.15 To 16th Century British Peasant Land Market

In the Middle Ages Europe, land was the essential element of productive activities. Peasants had been doing land dealings from the old days, but those were pure economic activities and couldn't be called peasant land market. During the process of the transition of England, viz. from Feudalism to Capitalism, more and more peasants participated into land dealings (they transfer, buy, sell or lease land), these market activities formed and developed peasant land market. Through the study of peasant land market in the fifteenth to the sixteenth century, we can realize the situation of peasant tenure and the development of the land ownership of individualists. Further more, the development of peasant land market in England had close relationships with the custom of family inheritance, the rise of leasehold and capitalist farms. Non-relatives land transfer took the place of land transfer within the families is one of the most important reasons of the development of land market. By the affection of commercialism, part of land in manors turned into leaseholds through peasant land market. The appearance and the rise of leaseholds were necessary to form capitalist farms. Through the study of peasant land market in England in the fifteenth to the sixteenth century, we can conclude that, the commercialization of rural land and the growth of peasant land ownership which include the peasant land rights are important to start the modernization in the country of England. Not only did the peasant land market in England in the fifteenth to the sixteenth century certify the growth of peasant land ownership, but also certified the accumulation of peasant wealth and the transition of management style in agriculture.