Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T03:44:09.876Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

English Agrarian Labor Productivity Rates Before the Black Death: A Case Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 March 2004

EONA KARAKACILI
EONA KARAKACILI
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Social Science, Social Science Centre, Room 4328, London, Ontario, Canada N6A5C2. E-mail: Eona@uwo.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It is often suggested that an agricultural revolution, currently defined as a rise in the output of arable workers, was a necessary precursor to industrialization and improved living standards. This article provides the first direct measurement of arable workers' average labor productivity for pre-industrial England. Rates are assessed for those production conditions that it is thought resulted in the lowest agrarian labor productivity rates in the pre-industrial period: c.1300–1348. The rates for English workers before the Black Death either surpassed or met the literature's best estimates for English workers until 1800, well after industrialization was underway.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , March 2004 , pp. 24 - 60
Copyright
© 2004 The Economic History Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Primary Sources

Account Rolls in the Public Records Office:741/20; 767/12; 767/13; 767/17; 767/19; 768/30; 768/31; 768/32; 768/35; 882/13; 882/18; 882/19; 885/11; 885/14; 885/18; 885/30.
Account Rolls in the British Museum: 34870; 34881; 34885; 39798; 39803; 39805; 39809; 39894; 39895; 39897; 39898.
1893 Cartularium Monasterii De Rameseia. Vols. 1, 2, and 3. London: Her Majesty's Stationary House
1946 Elton Manorial Records, 1279–1351. Edited by S. C. Ratcliff and translated by D. M. Gregory. Cambridge: Roxburghe Club
1976 Manorial Records of Cuxham, Oxfordshire: Circa 1200–1349. Edited and translated by P. D. A. Harvey. London: H. M. Stationary Office
1936 Robert Loder's Farm Accounts, 1610–1620. Edited by G. E. Fussel. Camden Third Series, Vol. 53. London: Offices of the Society
1971 Walter of Henley and Other Treatises on Estate Management and Accounting. Edited and translated by Dorothea Oschinsky. Oxford: Clarendon Press

