BEFORE AND AFTER THE PLAGUE. 6j $ 



rates ; and the stock being estimated at the average price of the 

 year., a price, with one or two exceptions, which is lower than 

 the general rate. 



The college, notwithstanding the serious loss which affected 

 their farming operations on this manor, did not lose heart, but 

 sowed a larger breadth of grain than usual ; 193^ acres being 

 brought under the plough. I have taken this amount at the rate 

 of the previous calculation, and (though with some hesitation) 

 added a third, as before, for that portion of the estate which 

 lay in fallow. If, however, this quantity be reduced, or even 

 entirely ignored, in the calculation made as to the amount of 

 capital employed at this time, its omission will not diminish 

 the gross sum to any notable extent. 



I have given a slightly higher value to the dead stock, as 

 indeed, if we take current prices, we must allow ; and as there 

 was a considerable annual consumption of certain articles 

 reckoned as household stuff, a little is added to this item, 

 though the addition made is certainly below rather than above 

 the charges at that time. The capital included in the mill is 

 taken at the former rate, and the manor-house and farm-build- 

 ings are, as before, reckoned to be worth ,^50. The total 

 amount is slightly in excess of the valuation given under the 

 year 1332. 



There can be no doubt that the year is one of scarcity, of 

 famine, and of distress, and that it exhibits the darkest season 

 of the Great Plague, with its social and economical effects. 

 But matters are very little mended in the following year, the 

 crops of which appear to have been almost a total failure. 

 It was only in 1354 that cheaper prices followed on greater 

 plenty, and that some improvement occurred. But the old rates 

 of profit on farming operations had wholly passed away, never 

 to be recovered, at least in their full. 



It is almost unnecessary to suggest that these facts and 

 figures give an abundant explanation of the change which took 

 place in the older method of cultivating the soil, or rather of its 

 almost abrupt discontinuance. Property had become, at first 



x x % 



