managing the food shocks of the great transition: flemish...
TRANSCRIPT
Managing the Food Shocks of the Great Transition: Flemish
Cities and the Food Crises of the Fourteenth Century
Stef Espeel & Tim Soens – University of Antwerp*
CONGRESS PAPER: Economic History Association Meeting, Montréal 7-9 Sept. 2018
Very preliminary version.
Abstract
Recent research once again framed the fourteenth century as the century of environmental
shocks and systemic transitions. This paper will focus on the rapid succession of urban
‘food shocks’ before, during and after the 1348 Black Death. The major Flemish Cities
provide a unique context to investigate the origins, the impact and the consequences of
the Great Shocks of the 14th century. Based on new and exciting price series for the major
cities of Bruges, Lille, Douai and Cambrai, we will not only be able to reconstruct
divergences in the impact of the food shocks of the 14th century, but also to question the
role of large urban landowners in the management and ‘production’ of these food crises. In
order to do so, we aim to compare the grain economy of urban hospitals and ecclesiastical
landlords in a period of relative price stability before the Black Death (1330-1338) on the
one hand and periods of price instability and food shocks both before (1339-1342) and after
(1350-54; 1360-61) the Black Death, on the other hand. Such enquiry will allow a better
understanding of both the causal mechanisms behind these food crises and the way major
urban landlords handled and sometimes co-produced these crises.
* Stef Espeel, University of Antwerp. Email: [email protected]. Prof. Dr. Tim Soens,
University of Antwerp. Email: [email protected]. This research project “Shock Cities”
(2016-2020), carried out by the former author, is funded by FWO-Flanders and is supervised by
prof. dr. Tim Soens (University of Antwerp) and prof. dr. Alexis Wilkin (Université Libre de
Bruxelles).
1. Introduction
In his recent The Great Transition, Bruce Campbell provides a powerful argument
for the existence of a profound rupture between the ‘enabling environment’ of the Medieval
Warm Period, and the more challenging Little Ice Age Conditions.1 Once again, the 14th
century becomes the century of shocks and systemic transition, with the 1348 Black Death
as the most disruptive episode, though still an episode which is profoundly embedded in a
broader context of environmental instability and societal vulnerability. Confronted with
the ‘wrath of nature’, 14th century European society might occur rather vulnerable and
powerless. Nevertheless, people continuously reacted, adapted and co-produced
environmental shocks and challenges, and the diversity in reactions to the great shocks of
the 14th century might reveal part of the causal mechanisms behind them. In this paper
the focus is not on food prices, but we aim to see if and how, hospitals and ecclesiastical
landlords, as major grain producers and collectors, sellers and consumers, reacted to food
prices or even shaped the food prices, via their agricultural policies, their market
behaviour, their consumption and power over producers. Focussing on their economic
management during the fourteenth century “food shocks”, will make it possible to
understand the part they played in the mitigation or perhaps the increase of the effect
that those shocks had on the access to food for the urban population. The involvement of
these landowners in speculation and preferential trade2 could have hampered the
capability of urban populations to recover from any exogenous shocks.
According to David Stone, ecclesiastical landlords in East Anglia often reacted on
a year-to-year basis to changes in market conditions, harvest qualities or financial
constraints3, and the aggregate result of these individual adaptations and decisions might
be an important element in the production or mitigation of food crises. Do we also see
consistent adaptations in the grain policies of large landlords in Flanders in periods of
price shocks, and if so in which direction? Based on the available literature, three possible
strategies could be discerned. First, adaptations and interventions could have been mainly
direct toward profit maximization. After all, these landlords saw an influx of large
quantities of grain. A clever reading of the market could yield massive financial profits in
times of scarcity, turning the crisis into an opportunity. Of course, accusations of hoarding
1 B.M.S. CAMPBELL, The Great Transition: Climate, Disease and Society in the Late-Medieval
World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016). 2 P. SLAVIN, “Market Failure during the Great Famine in England and Wales (1315-1317)”,
Past and Present 222, n° 1 (2014), pp. 24-34. 3 D. STONE, Decision making in medieval agriculture (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).
3
and speculation might be raised. Convincing evidence for such behaviour would allow to
interpret the food crises mainly as a crisis of allocation, a decline in food entitlement rather
than food availability, in the terminology of Amartya Sen.4
Or were adaptations rather directed towards policies of provisioning, i.e.
guaranteeing the stability of both income and food supply of the landlord in a longer term.
Such reaction would mostly aim at shielding the landlord from the impact of the food crisis,
and guaranteeing the long-term sustainability of its grain supply. In the in many respect
unstable climate of the 14th century many ecclesiastical landlords, or elite households, first
of all aimed to guarantee a stable food supply, also in times of crisis. This might induce
them to sacrifice part of the potential gains from commercialisation and profit making.5
Thirdly, provisioning policies might not be limited to the food provisioning of the
landlord, but might turn into broader considerations of a moral order, in which the
ecclesiastical or noble landlord tried to shield his social environment from the impact of
the food crisis. Such moral economy in the tradition of E.P. Thompson, could be visible
through increased food distributions (or the sale of grain in small quantities at prices lower
than the market price), but also a lenient attitude towards peasants and farmers for
instance through reductions in rent or the postponements of payments.6
Alternatively, it is possible that adaptations happened but in inconsistent ways,
showing great variety between food crises and/or between landlords. On the one hand, this
might indicate the role of actual decision making by estate managers and financial
administrators, allowing some role for individual ‘choices’ or even individual
‘entrepreneurship’ amidst all the constraints of a medieval manorial economy. On the
other hand, it might reflect a more passive attitude on behalf of the landlord, merely
absorbing the shock.
Adaptations to a food crisis can be found in different domains, four of which will be
discussed in this paper. To start off, the production-side of this story is a crucial one.
Compared to England, manorial lords in the 14th century Low Countries were less actively
4 A. SEN, Poverty and Famines. An essay on entitlement and deprivation (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1981). 5 P. SLAVIN, Bread and Ale for the Brethren: the Provisioning of Norwich Cathedral Priory,
1260-1536 (Hertfordshire: Hertfordshire University Press, 2012), p. 189. 6 E.P. THOMPSON, “The moral economy of the English crowd in the Eighteenth Century”, Past
and Present 50 (1971), pp. 76-136. On solidarity in times of crisis within the village community, see
P. SCHOFIELD, “The social economy of the medieval village in the early fourteenth century”,
Economic History Review 61 (n°1, 2008), pp. 38-63. Schofield found little evidence of ‘supportive’
interventions by the village elite in times of food crisis.
4
engaged in demesne farming. However, sever ecclesiastical landlords – especially urban
hospitals, but also abbeys – still retained a considerable acreage reserved for direct
exploitation. On this demesne land, adaptations in crop choice, seeding density, amount
of labour etc. could be observed. Other than that, a lot of land was given out in leasehold,
which the peasants and farmers paid for in kind. These payments could have been done
in share hold, which could also be an indirect indicator for agricultural production.
