登陆注册
5252000000098

第98章

A most important feature of the mediaeval system of tillage was its compulsory character. The several tenants, even when freeholders, could not manage their plots at their own choice.(15*) The entire soil of the township formed one whole in this respect, and was subjected to the management of the entire village. The superior right of the community found expression in the fact that the fields were open to common use as pasture after the harvest, as well as in the regulation of the modes of farming and order of tillage by the township. Even the lord himself had to conform to the customs and rules set up by the community, and attempts to break through them, although they become frequent enough at the close of the thirteenth century, and especially in the fourteenth, are met by a resistance which sometimes actually leads to litigation.(16*) The freeholders alone have access to the courts, but in practice the entire body of the tenantry is equally concerned. The passage towards more efficient modes of cultivation was very much obstructed by these customary rules as to rotation of crops, which flow not from the will and interest of single owners, but from the decision of communities.

The several plots and holdings do not lie in compact Ipatches, but are formed of strips intermixed with each other. The so-called open-field system has been treated so exhaustively and with such admirable clearness by Seebohm, that I need not detain my readers in order to discuss it at length. I shall merely take from the Eynsham Cartulary the general description of the arable of Shifford, Oxon. It consists of several furlongs or areas, more or less rectangular in shape; each furlong divided into a certain number of strips (seliones), mostly half an acre or a rood (quarter acre) in width; some of these strips get shortened, however (seliones curtae), or sharpened (gorae), according to the shape of the country. At right angles with the strips in the fields lie the 'headlands' (capitales), which admit to other strips when there is no special road for the purpose.(17*) When the area under tillage abuts against some obstacles, as against a highway, a river, a neighbouring furlong, the strips are stunted (buttae). Every strip is separated from the next by balks on even ground, and linches on the steep slopes of a hill. The holding of a peasant, free or villain, has been appropriately likened to a bundle of these strips of different shapes, the component parts of which lie intermixed with the elements of other holdings in the different fields of the township. There is e.g. in the Alvingham Cartulary a deed by which John Aysterby grants to the Priory of Alvingham in Lincolnshire his villain Robert and half a bovate of land.(18*) The half-bovate is found to consist of twelve strips west of Alvingham and sixteen strips east of the village; the several plots lie among similar plots owned by the priory and by other peasants. The demesne land of the priory is also situated not in compact areas, but in strips intermixed with those of the tenantry, in the 'communal fields' according to the phraseology of our documents.

Such a distribution of the arable seems odd enough. It led undoubtedly to very great inconvenience in many ways: it was difficult for the owner to look after his property in the several fields, and to move constantly from one place to another for the purposes of cultivation. A thrifty husbandman was more or less dependent for the results of his work on his neighbours, who very likely were not thrifty. The strips were not always measured with exactness,(19*) and our surveys mention curious misunderstandings in this respect: it happens that as much as three acres belonging to a particular person get mislaid somehow and cannot be identified.(20*) It is needless to say that disputes among the neighbours were rendered especially frequent by the rough way of dividing the strips, and by the cutting up of the holdings into narrow strips involving a very long line of boundary. And still the open-field system, with the intermixed strips, is quite a prevalent feature of mediaeval husbandry all over Europe. It covers the whole area occupied by the village community; it is found in Russia as well as in England.

Before we try to find an explanation for it, I shall call the attention of the reader to the following tale preserved by an ancient survey of Dunstable Priory. I think that the record may suggest the explanation with the more authority as it will proceed from well-established facts and not from suppositions.(21*) The story goes back to the original division of the land belonging to the Wahull manor by the lords de Wahull and de la Lege. The former had to receive two-thirds of the manor and the latter one-third: a note explains this to mean, that one had to take twenty knight-fees and the other ten. The lord de Wahull took all the park in Segheho and the entire demesne farm in 'Bechebury'. As a compensation for the surrender of rights on the part of his fellow parcener, he ordered the wood and pasture called Northwood to be measured, as also the neighbouring wood called Churlwood. He removed all the peasants who lived in these places, and had also the arable of Segheho measured, and it was found that there were eight hides of villain land. Of these eight hides one-fourth was taken, and it was reckoned that this fourth was an equivalent to the one-third of the park and of the demesne farm, which ought by right to have gone to the lord de la Lege.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 丑颜毒妃:弃嫁修罗王

    丑颜毒妃:弃嫁修罗王

    她是异世的一缕孤魂,重生于这个相府弃子的身上,她无心权势,一心留恋江湖。可是上天却偏偏要给她开一个玩笑。他好不容易将她钳制住,一脸溺爱的说:“娘子,别逃了!你可是伪装成小白兔的大灰狼,现在要发挥你小白兔的本性!”
  • 关山飞渡:1962年的中国

