num_pages: 392
description: Exploring the shift from medieval to modern institutions in English agriculture and their importance for productivity distribution and their contribution to British economic growth Allen's pioneering study shows that contrary to the general assumption of many historians small-scale farmers in the open-field system were responsible for a considerable proportion of the productivity growth achieved between the middle ages and the nineteenth century. The process of enclosure and the replacement of these yeoman farms with large-scale tenant farming relying on wage labor had relatively little impact on the agricultural contribution to economic development during industrial revolution. Enclosures and large farms enriched landowners without benefiting consumers workers or farmers. Thoroughly grounded in archival sources and underpinned by rigorous economic analysis this book is a scholarly and challenging reassessment of the history of English agriculture.
language: English
title: Enclosure and the Yeoman: The Agricultural Development of the South Midlands, 1450-1850
publisher: Clarendon Press