A second domain which will be focussed upon is the consumption side. An landlord
might adapt its own food consumption in the light of a food crises, either in the type of food
consumed or in the quantities. Furthermore, part of the food consumption also went to
animals (horses, cattle, pigs). Especially in periods when the grass and hay harvest was
subnormal as well, humans and animals partly competed for the same foodstuffs (oats for
instance). Thirdly, adaptations might be visible in the commercialisation of the grain
stocks by the ecclesiastical landlord, either in quantities sold, the timing of the
transaction, the amounts sold per transaction, the price setting and the buyers.
Importantly, we can also investigate the grain stocks maintained by the landlord. Both
consumption and commercialisation hinge closely together, for – in most cases – if there
was an emphasis on the proper food consumption, less grain would have been sold and
vice versa.
Finally, the surplus extraction is also an important factor. Most of the grain
supplied to the landlord was levied as rent-in-kind, in different forms: customary (fixed)
rents, short-term leases in kind, or tithes. The rent burden was the result of a negotiation,
in which both the respective bargaining power of the lords and peasants, and the
prevailing market conditions mattered. In most cases however, rent arrangements were
set before the food shock set in, and tenants and peasants depended on the leniency of the
landlord, which could be more or less strict in observation of the payment, allowing
reductions and postponements or payment etc. The weight attributed by the landlord to a
sustainable, long-term relationship with its tenants might play an important role here.
The structure of the paper largely follows these four domains of adaptation, each with
their own variables and parameters that have been analysed for the five selected
landlords, if feasible. Following this introduction, the course of the grain prices throughout
the fourteenth century has to be highlighted as this is going to be the constant factor in
this narrative.
5
2. Price movements
In order to analyse some of the adaptations that landlords could have made
throughout dearth years or even during normal harvest years, a reliable price series is
necessary. Work has already been done on gathering and scrutinizing a huge amount of
price data from major ecclesiastical landlords (including urban hospitals) in four large
cities of Flanders: Bruges, Ghent, Lille and Douai.7 Cambrai was also included in the
analysis for comparison with a different political structure: an ecclesiastical lordship
neighbouring the south-western border of Flanders. All of those cities have left us valuable
account series of several ecclesiastical landlords like urban hospitals, abbeys and church
chapters. These landlords were all large players on the grain market, on the side of
production as well as on the side of commercialisation and extraction. And of course the
members of their ‘household’ needed to be fed. Wheat and oats were the two vital crops
managed by each of these landlords, many of which maintained a separate ‘grain account’
monitoring the flows of both cereals. Based on these grain accounts, it became possible to
construct a new price series for all five cities, covering the entire fourteenth century, and
in some cases the last decades of the thirteenth century.
This paper however, is not focussed on the food prices, but on the grain economy of
the large landlords. In Lille, Douai as well as in Cambrai, the accounts are much more
detailed concerning the income and expenses of different kinds of grain. Therefore, the
choice was made to focus on these tree cities and analyse the choices and adaptations
individual landlords in these cities made concerning those important flows of wheat and
oaths. For Lille the account scrolls of the hospital of Saint-Sauveur are used8, for Douai
the accounts of the grain office of the Abbey of Des Prés and the accounts of the hospital
of Wetz.9 The hospital of Saint-Julien and the community of chaplains of the chapter of
our Our Lady left the most usable series of accounts for Cambrai.10
Graph 1 shows the aggregated wheat price series for the three northern French
cities in grams of silver per hectolitres. The conversion to silver was necessary both to
compare different series and above all to counter the impressive monetary depreciation in
7 By the research project “Shock Cities” that the former author is working on at the
University of Antwerp (2016-2020). 8 LILLE, Archives Départementales du Nord (further: ADN), Archives Hospitalières (AH): VI,
E7-11. 9 LILLE, ADN, série 30 H: Abbaye Des Prés, n° 363 & DOUAI, Archives Municipales de Douai
(further: AMD), 2NC n° 1296-7, 1336-8. 10 LILLE, ADN, série 172 H: l’hôpital Saint-Julien, n° 53-63 & LILLE, ADN, série 4 G: Chapitre
Notre-Dame, n° 813-8; 6840-60.
6
this period.. Data is available from 1285 onwards, but silver values are only known on an
annual basis from 1330 onwards. Based on this graph, we selected a few test-case periods
in order to draw up a comparison between ‘dearth’ periods and ‘normal’ periods before and
after the Black Death..
Graph 1: The price of wheat in Lille, Douai and Cambrai (1330-1370) (grams of silver per hectolitres). (Source:
own database)
As relatively ‘calm’ or normal period before the Black Death the years between 1330
and 1338 were chosen. The wheat prices were not fluctuating as much as in later periods,
except in Lille in 1334. The second test-case period is an ‘unstable’ or dearth period before
the Black Death: the years between 1339 and 1342 From 1339 onwards the prices spiked
towards a peak in 1342. The years after the Black Death and the period 1359-1361 are
both unstable periods after the Black Death that were selected.1363-1365 were selected
as years of relative price stability. After the Black Death it becomes more complicated to
distinguish price spikes and years of relative price stability, given increased fluctuations,
and steadily rising prices (when converted to silver – the nominal prices show exponential
rises) in the period 1350-1370. For these sample periods, we scrutinized all income- and
expenses-in-kind of the five landlords mentioned above. In analysing those data, it will
become clear if and how landlords reacted in different ways on the price spikes and if their
management of grain flows changed in reaction to these price spikes.
0
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Wh
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Lille Douai Cambrai
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3. Fluctuations in grain income
Any possible changes in agricultural production should be visible in the total
income in kind that has been gathered from all sorts of grain. Since some of the landlords
still retain a considerable acreage for direct exploitation (demesne land), adaptations in
crop choice could be observed. A lot of land was also converted into leases-in-kind (in many
cases short-term leases and probably more often forms of share-cropping). Other than that,
the hospital Saint-Julien in Cambrai is the only landlord in our sample which also received
wheat and oaths from tithes. Usually, tithes are likewise a good indicator of agricultural
production and productivity.
Starting with a general overview of the total income of grain, this will give a first
impression of the magnitude of the cereal flows controlled by each landlord. Rather than
using the ‘income’ part of the grain accounts – which often included theoretical income
rather than actual income – we used the expenditures (sales, consumption etc.), which
indicate the amount of grain really available to each of the landlords in a given year. The
difference between theoretical and actual or realized income – debt and arrears – is used
below to investigate the relationship with their lease- and shareholders.
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
Saint-Sauveur Des Prés Wetz Our Lady Saint-Julien
8
Graph 2a-b: Total minimum income of grain-in-kind of the studied landlords. All quantities are in hectolitres.
The graph above (2a) depicts the income for wheat, the lower one (2b) for oats. (Source: own database)
A first observation in the graphs above, is the overall downward trend of the annual
grain income of all landlords (apart from the chapter of Our Lady in Cambrai). The abbey
Des Prés saw the clearest decline from 2212 hectolitres of wheat in 1330 to around 1200
hectolitres per year in the mid-1360’s. It also presented some huge swings downwards in
the years 1340, 1342, 1351 and 1360. We should first stress the impressive amount of
cereals collected by the Abbey: 2212 hectolitres of wheat is enough to feed about 600 adult
persons throughout the year (when assuming a daily consumption of one litre per person
per day). Secondly, it is important to note that this downward trend already started well
before the Black Death. If this trend was a sign of a structural contraction of the grain
economy in this part of Europe, the Black Death was not the cause of such contraction.
