Land markets and the morcellation of holdings in Pre-Plague England and Pre-Famine Ireland

Climate and famines: a historical reassessment

“…81,82 This figure was too high to be sustained, given the scarcity of landed resources, and, as recent research has shown, over 50% of the population were living well below the poverty line. 83 Similarly, the signs of overpopulation and poverty were apparent in parts of the Low Countries (where the population levels reached about 2 million c.1300) and northern France. 84 In 1845, on the eve of the outbreak of potato blight (an event which appears to have been precipitated by extremely wet summer weather) there were some 8.5 million people living in Ireland.…”

“…Similarly, the signs of overpopulation and poverty were apparent in parts of the Low Countries (where the population levels reached about 2 million c.1300) and northern France . In 1845, on the eve of the outbreak of potato blight (an event which appears to have been precipitated by extremely wet summer weather) there were some 8.5 million people living in Ireland . Just as England, the Low Countries and northern France in the early 14th century, Ireland c.1845 was a classic Malthusian society, with over three‐fourths of the population holding little or no land .…”

“…84 In 1845, on the eve of the outbreak of potato blight (an event which appears to have been precipitated by extremely wet summer weather) there were some 8.5 million people living in Ireland. 85 Just as England, the Low Countries and northern France in the early 14th century, Ireland c.1845 was a classic Malthusian society, with over three-fourths of the population holding little or no land. 85 In the case of both early 14th-century northwestern Europe and early 19th-century Ireland, the share of poor and landless people grew much faster than the population as a whole.…”

“…At the time of the failed harvest of 1315, the first of the three back‐to‐back harvest shortfalls, the population of England might have been in the area of some 4.75–5.25 million people, with various estimates currently vary between 4 and 6 million . This figure was too high to be sustained, given the scarcity of landed resources, and, as recent research has shown, over 50% of the population were living well below the poverty line . Similarly, the signs of overpopulation and poverty were apparent in parts of the Low Countries (where the population levels reached about 2 million c.1300) and northern France .…”

Impediments to expropriation. Peasant property rights in medieval England and Marcher Wales

“…22 Bruce Campbell, in a recent publication, has noted that, faced with morcellation and the impoverishment of their tenantry, medieval landlords in the decades either side of 1300 were not inclined to 'improve' their estates through eviction. 23 In fact, pre-plague landlords in medieval England were generally protective of the status quo and either fought hard to preserve the integrity of units of tenanted land, and in particular in this instance customary or unfree land, by restricting rights of alienation and sub-division or, where land had succumbed to a market in land, to control alienation through their own private jurisdictions (manorial courts) and enjoy the benefits of entry fines exacted there. 24 It is in those regions, as in parts of eastern England, where a land market in customary as well as free land had begun to develop by the thirteenth century, that we might seek signs of expropriation in the pre-plague period, and we will return to this in a later section of this paper.…”