill of Mr Penoyre in conveying to the the Group at the Somerset Rural Life Museum, reader so nmch more about the vitality o leach building Abbey Farm, Chilkwell Street, Glastonbury, than a photograph can possibly do. There are many Somerset, 1984.64 pp. 9 maps. 6 tables. 6 diagrams, maps, diagrams and tables, and here again the skill of many plans and sketches. £3.75 + £o.7o p & p. the illustrator makes it so much easier to follow the This is a study of the buildings of West Chinnock and argument than is possible in the hard typography and Middle Chinnock, located between Yeovil and over-precise graphics usually to be seen in such work. Crewkernc, Somerset, formerly two parishes but It is to be hoped that the Group will produce many since the late nineteenth century amalgamated as West more surveys of this quality. Chinnock parish. Middle Chinnock is a small village of R W BRUNSKILL a few large farms and some cottages while the larger West Chinnock has many farms of various sizes. The survey begins with a brief study of the NESTA EVANS, The East At(qlian Linen Industry: Rural development of the two villages as recorded in Industr), and Local Economy Uoo-185o. Gower, Domesday Book; estate surveys of 1459, I589, 165i; I985. viii + t78 pp. 5 maps. £I8.5o. detailed leases of about 173o; and in the Tithe Nesta Evans' work provides a welcome addition to the Apportionment of 1839. It appears that in the early stock of knowledge on the structure of the pre- nineteenth century approximately equal amounts of industrial East Anglian economy. The explicit aim of farm land were under the plough and in grass, the the book is to enhance our understanding of the arable land being on the slopes and the grass land in economic history of Suffolk and Norfolk through an meadows and pasture in the valley bottoms. The examination of the important but neglected role of its importancc of sheep on the light soil and the benefit of linen industry. The long history of the industry in this flax in the rotation of crops are brought out. The region has occasionally been hinted at, but typically preliminary material concludes with an analysis of the overlooked by historians. Paucity of data combined 1841 census records and a diagram showing a peak of with the overwhelming dominance of the East population between 185i and 186i, there being rather Anglian woollen and worsted industries provide the fewer inhabitants in i9ot than in 180I. explanation for this omission. The balance has now The survey of houses includes 22 examples built been restored by Nesta Evans, who, through a before about 1850, ranging in size from manor house to meticulous and critical study of probate records and cottage and representing rather less thar' half of those other local sources, has ably recorded the development existing at that time for 26 of the houses n,arked on the of the linen trade from I5oo, through its expansionary Tithe Map have since been demolished, kl122 houses period between 1600 and t 730 to its final demise in the have at least a sketch plan and brief description and mid nineteenth century. A chapter on the cultivation there are full drawings often houses. The largest single and preparation of hemp precedes the main body of the iII?]1' i! 208 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW work which comprises a convincing reconstruction of Dairying was conducted on a small scale, with few the industry and its dynamic relationship with the local holdings above twenty acres and many below five. economy. The smaller holdings could only be sustained by While the book is structurally sound and well income from the spinning and weaving of wool which written, it is confined to a descriptive and chronologi- came to occupy over half the region's population by cal account of the industry's fortunes. This is a pity, as 18oo. the value of the work, though substantial, could have What distinguished the Ban de Herve from many been raised by a modicum of analytical content. The other concentrations of rural industry and from empirical substance of Nesta Evans' work could neighbouring areas in eastern Belgium was its land usefully have been placed within the context of any of a market. Most of the land was owned locally, number of current debates and will no doubt be used by individually, and in small denominations. Moreover, others for that purpose. For instance, while the author the land market appears to have been quite active illustrates the widespread existence of the linen during the eighteenth century: over fifty sales per year industry before the nineteenth century, and outlines its in an area of only io, ooo acres and with I5oo-25oo role in the local economy, little is said directly about the proprietors. nature of agricultural change and its relationship to the Paul Servais has investigated this world of petty development of rural industry. Neither the structure proprietors through the rich archives of the region's of the family economy nor the question of regional notaries. He has examined some 5o,ooo transactions competition and industrial location receive much involving not only sales of land but, more generally, attention though the author's findings could well the creation, transfer, and redemption ofrentes, which contribute to our perception of these aspects of were annual charges on property. Land was often economic history. That the author touches on these heavily encumbered by such charges, which con- topics while subjecting them to little scrutiny will be a stituted an important element in the local market for major source of frustration to the reader with wider credit. interests. Meticulous analysis of the documents allows Servais The author's reluctance to be drawn into the to discern the principal contexts in which rentes were protoindustrial debate despite the very clear relevance created. Sales and partitions of property accounted for of her work to it and similar questions is not necessarily roughly two-fifths of the value of all creations (and for I a serious shortcoming, but she should at least have many transfers of existing rentes). In these contexts i indicated an