THE VILLAGE LAND MARKET ON THE ST. ALBANS MANORS OF PARK AND CODICOTE: 1237-1399 (ENGLAND, ECONOMIC, HISTORY)

The land market has been recognized as an important part of the economy and society of the medieval English peasantry, yet it has not been the focus of a comprehensive research effort. Although it has found theorists and gotten some attention in estate and place studies, it is important enough to merit closer attention.;This dissertation is an analysis of the land transfers recorded in the court books of the two Hertfordshire manors of Park and Codicote which belonged to the abbey of St. Albans. The information contained in the land transfers was coded into machine readable form for analysis by computer.;The analysis considers the effects of seignorial control, custom, population, and the development of agricultural markets on the evolution of the land market. Seignorial control over the land market solidified in the 13th century through the use of wording in transfers which clearly labeled the participants as villeins. This control was motivated by the legal and political need of the abbey to maintain villeinage, and only later for revenue. Customary law served to secure the tenure of transferred land through the use of formula and principles borrowed from common law. Nonetheless, the transmission of land along family lines remained important. Population was the most important force behind long term movements in the land market as the frequency of transfers, the volume of land, type of land, and land values varied systematically with population trends. Short term variations were caused by variations in the productivity of the land, and not by the market values of agricultural produce. On the whole, the trends indicate that the land market at these two places was compatible with the values and behavior of a peasant society and cannot be considered indicative of its breakdown.