Demesne resources and labour rent on the manors of St Paul's Cathedral, 1066-1222

Abstract

A remarkable collection of material relating to the properties of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral, London, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries has several times been called into evidence in the debate over the twelfth-century economy.' Most notably it was used by Postan to support his contention that the twelfth century saw a decline of demesne husbandry on many large ecclesiastical estates, a process marked both by the leasing of demesne land to tenants and by the substitution of money rents for labour services. The St Paul's material is also relevant to Postan's general view that the policy of leasing manors was at best 'a reasonable response to the economic difficulties of the time', at worst a recipe for economic stagnation and non-dynamic management, by which manorial assets were run down in the hands of lessees.2 Apart from Hale's perceptive introduction to the Domesday of St Paul's, no other detailed study of this exceptional archive has yet been made from the point of view of medieval agrarian history. The limited aim of this article is to address the same questions which concerned Postan, but to answer them in a different way. It proposes that the policy of leasing entire manors led to active management which maintained or increased their capital assets, their leasable value, and by implication, their profitability. In contrast to the widely held picture of a decline in demesne husbandry on manors that were leased 'at farm' in the twelfth century it puts forward a contrary thesis: that on manors 'at farm' demesne arable was stable or increasing in size, and well maintained. The leasing of parcels of demesne land to tenants was part of a deliberate strategy to make available an increased labour supply to service expanded demesnes. This suggestion involves a different interpretation of the meaning of land in domino than that which is generally used. In conclusion it proposes that this increase in the supply of labour rent was made possible by an expansion in the number of peasant tenancies in a period of rising population and demand for land.