awareness of the trend of current thinking. rentes often served either to provide pensions for the old i While the direction of recent discussions on the nature or widowed, or to help maintain the integrity of of the transition to modern industry may not interest already very small holdings. Another fifteen per cent the author (and she would be in respectable company if of creations refinanced older obligations as interest they did not), I see it as a major flaw that she does not rates fell from the I73os. Various other uses ofrentes show an appreciation of the wider context within were identifiable, but minor. The documents were less which her work deserves to be placed. This book will forthcoming about a large residual, over forty per cent no doubt receive wa:ranted attention from historians of creations, though Servais is able to rule out any of all kinds, and be subjected to theinterpretive skills of direct connection between these and land purchases. those of greater analytical persuasion. Servais makes extensive use of graphical and This illuminating book, therefore, fulfils the correlation analysis to investigate the relationships author's desire to place the East Anglian linen industry over the century among types of transactions and on the map. It could, however, have done much more. between them and several economic indicators. The KATRINAHONEYMAN results, with one major exception, are negative. The different sorts of transactions do not seem to have been systematically related to each other. Nor did they PAUL SERVAIS, La Rente Constitu6e darts le Ban de move closely in step with local prices of butter, cattle, Herve au XVIIIe Si~cle. Cr6dit Communale de or land (all of these series are new and useful Belgique, Collection Histoire, no 62, I982. xxx contributions to price history). + 39o pp. 75o FB. The economic indicator that was closely related to The Ban de Herve lies on a rolling plateau of clay soil all types of transactions was an annual series for the east of Liege and provides another example of the production of woollen cloth at Verviers. This series coincidence of pastoral agriculture and domestic (drawn from the work ofLe Brun) is neither discussed textile production in the seventeenth and eighteenth in detail nor reproduced, which is somewhat centuries. Grass occupied up to ninety per cent of the surprising in a book with I28 tables and I02 graphs! land on some farms, a degree of specialization Indeed, the treatment of domestic industry is rather permitted by ready markets for the region's butter and sparse. The statistical results are not followed up by a cheese in Liege, Verviers, and other nearby towns. closer look at the data in order to draw out the ways in (!: BOOK REVIEWS 209 which variations in textile demand produced transac- could never preside effectively over scores of tiny tions in the credit market. disputes, or, as was shown in the I923 strike, exploit Another aspect of the local economy which receives such experiences to cement plebeian solidarity. Too surprisingly little attention is demographic change. many farm labourers continued to look nervously over One wonders how changes in mortality and fertility the gate, and well they might; even if their own would have affected the need for rentes. The data neighbours did not scab, blacklegs were repeatedly suggest that relative to a growing population, brought in by farmers' federations from outside. transactions involving rentes may have been becoming Lethal victimization of militant locals invariably less common in the late eighteenth century. Were the followed. Even when organized labour seemed to be circumstances that called for recourse to a rente getting the upper hand, the forces of the state changing, or were other instruments replacing it? mobilized behind capital. There are many superb Readers interested in this case of rural industry may photographs reproduced here; none is more evocative find Servais' article in Annales ESC (XXXVII, I982, than the one on the cover; a team driven in the field, pp 3o3-I 9) a more concise and forceful statement of his flanked by two uniformed police officers. views. Here the analysis of the book is extended to Unfortunately, this is an amateurish and confused some neighbouring areas and carried forward into the book. The narrative chapters are crippled by an early nineteenth century, when the decline of domestic apparent inability to present a straightforward, industry in the Ban de Herve reversed some of the logically-arranged history. Analytical clarity is trends of the previous century. equally elusive. Exactly who comprised Howkins's PETER M SOLAR 'respectable working class' and who were 'marginal- ized to a rough group' is not revealed; did that 'solidarity (which) led part of the village at least to see ALUN HOWKINS, Poor Labouritkq Men: Rural Radicalism the representatives of the law as the enemy' draw on in Norfolk 187o-1923. History Workshop, both roughs and respectables? Who made the best Routledge & Kegan Paul, I985. xiv + 225 pp. 20 union rank and file, and were scabs exclusive to either plates. £7-95 (paper). group ? Non-union politics are not explored systemati- 'What we areleft with, in terms of the (existing) history cally. Certainly, the Liberal grandees tried to harvest of the rural poor', writes Alun Howkins, by way of farmworkers' votes through supporting the Eastern introduction, 'are a number of beacons, standing Counties Labourers' and Small Holders' Union. above the surrounding darkness, lighting a small area Socialist and Labour Party activists tried to exploit with no obvious route from one to the other'. Modern rural conflict, and through it and the agricultural historians have certainly not done justice to the recent workers' unions, take their ideologies to the villages. history of agrarian labour. 