THE NEW STRUGGLE FOR LIFE 35 



agricultural progress demanded less personal dependence, a freer 

 hand, a larger scope for individual enterprise. The foundations of 

 feudalism were thus shaken, though the Hundred Years' War main- 

 tained its superstructure intact. It is this contrast between reality 

 and appearance which gives an air of hollowness and artificiality to 

 the splendour of the reign of Edward III. 



The break-up of the manorial system accompanied the transition 

 from an age of graduated mutual dependence towards an age of 

 greater individual independence. It meant the removal of restric- Y 

 tions to personal freedom, the encouragement of individual enter- / \ 

 prise, the establishment of the principle of competition in determining/ \ 

 both money rents and money wages. From another point of vie\y 

 the results were not entirely advantageous. Against the older 

 system it might be urged that it created a lack of opportunity which 

 caused local stagnation. In its favour might be pleaded that it 

 maintained a certain level of equality among the households in 

 village communities, presided over by the lord of the manor. Now, 

 however, the struggle for life becomes intensified ; the strong go to 

 the front, the weak to the wall ; for one man who rises in the social 

 scale, five sink. Here, one prospers, laying field to field, adding 

 herd to herd and flock to flock. Here, others sell their live-stock, 

 yield their strips of land to their more enterprising neighbour, and 

 become dependent upon him for employment and wages. From 

 the fourteenth century onwards the agricultural problem of holding 

 the balance even between the economic gain and social loss of 

 agricultural progress has puzzled the wisest of legislators. r 



The manorial organisation of labour suffered no sudden or uni- y 

 versal collapse, due to any improvements in the methods or altera- A 

 tion in the aims of farming. It rather underwent a gradual and / \ 

 local decay which originated in economic, social, and political causes, / \ 

 and proceeded most rapidly in the neighbourhood of trading centres / 

 or sea-ports. It would be inaccurate to attempt to divide this ( 

 process into successive stages, because they always overlapped, 

 were generally simultaneous, and were often almost complete on 

 one manor before they had begun on another. But from one point 

 of view, the movement increased the number of holdings which were 

 separately occupied ; in another aspect, it exchanged labour ser- 

 vices for their cash values, and altered the relations between feudal 

 lords and their retainers into those of employer and employed, and 

 of the letter and the hirer of land ; in another, it applied principles 



