| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
Fiscal Year 1995: ¥400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000)
Fiscal Year 1994: ¥300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000)
Fiscal Year 1993: ¥600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Benedictine monks of Norwich Cathedral Priory were competent, if somewhat bureaucratic, managers of their estates in the 13th and 14th centuries. The bulk of their income was derived from revenues of various kinds, but they also chose to exploit components of their demesne manors directly. This policy of 'direct farming' meant that manorial produce could be either sent to the lord's own household for consumption or sold at market to generate income.
I am able to discover much about estate management during this period, because the manorial accounts (compoti), which detail the administration of demesne manors are especially informative.
The conventual manors of Martham, Hemsby and so on were managed directly in the 13th and 14 centuries, in the sense that responsibility for the running of all their components were vested in the convent's appointed official monk such as the Master of Cellar. Under his direction the secular seneschall of the estate visited the manors periodically and acted as executive overseer to reeves (prepositi). The reeve of each manor performed the function of farm manager, organising the colletion of rents, manorial earnings, the upkeep of manorial buildings, the working of the demesre land and so on.
The remaining sectors of the demesne in each manor were organised directly and fully towards the consumption requirements of the monks. The area under cultivation on the demesne divided between wheat, oats, barley and peas. Almost all the wheat and malt which after barley used to produce on the spot were sent to the granator at Norwich.
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