'What is lacking', continues But, after halfa century of struggle, and major political Howkins, 'is both a general "labour" history of the change (including the franchise and party structures), nineteenth-century countryside and specific studies of Howkins eschews any consideration ofthelevel, or the the different groups within the rural poor'. He selects nature, of rural class consciousness. His 'own demand' that bastion of English agrarian capitalism, Norfolk, for a history of'one group' of rural plebeians does not which hosted fierce struggles between labour and materialize, because readers cannot learn which group capital. Through the extensive utilization of oral that really is. evidence, Howkins's route traces 'rural radicalism' ROGER WELLS between the trade unionist campaigns of the 187os and the Norfolk strike of I922-3 to provide 'a detailed study of one group within rural society over a period of PAUL BAIROCH and BOUDA ETEMAD, Structureparproduits change'. Only one of Howkins's 'radical' phases is not des exportations du Tiers-Monde, 183o-1937. Univer- concerned with trade union developments, namely the sit~ de Gdn~ve, Geneva, I985.2oi pp. Unpriced. in~portance of nonconformity as a vehicle for some In this study, Bouda Etemad under the general plebeian independence in the later nineteenth century. direction of Paul Bairoch, has assembled statistics for According to one oral witness, '"When you the exports of the so-called 'Third World', using worked on a farm like, there was always one or two three-year averages of the figures for I829-3I, people what was unemployed looking over the gate I859-6I, I899-I9oI, I9II-I3, I927-9, and I936-8. where you worked" '. And, here lay the rub. Rural Using these six estimates as bench-marks, he then depopulation, and other economic fhctors, simply proceeds to calculate the pace of expansion, and other failed to terminate competition for jobs. Certainly, features of Third World exports over these years. there were scores of parochial struggles--- notably at Certainly this work is an advance on J R Hanson's harvest time -- in which farmworkers succeeded in lamentable study, Trade in Transition (New York, prising ephemeral wage rises from even the most 198o), which only covers the period 184o-I9oo, and so obdurate, autocratic village despots. But the unions misses the rapid expansion of exports which took place 'i~:[i 210 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW between I9oo and the First World War. By including what more to the general reader than to the specialist, it I927--9 and 1936-8, the authors obtain a further takes issue with current policies towards farming, and I, dimension relating to the expansion of the I92os, and makes a strong plea that they should be changed. The the subsequent contraction of the I93 os. Thus they are authors' case is easily summarized; from the interwar able to conclude 'During the century from r 83o--I929, period, and especially after I945, policy has developed the value of Third World exports increased by a factor in directions which are irrational, far too expensive, of 3o-- versus 24 for Europe. This was a very rapid and environmentally damaging. The themes are thus expansion and all the more so, since it occurred in those found in more compressed form in Bowers' societies that remained in most respects traditional.' recent article in this journal (1985, part I). Yet this optimistic finding is modified by recurrent The authors have assembled a good deal of material references to colonization, which is implicitly held in support of this aim. The central chapters are those on responsible for this export expansion, as if it were in the improved economic position of the farming sector some way bad. Colonization is said to have reduced since the I93OS, the environmental effects of regional specialization, because crops grown in one agricultural expansion (which includes a micro-study part of the Third World, like rubber or cocoa, came to of an area of West Berkshire as well as national be grown in other parts. It is said to have 'extraverted' evidence), and the level of support which farming the economies of Latin America, turning them into receives under the present system. As the authors export economies despite their small populations, and rightly point out, the development of protection for it is also supposed to have led to de-industrialization in British agriculture has been a long-run affair (it may be Asia, as British cottons ousted cottons from India, said to have started with the sugar-beet subsidy of making her less an exporter of manufactures, and more I925), and was already at a substantial level before an exporter of raw materials. The increase in exports entry into the EEC in i973. In this context, the from Black Africa from the 188os is also stated to have adoption of the Common Agricultural Policy been due to colonization. The problem with all this involved no change in principle, although it did anti-colonialism is that it is quite irrelevant to the involve a rise in the overall level of support. analysis of the trade figures. Much of the expansion Within their own terms of reference, which are to would have taken place with or without colonization. demonstrate the expense, the environmentally A classic example is independent Thailand, whose damaging effects, and the irrationality of policy, the exports of rice increased rapidly in these years, authors present a strong case. The expense is parallelling the growth of rice exports from British demonstrated in a useful review of the sources of Burma, and French Indo-China. In all three cases it was support, from which it appears that the total cost of i the capitalistic enterprise of the peasants in response to support in I979 was between £2. 