Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T07:30:42.942Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The impact of different distributions of power on access rights to the common wastelands: the Campine, Brecklands and Geest compared

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2013

MAÏKA DE KEYZER*
Affiliation:
University of Antwerp, Antwerp 2000, Belgium

Abstract:

Despite the static image of formal common pool resource institutions (CPRIs), interest communities always attempted to adapt their institutional framework to their particular needs and interests. The hypothesis of Ensminger, that formal and informal institutional environments were steered by the interplay of external socioeconomic factors, ideology and bargaining power, will be tested by a comparative analysis of three regions within the North Sea area, namely the Campine, within the Low Countries, the Brecklands in England and the Geest area in Schleswig Holstein. Due to this scope, we will advance that especially the distribution of power was vital for the evolution of one specific aspect of CPRIs, namely accessibility. Only communities with relatively balanced distributions of power could retain an inclusive access regime throughout the early modern period, while polarised societies evolved towards more restrictive access to the common wastelands.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allison, K. J. (1957), ‘The Sheep-Corn Husbandry of Norfolk in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’, The Agricultural History Review, 5: 1230.Google Scholar
Bailey, M. (1989), A Marginal Economy? East Anglian Breckland in the Later Middle Ages, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bailey, M. (1990), ‘Sand into Gold: The Evolution of the Fold-Course System in West Suffolk, 1200–1600’, Agricultural History Review, 38: 4057.Google Scholar
Bastiaens, J. (1994), ‘Bodemsporen van Beddenbouw in Het Zuidelijk Deel van Het Plaggenlandbouwareaal. Getuigen van 17de-eeuwse Landbouw Intensivering in de Blegische Provincies Antwerpen en Limburg en de Nederlandse Rovincie Noord-Brabant’, Historisch Geografisch Tijdschrift, 3: 8190.Google Scholar
Bieleman, J. (1987), Boeren op Het Drentse Zand 1600–1910: Een Nieuwe Visie op de ‘Oude Landbouw’, Utrecht: Hes uitgevers.Google Scholar
Carstensen, H.-P. (1924), ‘Die Dorf- und Flurverfassung im Umte Tondern im 17. und 18 Jahrhundert’, Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte, 54: 153279.Google Scholar
Cuvelier, J. (1912), Les Dénombrements de foyers en Brabant (XIV–XVI siècle), Brussels: Librairie Kiessling et C.P. imbreghts.Google Scholar
Dekkers, P. J. V. (1995), ‘Brandend Zand. Hoe de Hertog van Brabant Zijn Heerschappij op de Kempense Zandgronden Verwierf ten Koste van de Lokale en Regionale Adel’, Noordbrabants Historisch Jaarboek, 12: 1040.Google Scholar
De Keyzer, M. (Forthcoming bookchapter), The Common Denominator: The Regulation of the Community of Users within the Campine Area during the 16th Century. Antwerpen, Belgium.Google Scholar
De Moor, T. (2003), ‘Tot proffijt van de ghemeensaemheijt’. Gebruik, gebruikers en beheer van gemene gronden in Zandig Vlaanderen, 18de en 19de eeuw. Geschiedenis. Gent: Universiteit Gent.Google Scholar
De Moor, T. (2008), ‘The Silent Revolution: A New Perspective on the Emergence of Commons, Guilds, and Other Forms of Corporate Collective Action in Western Europe’. International review of social history, 52 (suppl. 16): 179212.Google Scholar
De Moor, T. (2010), ‘Participating is More Important than Winning: The Impact of Socioeconomic Change on Commoners’ Participation in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Flanders’, Continuity and Change, 25: 405433.Google Scholar
De Moor, M., Shaw-Taylor, L., and Warde, P. (eds.) (2002), The Management of Common Land in North West Europe, c. 1500–1850, Turnhout: Brepols.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Wachter, A. (2002), ‘De toepassing van wereldsysteem-analyse op geografische streken. Twee casestudies: de Kempen en noordelijk Ghana’. Geography. Gent, University of Gent.Google Scholar
