SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



exacted from foreign tradesmen. Fullers and dyers were also to be found in 

 the town, but the cloth made was probably very coarse, since Buckingham- 

 shire wool compared unfavourably with that grown in the neighbouring 

 counties. 



The tenants and farmers, so far as it was possible, also carried on the 

 more profitable system of farming. 



In the latter part of the fourteenth century the practice was increasing 

 of letting out the demesne lands at firm, both arable and pasture land. At 

 Whaddon, where the sale of wool had previously formed a considerable item 

 in the bailifFs accounts, the meadows and pastures were all at firm in 

 1381 2, 1 * 3 and in other places parts of the pastures had been let still 

 earlier to both free and customary tenants. At Fawley lu trespasses in the 

 lord's pasture were very common, and quite small tenants were presented for 

 sixty and forty sheep at a time, and they evidently made serious encroach- 

 ments on the separate pasture, all tenants in one instance being ordered to 

 remove their cattle from the lord's pasture. 



With regard to the manors that were in the king's hands in the fifteenth 

 century, the common practice was to let the whole manor at firm, sometimes 

 to one man, sometimes to a number of tenants. The firmors did not hold 

 the manorial court, or even receive its dues ; hence they had but little 

 interest in the customary tenants, and their chief object would be to make 

 as much profit as possible from the land itself by sheep-farming. 



The tenants on some manors could also get leave to inclose certain 

 pieces of land on payment of a small fine to the lord, but it does not seem 

 to have been very commonly done. More frequently the inclosure was made 

 without leave ; and, though complaints were frequently made in the court, 

 little was done, unless the encroachment affected the demesne pastures, for 

 the presentment was made in court after court of the same offence. 



The prices given in the accounts show that the value of wool increased 

 substantially in the fourteenth century. In many cases the price is given by 

 the fleece and not by the weight, so that it is impossible to compare them on 

 different manors and at different times. 



The price of sheep also affords some information on the profits that 

 were made by sheep-farming. In three instances of the survey of the stock 

 on the royal manors in the reign of Henry III 1 *' all sheep are valued at 4^., but 

 in the fourteenth century the price had risen very considerably. The lowest 

 prices were 1 \d. at Cippenham, 1 * 6 and is. id. at Wendover for ewes, 147 while 

 at Whaddon the price rose to 2s. 8</. for sheep, 1 * 8 but generally they brought 

 in about 2s. a head. 



The records of the fifteenth century are very meagre as to details, 

 since the accounts merely record the payments of rents, &c., and contain 

 nothing as to agriculture or stock. Inclosing must, however, have gone on 

 apace, but the complaints did not become loud enough to influence the 

 government to interfere until the close of the century. The rentals and 

 ministers' accounts, however, show that many tenants had been evicted from 

 their land, and that many tenements were gathered into one hand. They do 



la P.R.O. Mins. Accu. bdle. 764, No. 8. '" B.M. Add. R. 27161. 



ltt P.R.O. Rentals and Surv. 74. '" P.R.O. Mins. Accu. bdle. 760, No. ?. 



'" Ibid. bdle. 763, No. 9. " Ibid. bdle. 764, No. 7. 



61 