9 billion and £3.7 an expanding world market, which secured the rise in billion, or roughly about £ I o, ooo per farmer. It is a pity exports, not the intervention of a colonial authority. that no calculations are made for later dates, since by Because this study deals in huge aggregates, and vast now the costs have presumably grown even higher. generalizations, it does not help us understand the The damage to the environment is not so easy to process of trade expansion at all, or the people who demonstrate on an overall basis, although there is made it happen. If you believe that the l)eveloped much evidence of a scattered nature which the authors World colonized the Third World and extracted from deploy to good effect, in particular, the increase of it goods to consume at an ever-increasing rate, whilst tillage and the substantial decline in hedgerows -- a destroying its industries, you will accept this book, as process by no means confined to East Anglia, as even a it will confirm your beliefs, and save you having to casual journey through central or southern England make the effort of understanding how trade expanded will reveal. Since this is highly visible evidence, public so rapidly. But there may be some who think that this reaction to such processes has already begun to make book merely reeks of self-reinforcing intellectual itself felt, as the passing of the Wildlife and prejudice, and that it extends our comprehension Countryside Acts demonstrates. hardly at all. They will have to look elsewhere for The attempt to prove the irrationality of policy is less explanatiol~! successful, or rather, the attempt succeeds within its A J H LATHAM own limited terms very well, but this does nothing to advance the authors' cause. In economic terms, which are the ones used here, such policies are clearly J K BOWERS and PAUL CHESHIRE, Agriculture, tile irrational. What could be more irrational than to Countryside and Land Use: An Economic Critique. subsidize farmers in one country to produce /i! Methuen, I983. xii + I7O pp. £4.95 (paperback commodities which could have been supplied more only). cheaply from abroad? The absurdity is compounded This book is an avowedly polemical work; written by when the commodities cannot find a market, and il professional economists, although addressed some- butter mountains and milk lakes ensue. But to q, BOOK REVIEWS 211 complain along these lines is to fail to appreciate that, in Cornell, he met Dorothy Straight in New York in economic terms, all subsidies (and other forms of I92o; she was 33 and he was 27. Five years later the protection) are essentially irrational, and derive their American press announced the marriage of'ONE OF existence from essentially political decisions, in which THE WORLD'S WEALTHIEST WOMEN' to the a variety of considerations may be taken into account. 'SON OF AN ENGLISH CLERGYMAN'. At the It is indeed this failure to appreciate the political same time Dorothy agreed to come to England to use elements in agricultural policy that is the weakest point her wealth, estimated at about $40 million, to carry out in the book; the authors sometimes write as if they an 'English experiment' which essentially consisted of believe policy was dictated by a cabal consisting of the trying to put into practice the following five rather Ministry of Agriculture, the National Farmers' nai've beliefs: Union, and the agricultural supply industries. Mankind can be liberated through education; To say this is not to deny that the authors have a A new flowering of the arts can transform a society strong case, and their policy recommendations flow impoverished by industrialization and seculariza- clearly from it. The main suggestion is that support tion; levels should be generally reduced (although they do A society which combines the best of town and not say by how much). Apart from this, relative cereal country combines the best of both worlds; prices should be reduced, and capital grants (eg, for drainage schemes) reduced or abolished. Finally, A pervasive concern for the individual human being environmental damage should be reduced by an and his right to self-determination can be combined extension of the system of management agreements with the efficient operation of agriculture and already in existence under the Wildlife and Country- industry; side Acts. In view of the present trend of public The scientific spirit can be a continuous spur to opinion, it seems likely that at least some of their progress. recommendations will be put into effect; the Following the same road as other utopian imposition of milk quotas in ~984 may be the start of a communities, the nucleus was to be a school allied to a much larger process of reform. farm, a workshop and other activities. But Elmhirst PETER DEWEY expected to do 'better than the old utopias by putting his faith in the methods of science' (p Ioo). The first problem was to choose a site. Elmhirst told the estate MICHAEL YOUNG, The Elmhirsts of Dartington: the agents that the place 'must be beautiful, we're starting a creation of an utopian community. Routledge & school. We expect to make farming pay, it must have a Kegan Paul, I982. x + 38I pp. 38 plates. £I5. reasonably productive soil and climate, and as much Of recent years, Dartington has been in tile news, what variety as possible, woods, forest, orchards, etc and if with Michael Straight who in After a long silence you can give me all those, then historical associations revealed belatedly something of the Cambridge spy thrown in'. Where else could such an estate be found ring of the t93os, the protracted affair of the last school but in Devon. The second property Elmhirst saw was headmaster and his wife featured in the popular press the 'ancient and historic demesne' of the Champer- and the unexplained death of a girl pupil at the school nownes, Dartington Hall. Ruined though it was, while bathing nude in the Dart. Much of this publicity Elmhirst saw the possibilities it presented and so a new has focused on the school, expensive and private. But large element was added to the English experiment-- Dartington is not just a school, it is a whole range of the restoration of ancient buildings. Since Dorothy, enterprises and activities whose origins and fortunes when she arrived from the USA, approved- 'too are traced in this book written by a former pupil at the heavenly' was her comment-- a start was made on the school, now Lord Young of Dartington. Essentially it English experiment. The house and other buildings tells the story ofa Yorkshireman, Leonard Elmhirst, were restored, the estate was put into good shape, the who after an unhappy education at Repton and school got underway and other enterprises were set in Cambridge, sonic time in India and Mesopotamia and train. a brief