22 MEDIEVAL AGRICULTURE. 



Maldon. The sale of timber was announced to the public 

 of the neighbouring towns by a crier. (See ii. 610. i.) This 

 official also cried stolen cattle. (612. i.) 



The rate of profit on agricultural operations, taken in the 

 aggregate, and carried on under the management of a bailing 

 was, I conclude, exceedingly low ; so low, indeed, as to 

 make it certain that even a slight change in the circum- 

 stances which surrounded the earlier system of agriculture 

 would wholly alter its method, and ultimately bring about a 

 complete revolution in the social condition of the great mass 

 of the community, immediately or speedily after the new set 

 of circumstances was recognized. The change took place in 

 the middle of the fourteenth century, and among the earliest 

 to take advantage of the altered circumstances, and adapt 

 their policy to what constituted the immediate interest of the 

 society, were the warden and scholars of Merton's College. 



The founder of this society, in establishing so singular a 

 novelty as a college or corporation of wholly secular students, 

 upon whom there was laid no condition of entering into 

 holy orders, and who were to be if so facto deprived of his 

 benefaction if they took the vows of any among the mo- 

 nastic bodies, seems to have had many purposes before him. 

 He wished, among other objects, to make his warden an 

 active as well as a wealthy and dignified official, and yet, 

 by giving the fellows a virtual jurisdiction over any misbe- 

 haviour or negligence on his part, to render him perpetually 

 responsible. He wished his fellows to be students in the 

 fullest sense of the word, and yet appointed so many officers 

 in his society, that every one who enjoyed his benefaction 

 would be called upon to go through a considerable amount 

 of real business. The estates belonging to the society were 

 widely scattered, and were visited periodically. The most 

 minute and varied examination of income and expenses was 

 taken, and the debtor and creditor account, as far as possible , 



c I say as far as possible, for the use of Roman numerals was a serious hindrance 

 to accuracy in striking a balance. The extreme slowness with which the decimal or 



