Agriculture and Rural Society after the Black Death

Offering a broad perspective on agrarian problems such as depopulation and social conflict, this collection of essays on agriculture and rural society in the late Middle Ages follows the period of the Black Death. With illustrative material from local and regional research showing how general problems were worked out in specific contexts, the contributors supply detailed studies from regional British contexts relating to the use of the land, the movement...
More Description

Offering a broad perspective on agrarian problems such as depopulation and social conflict, this collection of essays on agriculture and rural society in the late Middle Ages follows the period of the Black Death. With illustrative material from local and regional research showing how general problems were worked out in specific contexts, the contributors supply detailed studies from regional British contexts relating to the use of the land, the movement of prices, the distribution of property, the organization of trade, and the cohesion of a village society. This study also features new research on several aspects of regional development in medieval England and other European countries: Robert Swanson discusses how the collection of tithes to maintain local clergy in the medieval Church contributed to the commercialization of trade in grain and other agricultural products, while Peter Larson shows how villagers became increasingly prone to violence in the generations following the Black Death.