had ceased to exert any influence.
Before the Black Death landowners were unable to secure holders for
bond land without the use of force. A generation after the Black Death
they were still contending with this problem, and it had become more
serious than at any previous time. Whatever the significance of the
Black Death, it must not be advanced as the explanation of a condition
which arose before its occurrence, nor of events which took place long
after its effects were forgotten. One result of the pestilence was,
indeed, to place villains in a stronger position than before, but the
changes which took place on this account must not be allowed to
obscure the fact that landowners were already facing serious
difficulties before 1348. Holders of land were already deserting, and
the tenements of those who died or deserted could frequently be filled
only by compulsion. Villains were refusing to perform their services
_on account of poverty_, and they were already securing reductions in
their rents and services. The temporary reduction of the population by
the Black Death has been advanced as the reason for the ability of the
villains of the decade 1350-1360 to enforce their demands; but without
the help of any such cause, villains of an earlier period were
obtaining concessions from their lords, and after the natural growth
of the population had had ample time to replace those who had died of
the pestilence, the villains were in a stronger position than ever
before, if we are to estimate their strength by their success in
lightening their economic burdens. The Black Death at the most did no
more than accelerate changes in the tenure of land which were already
under way. Villain services were being reduced, and the size of
villain holdings increased. The strength of the position of the serfs
lay not so much in the absence of competition due to a temporary
reduction in their numbers as in their poverty. Tenants could not be
held at the accustomed rents and services because it was impossible to
make a living from their holdings. The absence of competition for
holdings was no temporary thing, due to the high mortality of the
years 1348-1350, but was chronic, and was based upon the worthlessness
of the land. The vacant tenements of the fourteenth century, the
reduction in the area of demesne land planted, the complaints that no
profit could be made from tillage, the reduction of rents on account
of the poverty of whole villages, a