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The Late Medieval Countryside: England's Rural Economy and Society, 1275–1500
Author(s) -
Routt David
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/hic3.12061
Subject(s) - agrarian society , peasant , famine , capitalism , historical demography , population , historiography , history , poverty , middle ages , rural history , sociology , economy , economic history , social science , rural area , economic growth , agriculture , political science , archaeology , economics , politics , demography , law , research methodology
Abstract Late medieval England's rural economy and society remain the focus of energetic and creative study by historians. Punctuated by demographic catastrophes such as the Great Famine and the Black Death, England's late Middle Ages serves as a virtual laboratory for analysis of historical change as scholars trace the unraveling of the manorial socioeconomic arrangements and the emergence of a brand of agrarian capitalism. To make sense of a wealth of royal and local sources, scholars employ a range of theoretical approaches drawn from economics, namely a population‐and‐resources model, a neo‐Marxist thesis, and a commercialization hypothesis, among others. Sociological approaches are also found in the late medievalist's analytical toolbox. Current research particularly focuses on the excavation of lord–peasant relations, the nature of the peasantry's agriculture, and the relative affluence and poverty of the late medieval peasant.