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1 results

  • Chapter III - The Evolution of Agricultural Technique

  • Edited by M. M. Postan
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Economic History of Europe from the Decline of the Roman Empire
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    02 January 1966, pp 125-179

  • Summary

    The evolution of agricultural technique in the Middle Ages can be divided into three main phases: from the fifth to the tenth centuries, eleventh century and early fourteenth century. The great agricultural novelty of the Middle Ages in Western Europe was the three-course rotation, which developed either from the Mediterranean two-course or from systems of temporary cropping. Probably textile plants were widespread in all Western Europe before the destruction of the Roman Empire. The cultivation of plants for dye wares, dyers' weed, woad, madder, saffron, and that of teazels, developed side by side with the textile industries. The Romans had introduced more method and continuity into their selections and crossings of breeds. During the long and confused centuries between the fall of the Western Empire and the dawn of modern times agriculture developed widely and powerfully in temperate Europe. It was based on processes and implements inherited from the ancient world.