AGRARIAN REVOLUTIONS OF THE PAST 19 



Agrarian Revolutions in England 



The Peasant Revolt in England in the latter part 

 of the fourteenth century and the peasant uprisings 

 of a later period resulting from enclosures are typical 

 examples of these more significant agrarian revolu- 

 tions. Most of the agrarian revolutions of the Mid- 

 dle Ages and early modern period resulted from 

 conflicts between the economic and social interests 

 of the rent-receiving and the rent-paying classes. It 

 is well to recall that agriculture did not become a 

 profit-making business until modern times. Pre- 

 viously it had been only a self-supporting industry. 

 The feudal system was an agrarian organization and 

 the social system fostered by it was essentially 

 paternalistic. 



It is not surprising that the early agrarian revolu- 

 tions in England were inspired by a desire for more 

 freedom of action. While the economic motive 

 slowly emerged, it was a long time before it be- 

 came the predominant one in English agricultural 

 enterprise. 



One of the earliest and most significant agrarian 

 revolutions in England was that of 1381. It was 

 the culmination of a series of disasters that swept 

 over England almost continuously throughout the 

 fourteenth century. Pestilences appeared in 1315, 

 1316, and again in 1340. Rogers, the great economic 

 historian and economist, tells us that dearth was 

 widespread from 1308 to 1322, with the exception 



