Gestionar Recursos Humanos (G-RH)

In terms of acquisition patterns within individual categories, demesne managers showed a clear preference for buying cart-horse stocks, as just under 80 percent of cart-horses were purchased at market. An even higher proportion of stotts, just under 90 percent, were purchased, although this was mostly a

consequence of the concentration of this particular category of horse in the Thames Basin and East Anglia regions, where purchasing was the dominant mode of horse acquisition across all horse categories. The acquisition of affers was less skewed towards purchase. Almost 50 percent of these animals were purchased, while a further quarter were acquired through seigniorial perquisites. Demesne breeding was also more pronounced among affers, with 15 percent of adult animals being bred internally.

Figure 2.8: Methods of External Acquisition: Affers

Figure 2.9: Methods of External Acquisition: Stotts

Figure 2.10: Methods of External Acquisition: Cart-horses

74#

3#

6# 0# 0#

0#

10#

20#

30#

40#

50#

60#

70#

80#

Bought# Seigniorial#Perquisite# Added#From#Foals# Other# Born#(Foals)#

Methods(of(External(Acquisi5on:(Sto8s((n=83)(

89.2%#

25.5%#

7.2%#

Figure 2.11: Methods of External Acquisition: Mares

61#

6#

3#

7#

0# 0#

10#

20#

30#

40#

50#

60#

70#

Bought# Seigniorial#Perquisite# Added#From#Foals# Other# Born#(Foals)#

Methods(of(External(Acquisi5on:(Cart(Horses((n=77)(

79.2%#

7.8%#

3.9%#

9.1%#

9"

14"

13"

2"

0" 0"

2"

4"

6"

8"

10"

12"

14"

16"

Bought" Seigniorial"Perquisite" Added"From"Foals" Other" Born"(Foals)"

Methods(of(External(Acquisi5on:(Mares((n=38)(

23.7%"

36.8%"

34.2%"

"

5.3%"

The findings from our sample deviate in some significant ways from the findings of other research on horse management based on studies of a single estate or manor.¹⁶⁹ For example, Biddick found that Peterborough Abbey pursued two

strategies of horse acquisition, by purchasing cart-horses on the market but replacing its affers through internal breeding and rearing.¹⁷⁰ David Stone observed that reeves of Wisbech made a dramatic shift in horse procurement, deciding after the Black Death to stop buying male horses on the market and instead use internally-bred mares for ploughing, carting and harrowing.¹⁷¹ While the manors in our sample confirmed that the preference for purchasing cart-horses was indeed a national phenomenon, with just under 80 percent of these animals purchased on the market and less than 4 percent bred and reared internally, they reveal that both the

Peterborough preference for rearing affers and the post Black Death policy of Wisbech were atypical; nationally, demesnes also preferred to buy affers, as internally-bred affers were outnumbered by those purchased on our demesnes by more than 3:1.

While purchase was most common for stotts and cart-horses within our sample, other avenues of procurement were more frequently pursued for other types of horses. Only 19 percent of mares, for example, were purchased on the market.

34.2 percent were bred internally and the most significant source of mares was seigniorial perquisites, an avenue that provided demesnes with 36.8 percent of acquired mares. Seigniorial perquisites are discussed in further detail below, but most of the mares acquired in this way were funnelled from the peasantry to the demesne through the mechanisms of heriot and strays; an indication that mares constituted a significant proportion of peasant horse stocks. Demesnes very rarely

¹⁶⁹ Biddick, The Other Economy, 117.

¹⁷⁰ Ibid.

¹⁷¹ Stone, Decision-Making, 114.

purchased foals. 152 of the 184 foals, or 82.6 percent acquired by demesnes in our sample were bred internally. In addition, both mill-horses acquired by the Bishop of Winchester’s manors of Brightwell and Farnham were purchased for 16 s. ¼ d. and 11 s. 4 d., respectively.¹⁷² With only two mill-horse acquisitions in our sample, it is impossible to say if purchase was the most typical method of acquisition for this class of equines, but perhaps demesne managers preferred to buy animals with mill experience rather than bend new horses to the specific tasks they required: powering horse mills and carrying both threshed and unthreshed grains.

The preference for purchasing certain types of horses was even more pronounced in certain areas of the country. 93 percent of stotts acquired in the Thames Basin region were purchased, compared with 74 percent purchased in East Anglia, the only other region where stotts are found. The preference for purchasing cart-horses was less regionally variable. Ranging from 79 percent in the Thames Basin to 63 percent in East Anglia, all regions showed a clear inclination towards buying these horses over other methods for procurement, but no region stands out from the rest as a clear leader in this regard. Cart-horses were the elite horses on medieval demesnes and a clear price premium was paid for them. The skill premium that increased the value of these horses will be discussed in detail in chapter 5, but it was a combination of strength, temperament and training that distinguished cart-horses from other equines.

Purchases were the major method of procurement, which meant that all forms of horses must have been widely and commonly available in most parts of the

country. Thus the sample underlines unequivocally the importance of a horse market in supplying English demesnes around 1300. However, the sample also reveals that

¹⁷² Page, Winchester Pipe Roll, 196, 213.

manorial accounts provide very few insights into the nature of the market, or the people who supplied it. Most entries relating to the purchase of horses state simply how many horses were purchased and the prices paid for them. They seldom provide any details about where, when, how or from whom the horses were acquired. The absence of such information means that the manner of acquisition was regarded as so commonplace, obvious or banal as to be unworthy of any additional written

explanation for the benefit of the auditors, because manorial accounts usually went to great lengths to explain any expenses which seemed either anomalous or out of the ordinary. Ironically, what was commonplace and banal for medieval demesne managers is of especial interest to the medieval historian. Thus we have to use other sources to attempt to reconstruct the market for horses, which are explored in

Chapter 5.