4 - Institutional change, 1500–1850

Summary

Changes in the institutional context under which farming was carried out are important for their impact on output and productivity, but they are also of great significance in their own right because they are concerned with the structure and organisation of agricultural production and with the lives of those working on the land. The bulk of this chapter is taken up with landholding and social relationships in the countryside. This involves considering changes in the ways in which land was held; particularly the establishment of leasehold as the almost universal form of tenure by the nineteenth century, and the elimination of most common rights. These two processes were often, but not necessarily, associated with the process of enclosure. Enclosure also influenced the process of social differentiation; that is changes in the relative size and importance of different social groups, particularly in their relation to the holding of land. In a nutshell, by 1850 most of the land of England was farmed by tenant farmers under conditions of private property, renting their farms for a period of years from landlords, and employing landless labourers to work on their farms. But before considering how these conditions evolved, the chapter begins with a survey of the main developments in the marketing of agricultural produce between the sixteenth century and the nineteenth century.

The market

A market is a place that provides a forum for the meeting of buyers and sellers who exchange commodities for money.