The English Economy from Bede to the Reformation

This book consists of a collection of articles on social and economicthemes which range from a discussion of the social scene in the seventhcentury into which Bede was born, to an analysis of the inevitablelimitations of farming development in the sixteenth century. There is an article which attempts, yet again, to shed more light upon what contemporaries expected Domesday Book to reveal; and others which tackle problems raised by the workings of the manorin the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The beneficent consequences of the Black Death upon the fortunes of those who lived in town and country are considered in a short series of essays which analyse such problems as economic conditions before the Black Death; the extraordinary failure of the Black Death to make any serious impact upon the economy for a generation after its arrival; and the thriving of the towns as numbers fell in the kingdom but individual incomes rose. Of special interest is an exciting new discovery about Domesday Book relating to Domesday assessments of manorial income, which merits careful reading and further investigation.A.R. BRIDBURYtaught at the London School of Economics, where he ran the medieval section of the economic history department for many years.