Secondary Sources

Afton Bethanie, and Turner Michael. 2000 “Agrarian Occupations.” In The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Vol. 7, Part 2, 1850–1950, edited by E. J. Collins, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1955–92
Allen Robert C. 2001 “The Great Divergence in European Wages and Prices from the Middle Ages to the First World War.” Explorations in Economic History 38, no. 4: 411–47Google Scholar
Allen Robert C. 1994 “Agriculture During the Agricultural Revolution.” In The Economic History of Britain Since 1700, Vol. 1, 1700–1860, edited by R. Floud and D. McCloskey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Allen Robert C. 1991 “Labour Productivity and Farm Size in English Agriculture before Mechanization: Reply to Clark.” Explorations in Economic History 28, no. 4: 478–92Google Scholar
Allen Robert C. 1988 “The Growth of Labour Productivity in Early Modern English Agriculture.” Explorations in Economic History 25, no. 2: 117–46Google Scholar
Bennett H. S. 1960 Life on the English Manor: A Study of Peasant Conditions, 1150–1400. Cambridge: At the University Press
Berry R. Albert, and William Cline R. 1979 Agrarian Structure and Productivity in Developing Countries. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press
Biddick Kathleen, with C. J. H. Bijleveld. 1991 “Agrarian Productivity on the Estates of the Bishopric of Winchester in the Early Thirteenth Century: A Managerial Perspective.” In Land, Labour and Productivity: Historical Studies in European Agricultural Productivity, edited by B. M. S. Campbell and Mark Overton, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 95– 123.
Bidwell Percy Wells, and John I. Falconer. 1925 History of Agriculture in the United States, 1620–1860. Washington: Carnegie Institute of Washington
Boserup Ester. 1965 The Conditions of Agricultural Growth. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co.
Britnell Richard H. 2001 “Specialization of Work in England, 1100–1300.” Economic History Review 54, no. 1: 1– 16Google Scholar
Britnell Richard H. 1995 “Commercialization and Economic Development in England, 1000–1300.” In A Commercializing Economy: England 1086 to c.1300, edited by R. Britnell andB. M. S. Campbell, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 7–26
Buck John Lossing. 1937 Land Utilization in China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Buck John Lossing. 1937 Land Utilization in China: Statistical Supplement. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Campbell Bruce M. S. 2000 English Seigniorial Agriculture, 1250–1450. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Campbell Bruce M. S. 1983 “Arable Productivity in Medieval England: Some Evidence from Eastern Norfolk.” Economic History Review 36: 26– 46Google Scholar
Campbell Bruce M. S. 1983 “Agricultural Progress in Medieval England: Some Evidence from Norfolk” This Journal 43, no. 2: 379– 404Google Scholar
Campbell Bruce M. S. 2002 “The Uses and Exploitation of Human Power From the Thirteenth to the Eighteenth Century.” Working Paper, Queen's University Belfast
Campbell Bruce M. S., and Bartley K. Lay Lordship, Land and Wealth: A Socioeconomic Atlas of England, 1300–49. Manchester: Manchester University Press, forthcoming.
Campbell Bruce M. S., and Overton Mark. 1991 “A New Perspective on Medieval and Early Modern Agriculture: Six Centuries of Norfolk Farming c.250–c.850.” Past and Present 141: 38–105Google Scholar
Clark Colin, and Haswell Margaret. 1964 The Economics of Subsistence Agriculture. New York: St. Martin's Press
Clark Gregory. 1991 “Labour Productivity in English Agriculture, 1300–1860.” In Land, Labour and Livestock: Historical Studies in European Agricultural Development, edited by B. M. S. Campbell, and Mark Overton, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 211–35
Clark Gregory. 1991 “Labour Productivity and Farm Size in English Agriculture Before Mechanization: A Note.” Explorations in Economic History 28, no. 2: 248–57Google Scholar
Collins E. J. T. 2000 “Rural and Agricultural Change.” In The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Vol. 7, Part 1, 1850–1914, edited by E. J. T. Collins, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 72– 223.
Collins E. J. T. 1969 “Sickle to Combine: A Review of Harvest Techniques From 1800 to the Present Day.” Reading: Museum of English Rural Life
Collins E. J. T. 1966 “Historical Farm Records.” Archives 7: 143–49Google Scholar
Dahlman Carl. 1980 The Open Fields and Beyond: A Property Rights Analysis of an Economic Institution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Eder James F. 1977 “Agricultural Intensification and the Returns to Labour in the Philippine Swidden System.” Pacific Viewpoint 18: 1– 21Google Scholar
Farmer David. “The Famuli in the latter Middle Ages.” In Progress and Problems in Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Edward Miller, edited by R. Britnell andJ. Hatcher, 1996 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 207–36
Farmer David. 1988 “Statistical Appendix.” In The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Vol. 2, 1042–1350. edited by H. E. Hallam, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 779–91
Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. 1951 Yearbook of Food and Agricultural Statistics: Production, Vol. 5., Part 1, 1951. Economics Division: FAO
Fox Harold. 1996 “Exploitation of the Landless by Lords and Tenants in Early Medieval England.” In Medieval Society and the Manor Court, edited by Z. Razi and R. Smith, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 518–68
Gourou Pierre. 1980 The Tropical World. 5th ed. Translated by S. H. Beaver. Longman: London and New York
Grantham George. 1993 “Divisions of Labour: Agricultural Productivity and Occupational Specialization in Pre-Industrial France.” Economic History Review 46: 478– 502Google Scholar
Hall David. 1995 The Open Fields of Northamptonshire. The Publications of Northamptonshire Record Society, Vol. 38. Northampton: Northamptonshire Record Society
Hallam H. E. 1988 “Population Movements in England, 1086–1350.” In Agrarian History of England and Wales, Vol. 2: 1042–1350. edited by H. E. Hallam, London: Cambridge University Press, 508–93
Hallam H. E. 1988 “Population and Landholding.” In Agrarian History of England and Wales, Vol. 2: 1042–1350. edited by H. E. Hallam, London: Cambridge University Press, 966– 1006
Harvey P. D. A. 1976 “Introduction.” In Manorial Records of Cuxham, Oxfordshire: Circa 1200–1349, edited and translated by P. D. A. Harvey, London: H. M. Stationary Office, 1– 83
