A reappraisal of the freehold property market in late medieval England

Bell, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4531-0072, Brooks, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2668-1153 and Killick, H. (2019) A reappraisal of the freehold property market in late medieval England. Continuity and Change, 34 (3). pp. 287-313. ISSN 1469-218X doi: 10.1017/S0268416019000316

Abstract/Summary

This paper re-examines the late medieval market in freehold land, the extent to which it was governed by market forces as opposed to political or social constraints, and how this contributed to the commercialisation of the late medieval English economy. We employ a valuable new resource for study of this topic in the form of an extensive dataset on late medieval English freehold property transactions. Through analysis of this data, we examine how the level of market activity (the number of sales) and the nature of the properties (the relative proportions of different types of asset) varied across regions and over time. In particular, we consider the impact of exogenous factors and the effects of growing commercialisation. We argue that peaks of activity following periods of crisis (Great Famine and Black Death) indicate that property ownership became open to market speculation. In so doing, we present an important new perspective on the long-term evolution of the medieval English property market.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/83824
Identification Number/DOI	10.1017/S0268416019000316
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Henley Business School > Finance and Accounting
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
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