Other drivers, such as war – the region suffered from the start of the Hundred Years War
– ; the declining bargaining position of the landlords (versus the peasants) or perhaps the
repeated harvest failures themselves might have initiated the downwards trend in
agricultural production.
The grain that was received by Des Prés originated in part from direct exploitation,
but more than half was derived from leases and a small portion from customary fixed rents
that remained stable throughout these periods. On rare occasions, additional grain was
bought. This trend is followed by the hospital of Saint-Julien situated in Cambrai, which
got its grain from leases-in-kind, customary fixed rents and tithes, for wheat and for oats.
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400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
Saint-Sauveur Des Prés Wetz Our Lady Saint-Julien
9
This hospital did not engage in direct exploitation. Using the data of this landlord to draw
any conclusion will be hard, because they are mostly drawn from dearth years, so any
comparisons with normal years cannot be made. Therefore the data from Saint-Julien is
mainly used in comparison with the other landlords during dearth years. The other three
landlords all controlled smaller quantities of grain, with the chapter of Our Lady as the
one with the smallest grain income and the most fluctuating. This may be due to the fact
that the analysed accounts come from the community of chaplains and not from the ‘office
of grains’. Nonetheless, this community also had a lot of land at its disposal, which they
largely leased out for cash and leases-in-kind.
Lille Douai Cambrai
Wheat St-Sauveur Des Prés Wetz Our Lady St-Julien
Mean 571,49 1443,72 381,49 314,01 985,47
Median 521,46 1316,68 392,10 306,91 1071,55
SD 108,23 381,42 94,84 156,93 173,89
CV 0,19 0,26 0,25 0,50 0,18
IQR 151,21 539,12 138,36 311,79 137,07
Oats St-Sauveur Des Prés Wetz Our Lady St-Julien
Mean 253,26 989,33 259,81 204,87 818,70
Median 267,96 949,34 255,72 196,89 837,60
SD 131,50 202,23 51,65 85,46 174,70
CV 0,52 0,20 0,20 0,42 0,21
IQR 121,19 272,50 69,61 78,32 314,45
Table 1: Measures of variation for the minimum income of wheat and oats for the studied landlords (1330-
1365). The measures of variation above are: the mean, the median, the standard deviation, coefficient of
variation and the interquartile range. (Source: own database)
In the table above, the basic measures of variation are calculated for all series
depicted in the graphs concerning the minimum total income of the landlords mentioned.
The high means for the abbey Des Prés and the hospital Saint-Julien are not surprising –
this is already visible in both graphs, just like the high coefficients of variation of the
chapter of Our Lady. The latter almost solely got their grain from leases in kind, which
apparently resulted in a very high variation in income throughout these periods.
Nonetheless, the hospital of Saint-Julien also didn’t have any wheat or oats in direct
exploitation, but it got almost the same coefficient of variation as the one for Saint-
Sauveur (at least for wheat). This could be caused by the hampered amount of data for
10
Saint-Julien, or maybe because the hospital got their grain from a range of different
factors: leases, rents and tithes.
The coefficients of variation for the abbey Des Prés and the hospital of Wetz are
very similar, with both getting their grain partly from leases-in-kind and from direct
exploitation. The hospital of Saint-Sauveur got all their grain from direct exploitation
until 1359, with relatively low variation throughout the period. Interestingly, from 1359
onwards they switch half of their grain income from direct exploitation to short-term
leases-in-kind. This decision resulted in a stable disposable grain income remained stable
throughout the 1360’s (around 500 hl.), while at the same time saving on costs for sowing
and harvesting.
4. Consumption and commercialisation
The grain income of these large landlords served two goals: consumption (the
provisioning of the household with bread, beer and animal fodder) and commercialisation.
Both are highly intertwined: the higher the share of consumption, the lower the amount
which could be sold. First of all, the consumption rate of wheat and oats will be discussed,
followed by that for commercialisation. Thereafter both domains will be compared as well
as the strategies of the landlords in switching between sales and subsistence. Graph 3
shows the consumption of wheat for the selected sample periods and table 2 the measures
of variation.
Graph 3: The consumption of wheat per year (1330-1365) (hl.). (Source: own database)
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200
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600
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1200
Saint-Sauveur Des Prés Wetz Our Lady Saint-Julien
11
Lille Douai Cambrai
Wheat St-Sauveur Des Prés Wetz Our Lady St-Julien
Mean 188,96 812,42 177,18 62,07 315,32
Median 193,41 765,38 169,66 35,49 313,25
SD 32,14 105,88 51,36 56,89 60,19
CV 0,17 0,13 0,29 0,92 0,19
IQR 53,70 164,19 60,73 49,05 102,54
Oats St-Sauveur Des Prés Wetz Our Lady St-Julien
Mean N/A 699,51 134,99 N/A 250,64
Median N/A 636,83 116,34 N/A 243,50
SD N/A 171,01 49,85 N/A 67,68
CV N/A 0,24 0,37 N/A 0,27
IQR N/A 280,68 54,36 N/A 85,96
Table 2: Measures of variation for the consumption of wheat and oats for the studied landlords (1330-1365).
The measures of spread above are: the mean, the median, the standard deviation, correlation of variation and
the interquartile range. (Source: own database)
The consumption of wheat was remarkably stable throughout these periods for the
hospitals of Saint-Sauveur and Saint-Julien. With respectively a coefficient of variation
(CV) of 0,17 and 0,13 relatively few things changed if it comes to their own food supply.
For Des Prés, the basic quantity is going downwards, with serious dip noticeable for the
year 1340, following the shock of 1339. What stands out for the abbey is that together with
the low CV, the average consumption of wheat is at a staggering height of 812,42 hl. per
year, while the three hospitals only consumed 188,96 hl., 177,18 hl and 315,32 hl. per year.
According to Derville, a community of 240 people had to be fed in the abbey, which comes
down to an average consumption of 3,42 hl. wheat per year..11 In contrast with the relative
stability of the hospitals (and even the Abbey des Prés – in spite of the downward trend),
stands the food consumption of the community of chaplains of the chapter of Our Lady in
Cambrai. There the CV reaches a staggering 0,92. The average consumption is also low,
with only 62 hl. per year. Though looking at the graph above, this is primarily kept low
due to the earlier periods, because in the mid-1360’s it rises to 150-200 hl. per year which
matches the consumption of the hospitals. Perhaps this community started to look out for
11 A. DERVILLE, L’agriculture du Nord au Moyen Age: Artois, Cambrésis, Flandre wallonne
(Villeneuve d’Ascq: Presses universitaires de Septentrion, 1999), p. 136.
12
their own supply instead of relying on another office of the chapter, which is an interesting
fact in itself (see also the changes in agricultural production).
The hospital of Wetz, with a slightly lower average, knew a somewhat higher CV
(0,29). A serious depression occurred in 1360, where it fell with a factor 2,5 compared to
the previous year. During this year – of dearth - only 16,56% of the total expenses for
wheat went to the food provisioning of the hospital. Again, no data is available before 1350
which makes the comparison with the period before the Black Death an unfortunate
impossibility. For Saint-Julien, the crisis years of 1339, 1352 and 1361 saw a lower
consumption compared to the higher level in the 1330’s. The lack of any data during the
‘normal’ years hampers our understanding on why this was lower, since the grain
consumption in Saint-Julien could also show a stable decline instead of isolated
depressions.
