52 PRINCIPLES OF RURAL ECONOMICS 



The growth of tenancy. Another result of the difficulty which 

 the lords of the manors had in getting laborers to cultivate their 

 demesne lands was the growth of leases. By leasing their lands 

 in large holdings to some of the more successful farmers, some- 

 times to their own bailiffs, the lords were relieved of the diffi- 

 culty and vexation of dealing with the irritating labor problem. 

 Soon afterwards, therefore, it may be said that large-scale farm- 

 ing by tenant .farmers began, and has continued down to the 

 present time as the characteristic English system. 



The Statutes of Laborers (1351 and later) failed to keep wages 

 down, and the condition of hired laborers continued to improve. 

 This sometimes led villeins to abandon their holdings literally 

 to run. away and seek employment as hired laborers on other 

 manors. If they could evade recapture for a period of years, 

 they remained freemen thereafter. Again, the growth of towns 

 opened opportunities for villeins to escape and seek employment 

 as town craftsmen. Seeing that so many of their fellows had 

 become freemen, many of the villeins, together with many town 

 craftsmen, rose in revolt under one Wat Tyler in 1381, for the 

 purpose partly of throwing off the last remnants of villein service 

 which were being exacted, and partly as a general protest against 

 the political and economic inequalities of the time. Though the 

 revolt was mercilessly put down, it is the belief of some students 

 of the problem that it had some influence in hastening the break- 

 up of the manorial system and bringing on the system of agri- 

 culture whereby free farmers leased lands from landlords. This 

 is the system of fixed money payments in place of services. 

 Under this new arrangement the position of the tenant as well 

 as that of the agricultural laborer continued to improve. 



New crops. Following this series of changes there were many 

 minor changes and improvements in agricultural methods and 

 products. New crops, such as hops, began to be cultivated, and 

 many fruits and vegetables which had formerly been confined to 



