26i] ENCLOSURE FOR SHEEP PASTURE 105 



graph reveals the far-reaching influence of soil exhaustion 

 in English agrarian history in the centuries before the in- -^ 

 troduction of these new crops. As the yield of the soil de- \ I 

 clined, the ancient arable holdings proved incapable of 

 supporting their cultivators, and a readjustment had to bei 

 made. The pressure upon subsistence was felt while villain- 

 age was still in force, and the terms upon which serfdom 

 dissolved were influenced by this fact to an extent which 

 has hitherto not been recognized. The economic crisis in- 

 volved in the spread of the money economy threw into 

 relief the destitution of the villains; and the easy terms of 

 the cash payments which were substituted for services 

 formerly due, the difficulty with which holders for land 

 could be obtained on any terms, the explicit references ten 

 the poverty of whole communities at the time of the com- 

 mutation of their customary services, necessitate the aban- 

 donment of the commonly accepted view that growing 

 prosperity and the desire for better social status explain the 

 substitution of money payments for labor services in the 

 fourteenth century. The spread of the money economy V 

 was due to the gradual integration of the economic system, 

 the establishment of local markets where small land holders 

 could sell their produce for money. Until this condition 

 was present, it was impossible to offer money instead of 

 labor in payment of the customary dues; as soon as this 

 condition was present, the greater convenience of the use 

 of money made the commutation of services inevitable. In 

 practise money payments came gradually to replace the per- I 

 formance of services through the system of " selling '' \ 

 works long before any formal commutation of the services I 

 took place. But, whatever the explanation of the spread j 

 of the money economy in England during this period, it is 

 not the prosperity of the villains, for, at the moment when 

 the formal change from payments in labor to money pay- 



