Authority, Efficiency, and Agricultural Organization in Medieval England and Beyond: A Hypothesis
Stefano Fenoaltea
Recent accounts of medieval agricultural organization begin not with a description “the” manor but warning that no single archetype may be considered appropriate. From place to place, from generation generation, property might exploited as unit, divided between tenancies and demesne, or wholly partitioned into tenancies; the land would worked by correspondingly varied mixture “employees” independent labor. This complex historical record is still far being explained suitable model. In secondary sources, varying size demesne most frequently attributed changes in relative prices: buoyant, it argued, when output prices are high wages low; fall rise, rents become more attractive parcelled out. The difficulty this explanation, however, wages: simple economic theory, rent so adjusts always equal surplus could earned direct exploitation, proportion tenant on an estate matter indifference. does course mean was fact; mean, one must carefully specify which many considerations neglected theory fact critical problem at hand.
The Journal of Economic History