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The Prudent Village: Risk Pooling Institutions in Medieval English Agriculture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2005

GARY RICHARDSON
GARY RICHARDSON
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of California at Irvine, 3151 Social Science Plaza, Irvine, CA 92697-5100. E-mail: garyr@uci.edu
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Abstract

The prudent peasant mitigated the risk of crop failures by scattering his arable land throughout his village, Deirdre McCloskey argued, because alternative risk-sharing institutions did not exist. But, alternatives did exist, this essay concludes. Medieval English peasants formed two types of farmers' cooperatives. Fraternities protected members from the perils of everyday life. Customary poor laws redistributed resources towards villagers beset by bad luck. In both institutions, the expectation of reciprocation motivated farmers with surpluses to aid neighbors with shortages.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , June 2005 , pp. 386 - 413
Copyright
© 2005 The Economic History Association

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