The Open Field System and Beyond: A property rights analysis of an economic institution

Carl J. Dahlman

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511896392

In this book, Professor Dahlman applies modern economic methodology to an old historical problem. He demonstrates how the quaint institutions of the ancient English open field system of agriculture can be understood as an intelligent and rational adaptation to a particular problem of production and to certain historical circumstances. He argues that the two major characteristics of this type of agriculture - scattered strips owned by individual peasants and extensive areas of common land - both fulfilled vital economic functions. This overturns the traditional view of the open field system as inefficient and rigidly bound by tradition, and throws light on the behaviour of medeival peasants. Professor Dahlman also offers some generalisations about the economic theory of institutions and institutional change, refuting the idea that an economic analysis of institutions must necessarily be deterministic. As a challenge to some of the fundamental criticisms of the application of economic theory to historical problems, the book will be of great interest to agrarian historians and to economic historians generally, as well as to specialists in the medieval period.

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The Open Field System and Beyond

A property rights analysis of an economic institution

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Contents

Frontmatter
pp i-iv

Contents
pp v-vi

Preface
pp vii-viii

1 - Introduction
pp 1-15

2 - Theories of the open field system
pp 16-64

3 - Property rights, transaction costs, and institutions
pp 65-92

4 - The economics of commons, open fields, and scattered strips
pp 93-145

5 - The economics of enclosure
pp 146-199

6 - Some extensions and generalizations
pp 200-222

Bibliography
pp 223-228

Index of names
pp 229-230

Index of subjects
pp 231-234

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The Open Field System and Beyond

A property rights analysis of an economic institution

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