This volume revisits a classic book by a famous
historian: R.H. Tawney's Agrarian Problem in the
Sixteenth Century (1912). Tawney's Agrarian Problem
surveyed landlord-tenant relations in England between
1440 and 1660, the period of emergent capitalism and
rapidly changing property relations that stands between
the end of serfdom and the more firmly capitalist system
of the eighteenth century. This transition period is
widely recognised as crucial to Britain's long term
economic development, laying the foundation for the
Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century.
Remarkably, Tawney's book has remained the standard text
on landlord-tenant relations for over a century. Here,
Tawney's book is re-evaluated by leading experts in
agrarian and legal history, taking its themes as a
departure point to provide for a new interpretation of
the agrarian economy in late Tudor and early modern
Britain. The introduction looks at how Tawney's Agrarian
Problem was written, its place in the historiography of
agrarian England and the current state of research.
Survey chapters examine the late medieval period, a
comparison with Scotland, and Tawney's conception of
capitalism, whilst the remaining chapters focus on four
issues that were central to Tawney's arguments:
enclosure disputes, the security of customary tenure;
the conversion of customary tenure to leasehold; and
other landlord strategies to raise revenues. The balance
of power between landlords and tenants determined how
the wealth of agrarian England was divided in this
crucial period of economic development - this book
reveals how this struggle was played out. JANE WHITTLE
is professor of rural history at Exeter University.
Contributors: Christopher Brooks, Christopher Dyer,
Heather Falvey, Harold Garrett-Goodyear, Julian Goodare,
Elizabeth Griffiths, Jennifer Holt, Briony McDonagh,
Jean Morrin, David Ormrod, William D. Shannon, Jane
Whittle, Andy Wood. Foreword by Keith Wrightson
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