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Arable Productivity in Medieval England: Some Evidence from Norfolk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2009

Bruce M. S. Campbell
Affiliation:
lecturer in the Department of Geography, The Queen's University of Belfast, BT7 INN, Northern Ireland.

Abstract

Statistics on crop yields for the period 1268–1430 from 62 demesnes in the eastern half of Norfolk are used to demonstrate a new method of measuring arable productivity. The method takes into account seeding rates, the frequency of cropping, and the relative importance of the different crops grown, and it acknowledges the existence of different farming regions. Within eastern Norfolk two such regions are shown to have existed, which cut right across estate affiliations and had radically different productivities. The wider implications of these findings are then discussed.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1983

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References

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