Graph 4: The consumption of oats per year in three of the five selected landlords (1330-1365) (hl.). (Source:
own database)
Almost all consumption of oats went to animals. There are a few downward
movements (visible in graph 4) but traces that people and animals competed for oats –
especially in periods of dearth – are missing in the accounts. As already stated, in the
accounts of Saint-Sauveur and Our Lady there is no trace of any consumption of oats by
animals, but this does not mean that this was absent. At Des Prés the oats consumption
(for animals) was more fluctuating than the wheat consumption (for humans) (oats: CV
0,24). The consumption of oats at the Abbey des Prés saw a serious decline in the dearth
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Des Prés Wetz Saint-Julien
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years 1340 and 1350-51, whereas for wheat only the former year saw a decline. At Wetz,
the 1360 plunge in the consumption of wheat was also followed by that of oats, yet less
violently.
Stable consumption clearly was the first priority for most of these ecclesiastical
landlords and urban hospitals. As a rule, only the surplus was commercialised, and hence
the grain sales were much more fluctuating than the grain consumption. Take the abbey
of Des Prés for instance: the CV of the consumption of wheat was 0,13 and the one for the
sales of wheat rises to 0,81. Unfortunately, total income and expense of cash for the abbey
is not known, so the share of those sales in the total income of cash remains undisclosed.
Nevertheless the graph starts high, with the sale of 1016 hl. in 1330. Then it drops to an
average level of 200 to 400 hl. per year, but very fluctuating. The emphasis was put
primarily on their own provisioning. Gaining money from selling wheat clearly came
second; in dearth years like 1340-1342 and 1360, Des Prés with its huge income in grain,
hardly sold anything on the market. The implications are double: on the one hand, the
abbey did not seek to speculate on the market, on the other hand, by maintaining its own
(high) consumption levels, the abbey also withdrew grain from the market (hence
increasing shortages on the market).
Other landlords might pursue different policies. The hospital of Wetz – like Abbey
Des Prés in Douai – sold much less wheat, but these sales still accounted for an average
of 22,18% of its annual cash income. In 1330 the total amount of wheat sold was 262,44
hl. (41% of total wheat expense), which dropped to around 150 hl. in the years after the
Black Death (23-25% of total wheat expense). For the 1360’s consumption remained rather
stable. In 1365 it rose close to the average with a total sale of 133,38 hl.
On average, the hospital of Saint-Julien sold the highest amounts of wheat (and
oats). Since the last three data points for this hospital are crisis years, there is little to tell
about any adaptations. It is important to note that in 1339 there was a huge expense titled
in the accounts as “expenses for war”.12 This is almost surely to be linked to the siege of
Cambrai in 1339 by the king of England that lasted a few months. Only 131,84 hl. of wheat
was sold that year. This corresponded with only 16% of their cash income for that year,
against 22,5% on average.13 Warfare-related deliveries accounted for 50,07% of the total
12 This was also the case for expenses in the categories of oats and cash. It seems like these
expenses are mainly repayments of transactions that were due to the hospital, but were pardoned
that year. 13 Despite a high wheat price in 1339: 34,34 gr.silver/hl.
14
expenditure of wheat. It is also interesting to notice that during another price spike, the
one of 1352, almost 600 hl. was sold.14 In 1352, St Julien hence realized a substantial profit
through grain sales, amounting to35,11% of the total cash income. Conversely, during the
price spike of 1361, less grain was sold: 229,59 hl., only amounting to 10,11% of the total
cash income. While the total income of wheat stayed quasi-stable for 1339 and 1352
(1065,04 hl. and 926,26 hl.), it was substantially lower in 1361: 622,56 hl. So, in the former
years the hospital profited from a combination of normal grain supplies and high prices,
while in 1361 the harvest failure prevented the hospital from profiting from the price
spike.
Graph 5: The total amount of wheat sold per year for the five landlords (1330-1365) (hl.). (Source: own
database)
Lille Douai Cambrai
Wheat St-Sauveur Des Prés Wetz Our Lady St-Julien
Mean 345,35 372,60 132,93 236,07 432,58
Median 314,79 283,54 126,47 228,46 228,46
SD 96,15 300,72 57,10 149,48 149,48
CV 0,28 0,81 0,43 0,63 0,63
IQR 181,36 308,65 56,25 229,85 229,85
Oats St-Sauveur Des Prés Wetz Our Lady St-Julien
14 The average price for wheat in 1352 for Saint-Julien was calculated at 27,78 gr.silver/hl.,
which dropped to 14,29 gr.silver/hl. in the first months of 1353. Source: own database.
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
Saint-Sauveur Des Prés Wetz Notre-Dame Saint-Julien
15
Mean N/A 24,81 84,54 118,32 384,72
Median N/A 24,81 66,88 109,85 347,18
SD N/A 0,81 49,45 47,66 191,79
CV N/A 0,03 0,58 0,40 0,50
IQR N/A 0,81 48,21 48,29 173,62
Table 3: Measures of variation for the sale of wheat and oats for the studied landlords (1330-1365). The
measures of spread above are: the mean, the median, the standard deviation, correlation of variation and the
interquartile range. (Source: own database)
For the hospital of Saint-Sauveur – which also managed to keep its wheat
consumption at a stable level throughout the period and throughout the period, grain sales
were also very steady. Although the absolute amount of wheat still fluctuated a bit, the
CV is actually the lowest for all five institutions. If those absolute numbers are compared
to the minimum income of wheat, the relative amount that was sold never drops below
42%, which was in the crisis year of 1349-1350. On average, the sale of wheat accounted
for 60% of the total cash income for the hospital, reaching peaks of 74% and 71% in 1350
and 1351 (indicating that this hospital too, just like St Julien in Cambrai profited from
the post-Black Death crisis). For Saint-Sauveur, the grain sales were of vital importance,
and at the same time a stable amount of grain was needed for own consumption. The
hospital apparently managed to combine both objectives.
While the consumption of wheat by the community of chaplains of the chapter of
Our Lady in Cambrai was highly fluctuating, so were the grain sales. With a CV of 0,63
and an interquartile range almost equalling the mean those sales knew a lot of ups and
downs. Accordingly, the income in cash derived from wheat sales also juggled from very
low (7,35% and 5,06% in 1361 and 1364) to relatively high (47,27% in 1335, 45,74% in 1360
and 42,22% in 1338). For Our Lady in Cambrai, the profit from cereal sales mostly
dependent from the quantity of wheat supplied to the chapter, and much less on the price:
the correlation of income from grain sales with the total influx of grain was very high
(0,805, sig. 0,001), while the correlation with the prices was more limited ( only -0,366 (sig.
0,219)). For Our Lady, their commercialisation was primarily steered by the influx and
not the price of wheat.
