294 AGRICULTURE [HISTORICAL Middle highly penal to kill oue of these birds, or to set foot on the ages- islands at breeding time. The Spaniards thus obtained possession of two good patrimonies, and have wasted them both. The influence of the crusades upon the agriculture of this period is not to be overlooked. The dreadful oppression of the feudal system received at that time a shock most favourable to the liberties of man, and, with increasing liberty, more enlightened ideas began to be entertained, and greater attention to be paid to the cultivation of the soil. Condition But, during this long interval, the population of Europe >f labour. was divided i u to two great classes, of which by far the larger one was composed of bondmen, without property, or the power of acquiring it, and small tenants, very little superior to bondmen ; and the other class, consisting chiefly of the great barons and their retainers, was more frequently employed in laying waste the fields of their rivals than in improving their own. The superstition of the times, which destined a large portion of the land to the support of the church, and which, in some measure, secured it from predatory incursions, was the principal source of what little skill and industry were then displayed in the cultivation of the soil. " If we consider the ancient state of Europe," says Mr Hume, 1 "we shall find that the far greater part of society were everywhere bereaved of their personal liberty, and lived entirely at the will of their masters. Every one that was not noble was a slave ; the peasants were not in a better condition ; even the gentry themsolves were sub jected to a long train of subordination under the greater barons, or chief vassals of the crown, who, though seemingly placed in a high state of splendour, yet, having but a slender protection from law, were exposed to every tempest of the state, and by the precarious condition on which they lived, paid dearly for the power of oppressing and tyrannis ing over their inferiors/ " The villains were entirely occupied in the cultivation of their master s land, and paid their rents either in corn or cattle, and other produce of the farm, or in servile offices, which they performed about the baron s family, and upon farms which he retained in his own possession. In proportion as agriculture improved and money increased, it was found that these services, though extremely burdensome to the villain, were of little advantage to the master ; and that the produce of a large estate could be much more conveniently disposed of by tho peasants themselves who raised it, than by the landlord or his bailiff, who were formerly accustomed to receive it. A commutation was therefore made of rents for services, and of money-rents for those in kind ; and as men in a subse quent age discovered that farms were bett er cultivated where the fanner enjoyed security in his possession, the practice of granting leases to the peasant began to prevail, which entirely broke the bonds of servitude, already much relaxed from the former practices. The latest laws which we find in England for enforcing or regulating this species of servitude were enacted in the reign of Henry VII. And though the ancient statutes cu this subject remain still uurepealed by Parliament, it appears that before the end of Elizabeth the distinction between villain and freeman was totally, though insensibly, abolished, and that no person remained in the state to whom the former laws could be applied." 3arly But long before the 15th century, it is certain that eases. there was a class of tenants holding on leases for lives, or for a term of years, and paying a rent in land produce, in services, or in money. Whether they gradually sprung up from the class of bondmen, according to Lord Kames, 2 or 1 History of England, chap, xxiii. 8 Kames s Law Tracts. existed from the earliest period of the feudal constitution, Middle according to other writers, 3 their number cannot be supposed :l :-ves. to have been considerable during the middle ages. The stock which these tenants employed in cultivation com monly belonged to the proprietor, who received a proportion of the produce as rent, a system which still exists in France and in other parts of the Continent, where such tenants are called metayers, and some vestiges . of which may yet be traced in the steel-bow of the law of Scotland. Leases of the 13th century still remain, 4 and both the laws and chartularies 5 clearly prove the existence in Scotland of a class of cultivators distinct from the serfs or bondmen. Yet the condition of these tenants seems to h .ive been very different from that of the tenants of the present day; and the lease approached nearer in its form to a feu-charter than to the mutual agreement now in use. It was of the nature of a beneficiary grant by the proprietor, under certain conditions, and for a limited period; the consent of the tenant seems never to have been doubted. In the common expression "granting a lease," we have retained an idea of the original character of the deed, even to the present time. The corn crops cultivated during this period seem to have Crops, been of the same species, though all of them probably much inferior in quality to what they are in the present day. Wheat, the most valuable grain, must have borne a small proportion, at least in Britain, to that of other crops ; the remarkable fluctuation of price, its extreme scarcity, indi cated by the extravagant rate at which it was sometimes sold, as well as the preparatory cultivation required, may convince us that its consumption was confined to the higher orders, and that its growth was by no means extensive. Rye and oats furnished the bread and drink of the great body of the people of Europe. Cultivated herbage and roots were then unknown in the agriculture of Britain. It was not till the end of the reign of Henry VIII. that any salads, carrots, or other edible roots were produced in England. The little of these vegetables that was used was formerly imported from Holland and Flanders. Queen Catherine, when she wanted a salad, was obliged to despatch a messenger thither on purpose. 6 The ignorance and insecurity of those ages, which neces sarily confined the cultivation of corn to a comparatively small portion of country, left all the rest of it in a state of nature, to be depastured by the inferior animals, then only occasionally subjected to the care and control of man. Cultivators were crowded together in miserable hamlets ; the ground contiguous was kept continually under tillage ; and beyond this, wastes and woodlands of a much greater extent were appropriated to the maintenance of their flocks and herds, which pastured indiscriminately, with little attention from their owners. The low price of butcher-meat, though it was then the food of the common people, when compared with the price of corn, has been justly noticed by several writers as a decisive proof of the small progress of civilisation and industry. One of the earliest and greatest agricultural grievances Purvey was the levying of Purveyance. This originally compre- ancc - hended the necessary provisions, carriages, itc., which the nearest farmers were obliged to furnish at the current prices to the king s armies, houses, and castles, in time of war. It was called the great purveyance, and the officers who collected those necessaries were called purveyors. The smaller purveyance included the necessary provisions for the household of the king when travelling through the 3 Bell s Treatise on Leases. 4 Sir John Cullum s History and Antiquities of IfawsUd (Su/blk). 5 Chalmers Caledonia, book iv. c. 6.
8 Hume s History of England, chap, xxiii.