Harvey P. D. A. 1973 “The English Inflation of 1180–1220.” Past and Present 61: 3– 30Google Scholar
Hatcher John, and Bailey Mark. 2001 Modelling the Middle Ages: The History and Theory of England's Economic Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Hogan Mary Patricia. 1988 “Clays, Culturae and the Cultivator's Wisdom: Management Efficiency at Fourteenth-Century Wistow.” Agricultural History Review 36, no. 2: 117–32Google Scholar
Holderness E. A. 1989 “Prices, Productivity and Output.” In the Agrarian History of England and Wales, Vol. 6, 1750–1850, edited by G. E. Mingay, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 84– 189
Hoskins K., and Maeve Richard. 1994 “Writing, Examining, Disciplining: the Genesis of Accounting's Modern Power.” In Accounting as Social and Institutional Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Hunt Robert C. 2000 “Land Productivity and Agricultural Development: Boserup Revisited.” Human Ecology 28: 251–77Google Scholar
Jones Andrew. 1978 “Harvest Customs and Labourers, Perquisites in Southern England, 1150– 1350: The Hay Harvest.” Agricultural History Review 26, 2: 98– 107Google Scholar
Jones Andrew. 1977 “Harvest Customs and Labourers, Perquisites in Southern England, 1150–1350: The Corn Harvest.” Agricultural History Review 25, 1: 12– 22Google Scholar
Karakacili Eona. 2001 “Peasants, Productivity and Profit in the Open Fields in England: A Study of Economic and Social Development.” University of Toronto: Ph.D. Thesis
Kosminsky E. A. 1956 Studies in the Agrarian History of England in the Thirteenth Century. edited by R. H. Hilton and translated by Ruth Kisch. New York: Kelly and Millman
Kuznets Simon. 1965 “Present Underdeveloped Countries and Past Growth Patterns.” In Economic Growth and Structure: Selected Essays, New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 176–93
Langdon John. 1986 Horses, Oxen, and Technological Innovation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Lindert Peter H. 1983 “English Living Standards, Population Growth, and Wrigley-Schofield.” Explorations in Economic History 20: 131–55Google Scholar
Livi-Bacci Massimo. 1997 A Concise History of World Population. 2nd ed. Translated by Carl Ipsen. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers
Mate Mavis. 1985 “Medieval Agrarian Practices: The Determining Factors?” Agricultural History Review 33: 22– 31Google Scholar
McCloskey D. 1991 “The Prudent Peasant: New Findings on the Open Fields.” This Journal 51, no. 2: 343– 55Google Scholar
Miller Edward. 1973 “Farming of Manors and Direct Management.” Economic History Review 26, no. 1: 138–40Google Scholar
Oschinsky Dorothea. 1971 Walter of Henley and Other Treatises on Estate Management and Accounting. Edited and Translated by Dorothea Oschinsky. Oxford: Clarendon Press
Parker William N., and Klein Judith L. V. 1966 “Productivity Growth in Grain Production in the United States, 1840–60 and 1900–10.” In Output, Employment, and Productivity in the United States After 1800, New York: National Bureau of Economic Research, 523–80
Persson Karl Gunnar. 1988 Pre-Industrial Economic Growth: Social Organization and Technological Progress in England. Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd
Poovey Mary, and Miller Peter. 1992 “Accounting and Objectivity: The Invention of Calculating Selves and Calculable Spaces.” Annals of Scholarships 9: 61– 86Google Scholar
Postan M. M. 1966 “England.” In The Cambridge Economic History. Vol. 1. 2nd ed., edited by M. M. Postan, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 549– 632
Postan M. M. 1954 The Famulus: The Estate Labourer in the XIIth and XIIIth Centuries. London: Cambridge University Press
Raftis J. Ambrose. 1996 Peasant Economic Development Within the English Manorial System. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press
Raftis J. Ambrose. 1957 The Estates of Ramsey Abbey: A Study in Economic Growth and Organization. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies
Rikoon J. Sanford. 1988 Threshing in the Midwest, 1820–1940: A Study of a Traditional Culture and Technological Change. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press
Rogers James E. Thorold. 1866 A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Vol. 1, 1259–1400. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press
Rogin Leo. 1931 The Introduction of Farm Machinery in Its Relation to the Productivity of Labor in the Agriculture of the United States During the Nineteenth Century. Berkeley: University of California Press
Russell J. C. 1966 “The Pre-Plague Population of England.” Journal of British Studies 5: 1– 21Google Scholar
Sen S. R. 1954 “The Problems of Population and Agricultural Productivity in India.” In Proceedings of the World Population Conference, 1954. New York: United Nations
Slicher Van Bath B. H. 1963 The Agrarian History of Western Europe, AD 500–1850. London: Arnold
Smith Richard M. 1991 “Demographic Developments in Rural England, 1300–1348: A Survey.” In Before the Black Death: Studies in the “Crisis” of the Early Fourteenth Century, edited by B. M. S. Campbell, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 25– 77.
Thorton Christopher. 1991 “The Determinants of Land Productivity on the Bishop of Winchester's demesne of Rimpton, 1208 to 1403.” In Land, Labour, and Livestock, edited by B. M. S. Campbell andM. Overton, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 183– 210
Timmer Peter C. 1969 “The Turnip, The New Husbandry, and the English Agricultural Revolution.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 83: 375–95Google Scholar
Titow J. Z. 1972 Winchester Yields: A Study in Medieval Agricultural Productivity. Cambridge: At the University Press
Turner M. E., J. V. Beckett, and B. Afton. 2001 Farm Production in England, 1700–1914. Oxford: Oxford University Press
United States Department of Labor, Commissioner of Labor. 1898 Thirteenth Annual Report: Hand and Machine Labor. 2 Vols. Washington, DC: GPO
Wrigley E. A. 1991 “Energy Availability and Agricultural Productivity.” In Land, Labour and Livestock: Historical Studies in European Agricultural Development. edited by B. M. S. Campbell, and Mark Overton, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 323–39
Wrigley E. A. 1988 Continuity, Chance and Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Wrigley E. A., and Schofield R. S. 1981 The Population History of England, 1541–1827. London: Edward Arnold