Ensminger, J. (1996), Making a Market: The Institutional Transformation of an African Society, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Haller, T. (2007), Understanding Institutions and Their Links to Resource Management from the Perspective of New Institutionalism, Bern, Switzerland: NCCR North-South.Google Scholar
Harte, N. B. (1997), The New Draperies in the Low Countries and England, 1300–1800, Leeds: Pasold Research Fund.Google Scholar
Hilton, R. (1973), Bond Men Made Free: Medieval Peasant Movements and the English Rising of 1381, London: Methuen and Co. Ltd.Google Scholar
Histand, M. B. (2004), Historischer Atlas Schleswig-Holstein vom Mittelalter bis 1867, Germany: Wachholtz Verlag GmbH.Google Scholar
Hoppenbrouwers, P. (2002), ‘The Use and Management of Commons in the Netherlands: An Overview’, in Moor, M. D. (ed.), The Management of Common Land in North West Europe, c. 1500–1850, Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
Hoyle, R. W. (ed.) (2011), Custom, Improvement and the Landscape in Early Modern Britain, Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Klep, P. M. M. (1988), ‘Urban Decline in Brabant: The Traditionalization of Investments and Labour (1374–1806)’, in Van Der Wee, H. (ed.), Rise and Decline of Urban Industries in Italy and the Low Countries, Leuven: Leuven University Press, pp. 261286.Google Scholar
Kos, A. (2010), Van meenten tot marken. Een onderzoek naar de oorsprong en ontwikkeling van de Gooise marken en de gebruiksrechten op de gemene gronden van de Gooise markegenoten (1280–1568), Verloren: Hilversum.Google Scholar
Lana Berasain, J. M. (2008), ‘From Equilibrium to Equity. The Survival of the Commons in the Ebro Basin: Navarra from the 15th to the 20th Centuries’, International Journal of the Commons, 2: 162191.Google Scholar
Lange, U. (ed.) (1996), Geschichte Schleswig-Holsteins von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart, Neumünster: Wachholtz Verlag Neumünster.Google Scholar
Leenders, K. A. H. W. (1996), Van Turnhoutervoorde tot Strienemonde. Ontginnings- en nederzettingsgeschiedenis van het noordwesten van het Maas-Schelde-Demergebied (400-1350), Zutphen, Walburg Pers.Google Scholar
Limberger, M. (2008), Sixteenth-Century Antwerp and Its Rural Surroundings: Social and Economic Changes in the Hinterland of a Commercial Metropolis (ca. 1450–1570), Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar
Lindemans, P. (1952), Geschiedenis van de Landbouw in België, Antwerpen: De Sikkel.Google Scholar
Moeskop, G. (1985), Het gebruik van gemene gronden in de Antwerpse Kempen tijdens het Ancien Régime. Letteren en Wijsbegeerte. Leuven, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.Google Scholar
North, D. (1990), Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ostrom, E. (1997), Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Peeters, K. C. (1933), ‘De Wuustwezelsche Dorpskeuren (Xve–XVIIe eeuw)’, Wesalia, Tijdschrift voor plaatselijke Geschiedenis en Folklore, 8: 248.Google Scholar
Peeters, J. P. (1988), ‘De-Industrialisation in the Small and Medium-Sized Towns in Brabant at the End of the Middle Ages. A Case Study: The Cloth Industry of Tienen’, in Van Der Wee, H. (ed.), The Rise and Decline of Urban Industries in Italy and the Low Countries, Leuven: Leuven University Press, pp. 165186.Google Scholar
Postgate, M. R. (1962), ‘The Field Systems of Breckland’, The Agricultural History Review, 10: 20101.Google Scholar
Poulsen, B. (1999), ‘Landesausbau und Umwelt in Schleswig 1450–1550J’, in Jakubowski-Tiessen, M. and Lorenzen-Schmidt, K.-J. (eds.), Dünger und Dynamit. Beitrage zur Umweltgeschichte Schleswig Holsteins und Dänemarks, Neumünster: Wachholtz Verlag Neumünster.Google Scholar
Rasmussen, C. P. (2010), ‘Innovative Feudalism: The Development of Dairy Farming and Koppelwirtschaft on Manors in Schleswig-Holstein in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’, Agricultural History Review, 58: 172190.Google Scholar
Rheinheimer, M. (1999a), Die Dorfordnungen im Herzogtum Schleswig. Dorf und Obrigkeit in der Frühen Neuzeit, Stuttgart: Lucius & Lucius.Google Scholar
