ABSTRACT
The serfs, as well as the free small proprietors, held land under very different tenures, and were therefore emancipated under very different economic conditions. In England the first form of the farmer is the bailiff, himself a serf. During the second half of the 14th century he is replaced by a farmer, whom the landlord provides with seed, cattle and implements. The usurpation of the common lands allowed him to augment greatly his stock of cattle, almost without cost they yielded him a richer supply of manure for the tillage of the soil. The progressive fall in the value of the precious metals, and therefore of money, brought the farmers golden fruit. The continuous rise in the price of the corn, wool, meat, in a word of all agricultural produce, swelled the money capital of the farmer without any action on his part, whilst the rent he paid diminished in reality.
