213] ^^^ FERTILITY OF THE COMMON FIELDS 57 



leasing of bond-holdings, the subdividing and leasing of the 

 demesne. A point which has not been dwelt upon is the 

 favorable pecuniary terms upon which the villains com- 

 muted their services. Where customary relations were re- 

 placed by a new bargain, the bargain was always in favor 

 of the tenant. What was the source of this strategic ad- 

 vantage of the villain ? The great number of holdings made 

 vacant by the Black Death and the scarcity of eligible hold- 

 ers placed the landowner at a disadvantage, but this situa- 

 tion was temporary. How can the difficulty of filling vacant 

 tenements before the Black Death be accounted for, and why 

 were villains still able to secure reductions in their rents a 

 generation after its effects had ceased to be felt ? 



Even before the Black Death, it was frequently the case 

 that villain holdings could be filled only by compulsion. The 

 difficulty in finding tenants did not originate in the decrease 

 in the population caused by the pestilence. There is little 

 evidence that there was a lack of men qualified to hold land 

 even after the Black Death, but it is certain that they sought 

 in every way possible to avoid landholding. The villains 

 who were eligible in many cases fled, so that it became ex- \ 

 ceedingly difficult to fill a tenement when once it became 

 vacant. Land whose holders died of the pestilence was still 

 without tenants twenty-five and thirty years later, although 

 persistent attempts had been made to force men to take it 

 up. When compulsion succeeded only in driving men away 

 from the manor, numerous concessions were made in the at- 

 tempt to make land-holding more attractive. Qt is import- 

 ant to notice that these concessions were economic, not so- 

 cial.j The force which was driving men away was not the 

 desire to escape the incidents of serfdom, but the impossi- 

 bility of making a living from holdings burdened with heavy 

 rents. These burdens were eased, grudgingly, little by little, 

 by landlords who had exhausted other methods of keeping 