For the commercialisation of oats, which was less frequently sold than wheat,
graph 6 shows the evolution for four out of five landlords. The hospital of Saint-Sauveur
in Lille never sold oats, since later on they even bought quantities of oats themselves,
probably to feed the cattle and horses they owned. The abbey Des Prés also sold hardly
16
any oats. They only did so in 1330 (25,63 hl.) and in 1349 (24 hl.). Hence, both institutions
are insignificant here.
Graph 6: The total amount of oats sold per year for the five landlords (1330-1365) (hl.). (Source: own database)
The hospital of Saint-Julien again sold the highest quantities of oats. During the
years 1337 and 1338 the quantity of oats sold exceeded the quantity of wheat. Nonetheless,
wheat still accounts for about twice the cash income from grain sales compared to oats.
The anomaly for the war-year of 1339 that was noticed for wheat also returns here. Only
57 hl. was sold that year (5,94% of the oats available and 3,73% of all cash incom.) No less
than 64,95% of oats expenses went to ‘war-costs’ that year, even higher than those for
wheat. Oat sales recovered in 1352, when large quantities were again sold (357,86 hl.) at
high prices. In 1361 they also sold a lot of oats (333,72 hl.) while price was equally high.
Due to the lack of data, it makes it is impossible to compare these numbers to ‘non-crisis’
years and to verify that these sales were (or were not) exceptional.
For the chapter of Our Lady, almost all oats were being sold. Some went to the costs
of the granary, but a correlation of 0,98 (Sig. 0,000) speaks for itself. For this institution
oats were only used to maximize cash income. The share that the sale of oats had in the
total cash income was 10,45% on average. So any adaptations in the commercialisation of
oats totally depended on the income of oats and thus on the production-side of the story:
the different rents-in-kind that the institution gathered from different peasants. For the
hospital of Wetz in Douai, for which some data concerning oats-sales are also available,
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Des Prés Wetz Notre-Dame Saint-Julien
17
the sale of oats accounted for 5,22% of the total cash influx. In the dearth years of 1350
and 1360 that number even went up to respectively 9,27% and 9,11%, the most of the
whole period. While their animals consumed less in 1360 compared to 1359 and 1361, they
sold more. Perhaps less food was needed due to the difficult period because less animals
were either alive or needed by this institution. In those years, Wetz did economize on its
own consumption of wheat and oats, hence increasing its income from sales.
If different landlords made other choice with regard to the relative importance of
sales versus consumption, it remains to be seen whether the trade-off between
consumption and commercialisation, was mostly influenced by the production levels or the
prices. This can be tested statistically:
𝐶𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 (𝐴𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑑
𝐴𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑑; 𝑃𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑒) 𝑂𝑅 𝐶𝑜𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 (
𝐴𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑑
𝐴𝑚𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑑; 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑢𝑚 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒)
These correlation coefficients are gathered in table 4 below. For Saint-Sauveur, the
relative share of grain sold, depends mostly on the grain income (0,559, significant at 0.05
level). On the other hand the link with price movements is very weak. The correlation with
the grain income is even stronger for the Abbey Des Prés, and here, the quantity of wheat
sold also seems correlated to price movements (although less strong). Only in times of
abundant harvests, De Prés sold large quantities of grain on the market. If the wheat
income fell, the abbey reduced its sales to guarantee consumption.
Lille Douai Cambrai
St-Sauveur Des Prés Wetz Our Lady St-Julien
Wheat Corr. Sig. Corr. Sig. Corr. Sig. Corr. Sig. Corr. Sig.
Price -0,106 0,718 -0,587** 0,004 0,417 0,303 -0,370 0,214 -0,286 0,583
Wheat
Income
(quantity)
0,559* 0,038 0,921** 0,000 0,117 0,782 -0,008 0,980 0,141 0,790
Oats Corr. Sig. Corr. Sig. Corr. Sig. Corr. Sig. Corr. Sig.
Price N/A N/A N/A N/A -0,181 0,697 -0,230 0,450 -0,259 0,621
Oats
income
(quantity)
N/A N/A N/A N/A 0,101 0,830 0,978** 0,000 -0,072 0,892
Table 4: Pearson-correlation of the ratio of the amount of grain sold versus the amount consumed with either
the price or with the minimum income of grain for wheat and oats. Both correlation for oats were calculated
with the absolute number of oats sold because no oats were used for their own consumption.
*Correlation significant at the 0,05 level. **Correlation significant at the 0,01 level.
18
For the chapter of Our Lady in Cambrai, only the sale of oaths shows a significant
correlation to the trade-off between commercialisation and consumption: just like Des Prés
for wheat, Our Lady only sold significant quantities of oats at the moment of abundant
harvests, when the amount of oats collected by the Chapter exceeded its needs. For wheat,
no significant correlation could be established, mainly due to the fact the Chapter only
started to reserve substantial quantities of wheat for consumption from 1361 onwards.
Graphs 7a to 7c above give a clear image of landlord’s divergent strategies and
priorities with regard to food provisioning or commercialisation. The wheat economy of
Saint-Sauveur (8a) combined both objectives: guaranteeing cash influx and a stable food
provisioning. Des Prés Abbey on the other hand, was clearly focused on the consumption
side. In some years – mostly dearth years – over 95% was used for their own provisioning.
As a result only for Des Prés, dearth induced a clear shift in economic strategies, namely
reducing its grain sales. These divergent economic strategies are also visualized in the
graphs below:
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
A: Hospital Saint-Sauveur Consumption Sold
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
B: Abbey Des Prés Consumption Sold
19
Graph 7a-c: The ratio of the amount of wheat that was sold versus the amount that was used for their own
consumption for three large landowners: the hospital of Saint-Sauveur (graph 7a, above), the abbey Des Prés
(graph 7b, middle) and the chapter of Our Lady (graph 7c, bottom).
The total amount of silver that was earned by these large landowners is another
easy point of comparison. Multiplying the amount that was sold in one year with the
average price gives a clear view of which landlord makes huge profits in what year (see
graph 8). When these landowners actively speculated on the grain market, this would
reflect in these numbers.
Graph 8: Total amount of silver earned by the sale of wheat and oats for the five landlords (1330-1365) (grams of silver). (Source: own database)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
C: Chapter of Our Lady Consumption Sold
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
35000
Saint-Sauveur Des Prés Wetz Our Lady Saint-Julien
20
Since harvest failures not necessarily correlated with high grain prices, a lot of cash
could be gained by selling large stocks of wheat and oats during these years. Apart from
Des Prés, where sales decrease from the 1330 onwards, all of the large landowners
accomplish their largest profit during dearth years. In the years after the Black Death,
Saint-Sauveur and Wetz both get huge gains in 1350, just like Saint-Julien in 1352. Both
in 1350 and 1352 the cash profits for Des Prés also climbs to significant heights, although
in another order of magnitude of the ones they got in (and probably before) the 1330’s. In
1360, the amount of silver peaks again for Wetz and the chapter of Our Lady and one year
later this is also the case for Saint-Julien. We will not argue that this is proof of consciously
speculating by these landowners, because first of all they secure their own food
provisioning (apart from Our Lady in the earlier periods), especially during challenging
years concerning grain harvests. But the surplus of these sales still produces nice returns
in cash. Admittedly, these sales did not always occur during the peak of the grain prices,
but the year before or after, when prices were (still) high and the harvest was reasonable,
except in 1360.
