10 THE PEASANTS REVOLT OF 1381. 
reasons the lord of the manor in many cases found it inconvenient 
or unprofitable to cultivate his demesne through a bailiff, and so 
was induced to let it to a tenant at a given rent, payable either 
in money or in kind. Although this made little direct change in 
the manorial system, it had the indirect effect of breaking the 
tie on which the feudal organisation rested—that of personal 
dependence of the tenant on his lord. In this way, the wealthier 
tenants could rise to apparent equality with their former masters. 
This modification of the manorial system by the rise of a farmer 
class was soon followed by the appearance of the free labourer. 
Early in the reign of Edward II. we find the practice of accepting 
money compensations in lieu of labour rents becoming general, 
and by the end of the reign it had become almost universal. This 
was to the interest of both parties, for it would be vexatious to 
the tenant to be called away from the work of his own holding to 
do the lord’s labour, the bailiff would have no little trouble in 
getting a due quota of work from the tenant, and, if the lord could 
get fair money compensation for labour, he could save the expense 
of a bailiffs supervision over unwilling labourers. Nothing, 
perhaps, had a greater effect in freeing labour from local bondage 
than the great increase of population. Between the Conquest and 
the opening of the fourteenth century the population had probably 
tripled, and we shall see the effect of this on serfdom when we 
consider that under the law of gavel-kind, applicable to all estates 
not held by military tenure, the inheritances of the tenantry were 
divided equally among their sons, and the services due on account 
of the holdings were divided correspondingly. Services thus 
divided up would naturally be difficult to enforce. This and the 
luxury and pomp of the time, and the excessive cost of endless 
campaigns, made the lord anxious to accept money payment in 
lieu of personal service. 
Naturally, the appearance of this new class—that of the Free 
Labourers—caused a modification in the whole social system of 
the country, and this change was accepted apparently with willing- 
ness by all until circumstances arose which rendered labour 
scarce and consequently dear. That which had most effect in 