Rheinheimer, M. (1999b), ‘Umweltzerstörung und dörfliche Rechtssetzung im Herzogtum Schleswig (1500–1800)’, in Jakubowski-Tiessen, M. and Lorenzen-Schmidt, K.-J. (eds.), Dünger und Dynamit. Beitrage zur Umweltgeschichte Schleswig-Holsteins und Dänemarks, Neumünster: Wachholtz Verlag Neumünster.Google Scholar
Scott, J. (1985), Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Thoen, E. (2001), ‘A ‘Commercial Survival Economy’ in Evolution: The Flemish Countryside and the Transition to Capitalism (Middle Ages–19th Century)’, in Hoppenbrouwers, P. and Van Zanden, J. L. (ed.), Peasants into Farmers? The Transformation of Rural Economy and Society in the Low Countries (Middle Ages–19th Century) in Light of the Brennerdebate, Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols.Google Scholar
Van Der Haegen, H. (2009), ‘Hoe de Kempense gemeenschappen hun aard verkregen, gebruikten. . . en verloren. Een overzicht’. Post Factum. Jaarboek voor geschiedenis en Volkskunde, 244–245.Google Scholar
Van Der Wee, H. (1963), The growth of the Antwerp market and the European economy (14th-16th centuries), Den Haag, Martinus Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Van Der Wee, H. (1975), ‘Structural Changes and Specialization in the Industry of the Southern Netherlands, 1100–1600’. The Economic History Review, 28 (2): 203221.Google Scholar
Van Der Wee, H. (1988), ‘Industrial Dynamics and the Process of Urbanization and De-Urbanization in the Low Countries from the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century. A Synthesis’, in Van Der Wee, H. (ed.), The Rise and Decline of Urban Industries in Italy and the Low Countries, Leuven: Leuven University Press.Google Scholar
Van Dijck, G. (1965), Het landbouwleven in de Antwerpse Kempen volgens de dorpskeuren (Speciaal de Hoofdbank van Zandhoven), Leuven: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.Google Scholar
Van Onacker, E. (2013), ‘De markt als middel. Peasants en de land – en kredietmarkt in de vijftiende- en zestiende-eeuwse Kempen’, TSEG, 10 (1): 4070.Google Scholar
Van Onacker, E. and De Keyzer, M. (2012), ‘Beyond the Flock: Sheep farming, Wool Sales and Capital Accumulation in a Medieval Peasant Society: The Campine Area in the Low Countries’, European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), Glasgow.Google Scholar
Van Onacker, E. and Dombrecht, K. (2012) Rural elites and local office holding in late medieval Flanders and Brabant. Conference Bürgerlich-bäuerliche Eliten im 17.–19. Jahrhundert. Oldenburg.Google Scholar
Van Vanhaute, E. (1992), Heiboeren: Bevolking, arbeid en inkomen in de 19de eeuwse Kempen, Brussel: VUB Press.Google Scholar
Van Uytven, R. (1987), ‘Economische en stedelijke groei in het hertogdom Brabant tijdens de 13de eeuw’. Brabantse Folklore, 253, 3143.Google Scholar
Vera, H. (2011), ‘. . . dat men het goed van den ongeboornen niet mag verkoopen. Gemene gronden in de Meierij van Den Bosch tussen hertog en hertgang 1000–2000’, History. Nijmegen: Radboud Universiteit.Google Scholar
Verhulst, A. (1972), ‘La Laine indigène dans les anciens Pays-Bas entre le XIIe et le XVIIe siècle’, Revue Historique, 96: 281322.Google Scholar
Vermoesen, R. and De Bie, A. (2008), ‘Boeren en hun relaties op het Vlaamse platteland (1750–1800)’, Tijdschrift voor geschiedenis, 121: 430445.Google Scholar
Whittle, J. (2010), ‘Lords and Tenants in Kett's Rebellion 1549’, Past and Present, 207: 352.Google Scholar
Whyte, N. (2009), Inhabiting the Landscape: Place Custom and Memory, 1500–1800, Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Whyte, N. (2011), ‘Contested Pasts: Custom, Conflict and Landscape Change in West Norfolk, c. 1550–1650’, in Hoyle, R. W. (ed.), Custom, Improvement and the Landscape in Early Modern Britain, Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Winchester, A. (2008), ‘Statute and Local Custom: Village Byelaws and the Governance of Common Land in Medieval and Early-Modern England’, in Van Bavel, B. and Thoen, E. (eds.), Rural Societies and Environments at Risk. Ecology, Property Rights and Social Organisation in Fragile Areas (Middle Ages–Twentieth Century), Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar