Agricultural History Review, Volume 36 Part 1 (1988), pp. 87–98

Horses, oxen and technological innovation is shown to make a major substantive and methodological contribution to the agrarian history of medieval England. Langdon's findings, derived in part from a national sample of manorial accounts, lend further support to the view that a more specialized and integrated pattern of food production and supply began to evolve during the thirteenth century. Horse haulage, although costly, increased the speed and range of market transactions; whilst horse traction allowed the emergence of more intensive forms of arable husbandry and greater specialization in livestock production. To illustrate the last point results are presented from a national survey of demesne livestock. These developments are expressed in the form of greatly increased spatial differentiation and can be related to the effect upon economic rent of the contemporary growth of several major urban markets. 

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