5. Crop choices and productivity: do we see any sign of adaptive
agricultural strategies?
Concerning the grain from their direct exploitation, the accounts of Saint-Sauveur
and Wetz not only mention the amounts of grain, but also the surface which was used for
wheat crop and sometimes even the amount of seed that was kept/bought to be sown and
harvested next year. Therefore it is possible to reconstruct the physical productivity – the
yield per surface unit of land (here converted into hectares) – for the years that those data
is available, and are visible in table 5 below.
Direct exploitation Lease
St-Sauveur Wetz Wetz Our Lady St-Julien
Year Wheat Oats Wheat Oats Wheat Oats Wheat Oats Wheat Oats
1331-1332 28,09 7,49 5,18
1332-1333 6,40 5,90 7,57 5,39
1334-1335 7,22 6,01
1335-1336 6,66 5,72
1336-1337 8,10 5,20
1337-1338 14,78 17,35 6,09 5,43
1338-1339 6,97 6,00 6,76 4,57
21
1339-1340 10,91 12,75 6,40 4,91
1341-1342 17,49 9,82
1349-1350 15,38 5,30 4,15
1350-1351 18,37 23,81 24,15 10,77 12,09 4,76 4,56
1351-1352 14,87
1352-1353 19,21 4,47 3,47
1353-1354 17,89 24,10 7,87 4,23
1359-1360 21,55 18,53 22,15 8,91 9,33
1360-1361 13,65 14,87 9,72 11,48 4,94 3,21
1361-1362 24,49 13,89 9,78 7,96 10,55 5,05 4,32 4,55 3,40
1363-1364 20,27 8,49 14,08 8,64 10,09 5,08 3,03
1364-1365 5,32 3,88
1365-1366 22,43 16,09 20,38 8,59 9,88 4,74 4,10
Table 5: Gross yield ratios per hectare for wheat and oats for the hospitals of Saint-Sauveur (Lille) and Wetz
(Douai) and grain income per hectare for leases-in-kind for the hospital of Wetz (Douai), the chapter of Our
Lady and the hospital of Saint-Julien (Cambrai) (hl./ha.).
(Source: own database & A. DERVILLE, L’agriculture du Nord, pp. 96-117; ID, “L’hôpital Saint-Julien de Cambrai au
XIVe siècle: étude économique”, Revue du Nord (70 (n°277), 1988), pp. 285-318)
Remarkably, in the first normal period there was a downfall in yields. For Saint-
Sauveur, they went down from 28,09 hl./ha. in 1331 to 10,91 hl./ha. in 1339 and two years
later they were up to 17,49 hl./ha. again. The harvest of 1339 even produced the lowest
yields until 1540!15 For oats, the yield ratio went down from 17,35 hl./ha. to 12,75 hl./ha
in the 1330s, with even lower yields of 9,82 hl./ha. in 1341 . In the years after the Black
Death the yield ratio for wheat went down to 14,87 hl./ha. in the harvest year 1351,
recovering the following year. For the years thereafter, the yield stayed more or less stable
above 20 hl./ha., with 1361 as an outlier with 24,49 hl./ha. This was also the period after
half of the acreage for wheat was converted into leasehold. In the greater scheme of things,
the agricultural production of Saint-Sauveur was already dubbed as ‘brilliant’ by Derville,
since the average yield ratio of around 20 hl./ha. was at the same level as those around
1800.16 The year 1339 actually proved a lot worse than later crisis years for this hospital.
The stable trend for the later period was not the case for the hospital of Wetz in Douai.
The yield ratio for wheat dropped to a low of 8,49 hl./ha. for the harvest of 1363, but this
number is hard to believe, as both the yield on the demesne of Saint-Sauveur and the
15 A. DERVILLE, L’agriculture du Nord, pp. 112-3; 283-4. 16 IBID., p. 112-3 & 286.
22
income from leases in kind on the estate of Wetz was rather ‘average’..17 That of oats
already dropped to 9,78 hl./ha. in 1361 and was already recovering to 14,08 hl./ha. in 1363.
The average yield ratio throughout this period at Wetz was lower for wheat than for oats
(16,94 hl./ha. for wheat against 17,57 hl./ha. for oats), thus oats fared better than the main
bread cereal. It should be noted that the useful accounts for Wetz only start in 1350, and
this could give a skewed view regarding the averages.
And what about yield ratios for other types of crops, like peas, beans, barley and
vetches? For the majority of landlords, they left little traces in the accounts. But for the
abbey Des Prés in Douai there are some traces of these legumes. They were frequently
sown and harvested by the abbey in the 1330s, and they peaked around 1339 (graph 9
below). During the dearth years around 1360 they were almost non-existent, while
especially peas and beans recovering in the mid-1360’s to about 40 hectolitres each. Barley
had an important role in the early 1330’s and suddenly relatively large share in 1340-
1341.
Graph 9: Amount of harvested legumes by direct exploitation by the abbey Des Prés from Douai (1330-1365).
“Bregerie” is a kind of malted barley that was used for the production of beer. (Source: own database)
17 The surface for the income out of direct exploitation was probably exaggerated. The
accounts also mention that there were horses on that farm patch as well as work being done, so the
total area was not used for wheat production. The same problem occurs with the yields for oats at
Wetz for the year 1361-1362.
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Peas Beans Barley Bregerie Vetches
23
While the abbey diversified its crops in the 1330s, and even increased this
diversification after the poor wheat harvest of 1339, it suddenly reduced its crop
diversification from 1341 – at a moment prices showed a strong upward movement.
Further price spikes like 1360 did not see a return to diversification. Unfortunately, the
accounts do not mention any kind of surfaces where these crops where grown upon.
Constructing and comparing yield ratio series is therefore impossible.
The other landlords do not mention any exploitation of other types of crops apart
from Saint-Sauveur in the earlier years. A small portion of its land was reserved for peas
and beans during the 1330’s and the beginning of the 1340’s. Peas were grown on a surface
of 2,13 ha. in 1331 and 1337, but this dropped to 1,77 ha. in 1339 and 1341. Thereafter,
the accounts don’t mention any more peas in their direct exploitation. Nonetheless, there
was a difference in yield ratio during those years. Even though the surface cultivated with
peas was the same in 1331 and 1337, there was an impressive difference in yields: 17,33
hl. in 1331 and 51,98 hl. in 1337. Did the year 1331 also cause a bad harvest in the area
around Lille? Not for wheat in any case (28,09 hl./ha.). The surface reserved for beans
went from 3,55 ha. in 1331 to 4,26 ha. in 1337 to a low point of 1,60 ha. in 1341, after
which they also disappeared in the sources in their direct exploitation.
