English Seigniorial Agriculture, 12501450 (Cambridge Studies in Historical Geography, Series Number 31)

Bruce Campbell's book is the first single-authored treatment of medieval English agriculture on a national scale. Methodologically innovative, it deals comprehensively with the cultivation carried out by or for lords on their demesne farms, for which the documentation is more detailed and abundant than for any other agricultural group either during the medieval period or later. A context is thereby assured for all future scholarship on the medieval and early agrarian economies. The book also makes a substantive contribution to ongoing historical debates. Bruce Campbell's book, first published in 2000, was the first single-authored treatment of medieval English agriculture at a national scale. It deals comprehensively with the cultivation carried out by or for lords on their demesne farms, for which the documentation is more detailed and abundant than for any other agricultural group either during the medieval period or later. A context is thereby assured for all future work on the medieval and early modern agrarian economies. The book also makes a substantive contribution to ongoing historical debates about the dimensions, chronology and causes of the medieval cycle of expansion, crisis and contraction. Topics dealt with include the scale and composition of seigniorial estates, the geography of land-use, pastoral husbandry, arable husbandry, land productivity, levels of commercialization and the size of the population in relation to the consumption of food at any given time "Bruce Campbell's book is the first single-authored treatment of medieval English agriculture at a national scale. It deals comprehensively with the cultivation carried out by or for lords on their demesne farms, for which the documentation is more detailed and abundant than for any other agricultural group either during the medieval period or later. A context is thereby assured for all future work on the medieval and early modern agrarian economies. The book also makes a substantive contribution to on-going historical debates about the dimensions, chronology and causes of the medieval cycle of expansion, crisis and contraction. Topics dealt with include the scale and composition of seigniorial estates, the geography of land-use, pastoral husbandry, arable husbandry, land productivity, levels of commercialisation and the size of the population in relation to the consumption of food at any given time"--Publisher description Between c. 1250 and c. 1450, for the first time in recorded English history, it becomes possible to reconstruct the development and performance of agriculture in some details.

this Is The First Single-authored Treatment Of Medieval English Agriculture At A National Scale.