period in 1918 in the army as a sergeant in the But all did not go smoothly. In a perceptive passage, army education service in Dubli,1, went to Cornell to Michael Young lists four failings of this project. First, study agriculture, saved from a more conventional there was a poor choice of executives. Then, Elmhirst Engish career as a civil servant by what Michael Yotmg found it difficult to devolve authority; there were describes as 'his lack of talent' (p 3 I). While in America continual problems when the Elmhirsts returned from he met Rabindranath Tagore, a meeting which was to their frequent absences and wished to reverse decisions have a permanent influence on him and led. to Elmhirst made while they were away and behind Leonard stood deciding to go to India to work with Tagore. There he Dorothy -- whose name should be £1mhirst, said one became director of the Institute of Rural Reconstruc- critic-- who held the purse strings. Thirdly, Elmhirst tion at Sriniketan. In an attempt to raise money for had a poor notion of the appropriate rural industries to 212 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW develop. Fortunately for economic historians brought Conference of Agricultural Economists from I93o to up to believe in the economies of scale, Elmhirst's view I958 -- were of wider significance. Together with that 'small was beautiful' did not work in practice and George Hayter Haynes, Elmhirst established a cattle he found that efficiency and experiment were breeding centre at Dartington and pioneered artificial incompatible objectives. So Eve spinning was replaced insemination in the I93os. Then the work of Wilfrid by modern high-speed machinery in the textile mill, Hiley, who was in charge of the woodlands, influenced Staverton Builders became one of the largest building the outlook of the Royal Forestry Society for England firms in south-west England, the pottery failed, and Wales and so made an impact on the government cider-making grew beyond the local market and was statement on Post-war Forestry : a report onforest policy of sold, and the woodlands, much too small to be I944. The activities in the arts set an example to other economically viable, were hived off to a specialist towns and villages. More recently, a new area of business. Leonard's fourth failing was lack of influence has been established in north Devon with a application; he had little staying power and in cultural centre at Beaford and a glass works at Great particular his enthusiasm for the arts soon evaporated. Torrington. The Dartington Institute endeavours to With a facade of consultation and democracy, encourage new activities in the south-west and the decisions were often made abruptly and autocratically. Bank- though this is also probably too small -- Choosing to go their own way, the Elmhirsts quickly provides aid for small firms. The school, the College of ranged the local gentry, the clergy and the local farmers Art and Music and the Centre for Further Education against them. Elmhirst immediately upset things make their contribution both locally and more widely. when he decided to pay his farm workers the minimum But it is here that doubts creep in. The hopes for wage of32s 6d a week when local wages were much education have not been realized. While some below. Just before Elmhirst arrived at Dartington, the educational changes, like coeducation, have become wages on the Dartington farm were x5s a week. The accepted, Dartington has ceased to pioneer and, in Dartington stables were one of the first to have Michael Young's words, has moved nearer to the windows for the horses to look out of since he believed standard secondary school. Dartington's impact on the view improved their tempers! the arts is now less remarkable. Artists have passed In other respects Elmhirst's vision conflicted with through rather than settled and the quartet has been his practice. While he decried 'the pop-it-in-there' disbanded. Then, to the resolution of urban-rural practice common in the 192os and I93os, the buildings problems, Dartington has offered no solution. at Dartington were popped in all over the place and in Moreover, in the school, as elsewhere, the reality of all sorts of styles as if picked haphazardly from an power and wealth at Dartington have always been in architectural supermarket. And the workers' houses, conflict with the right to self-determination. Darting- built as examples of how cheap rural housing could be, ton was an experiment which showed what consider- were regarded as mean. Washbasins were omitted able wealth could do but in spite of its aspirations was from the bathrooms, for example, to save costs and the essentially authoritarian and filitist. 'Leonard never approach roads were noc surfaced. 'In the I92os the entirely stopped being the squire, Dorothy never Elmhirsts aroused hostility outside the estate; in the entirely gave up being the grand lady'. I93os they did so inside it', Michael Young notes (p And now the founders are dead-- Dorothy in I968 239). and Leonard in I974-- some of the spirit has gone out To provide for the future, the Dartington Hall Trust of the place. But the old shortcomings are still was established and so a continuance of the English apparent. Dartington is still not signed on the road out experiment was assured. With the war, animosities from Totnes, the restaurant at the new shopping centre lessened and after the war the involvement of the is run by Cranks, the last headmaster at the school was Elmhirsts slackened. In the conclusion of this long and appointed because although he lacked relevant unbalanced book which at times verges on hagiog- experience he was an energizer-- and so it proved -- raphy, Michael Young attempts to draw up a balance and when the Torrington glass works moved into sheet-- what Leonard Elmhirst would have called an profit and wanted to expand, Maurice Ash, a recent assessment of the positive and negative results-- of the chairman of the Trustees, fought hard to keep the English experiment. The successes were the resto- number of employees down to I75, arguing that if the ration of the estate, the