著者

加用 信文

出版者

土地制度史学会(現 政治経済学・経済史学会)

雑誌

土地制度史学 (ISSN:04933567)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.15, no.2, pp.1-23, 1973-01-20 (Released:2017-10-30)

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It is aimed to prove that both of the Marc Bloch's proposition on wheat mowing in the feudal age and the Albert Soboul's proposition on it in the Agricultural Revolution can not be applied to English Agriculture which has accomplished Agricultural Revolution most successfully. The main literatures cited in this are twenty six papers about the wheat mowing in the "Museum Rusticum et Commerciale" which have never been cited before, and farming books written by Walter of Henry, by Fitzherbert, and by W. Marshall, as well as "Sketches of Rural Affairs" . It is hoped that the paper makes contribution to the study on technology and farm work as related to the modernization of English Agriculture. I. Taking notice to "eteule" (the right to use haulms), M. Bloch insisted that common scythes were used only on pasture, while sickles were done in "ble" by force. The author's comments on the Bloch's proposition are as follows. (1) Bloch took no account of differences in the use of straws and cereals between "wheat" as winter crop and "barley" as summer crop in his study on the right to use haulms. (2) The following two systems were found in old farming books; the "wheat-sickle-reap" system and the "barley-scythe-mow" system. There were remarkable differences between them, as to the reaping tool and the method of reaping. (3) Reaping 'high' was not due to the use of sickle by force but to the fact that it was more favorable for farmers to reap high than to mow. There were six main reasons for it, such as weed control, preventing gleanings, working system, work intensity, working efficiency, and field conditions especially between furrows and ridges. (4) Though farmers had the right of use of haulms it was not the cause of reaping 'high'. As the straws of barley and oat were the most important roughage for livestock in winter in the medieval times, it was groundless to insist their restriction by the rural community. In short, the Bloch's proposition had a fatal weakpoint that it did not deal with the relationship between the reaping method and the farming system. Though his proposition had a splendid idea on farming technique, it was impossible to find the original literature from which the idea came. II. Following the Bloch's proposition, A. Soboul proposed that the harvesting method changed from reaping 'high' into mowing by cradle-scythe during the agricultural revolution. The Soboul's proposition was examined by refering to the farming books in that period. The papers of the disputes on the wheat mowing described the new scythe-especially Hainault scythe-by refering to it's structure, the working method, the efficiency as well as the comparison of advantages between reaping 'high' and mowing based on the field experiment. The comparison was done in terms of the economic conditions, while the practical technological conditions were not studied which were necessary for popularization. The harvesting process of wheat was composed of the organically systematized processes, done by human labour, such as reaping, gathering and binding and it was influenced by cropping systems and various field conditions. Therefore, it was very difficult to change the process of cutting alone with no influence on other processes. And also the condition still continued that reaping 'high' was more favorable than mowing, even if a farmer had to pay high wages for the work. It was difficult to find enough materials to prove the fact above mentioned, except the report on harvesting and it's regional characteristics by W. Marshall. There was no description on it on the County Reports, too. It could not be proved that there was the change in farming from reaping 'high' by sickles to mowing by improved scythes from the end of 18th(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)