History of Agricultural Rent in England 1 5 



Consequently, before this great pestilence, 

 a good many of the serfs were paying 

 money rents for their lands, and receiving 

 money wages for their labour. The sudden 

 diminution of the supply of labour caused 

 by the plague raised the rate of wages 

 much above what had been customary. 

 To get labour, landlords tried to induce 

 the labourers to come from other estates, 

 and offered more wages. The general 

 result was that the expense of cultivating 

 the home farms or the demesne land rose 

 enormously. Some of the landowners tried 

 to bring back the old system of forced 

 labour, but the attempt eventually led to 

 the Peasant Revolt, and, in fact, the 

 principle of commutation had been already 

 carried too far to be reversed. Accordingly, 

 most of the landlords adopted another 

 remedy, which has been called by Thorold 

 Rogers the " land and stock lease." By 