    关山飞渡:1962年的中国

    从1957年至1966年,是我国全面建设社会主义的十年,也是正确与错误两种倾向都在发展的十年。正确的方面表现为对国民经济的调整大见成效,经过五年的调整,1962年之后的一段时间成为共和国经济发展比较好的时期之一。以“两弹一星”为代表的科学技术和国防工业也取得长足进展。“我们赖以进行现代化建设的物质技术基础,很大一部分是这个时期建设起来的”(《关于建国以来党的若干历史问题的决议》)。错误的方面集中表现为阶级斗争理论进一步发展,最终导向“文化大革命”这一全民族的灾难。这两者是互相矛盾的,但矛盾暂时被控制在一定范围内了。历史的复杂性,为我们展现了曲折的发展轨迹。
  • 汉晋春秋

    汉晋春秋

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 张廷竹中篇小说选:江南梅雨天

    张廷竹中篇小说选:江南梅雨天

    《江南梅雨天——张廷竹中篇小说选》收录了5部中篇小说,其中三部是作者纪实性的人生经历。既有对现实生活的感悟,又有对历史的忠实记录;既有对淳朴的劳动人民的赞美与歌颂,又有对社会转型期的思考。因其创作了众多的优秀作品,张廷竹被评为“时代激流的忠实记录者”。
  • 深爱你的方式

    深爱你的方式

    贴近生活的都市言情,无穿越无空间无超能力。英语老师深念想在遇见赵总监之前,她觉得自己的人生平凡,但仍需继续努力。部门总监赵晨初在遇见沈老师之前,他的事业就是生活,工作和业绩将伴他一生。行动派沈老师的一个帖子,拯救的不仅仅是赵总监饱受摧残的胃。更多的,是他那颗冷漠的心被开启了悸动模式。“念念。”两个叠字唇齿相依。“晨初。”你的名字将伴我终身。深爱有你,此生不悔一句话总结:这是一个发现爱、接受爱、为爱共同努力的现实故事。小甜饼说来就来,成长考验缺一不可。贴近现实生活的设定,让你在茫茫人海里一定能遇见相似的爱情。来自新人作者饭不羁的诚意之作。存稿十足,坑品有保证。
  • 清末民初北京国民道德建设的社会文化史考察

    清末民初北京国民道德建设的社会文化史考察

    的现代化,即敦促教育国民由传统臣民向现代公民转变,是近一百多年来政府和社会各界都很关心也都在推动的社会大课题。清末民初的北京,作为全国观瞻所系的“首善之区”,在由传统帝都向民国首都转型的过程中,强力发起了从散漫、保守的传统“臣民”道德向具有公共意识与社会责任的现代“国民”道德转型的社会教化运动。这场运动明面上是伦理道德范畴的现代转型,实质上却是清末民初北京文化权力关系(传播谁的道德)、文化阶层关系(谁对谁传播道德)及文化社会关系(怎样传播道德)的深刻综合反映。
  • 第二十二科

    第二十二科

    诡异病毒的流行,让城市的人处在基因污染的边缘;异化的身体放大了心中的恶念,一宗宗可怕的案件背后,是一场没有归途的人性实验。一个新的部门因此成立,为了阻止这阴谋和罪恶。“我们局算上工会、老干部科等杂七杂八的部门,一共有二十一个科室。既然新加了一个,就叫第二十二科吧。”
  • 王爷快到碗里来

    王爷快到碗里来

    她成了他的妃,却被无情打入冷宫,他最心爱的女人受到了一丝丝伤害,都要怪到她的身上,当他想真心对待她时,却又看到心爱女人的伤心,无情的鞭打,冷默的折磨,她被他人救起,而他又能做些什么?
  • 串雅内外编

    串雅内外编

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 天使之泪

    天使之泪

    “我只睡一下下……一下下就好……千万不要被发现……我好累……好累……”唐冰琳一边默念着,一边闭上眼睛,靠在K房的沙发上,很快睡着了。昏黄的灯光投射下来,令她那咖啡色的眼影变成了珍珠色,桃红色的唇彩变成了淡粉色。尽管这间K房因为没有闭路设备,早在三个月前就被停用了,但唐冰琳还是非常担心。她就在自己的担忧和喃喃自语中睡着了。这时的唐冰琳并不知道,当她从短暂的小憩中醒来时,灾难就会降临。