Table Of ContentMAKING A LIVING IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Christopher Dyer is director of the Centre for english local history in the
University of leicester. among his recent publications are An Age of Transition?:
Economy and Society in England in the Later Middle Ages (2005), and The Self-
Contained Village, edited with harold Fox and nigel goose (2007). he has been
president of the society for medieval archaeology and of the British agricultural
history society. he was awarded the CBe in 2008.
THE NEW ECONOMIC HISTORY OF BRITAIN
Making a Living in the
Middle Ages THE PEOPLE OF
BRITAIN 850–1520
CHRISTOPHER DYER
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW HAVEN AND LONDON
The New Economic History of Britain
General Editor: David Cannadine
Copyright © 2002 by Christopher Dyer
First printed in paperback (US) 2005
First printed in paperback (UK) 2009
The right of Christopher Dyer to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying
permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press)
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Contents
Preface
INTRODUCTION
Approaching the economic history of medieval Britain PART ONE
Origins of the medieval economy, c.850–c.1100
1 Living on the land, c.850–c.1050
i. Farming
ii. Expansion
iii. Estates and lords
iv. Peasants
2 Crisis and new directions, c.850–c.1050
i. The Viking invasions
ii. The growth of the state iii. The origins of towns
3 Conquest, c.1050–c.1100
i. Old aristocracy
ii. New aristocracy
iii. England in 1086
PART TWO
Expansion and crisis, c.1100–c.1350
4 Lords, c.1100–c.1315
i. Aristocracy and property ii. Managing the estate
iii. Lords and peasants
iv. Lords and towns
v. Knights and gentry
vi. Aristocratic achievement?
5 Peasants, c.1100–c.1315
i. Families and population
ii. Peasants and their holdings iii. Peasants and the market iv. Peasants and
lords
v. Individuals and communities 6 Towns and commerce, c.1100–c.1315
i. Urban expansion
ii. The urban environment
iii. Urban occupations
iv. Techniques of trade and manufacture v. Urban government
vi. Towns in a feudal economy 7 Crisis, c.1290–c.1350
i. Great Famine and Black Death ii. Contraction and change
iii. Historical debate
iv. Crisis in Scotland
v. Explanations
PART THREE
Making a new world, c.1350–c.1520
8 The Black Death and its aftermath, c.1348–c.1520
i. Plague and population, c.1348–c.1520
ii. Low population, c.1348–c.1400
iii. Revolts
iv. The economy, c.1348–c.1400
9 Towns, trade and industry, c.1350–c.1520
i. Urban fortunes
ii. Urban economies
iii. Consumers
iv. Old and new
10 The countryside, c.1350–c.1520
i. Landlords
ii. Gentry
iii. Farmers
iv. Peasants
Conclusion
Further reading
Index
Illustrations
Maps
1. A woodland village and its fields: Great Hampden, Buckinghamshire 2.
Distribution of nucleated villages
3. A champion village and its fields: Crimscote, Warwickshire 4. A great
estate: Meddyfnych, Carmarthenshire 5. Town plans of a) Winchester and
b) Northampton 6. Boroughs in Domesday Book (1086) 7. Distribution of
population according to Domesday Book (1086) 8. Examples of estates in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries 9. Scottish burghs in existence by 1300
10. Debts owed to Londoners, c.1400
11. Changes in the distribution of lay wealth, 1334 and 1515
Figures
1. Grain prices in England, 1160–1520
2. English population, 850–1550
3. Wage rates in England, 1210–1520
4. English exports of wool and cloth, 1279–1544
Preface
This book surveys the society and economy of medieval Britain. It covers the
seven centuries from the Vikings to the Reformation, and it aims to deal with
Britain, that is England, Scotland and Wales. I have approached the subject by
seeking to understand the perspective of those who lived at the time. Changes in
the society and economy came about because men and women, as individuals or
in groups, made decisions and acted accordingly. We can therefore appreciate
why they behaved and acted as they did if we can reconstruct their thinking in
the light of their circumstances. Such an exercise requires some imagination, as
one of the purposes of this book is to explore the economic contribution of the
working population, who are not very fully documented. This is difficult, but is
intended to add to the interest of the book, and in the same spirit while scholarly
debates and controversies are reflected in these pages, they will be presented
without lengthy accounts of the views of contending schools of historians. The
writing consciously avoids jargon and technicalities and the more specialized
terms will be explained when they are first mentioned.