Next to the production on demesne land, the leases-in-kind sometimes also mention
surfaces. For wheat as well as oats this is the case for Wetz in Douai and the chapter of
Our Lady and Saint-Julien in Cambrai. Table 6 shows the yield-in-kind of these leases in
hectolitre per hectare. For wheat, the average for Wetz is at 9,10 hl./ha., which is
extremely high for this period, and probably indicates sharecropping – with the rent being
50% of the (net?) produce.18 For Our Lady and Saint-Julien – both in Cambrai - yields are
lower and closely related, with respectively 6,14 hl./ha. and 5,97 hl./ha. The average
income from leasehold from oats surpasses that for wheat when looking at the hospital of
Wetz (10,57 hl./ha.). The yield ratios from the direct exploitation from that same landlord,
oats also score higher for 5 out of the 6 years. For both landlords in Cambrai, this was not
the case (4,68 hl./ha. for Our Lady, 4,53 hl./ha. for Saint-Julien), indicating a more
extensive production of oats in Cambrai. Oat yields – which often only profit from the
manure remaining after the previous harvest – are usually an excellent indicator of the
intensity of fertilisation (which clearly was higher in Douai/Lille compared to Cambrai)
18 T. SOENS, De spade in de dijk? Waterbeheer en rurale samenleving in de Vlaamse
kustvlakte (1280-1580) (Ghent, Academia Press: 2009). For Coastal Flanders average leases
dropped from 6 hectolitre per hectare around 1300 to only 2 hectolitre per hectare around 1500. 6
hectolitre per hectare was very high.
24
The ratios from leasehold at Saint-Julien also heavily correlate with the tithes from that
same landlord (0,87 for wheat and even 0,91 for oats!). Thus, these numbers could
indirectly indicate how the production was evolving through time. Interestingly, the tithe
series and the rent-in-kind for Saint-Julien do not confirm the extremely bad harvest
failure of 1339 we observed on the demesne land of Saint-Sauveur: 1339 seems rather
normal in terms of harvest in Cambrai, which clearly needs further explanation.
In order to link the yields from direct exploitation and from leasehold with
adaptations and crop choices in response to dearth, we also investigated the total acreage
devoted to the production of wheat on the one hand and oats on the other. Those numbers
are also presented in table 6 above.
Direct exploitation Lease
St-Sauveur Wetz Wetz Our Lady St-Julien
Year Wheat Oats Wheat Oats Wheat Oats Wheat Oats Wheat Oats
1331-1332 31,21
22,25 35,62
1332-1333
43,40 17,42 54,95 61,59
1334-1335
22,22 28,66
1335-1336
52,73 21,81
1336-1337
35,94 55,41
1337-1338 29,79 26,96
61,77 63,09
1338-1339
61,35 27,86 56,48 61,77
1339-1340 39,72 21,01
63,80 56,74
1341-1342 35,47 21,82
1349-1350 31,74
40,08 50,74
1350-1351 37,77
5,60 1,02 14,64 9,04 64,24 29,02
1351-1352 39,72
1352-1353 29,79
63,56 64,92
1353-1354 36,89
6,08
54,34 34,43
1359-1360 12,06
15,88 3,28 7,55 8,01
1360-1361
16,02 12,49 15,08 6,75 72,24 63,54
1361-1362 9,22
6,15 15,37 8,75 13,04 54,33 57,10 54,79 53,82
1363-1364 12,50
14,38 12,21 7,90 8,48 67,02 69,69
1364-1365
49,17 62,97
1365-1366 8,51
11,20 10,91 8,48 7,22 68,96 41,84
Table 6: Acreage devoted to either wheat or oats in demesne exploitation and leasehold. (Source: own database)
25
Concerning the direct exploitation for Saint-Sauveur, not much is happening. It is
clear that the emphasis was on wheat, although data for oats are scarce. After 1339, the
year that delivered the lowest yield, less land was assigned to farming wheat until in 1350-
1351 again 37,77 ha. and the following year 39,72 ha. was devoted to wheat. The poor
harvest of the latter year did produce a reduction in the acreage sown with wheat over the
next year. From 1359 onwards the area for wheat diminished by a factor 3. This was
caused by the switch of half their income from wheat from direct exploitation to leasehold
Interestingly, the hospital of Wetz followed a different strategy. In 1350 and 1353 Wetz
used a very small amount of land for direct exploitation, but started to devote significantly
more land to demesne farming in 1359. Moreover, In the dearth year of 1361 – after a first
dearth year in 1360 - the hospital chose to exploit more than three times as much farm
ground with oats compared to wheat. So it actually chose to gather more oats than wheat
during these dearth periods. If this also links to a change in consumption and/or
commercialisation will be discussed below.
The chapter of Our Lady from Cambrai seems to have an alternating system The
one year the acreage of wheat exceeded the acreage of oats, and the next year it was the
other way round: this might indicate participation in a rather strict field system (three or
two-course rotation?). While the price spike after the Black Death did not see a disruption
of this pattern, the price spike of 1360-63 did: from 1360 to 1363 both crops got about the
same area. The leasing system for the hospital of Saint-Julien provided about the same
area for wheat and oats (hovering around 60 ha.).
For the case of adaptations in the production of certain cereals, the hospital of
Saint-Sauveur kept its emphasis on the wheat production. They did not change their main
cereal, even during the harsh years. The grain influx of that crop stayed high enough,
which speaks for the strong agriculture in the Lilloise region. For the hospital of Wetz in
Douai, the crisis years of 1360-61 saw a marked increase in the acreage devoted to oats
(at the expense of wheat). If this was a specific choice of the landlord will become clear in
the following chapters. At the abbey Des Prés, other crops such as legumes had a relative
importance during the crisis period of 1339, but lost this in the later periods. The few data
of Saint-Julien disallows any conclusions regarding adaptations in crop choice. Finally, for
the chapter of Our Lady, the influx of both wheat and oats fluctuated from one year to
another, in function of the crop rotation which had to be observed. Around 1360 a
disruption in the normal pattern was detected, which might be linked to a deliberate
intervention. Concluding: changes in crop choices are visible in the sources, but they are
26
variable from one region to another and from one period to another. Agricultural decision
making at the level of the estate management clearly mattered.
6. Surplus extraction
A final adaptation in response to harvest failure and/or dearth might be found in
the relationship between the landlord and its tenants, or dependent producers. Rent
extraction always was the result of a negotiation between lord and tenant, in which both
the prevailing institutional arrangements, the respective bargaining power of lords and
the market conditions mattered. In times of dearth or harvest failure, the landlord could
be lenient toward its tenants by allowing arrears or postponement of payment and
deliveries, or could try to enforce the collection of the rent due. This relationship is only
documented in detail for the chapter of Our Lady in Cambrai.
