The world of the small farmer : tenure, profit and politics in the early modern Somerset Levels / Patricia Croot.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Croot, Patricia, author.

Contributor:

Charles J. Stille Fund.

Series:

Studies in regional and local history (Hertfordshire, England) ; v. 15.

Studies in regional and local history ; Volume 15

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Agriculture--Economic aspects--Great Britain--History.

Agriculture.

Rural development--England--Somerset Levels--History.

Rural development.

Land tenure--England--Somerset Levels--History.

Land tenure.

History.

Agriculture--Economic aspects.

Somerset Levels (England)--History.

Somerset Levels (England).

England--Somerset Levels.

Great Britain.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

226 pages : maps ; 26 cm.

Place of Publication:

Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK : University of Hertfordshire Press, 2017.

Summary:

This detailed and original study of early-modern agrarian society in the Somerset Levels examines the small landholders in a group of sixteen contiguous parishes in the area known as Brent Marsh. These were farmers with lifehold tenures and a mixed agricultural production whose activities and outlook are shown to be very different from that of the small 'peasant' farmers of so many general histories. Patricia Croot challenges the idea that small farmers failed to contribute to the productivity and commercialisation of the early-modern economy. While the emergence of large capitalist farms was an important development, these added to the production of existing small cultivators, rather than replacing them. The idea that only large-scale, specialized farmers were involved in agricultural progress, or that their contribution alone was enough to account for the great increase in food production by the late seventeenth century is questioned; small farmers continued to make a living, contributed to the market, and survived alongside the new, bigger farms. Croot's in-depth study not only adds to our knowledge of agrarian society generally, but shows that far from being backward and interested primarily in subsistence farming, small producers in this area sought profit in making the best use of their resources, however limited, being flexible in their production and growing new or unusual crops. The main land tenures, copy and lease for lives, are also covered in detail, contributing to current debates on landholding and sub-tenancy. The author shows the uses to which lifehold tenures could be put, resulting in the increasing financial strength of copyholders and their dominance in local society. The effects of the tenure and profits of farming can be seen in the way that families were provided for, as well as in the roles that women played and the responsibility they had in economic and social life, while the wider interests of the inhabitants are shown in their religious and political engagement in events of the seventeenth century. Patricia Croot's meticulous study is a valuable contribution to English agrarian history, and in particular to the history of this under-researched region. Book jacket.

Contents:

The Brent Marsh parishes and their inhabitants

Landholding and local society

Making a living from the land

Family and inheritance in Brent Marsh

Wealth, society and national politics

Small farmers and early modern agriculture : an obstacle to change or a commercial contribution?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 202-216) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Charles J. Stille Fund.

ISBN:

9781909291874

9781909291867

1909291862

1909291870

OCLC:

966487331

Publisher Number:

99975432196