DECLINE OF AGRICULTURE 45 



increase, and labour services were now largely commuted for 

 money payments, 1 with the result that the manorial system 

 began to break up rapidly 



Owing to the dearth of labourers for hire, and the loss 

 of many of the services of their villeins, the lords found it very 

 hard to farm their demesne lands. It should be remembered, 

 too, that an additional hardship from which they suffered 

 at this time was that the quit rents paid to them in lieu of 

 services by tenants who had already become free were, owing 

 to the rise in prices, very much depreciated. Their chiefj 

 remedy was to let their demesne lands. The condition of the 

 Manor of Forncett in Norfolk well illustrates the changes that 

 were now going on. There, in the period 1272-1307, there 

 were many free tenants as well as villeins, and the holdings 

 of the latter were small, usually only 5 acres. It is also to be 

 noticed that in no year were all the labour services actually 

 performed, some were always sold for money. Yet in the 

 period named there was not much progress in the general 

 commutation of services for money payments, and the same 

 was the case in the manors, whose records between 1325 and 

 1350 Mr. Page examined for his End of Villeinage in England? 

 The reaping and binding of the entire grain crop of the 

 demesne at Forncett was done by the tenants exclusively, 

 without the aid of any hired labour. 3 



However, in the period 1307-1376 the manor underwent a 

 great change. The economic position of the villeins, the ad- 

 ministration of the demesne, and the whole organization of the 

 manor were revolutionized. Much of the tenants' land had 

 reverted to the lord, partly by the deaths in the great pestilence, 

 partly because tenants had left the manor ; they had run away 

 and left their burdensome holdings in order to get high wages 

 as free labourers. This of course led to a diminution of labour 

 rents, so the landlord let most of the demesne for a term of 



1 Page, End of Villeinage, pp. 59 et seq. 2 Ibid. p. 44. 



3 Transactions, Royal Historical Society, New Series, xiv. 123. 



