Notes

Outline

The success of the OFS. Population densities highest where the manorial/OFS was most extensive. Northern France, Northern Italy. Population growth in Eastern Europe the result of migration.

Results of population growth. Clearing the waste. Colonizing Eastern Europe. The Crusades as a frontier movement.

Thirteenth century: looming crisis. Frontier movement ceases, population growth continues. General increase in land rents. Increase in relative prices of cereals. Some shift from pasture to cultivation. Diminishing returns and declining real wage.

Thirteenth century: response. Feudal obligations transformed into money rents in many places by 11th century. Money rents seen as fixed: origin of the word “farm.” A farmer (fermier) held a right to rents that were fixed or firm (ferme). Why return to feudal obligations?

Why refeudalization? Lords dig in their heels. Fixed rents allows peasants to capture the gains from increasing land rents. Return to demesne avoids renegotiation costs. Proto-enclosure. A move toward specialized production?

The calamitous fourteenth century.

The calamitous fourteenth century.

Malthusian crisis. Famine. War. The Black Death. Bubonic plague, 1348-51 Recurred many times through 15th century. Population didn’t stop falling until mid 15th century, and did not recover until 16th century.

Economic effects of population decline. Price fluctuations, with general deflation after 1375. Prices of agricultural goods fall relative to manufactured goods. Real wages increase. Rents decline, as does cultivation of marginal lands.

Institutional effects of population decline. Transformation of servile obligations into property rights. Competition for peasant labor leads to attractive rental contracts. Rents fixed — renegotiated on death of peasant. Eventually, life leases become hereditary by custom. Inflation reduces value of “quit rent” to nominal sum. Hereditary leases become rights in fee simple. Soil tilled by free tenants and wage workers. Trading rights for revenue.

Institutional transformation. Like the 13th century, the 16th century was a period of rising population and increasing land rents. But this time Europe responded with an institutional innovation that led to continual increases in productivity.

The enclosure movement. Physical enclosure. Legal enclosure. Voluntary enclosure. Parliamentary enclosure.

The timing of English enclosure.

Transaction costs of enclosure. Voluntary enclosure. Required unanimity, side-payments. Complex property law geared to protect hereditary estates from profligate descendants. Enclosures with highest net benefits take place first. Parliamentary enclosure. Case-by-case exemption from common law. Majority not unanimity. A form of eminent domain. Not important until mid-18th century. “Hardest” enclosures Parliamentary.

The benefits of enclosure. Benefits of specialization and trade. Greater appropriability of innovation. Reduced costs of collective decision-making.

The benefits of enclosure. Enclosed land rented for twice common-field land. £2.1 million per year gain in productivity, about 1.5% of national income or about 3.5% of agricultural income. Rate of return of 17% per year. An average village 13% more productive.

Institutional transformation. Like the 13th century, the 16th century was a period of rising population and increasing land rents. But this time Europe responded with an institutional innovation that led to continual increases in productivity.