A book dealing with a long period and many themes is inevitably the product
of many years of research, reading, listening and conversation. I could not
possibly name the dozens of people who have helped me in various ways, and I
hope that they will understand and forgive the omission. The only exception
must be Rodney Hilton, whose early tuition and later advice has been an
influence and inspiration. To focus on those who helped specifically with the
production of this book, David Cannadine suggested that I write it, and
commented helpfully on a first draft. I was advised and encouraged by the
editors for Penguin and Yale, Simon Winder and Robert Baldock. Chapters were
read and improved by Dawn Hadley, Keith Stringer, Phillipp Schofield and two
anonymous readers. The final version of the typescript was prepared by Sue
Bowen and Nancy Moore. Jenny Dyer read drafts and helped in other ways.
John and Geraldine Brown gave me hospitality when I worked in Edinburgh.
Help with preparing illustrations came from Duncan Brown, Bob Croft, Geoff
Egan and Andy Isham. Candida Brazil of Yale University Press gave care and
encouragement. The University of Birmingham and the Arts and Humanities
Research Board allowed me a generous period of study leave.
Christopher Dyer
Birmingham, April 2001
Note on the text. Places are identified here with reference to the counties before
the reorganization of local government in the 1970s. Money, length, distance,
area, volume and weight are given in measures prevailing before metrication.
There were 240d (pence) in a pound (£1), and 12d (pence) made a shilling (1s).
To gain a sense of the value of money, a cow could be bought for about 24d (2s)
or 36d (3s) before 1200, and between 6s and 11s after that date. A foot is
equivalent to 0.3 metre, a yard to 0.9 metre, and a mile to 1.6 kilometres. An
acre is 0.4 hectare. Grain was measured in bushels (36 litres) and wine in gallons
(4.5 litres). Wool and tin were weighed in pounds (0.45 kilogramme).
Introduction
Approaching the economic history of medieval Britain
We should explore the economic history of medieval Britain for many reasons. It
is the only branch of history which gives pride of place to the whole population,
and through the study of the economy we can understand the everyday lives of
working people. The economy was important. All other human endeavours
depended on the production of food and other goods, which means that any
investigation of non-material things must take into account the material base.
Economic history is a unifying subject, not taking us into an obscure byway of
the past, but acting as a crossroads from which we gain access to the history of
the environment, culture, politics and thought.
Economic historians are concerned with two types of change. One focuses on
the ups and downs of economic life, both the short-term fluctuations in prices
and trade, and the long-run movements of growth and decline. The other is
concerned with the structural changes, such as the emergence of towns, or the
shifts in the distribution of land and the control of farming between social
groups. Both are necessary for understanding the course of history.
Why go back to such a remote period? The past has always attracted our
curiosity, and there is no reason to think that the period before 1520 offers us
any less interest than the twentieth century or any other period in between.
Medieval people were as lively, active and complicated as at any other time, and
they are as worthy of our attention as those of later centuries. They pose at least
as many dilemmas and puzzles of interpretation. Indeed there is a particular
fascination in revealing the thoughts and actions of people living in an age
unlike our own, when most people worked on the land, and were dominated by
an aristocracy and an all-embracing church. The past fascinates us because it
was different, and the middle ages were very different. Lastly, but not least, later
periods cannot be fully understood if we do not appreciate their predecessors.
We owe the majority of our villages and towns, boundaries, roads and
institutions to the middle ages. The words that we use to describe economic life,
such as farmer, wages, fees, capital and interest were all used (often with distinct