creation of the garden, called by concern grew larger, the man packing the glass would Edward Hyams, 'The most modern of the great no longer know the man who made it. Ash himself gardens', the provision of jobs and the establishment plans when he retires in ~986 to found a smaller of a positive centre of activity in the depressed Dartington of spirituality with a vineyard running countryside of the I93OS, at a time when others were down to the Dart and experiments in cheese-making. selling up and going elsewhere. Though not markedly In terms of the title of this book, Dartington was successful himself, Leonard Elmhirst's agricultural never a community nor wasit utopian. Yet over timeit interests -- he was president of the International has provided employment both directly and indirectly SHORTER NOTICES 213 for many hundreds of people and has not, though the which a modern society should operate. reasons for this are obscure, forfeited the loyalty of WALTER MINCHINTON many who still cherish some ideals about the way in Shorter Notices EMCCRACKEN and D MCCRACKEN, A Register of Treesfor knowledge of the history, the craft or the customs County Londonderry, 1768-1911. Public Record associated with cidermaking. But it does contain a Office of Northern Ireland, Belfast. I984. x + 8o useful list ofcidermakers, a list of some of the places pp. 2 maps; I8 plates. £5.5o. where cider can be drunk and a number of recipes Deforestation of natural woodland caused a shortage involving cider. This is a brief popular book; a serious of timber in Ireland which was severe enough by the study of the history of cider is still awaited. late seventeenth century for Government action to be Slighter is Philippa Legg, Cidermaking its Somerset taken. Acts of Parliament to encourage planting and (Glastonbury: Somerset Rural Life Museum, I984, conservation of trees started in I698, and by I71O 32pp. 85p.) which tells very briefly the history of tenants were required to plant nursery stock, not cidermaking in the past with some Somerset examples saplings rooted out of hedges and woods. Initially and illustrations. But there is no discussion of the these Acts were ineffective because tenants, who recent history of the industry, dominated by Taunton managed most of the land, benefited little from the Cider and Coates -- nor a bibliography. A poor yield planting, but in I765 a new Act was passed enabling a from the research project which led to this publication. tenant to benefit from his planting, provided he had At both the local level and the national the cider registered his plantation with the Clerk of the Peace for industry awaits its historian. the county. This initiated a wave of planting which WALTER MINCHINTON peaked in the 182os and fell away rapidly after I84O. Between I79I and I84I the area of plantations in Co Londonderry increased threefold. Conifers formed a D NEAVE, (ed), Winteringham, 165o--176o: Life and Work majority of planting from I8 IO onwards. Larch, Scots its a North Lincolnshire Village Illustrated by Probate Pine and Norway Spruce were the nineteenth-century hwentories (copies from D Burton, Westlands, favourites, but now, when 96 per cent of all state Meggitt Lane, Winteringham, Scunthorpe, S plantings are coniferous, Sitka Spruce and Pimls Humberside). I984. vi + I57 pp. illus. £5. contorta form 70 per cent of all plantings. S NEEDHAM, A Glossary for East Yorkstsire and North These changcs are ably summarized in a fiftccn page Lincolnshire Probate hlventories. University of Hull, introduction, but the bulk of the book is a transcription Department of Adult Education, I984. 22 pp. of the planting register for Co Londondcrry. For each £I.5o. registration we see who did the planting, the locality, The Winteringham study is a good example of the the list oftrcc species planted with thc number ofcach, excellent work being produced by Adult Education and the source refercncc. Appcndiccs give a location classes up and down the country. It is based upon a index of plantings; notcs on somc of thc spccics study of the surviving probate inventories of a planted; and a sunanaary of modern state forestry in tightly-knit group of farmers and tradesmen, but it Northern lrcland. The text is illustrated by black- also includes an analysis of parish registers and and-white photographs. manorial records, including a detailed survey and plan Coming in an era ofconccrn for thc appearance of of I719. Winteringham was a decayed market centre the countryside and for the national stock oftrccs and on the banks of the Humber, with a population of woodlands, this is a useful and attractive presentation 280- 35 ° in the late seventeenth century. The farmers about an earlier period of concern and action. concentrated upon rearing fat cattle and had adapted G F PETERKEN their open fields to this purpose long before the enclosure act of 176I. A number of late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth-century houses survive, six with DAVID MABEY, Good Cider. Whittet Books Ltd, I984, datestones, to provide solid evidence to go with the I43 pp. £7.95. analysis of rooms in the inventories. The first 62 pages As sales of cider have grown, rising from 46 million of the text contains a careful and welMllustrated gallons in I978 to an estimated 70 million gallons in account of the information to be derived from I983, so the production of books about cider has documentary and visual sources, followed by grown. In both cases, the predominant appeal is to the transcripts of the Io9 inventories and a glossary. popular market. This short book adds nothing to our Sue Needham's glossary explains the meaning of 214 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW words derived from several hundred East Riding and its toll of the legibility of the maps. Nevertheless, north Lincolnshire inventories appraised between uneven and open to criticism though it may be, this !i x536 and I748 and is a useful addition to the growing study provides one more piece for the jigsaw of our number of regional glossaries. In it the reader will find knowledge of enclosure. explanations of belly