Bulletin of Economic ResearchVolume 43, Issue 3 p. 223-258 THE AGRARIAN CRISIS IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND: A MALTHUSIAN TRAGEDY OR A FAILURE OF ENTITLEMENTS? Meghnad Desai, Meghnad Desai London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE This paper is a much revised revision of an earlier unpublished paper whose first draft appeared in December 1974 and the second draft in November 1977. The late Professor Postan gave extensive comments on the first draft in early 1975 and then again on the second draft when he was present at a seminar I gave at the Cambridge Group on History of Population. I never quite convinced him of my position but he was very generous with his time and patience in instructing an intrepid amateur in the byways of medieval agricultural history. My colleagues at LSE, Tony Bridbury and Olive Coleman took continuous interest in the 1970s. Seminar audiences at LSE, Birkbeck, Oxford (June 1978), Cambridge (November 1981), Australian National University (1980), and the first SSRC workshop in Economic History held at Warwick (January 1978), also gave extensive comments, I must also thank Barbara Harvey, Prof. Caldwell, Rodney Hilton, Terry Lloyd, Donald McCloskey and J. Titow for references and comments.Search for more papers by this author Meghnad Desai, Meghnad Desai London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE This paper is a much revised revision of an earlier unpublished paper whose first draft appeared in December 1974 and the second draft in November 1977. The late Professor Postan gave extensive comments on the first draft in early 1975 and then again on the second draft when he was present at a seminar I gave at the Cambridge Group on History of Population. I never quite convinced him of my position but he was very generous with his time and patience in instructing an intrepid amateur in the byways of medieval agricultural history. My colleagues at LSE, Tony Bridbury and Olive Coleman took continuous interest in the 1970s. Seminar audiences at LSE, Birkbeck, Oxford (June 1978), Cambridge (November 1981), Australian National University (1980), and the first SSRC workshop in Economic History held at Warwick (January 1978), also gave extensive comments, I must also thank Barbara Harvey, Prof. Caldwell, Rodney Hilton, Terry Lloyd, Donald McCloskey and J. Titow for references and comments.Search for more papers by this author First published: July 1991 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8586.1991.tb00494.xCitations: 1 The enthusiasm of Gunnar Persson and Peter Skott for my abandoned version while they were engaged in their work on pre-industrial growth brought me back to this project of finishing the paper. The generosity of my hosts, Peter Skott especially but also Svend Hylleberg, Claus Vastrup, Martin Paldam at Aarhus University in leaving me alone to get on with my work and providing help when needed was the best compensation for the long delay in finishing this paper. At Aarhus, Arne Vajhoj helped with computation with the same diligence as 15 years earlier at LSE Nicholas Foster, Judy Thompson and Linda Friedman had. Having this paper read at the Conference on Quantitative Economic History at Hull by Robert Milward and his report on comments as well as two referees for the Bulletin improved the somewhat messy third draft (1988) to its present form. To all, my thanks, though it is a pity they are not to blame for the remaining faults. AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume43, Issue3July 1991Pages 223-258 RelatedInformation