The Development of Agrarian Capitalism: Land and Labour in Norfolk 1440-1580

Jane Whittle's examination of rural England in the 15th and 16th centuries asks how capitalist it was, and how and why it changed over 150 years. She relates ideas of peasant society and capitalism to a local study of north-east Norfolk, one of the crucibles of the agrarian revolution.
Jane Whittle's examination of rural England in the 15th and 16th centuries asks how capitalist it was, and how and why it changed over the century and a half under scrutiny. Her book relates ideas of peasant society and capitalism to a local study of north-east Norfolk, a county that was to become one of the crucibles of the so-called agrarian revolution. Dr Whittle uses the rich variety of historical sources produced by this precocious commercialized locality to examine a wide range of topics from the manorial system and serfdom, rights to land and the level of rent, the land market and inheritance, to the distribution of land and wealth, the numbers of landless, wage-earners, and rural craftsmen, servants, and the labour laws.