Landlords and Tenants in Britain, 1440-1660: Tawney's Agrarian Problem Revisited (People, Markets, Goods: Economies and Societies in History) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843838508 ISBN 13: 9781843838500

Publisher: Boydell Press, 2013

Synopsis

This volume revisits a classic book by a famous historian: R.H. Tawney's Agrarian Problem in the Sixteenth Century (1912). Tawney's Agrarian Problem surveyed landlord-tenant relations in England between 1440 and 1660, the period of emergent capitalism and rapidly changing property relations that stands between the end of serfdom and the more firmly capitalist system of the eighteenth century. This transition period is widely recognised as crucial to Britain's long term economic development, laying the foundation for the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century. Remarkably, Tawney's book has remained the standard text on landlord-tenant relations for over a century. Here, Tawney's book is re-evaluated by leading experts in agrarian and legal history, taking its themes as a departure point to provide for a new interpretation of the agrarian economy in late Tudor and early modern Britain. The introduction looks at how Tawney's Agrarian Problem was written, its place in the historiography of agrarian England and the current state of research. Survey chapters examine the late medieval period, a comparison with Scotland, and Tawney's conception of capitalism, whilst the remaining chapters focus on four issues that were central to Tawney's arguments: enclosure disputes, the security of customary tenure; the conversion of customary tenure to leasehold; and other landlord strategies to raise revenues. The balance of power between landlords and tenants determined how the wealth of agrarian England was divided in this crucial period of economic development - this book reveals how this struggle was played out.

About this title

Review:

A thought-provoking collection. EH.NET

The book's overall achievement is to nuance many of the views and arguments of Tawney while simultaneously exploring current and future questions in early modern agrarian history. LANDSCAPE HISTORY

About the Author:

JANE WHITTLE is professor of rural history at Exeter University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Boydell Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1843838508
• ISBN 13: 9781843838500
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Whittle Jane