Peasants and Farmers
PEASANTS AND FARMERS
Q1.Explain what the open field system meant to rural people in 18th century in England from the point of view of (a) A rich man (b) A labourer (c) A peasant women.
Ans: Open field system
Before the 18th century in large parts of England the country side was open, it was not partitioned into enclosed lands privately owned by landlords.
Peasants: They cultivated strips of land around the village they lived in.
Mixed quality of land: At the beginning f each year at a public meeting, each villager was allotted a number of strips to cultivate. Usually there strips were of varying quality and generally located in different places, not next to each other. The effort was to ensure that everyone had a mixture of good and bad land.
Common land:
• Beyond mix type of land, lay the common land, all villagers pastured their cows and grazed their sheep.
• All villagers collected fuel wood for fire from common land of the villagers
• All villagers had the right to collect berries and fruits for their food from the common land.
• All villagers fished in the rivers, ponds and hunted rabbits in common forests.
For the poor the common land was essential for survival. It supplemented their meager income, sustained their cattle and helped them tide over bad times when crops failed.
A Rich Farmer:
• He would not benefit from the open field system rather he would be in favours of enclosures.
• The rich farmers began to enclose a large part of these lands for their own use for breeding sheep and then for raising their grain production to increase their income.
• The raising price of wool and grain was sufficient for them to grab more and more of common lands and bring them under enclosures.
• They pressurized the parliament to pass the enclosure act.
A Labourer:
• An open field system held great attraction for the labourers .
• They could not only fetch
Q1.Explain what the open field system meant to rural people in 18th century in England from the point of view of (a) A rich man (b) A labourer (c) A peasant women.
Ans: Open field system
Before the 18th century in large parts of England the country side was open, it was not partitioned into enclosed lands privately owned by landlords.
Peasants: They cultivated strips of land around the village they lived in.
Mixed quality of land: At the beginning f each year at a public meeting, each villager was allotted a number of strips to cultivate. Usually there strips were of varying quality and generally located in different places, not next to each other. The effort was to ensure that everyone had a mixture of good and bad land.
Common land:
• Beyond mix type of land, lay the common land, all villagers pastured their cows and grazed their sheep.
• All villagers collected fuel wood for fire from common land of the villagers
• All villagers had the right to collect berries and fruits for their food from the common land.
• All villagers fished in the rivers, ponds and hunted rabbits in common forests.
For the poor the common land was essential for survival. It supplemented their meager income, sustained their cattle and helped them tide over bad times when crops failed.
A Rich Farmer:
• He would not benefit from the open field system rather he would be in favours of enclosures.
• The rich farmers began to enclose a large part of these lands for their own use for breeding sheep and then for raising their grain production to increase their income.
• The raising price of wool and grain was sufficient for them to grab more and more of common lands and bring them under enclosures.
• They pressurized the parliament to pass the enclosure act.
A Labourer:
• An open field system held great attraction for the labourers .
• They could not only fetch