| This dissertation examines the causes and consequences of changes in rural social structures in late medieval and early modern England. It specifically addresses the role of the peasantry in relation to other social classes and changing demographic and market structures. It is argued that changes in rural social structures were caused by the interaction of varying features at different points in time, and that the outcome of this process of change, while comprehensible in retrospect, was unpredictable at the outset.; The data examined in this thesis are found in a wide variety of published secondary sources on rural English history in the late medieval and early modern periods. Most of the evidence concerns the region often referred to as the Midlands. Comparisons have been made however to other regions of the British Isles and the Continent where appropriate.; The evidence supports the main thesis of this dissertation that changes in rural social structures, while comprehensible, occur due to a variety of features. Among the features of importance are relations between the peasantry and other social classes, changes in demographic and market structures, political events, and the customs regarding the use and transmission of property. It follows that economic development in general, and rural social change in specific, cannot be studied as predetermined or unilinear processes. The causes of regional divergence and economic backwardness are best understood as outcomes of complex and varied historical process. |