Wheat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1331 7 20,49 79,30 25,8% N/A N/A 19 36,8% 8,77
1332 7 38,31 111,13 34,5% 7 14 24 29,2% 11,57
1334 6 33,87 73,10 46,3% N/A N/A 18 33,3% 8,91
1335 10 53,10 169,87 31,3% 1 17 28 35,7% 12,55
1336 8 26,06 74,23 35,1% 3 12 26 30,8% 11,19
1338 8 19,44 86,06 22,6% N/A N/A 36 22,2% 11,87
1349 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 18 N/A 11,81
1350 20 64,58 201,94 32,0% 7 19 32 62,5% 9,56
1353 14 115,94 323,39 35,9% N/A N/A 25 56,0% 17,11
1360 8 61,45 84,83 72,4% N/A N/A 25 32,0% 14,28
1361 9 76,45 91,62 83,4% 6 12 26 34,6% 10,54
1363 8 135,92 117,79 115,4% N/A N/A 21 38,1% 16,22
1364 3 69,86 56,90 122,77% 6 10 20 15,00% 13,07
1365 6 88,24 152,01 58,05% 5 13 24 25,00% 13,61
Oats 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1331 9 42,01 69,04 60,86% N/A N/A 24 37,50% 7,69
1332 6 27,38 56,02 48,87% 15 3 16 37,50% 12,84
1334 5 18,30 33,50 54,62% N/A N/A 21 23,81% 16,40
1335 6 49,97 53,20 93,92% 9 1 19 31,58% 13,13
1336 7 29,06 55,95 51,95% 8 3 28 25,00% 18,70
1338 11 117,32 97,54 120,27% N/A N/A 21 52,38% 15,88
27
1349 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 24 N/A 17,53
1350 8 13,39 28,57 46,86% 14 10 21 38,10% 12,59
1353 14 66,75 68,05 98,09% N/A N/A 23 60,87% 12,67
1360 8 34,31 83,89 40,90% N/A N/A 24 33,33% 17,02
1361 7 72,61 72,82 99,71% 11 6 23 30,43% 21,14
1363 2 15,34 48,88 31,39% N/A N/A 21 9,52% 18,55
1364 9 67,56 157,64 42,86% 11 10 22 40,91% 21,89
1365 6 40,11 75,37 53,22% 11 3 16 37,50% 19,55
Table 7: Leniency towards tenants in times of crises: rent extraction by the chapter of Our Lady in Cambrai
(1330-1365) (hl.).
1. Active tenants with debt 6. New tenants (not active in the previous year)
2. Total debt from active tenants 7. Total tenants
3. Total lease from active tenants with debt 8. % active tenants with debt
4. Debt vs. lease 9. Average lease
5. Lost tenants (active in the previous year, but not during the current year)
In table 7 the data concerning the connection between debts and arrears and the
amount of grain that was expected from tenants with debt is assembled. First of all, for
wheat, on average 34,7% of tenants could not pay its full rent. The highest ratio occurred
in the years after the Black Death festered in Europe. In 1350, no less than 20 out of 32
were active tenants while defaulting part of their dues. Other dearth periods lacked such
rise in the number of defaulting peasants. In 1364 only 15% of all active tenants owed
grain to the Chapter, which rose again to 25% in 1365. On the other hand however, if we
look at the amount of the arrear in relation to the amount of the lease (on average 55%),
a peak was reached in 1363 (115,4%) and 1364 (122,77%): whereas after the Black Death,
the majority of tenants were unable to pay their full rent in 1363 and 1364, most tenants
did pay their rent, but a minority defaulted completely.
Finally, we should observe the high mobility among peasants, which in part is
related to the kind of leases practiced by our Lady, which were in-kind, on a yearly basis,
and very close to share-cropping, in which individual plots were only leased in years when
cultivated with a specific crop. For wheat, more than half of the tenants were new,
meaning they did not lease in wheat or oats for the previous year (compare column 6).
Some of them might have returned as tenant a few years later or were so a few years
back.19 For oats, this number was on average a lot lower. When we look at the tenants that
19 See A. DERVILLE, « La population du Nord au Moyen Age. I : avant 1384 » Revue du Nord
326-327 (1998), pp. 523-526. Derville noticed the high mobility of the tenants, accelerating from
28
disappeared (leasing in the previous year, but not in the current), this number is on
average higher for wheat than for oats. This confirms the crop rotation used by Our Lady,
also suspected during the analysis of the commercialisation of wheat and oats of this
chapter. The cultivating of wheat was probably followed by oats in the next year and by
fallow in the third. This is not a general rule, because some tenants did lease an amount
of land for the same grain for consecutive years.
7. Conclusion
To conclude this paper, a few final observations can be made to complete our
analysis. Decision making at the level of large landowners mattered in the 14th century.
The hospital of Saint-Sauveur in Lille and the Abbey Des Prés in Douai clearly pursued
different strategies with regard to grain provisioning. In part, this might be due to regional
or institutional differences: a hospital is not an abbey, and Lille is not Douai. But even the
hospitals differed, and even in Douai there were differences.
Just like for England, the period 1330-1370 turned out to be a period of shocks for
Flanders as well, with highly fluctuating harvests and several price spikes, many of which
lasted more than one year. However, when looking for adaptations to short-term shocks,
we should not forget the underlying structural changes, showing a profound contraction
of the grain economy, which predated the Black Death. The main ‘challenge’ for the large
landowners we were studying was to adapt to this profound structural change, rather than
to the short-term shocks.
Considering the price evolution, harvest failures did not show a perfect match with
price spikes. This means that there were quite some years with high grain prices but
relative abundant grain income for the landlords. We did not find positive evidence for
speculation and hoarding, as most landlords first satisfied consumption needs, and only
marketed what was left after consumption. However, this did not impede that huge profits
were made, for instance in 1350 (Saint-Sauveur and Wetz), 1341 (Saint-Sauveur again),
or 1360 (Our Lady and Wetz). For grain buyers, the massive profits of the landlords must
have been very visible. There were exceptions however, like the Abbey Des Prés, where
1339 onwards (though his calculations differ from ours, as he investigated the mutation every three
years). More important, he linked these mutations to mortality, which in our opinion is incorrect,
given the system of one-year leases in which contracts where renegotiated every year. See also J.
ROOSEN & D. CURTIS, “The ‘Light Touch’ of the Black Death in the Southern Netherlands: An urban
Trick?” The Economic History Review (2018), p. 17.
29
the declining grain income and the absolute priority of a high level of consumption, left
the abbey with little grain to commercialize in times of dearth.
The missing element in the analysis is plague. The Black Death was present in this
region, as most recently established by Roosen and Curtis.20 1349-51, 1358-63 (most
violent in 1360) and 1368-69 were plague years in the southern part of Flanders. They
coincided with price spikes, which is the most clear in 1360 (when the plague mortality
might be exacerbated by harvest failure followed by an important price spike). More
detailed research on the interaction between plague, famine and price spikes is needed,
also taking into account the Pre-Black Death period: the price spike of 1339-1342 is more
violent than the ones after the Black Death. And many agricultural adaptations seem to
predate the Black Death.
Related to this, and as observed by others before, plague mortality did not
necessarily disrupt the grain economy of these landlords: Saint-Sauveur in Lille and Wetz
in Douai for instance realized excellent harvests in 1350-51, both for demesne farming and
leases-in-kind. Only Our Lady in Cambrai saw poor harvests that year. Moreover, when
looking at the consumption of cereals, it might seem that the great Shocks had rather little
impact: in 1349-51 or 1360, abbeys and hospitals maintained broadly similar levels of
wheat consumption. But, as we could see, this was the result of prioritization: the sale of
wheat declined, to safeguard consumption. If this strategy was pursued by many grain-
controlling landlords, it might have had an important impact on the availability of food
for the urban populations, as less food reached the market.
The analysis is a work in progress and has to be (and will be) broadened to the
entirety of the 14th century, which is possible for all the landowners here discussed. That
way any adaptations concerning the income and expense of grain in different domains can
be pinpointed on a yearly basis and connected to various exo- and endogenous shocks.
20 J. ROOSEN & D. CURTIS, “The ‘Light Touch’ of the Black Death”, pp. 1-25.