loss the tenant could have to bear on the murrain was 10 per cent. These leases of stock and land were advantageous to both sides. The result was to create a great number of freeholders — the ordinary payment for unstocked land was 6d. an acre and twenty years' purchase. The landlord seems to have had rather the worst of the bargain, for if the tenants fell into arrears, he did not know precisely which land to distrain on. We read of a tenancy in Oxfordshire: "Seven capons should come from tenants there, and one does not know whence to collect them." And again: "There is a sum of £56, 13s. 4d., an arrear of ninety-five years, and we do not know what to distrain on" (given by Rogers). Perhaps this accounts for the great number of freeholders—the lord might prefer to sell at twenty years' rent (or ten in the fourteenth century), and be done with it, than to have to whistle for his capons and his arrears, afraid of distraining upon the wrong man. Very often, in a single holding, there would be several leases, not coterminous, for one holding—showing that the tenant had rented additional land. This would increase the difficulty of evicting him. But, in point of fact, there were hardly any evictions. In those days there were not a dozen applicants for one farm; nor was there much moving about. A man liked to take land in his own birthplace. Even in London it was thought very improper to offer a higher rent over the head of a sitting tenant.
Rent for mere use of land changed very little from the earliest times to the end of the fourteenth century.[1] But in the fifteenth century the purchase price of land rose. By the middle of that century, the price was twenty years' purchase.
Rents were often in corn. That is, the tenant paid corn to the money value of the rent. A great advantage of this was, that when corn was cheap, because corn was plenty (the only reason of cheapness) the tenant gave more corn, but had more to give. In years when corn was dear because it was scarce, he gave less—but it was worth as much to the landlord. Of course a corn rent could always be paid in money, if the tenant preferred it.[1]
