v] The Tenants and their Land. 1272 — 1306. 65 



In contrast to the more lightly burdened tenements of the 

 sokemen, stand the tenements that rendered week-work. Besides 

 the week-works the tenement of five-acre tenure seems usually to 

 have been charged with the following annual dues : three averagia, 

 the carting of manure — a service that after 1300 seems always to 

 have been commuted ; the making of a quarter of malt ; the payment 

 of twelve bushels of oats; of a hen and five eggs; of i^d. as salt- 

 penny ; and of a money rent of 6\d. Now, estimating the value of 

 these services and payments in kind at the amounts for which they 

 were 'sold ' to the tenant, when not rendered, a tenement of five-acre 

 tenure was worth more than 2s. an acre\ But in 1376 these same 

 tenements were being leased at half this rent per acre. Unless the 

 value of the land had fallen by more than one-half between the 

 beginning of the century and 1376, it would seem that the customary 

 tenants of the earlier period were heavily burdened. 



What were the number and area of the tenements that rendered 

 winter and summer week-work, and in what ratio do their number 

 and area stand to the number and area of the less burdened 

 tenements ? In attempting to find an answer to these questions 

 a series of proportions is employed. These proportions are formed 

 from the following known quantities : 



(i) The number of tenements that formerly owed a given service, 

 but by 1376 had decayed. 



(2) The total number of services of this kind that by 1376 had 

 decayed. 



(3) The total number of services of this same kind that were 

 charged upon the manor as a whole. 



It is assumed that the ratio between the number of decayed 

 tenements formerly owing a given service, and the total number 

 of decayed services of this kind, is identical with the ratio between 

 the whole number of tenements upon which this service is charged 



^ There was no fixed sum for which the oat- rent might be commuted. The value of this 

 form of rent varied from year to year. The vahiation adopted in the tables is ^d. a bushel, 

 which is i\d. more for a quarter of oats than the average price per quarter between the years 

 1271 and 1380 according to Rogers, Agric. arid Prices, i. 245. From 1272 to 1306, hens 

 were worth id. a piece instead of 2d. as in 1376-8; and eggs were worth 3^^. or ^d. instead 

 of ^d. as in 1376-8. 



With the possible exception of the service of carting manure, the value of which is not 

 stated in the rolls of 1272-1306, labour services were commuted at the same price in the 

 later as in the earlier period. In 1376, and apparently, though to a less degree, in 1272, the 

 sums for which labour services might be commuted fell short of their actual value to the lord. 

 Therefore the real value of the rent paid for these tenements was even higher than it is here 

 estimated. 