pooce, dornyx, dyntill, isson J CHAPMAN glasse and many other archaic words. DAVID HEY B ENGLISH, Yorkshire Enclosure Awards. University of Hull, Department of Adult Education, Studies in P LYTH (ed), Farms and Fields ofSouthwelh a Study of Regional and Local History, 5 0985). xiv + I84pp. Enclosures. University of Nottingham, Centre for map. £3.5o. Local History, I984. IO8 pp. I I maps. 3 plates. The compilation of lists of basic data about enclosure is £I.5o. a slow and tedious business and students of the This series of essays by the Southwell WEA Local movement are indebted to Barbara English for her History Group follows in the footsteps of several efforts in producing this survey of Yorkshireawards. similar works in other areas which have been It represents an extension of her now out-of-print West instrumental in gradually building up our knowledge Riding list to the other two Ridings, and expands upon of the enclosure process at local level. It covers each of the bare bones of the Tate lists for these counties. It the five formal enclosures which occurred within includes many formally enrolled agreements as well as Southwell between I774 and I844, together with an Parliamentary awards, but omits some acts where no account of the agricultural organisation of the area award appears to have been made. The lists include before enclosure. Each contributor has obviously been information on the type and amount of land enclosed, allowed to develop the account as he or she thought fit, and also the names of the commissioners and so the contents of the chapters, and their interest to the surveyors. This last is a welcome feature, though it non-local reader, are very variable. Some, such as the may occasionally be a trap for the unwary, for chapter on Normanton, consist largely of a summariz- commissioners of the same name are not always clearly ing and listing of the award, whereas others range distinguished. Thus though Thomas Scott and more widely, exploiting additional material. The Thomas Scott junior both appear in the Index of Z account of George Hodgkinson's new farm gives an Commissioners, it is not made clear that this is an indcx interesting insight into the costs and methods of of the name recorded, rather than an index of developing the land after enclosure, and there are many individuals. The two Scotts acted five and six times other titbits of information, such as the calculations on respectively, not nine and one as might be assumed. the layout of an individual's new plots. Perhaps the most valuable piece of information is the As Rex Russell points out in his foreword, the work up-to-date detail of the whereabouts of all known is not without its controversial and dubious state- copies of the award and map. For many researchers, ments. It would be interesting to know, for example, the ability to locate immediately the nearest copy will why it is assumed that allottees sold up because they be of considerable help. were unable to pay fencing costs, when the list The work is not without its errors and omissions. provided appears to indicate that almost two-thirds of For example, Thomas Scott senior is not recorded those involved were gentry, clergymen or business- under Kirkdale, though he replaced Edward Cleaver men, who were surely not short of the necessary £~ I or on the latter's death. In general, however, this is a so. There are also technical problems, for the use of useful addition to the slowly-growing store of stencils as a means of reproducing the work has taken enclosure data. J CHAPMAN 2i :.3 L 21_5 Letters to the Editor 28 April 1985 of the land drainage activities and plans of Water Dear Sir, Authorities and I know of no plans of the kind It is apparent from the content and style of his described by Mr Bowers. Indeed the recent cuts in paper on British Agricultural Policy since the Second drainage expenditure imposed by the Minister of World War (Vol 33, Part I, pp 66-76) that MrJ K Agriculture Fisheries and Food will result in a Bowers is an enthusiastic subscriber to the con- significant reduction in the already modest plans of spiracy theory of history. Indeed at one point he Water Authorities. I hope therefore that your readers declares that criticism of the policy was reduced will not be misled into accepting Mr Bowers' because 'everybody with the knowledge of the assessment of the relationship between agriculture details was likely, one way or another to be part of and the countryside. In this context, it would the system'. The implication of his paper is that perhaps have been helpful if the 'Notes on Contribu- successive Ministers of Agriculture and Chancellors tors' had contained a reference to Mr Bowers' close of the Exchequer of successive Govermnents of links with tile conservation movement. differing political ideologies, together with their Yours faithfully, supporters, senior civil servants and agricultural A F Longworth economists were all part of a gigantic and continuing CBE, BSc plot to featherbed the farmer (to use a famous phrase Howicks from the era) at the expense of the taxpayer. The Nonnington Lane further implication is that this policy was not only Grafflaam misguided but that those involved deliberately set Petworth out to deceive the taxpayer. Mr Bowers refers to W Sussex new arguments being 'introduced' or 'found' to GU28 oPX justify the continuation of price support policies; thus implying that the Government had other reasons for their actions. His paper would then have I2 June I985 been more balanced if he had considered the Dear Editor, possibility that the policies were indeed right and I do not subscribe to a conspiracy theory of thus fully justified at the time. As a result of this agricultural policy formation nor am I a conspirator failure, i fear that his paper does not meet the high in something called the Conservation Movement. standard of objectivity which members of our The sources for the information and views in the Society expect in their journal. latter part of my paper are to be found in the This unbalanced interpretation of recent history footnoted references. The question of standards