Agricultural Capital and Profits 51 



acquire the necessary capital for himself, 

 and in many cases to buy the land. The 

 period of transition during which this form 

 of lease prevailed is placed by Rogers at 

 seventy years. 



The general result was that, to a great 

 extent, the villeins were displaced by tenant 

 farmers using their own capital and by 

 yeomanry occupying their own land. By 

 the middle of the fifteenth century both 

 classes had become quite common. The 

 very fact that the land and stock tenants 

 in time were able to become owners of 

 the capital, and sometimes of the land, 

 shows that, on the average also, they must 

 have been able to pay the rent, and in 

 that way the landlord also gained, for if 

 he had tried to carry on with the bailiff 

 cultivation, the increased cost of labour 

 would have involved a loss. The small 

 tenant and his family provided the labour 



