Royal writs were addressed to the sheriff.
Because many sheriffs had taken fines and ransoms for their own
use, a term limit of one year was imposed. Sheriffs, hundreders,
and bailiffs had to have lands in the same counties or bailiwicks
[so they could be held answerable to the King].
Efforts were made to keep laborers at the plough and cart rather
than learn a craft or entering and being educated by the church.
The new colleges at the universities ceased to accept villeins as
students.
Due to the shortage of labor, landlords' returns had decreased
from about 20% to about 5%. But some found new methods of using
land that were more profitable than the customary services of
villeins who had holdings of land or the paid labor of practically
free men who paid a money rent for land holdings. One method was
to turn the land to sheep breeding. Others leased their demesne
land, which transferred the burden of getting laborers from the
landlord to the lessee-tenant. The payment was called a "farm" and
the tenant a "farmer". First, there were stock-and-land leases, in
which both the land and everything required to cultivate it were
let together. After 50 years, when the farmers had acquired
assets, there were pure land leases. Landlords preferred to lease
their land at will instead of for a term of years to prevent the
tenant from depleting the soil with a few richer crops during the
last years of his tenancy.
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