38 THE GREAT PLAGUE AND ITS RESULTS II 



and Sir John Fastolf who, having made a substantial 

 fortune, would find in the low-priced land a safe and an 

 improving investment as well as that social and political 

 position which land was beginning to give. 



Thus, to sum up our conchisions, the chief changes during 

 the fifteenth century so far as we are concerned were 



1. The rapid though not complete extinction of villeinage 

 by blood. 



2. The reduction in the number of villeins by tenure. 



3. The advance of the process of commutation of labour 

 services and the change of villein tenure into copyhold. 



4. The substitution in many cases of copyholds for lives, 

 and leases for lives, for copyholds of inheritance. 



5. The increase in the number of freeholders, for the 

 most part successful men of business who purchased lands 

 thrown into the market by the political and other circum- 

 stances of the times, and therefore the dispersion of some 

 of the larger estates. 



