se so long, and the establishment of the complete
independence and separation of one property from another.[125] As soon
as the manorial system began to give way, and men to have a free hand,
the substitution of large for small holdings set in with fresh vigour,
for we have already seen that it had begun. It was one of the chief
causes of the stagnation of agriculture in the Middle Ages that it lay
under the heavy hand of feudalism, by which individualism was checked
and hindered. Every one had his allotted position on the land, and it
was hard to get out of it, though some exceptional men did so; as a
rule there was no chance of striking out a new line for oneself. The
villein was bound to the lord, and no lord would willingly surrender
his services. There could be little improvement in farming when the
custom of the manor and the collective ownership of the teams bound
all to the same system of farming.[126] In fact, agriculture under
feudalism suffered from many of the evils of socialism.

But, though hard hit, the old system was to endure for many
generations, and the modern triumvirate of landlord, tenant, and
labourer was not completely established in England until the era of
the first Reform Bill.

FOOTNOTES:

[101] Cunningham, _Growth of English Industry and Commerce_, i. 130. A
weigh in the Middle Ages was 182 lbs., or half a sack.

[102] Second edition, i. 50 n. See also Burnley, _History of Wool_, p.
17.

[103] Gross, _Gild Merchant_, ii. 4. It is from the Spanish merino,
crossed with Leicesters and Southdowns, that the vast Australian
flocks of to-day are descended.

[104] Cunningham, _op. cit._ i. 628.

[105] Ashley, _Early History of English Woollen Industry_, p. 34.

[106] _Calendar of Close Rolls_, 1337-9, pp. 148-9.

[107] _Rolls of Parliament_, v. 275.

[108] _The Hospitallers in England_, Camden Society.

[109] Denton, _England in the Fifteenth Century_, p. 147.

[110] _Hospitallers in England_, p. xxvi.

[111] Ibid. pp. 1, li.

[112] Poultry-keeping was wellnigh universal, judging by the number of
rents paid in fowls and eggs.

[113] 1348 seems also to have been an excessively rainy year. The wet
season was very disastrous to live stock; according to the accounts of
the manors of Christ Church, Canterbury, about this time (_Historical
MSS. Commission, 5th Report_, 444) there died of the murrain on their
estates 257 oxen, 511 cows, 4,585 sheep. Murrain was the name given to
all d