The English Village Community: Examined in its Relations to the Manorial and Tribal Systems and to the Common or Open Field System of Husbandry; An Essay in Economic History (Reprinted from the Fourth Edition)Seebohm, Frederic
History
The English Village Community: Examined in its Relations to the Manorial and Tribal Systems and to the Common or Open Field System of Husbandry; An Essay in Economic History (Reprinted from the Fourth Edition)
Seebohm, Frederic
Village communities -- Great Britain
This is the tribute _for arable_, according to the estimation
of the judge. The judge must look to it that according to what
a man has he must give; for 30 modia he must give 3 modia.
And for _pasturage_ he must pay according to the custom of
the province. Legal andecenæ (the perches being of 10 feet),
4 perches in breadth and 40 in length, [he is] to plough, to
sow, to fence, to gather, to carry, and to store. For spring
crops every cultivator to prepare for two modia of seed, and
sow, gather, and store it. And to plant vines, tend, graft, and
prune them, and gather the grapes. Let them render a bundle of
flax, of honey the tenth vessel, 4 fowls, and 15 eggs. Let them
give post-horses, or go themselves wherever they are told. Let
them do carrying service with waggons as far as 50 leugæ. They
cannot be compelled to go farther.
In keeping up the buildings in the demesne, in repairing the
hayloft, the granary, or the 'tun,' let them take reasonable
portions, and when needful let them compound together. To the
limekiln when near let 50 men, and when it is far let 100 men
be found to supply wood or [lime-]stone, and where needful let
the lime itself be carried to city or villa.
These are the services of the _coloni_ or _accolæ_ of the Church.
Next as to the _servi_:--
Servi autem ecclesiæ secundum possessionem suam reddant
tributa. Opera vero 3 dies in ebdomada in dominico operent
[al. operentur], 3 vero sibi faciant. Si vero dominus eius
[al. eorum] dederit eis boves aut alias res quod habet [al.
quas habent], tantum serviant, quantum eis per possibilitatem
impositum fuerit; tamen iniuste neminem obpremas [al. opprimas].
Let the servi of the Church pay tribute according to their
holdings. Let them work 3 days a week in the demesne, and 3
days for themselves. But if their lord give them oxen or other
things they have, let them do as much service as can be put
upon them, yet thou shalt oppress no one unjustly.
«Gafol-yrth or ploughing of _andecenæ_ or acre strips,
probably for the tenths on the 'tithe-lands.'»
In the face of this evidence it seems impossible to ignore either the
continuity of the tribute and services under Roman and German rule on
the one hand, or their identity with the _gafol_, the _gafol-yrth_,
and the _week-work_ of the English manor on the other hand. There
is first the tenth of the chief produce due as of old from these
occupants of the 'Agri Decumates' of Tacitus, closely connected with
the tribute of ploughing--the Saxon _gafol-yrth_ noticed above in the
St. Gall charters. This is to be rendered in _lawful andecenæ_, and
this measure of the plough-work is reckoned by the Roman rod of ten
feet, and takes the precise form, four rods by forty, which belongs
to the English acre of four roods;[491] and this is the [p327] strip
to be sown, gathered, and stored, just as in the case of the Saxon
'_gafol-yrth_.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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