is, of would perhaps not matter too much if it were not for course, a matter for you and your referees. the open attack on present day farming contained in Yours sincerely, the closing paragraphs of the paper. Not only is this J K Bowers attack misplaced in a historical study of this kind, it is, in a number of respects, misleading or worse, School of Economic Studies inaccurate. The misleading statements can be identi- University of Leeds fied by phrases such as 'There has clearly been . . . Leeds, LS2 9JT but this still awaits documentation' or 'It could indeed be said . . . '. The inaccuracy is to be found in his statement that 'Existing plans by Water Authorities will, if carried through, eliminate vir- Members will note the Society does not accept responsi- tually all tile wetland grazing marsh in England and bility for the opinions expressed by contributors, and that Wales'. I can claim to have considerable knowledge this is indicated on the rear cover of the Review. | 216 !L i:! I i CAMBRID GE -- The Agrarian History of England F! ! and Wales Volume V, 1640-1750 / Part 1: Regional Farming Systems; Part II: Agrarian Change Edited by JOAN THIRSK f The first detailed study of English and Welsh agriculture and agricultural change in this period, written by nineteen scholars who have used extensively original archives in local record offices, as well as central records. Part I £35.00 net Part II £55.00 net Science and Civilisation in China Volume VI: Biology and Biological Technology JOSEPH NEEDHAM Part II: Agriculture FRANCESCA BRAY Francesca Bray, working closely with Joseph Needham, and drawing on her own first-hand research in China, has produced the most comprehensive study of Chinese agriculture to be published in the West. 'The portrayal of Chinese agriculture requires the broad brush of generality and the miniaturist's stroke of critical detail. This monumental and important book has both in full measure.' Nature £50.00 net i' Prehistoric Farming in Europe GRAEME BARKER Graelne Barker draws upon his own extensive knowledge of European archaeology to produce an account of prehistoric farming in Europe on a unique scale. He uses modern archaeological techniques to reconstruct the lives of prehistoric farmers in remarkable detail. Not only do we now have a vivid picture of the prehistoric farmyard, but we know what animals were kept, how they were fed and why they were bred. Hard covers £27.50 net New Studies in Archaeology Paperback £9.95 net Neolithic Europe: A Survey ALASDAIR WHITTLE Neolithic Europe is a wide-ranging, thematic survey of the archaeological evidence for the period 8000-2000 BC. The last hunting and food collecting societies of Europe are discussed, but the book's main coverage is the Neolithic period when agriculture was adopted as the dominant force in European society. Hard covers £27.50 net New Studies in Archaeology Paperback £9.95 net ::!i -=:;i Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 2RU, England /i Somerset Villages, the VernacularBuildings of West and Middle Chinnock, by the Somerset and South Avon Vernacular Building Research Group R W BRUNSKILL 207 The East Anglian Linen Industry: Rural Industry and Local Economy I5oo-185o, by Nesta Evans KATRINA HONEYMAN 207 La Rente Constitu& clans le Ban de Herve au XVIIIe Si&le, 7 by Paul Servais PETER M SOLAR 208 Poor Labouring Men: Rural Radicalism in Norfolk 187o-1923, by Alun Howkins ROGER WELLS 209 Structure par produits des exportations du Tiers-Monde, 183o-1937, by Paul Bairoch and Bouda Etemad A J H LATHAM 209 Agriculture, the Countryside and Land Use: An Economic L Critique, byJ K Bowers and Paul Cheshire PETER DEWEY 210 The Ehnhirsts of Dartington: the creation ofan utopian community, by Michael Young WALTER MINCHINTON 211 Shorter Notices 213 Notes on Contributors 197 Notes and Comments I3I, 146 Letters to the Editor 215 THE BRITISH AGRICULTURAL HISTORY SOCIETY Articles and correspondence relating to editorial matter for the Agricultural History Review, and books for review, should be sent to Dr J A Chartres, Editor, Agricultural History Revietu, School of Economic Studies, The University, Leeds LS2 9JT. 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Correspondence on advertising should be sent to Dr R Perren, Department of Economic History, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen An9 2TY. ~r~ ; The British Agricultural History Society PRESIDENT: JOAN THIRSK EDITOR: J A CHARTRES TREASURER: E J T COLLINS SECRETARY: M OVERTON Executive Committee: CHAIRMAN: M A HAVINDEN D A Baker G E Mingay 2 J H Bettey R Perren D Byford A D M PhilliPs W H Chaloner P Roebuck H S A Fox WJ Rowe I D G Hey F M L Thompson D W Howell M .E Turner W E Minchinton *1 The Society aims at encouraging the study of the history of every aspect of the countryside by holding conferences and courses and by publishing The I .fI- Agricultural History Review. Membership is open to all who are interested in the subject and the subscription is £5 due on I February in each year. Details may be obtained from the Treasurer. The Agricultural History Review EDITOR: J A CHARTRES ~Ar SCHOOL OF ECONOMIC STUDIES, THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS LEEDS, WEST YORKSHIRE, LS2 9JT The Review is published twice yearly by The British Agricultural History Society and issued to all members. Single copies may be purchased from the Treasurer for £4. Back numbers to Vol 20 (1972) are £1.5o per issue, except for the Supplement to Vol 18 (I97O), Land, Church, and People, which is £2. Contributions and letters on any aspects of the history of agriculture and rural society and economy should be sent to the Editor. Articles should not normally exceed 8000 words in length, but, very exceptionally, manuscripts of up to 15,000 words can be considered. Proposals for Supplements, of length intermediate between the long article and the book, normally not exceeding 30,000 words, should also be sent to the Editor. Intending contributors are advised first to obtain a copy of the Review's 'Notes for Authors and Reviewers' from the Editor. 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