152 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



again, either of these classes of products may be exported to 

 foreign countries in exchange for other commodities. The Wis- 

 consin farmer produces wheat for immediate consumption, wool 

 for manufacturing into cloth, and both wheat and wool for export. 

 Now with these last two objects the medieval farmer had little to 

 do ; neither manufactures nor commerce existed on a very large 

 scale. Every country was in the main self-supporting ; that is, 

 each provided by its own production for its own wants. And 

 what is true of the country is also true in a degree of every estate. 

 The estates, or manors, were large, embracing generally an en- 

 tire township ; and each estate produced corn and meat for its 

 own needs, brewed its own beer from its own barley, and wore 

 garments made by its own women from the fleeces of its own 

 sheep, purchasing whatever foreign articles it required with its 

 surplus. 



Small communities like these, which had this habit of depend- 

 ing almost exclusively upon their own productions, with no large 

 and constant channels of exchange, and no facilities for quickly 

 meeting sudden and unexpected demands, were liable to great 

 fluctuations in the value of their products and to real suffering 

 from deficient crops. Famines were frequent in those days, just 

 as they are now in the remote parts of the East. In the five 

 years from 1316 to 1320 wheat ranged from 4^ to 16 shillings a 

 quarter (of eight bushels). 



Manufactures, as a distinct branch of industry, hardly existed at 

 this time, except in some parts of the Continent. And for the 

 purpose of home manufacture the products required were few and 

 simple. I have said that the estates were large, containing in 

 general a whole township ; but this estate, or manor, contained a 

 multitude of agricultural tenants of various grades, and a village, 

 with its laborers and artisans, sufficient for all the simple require- 

 ments of village life. The carpenter and the wheelwright were 

 supplied with timber from the woods of the manor ; the herds of 

 cattle furnished leather, the flocks of sheep furnished wool ; iron 

 alone had to be purchased from outside. And there was scarcely 

 any other material for manufacture needed ; wool was the almost 

 exclusive wearing material, although for other purposes coarse 



