FARMING IN OLDEN TIMES. 9 



own requirements. Under the manorial system crops of 

 three or four fold the seed x might and did suffice, the 

 object being not to grow for a market (which, indeed, 

 scarcely existed), but only to feed the resident popu- 

 lation. But from an economic point of view, such results 

 for the labour expended were obviously unremunerative. 

 The social revolution of the Black Death practically 

 synchronised with the beginning of a general impulse 

 towards the exploitation of the land on a commercial 

 basis. Unfortunately for the social welfare, two causes 

 combined to direct the movement in a direction which was 

 disastrous to the countryside. These were the scarcity 

 of labour — caused by the sudden death of an enormous 

 proportion of the tillers of the soil — and the demand for 

 English wool. 



Wool was the chief source of the wealth of the traders and 

 of the revenues of the Crown. It controlled the foreign policy 

 of England, supplied the sinews of our wars, built and adorned 

 our churches and private houses. The foreign trade con- 

 sisted partly in raw material, partly in semi-manufactured 

 exports such as worsted yarns, partly in wholly manufactured 

 broadcloth. ... In long-wool, or combing wool, England 

 had practically a monopoly of the markets, and to it the export 

 trade of the raw material was almost exclusively confined. 

 Short wool, on the other hand, was used for broadcloth. . . . 

 In the long-woolled class Cotswold wool held the supremacy, 

 with Cirencester as its centre, though the " lustres " of Lincoln- 

 shire always commanded their price. Among short- wools 

 Ryeland had the pre-eminence, with Leominster as the centre 

 of its trade. 2 



When, therefore, farming for profit, as distinguished 

 from farming for subsistence, began, it was natural that 

 landowners should turn to sheep. And, as in those 

 days, long before the turnip was introduced, sheep meant 

 pasture, the old arable common fields were in many 

 cases inclosed and turned to grass, and the busy com- 

 munities subsisting upon them were replaced by a few 



1 " History of Agriculture and Prices," Vol. I., p. 51. 



2 " English Farming, Past and Present," pp. 80, 81. 



