A History of Agriculture in India v2.c56.2

v2.c56.2

The effects of the rise of towns on agriculture were striking. Manors which in the early feudal age produced only for home consumption were now able to produce a surplus for sale outside. Grain became an article of mercantile circulation, brought by the peasant to the town or sold to the merchant who traded in foodstuffs. As a consequence, money circulated more freely in the countryside. Peasants were able to buy freedom or to become tenant farmers paying a fixed rent. Some became labourers for hire. The size of holdings could be increased more readily by hard-working peasants who invested their savings in more land. Even the bourgeoisie speculated in land. The immobility of the manorial relationship was broken.