a diminution of the food supply seem to be substantiated. The price of grain did not rise disproportionately to other articles during the sixteenth century, except in certain years of known scarcity. This could hardly have failed to occur if there had been any serious decrease of production. It is probable that there were improvements in agriculture which caused an equal production of grain, although from a smaller area; doubtless some land was being restored to tillage even while new land was still being converted to pasture; and finally the stationary population made the problem of raising enough food for the nation a comparatively easy one. The importance of the rural changes of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries lay in their influence on particular classes, on the relative positions of classes, and on the fundamental characteristics of social organization, not on the total numbers of the population nor on the total creation of wealth in the community. V. One of the necessary results of inclosing the small groups of acres in the open fields and converting them into large sheep farms, was that there could be only a few large tenants where there were before many small ones. This resulted in a combination or consolidation of several small holdings into one larger one, and seemed like the willful dispossession of several tenants for the benefit of one. Such an "engrossing of farms" was a great grievance. "Furthermore in Englande sum one man kepeth in his handes two or three fermes, and where hath ben six or eight persons in every ferme he keepeth oonly a shepparde or wretched heardman and his wyfe." A petition to Henry VIII, dated 1514, speaks of unreasonable, covitous persones, whiche doth encroche daily many ffermes more than they can be able to occupye or maynteyne with tilth for corne, as hath been used in tymes past, forasmoche as divers of them, hath obteyned and encroched into their handes, ten, twelve, fourteen, or sixteen 1 John Coke, Debate of the Heraldes, 1550. fermes, in oon mannes hand attons, where in tymes past there "But nowe their ambitious suttlete Or elles to ryche marchauntes for avauntage, To the undoynge of husbandeman echone." ♦ And again, in a ballad of about the same date, the complainant, after describing the destruction of farmhouses by the Abbeys which were landlords, answers the question : "Howe have the abbeys their payment?" "A newe waye they do invent Lettynge a dosen farmes under one, 1 Petition to Henry VIII, quoted in Ballads from MSS., Ballad Society, vol. I, p. 101. Ibid., p. 102. * Harrison, Description of England, Book II, Chap. XIII, New Shakspeare Society ed., p. 260. A Proper Dyaloge betwene a Gentillman and a Husbandman, 1530, quoted in Ballad Society, vol. I, p. 22. Which one or two ryche franklynges Take all in their owne hondes a lone.”1 Resulting from this combination of farms, was of course a scarcity of holdings to be rented. "And one man shal have two or three such thyugs or more, in his handys, that a pore man scarcely have an hole to put in hys head for these gret extorcyonars." "For now the poore tenante that lyved well in that golden world ys taught to singe unto his lord a new song, and the Landlords have learned the text of the damned disciple, Quid vultis mihi dare, et ego illum vobis tradam; and nowe the world ys so altered with ye poore tenante that he standeth so in bodylie feare of his greedy neighbour — that two or three yeares eare his lease end, he must bowe to his Lorde for a newe lease, and must pinche yt out many yeares before to heape money together, so that in this age yt ys as easye for a poore tenante to marry two of his daughters to his neighboures sonnes, as to match himself to a good farme from his landlord." 8 - VI. Closely connected with the consolidation of farms was the rise of rents and fines. Rents, whether for lands on lease or for customary holdings, had been practically stationary from time immemorial. The same was true of the fines, or sums paid to the landlord upon obtaining or renewing a lease, or upon the acquisition of a customary holding. But now both fines and rents rose rapidly, and this increase, which seemed to be an arbitrary extortion by the landlords, was condemned most violently It must in truth have been one of the severest hardships to the yeomanry who were the principal sufferers 1 William Roy, Rede me and be nott wrothe. * Henry Brinklow, Complaynt of Roderyck Mors, ab. 1542, Early English Text Society, p. 49. * George Owen, Description of Pembrokeshire, published in Cymmrodion Record Series, vol. I. 1 ૧ i under the changes of the time, and it was correspondingly blamed by their sympathizers. Latimer, preaching before the courtiers of Edward VI, declared: "You landelordes, you rentreisers, I maye saye you steplordes, you unnaturall lordes, you have for your possessions yerely to much. For that herebefore went for twenty or forty pound by yere (which is an honest porcion to be had gratis in one oordeshyp, of a nother mannes sweat and laboure) now is it let for fifty or a hundred pound by yeare." And shortly afterward he proceeds, in a frequently quoted passage, to compare the rent paid by his father for his holding with its present rate :)" My father was a Yoman, and had no landes of his owne, only he had a farme of three or four pound by yere at the uttermost, and here upon he tilled so much as kepte halfe a dosen men. He had walke for a hundred shepe, and my mother mylked thirty kyne. He was able and did find the king a harnesse, wyth hym selfe, and hys horsse, whyle he came to ye place that he should receyve the kynges wages. I can remembre, yat I buckled hys harnes, when he went unto Blacke heeath felde. He kept me to schole, or elles I had not bene able to have preached before the kinges majestie nowe. He maryed my systers with five pounde or twenty nobles a pece, so that he broughte them up in godlines, and feare of God. He kept hospitalitie for his pore neighbours. And sum almess he gave to the poore, and all thys did he of the sayd farme. Wher he that now hath it, paieth sixteen pounde by yere or more, and is not able to do any thing for his Prynce, for himselfe, nor for his children, or geve a cup of drincke to the pore." The cry about higher rents became louder and louder, and in fact continued after all the other changes which we are discussing had come to an end. "Consyder you, what a wickednes is comonly used thorow the realme unponysshed, in the inordinate inhansyng of rentys, 1 First Sermon before King Edward VI, Arber Reprint, pp. 38, 39. and takyng of unreasonable fynys, and every day worse than other." "A manne that had landes, and lette it out deare; "So landlords make marchandise of their pore tenants, racking their rents, raising their fines and incommes, and setting them so straitely uppon the tenter hookes, as no man can lyve on them." 3 "The lande lordes for theyr partes, survey and make the uttermost peny of al their groundes, bysydys the unreasonable fynes and incomes, and he that wyll not or can not geve all that they demaunde, shall not enter, be he never so honest, or stande he in never so greate neede. Yea, though he have ben an honeste, true, faythfull and quiete tenant many yeres, yet at the vacation of his copie or indentur he must paye welmoste as muche as woulde purchayse so much grownde, or else voide in hast, though he, his wyfe and chyldrene, shoulde perishe for lacke of harbour. What a sea of mischifes hath flowed out of thys more then Turkyshe tyranie! What honeste householders have ben made folowers of other not so honest men's tables! What honeste matrones have ben brought to the needy rocke and cardes! What men-childrene of good hope in the liberall sciences, and other honeste qualities (wherof this realme hath great lacke), have ben compelled to fal, some to handycrafts, 1 Henry Brinklow, Complaynt of Roderyck Mors, 1542, published by Early English Text Society, p. 9. * Robert Crowley, Epigrams, Of Rente Raysers, ll., 1369–1376, published by Early English Text Society. 8 Philip Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses, 1583, New Shakspeare Society, p. 116. |