Institutional change and property rights before the Industrial Revolution: the case of the English Court of Wards and Liveries, 1540–1660

Bottomley, Sean 2023. Institutional change and property rights before the Industrial Revolution: the case of the English Court of Wards and Liveries, 1540–1660. Journal of Economic History 83 (1) , pp. 242-274. 10.1017/S0022050722000493

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Abstract

Secure property rights are usually considered to be essential for sustained economic development. In England, it is debated whether property rights have been secure since the medieval period or if they were only established after the Glorious Revolution. In this context, the paper examines the Court of Wards, which from 1540 to 1646 administered the Crown’s right to take custody of children and their lands when these were held by feudal-military tenures. The paper shows that wardship was a common occurrence, its exactions arbitrary but often heavy, and that it reduced the value of lands held by these tenures.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press (CUP): No Cambridge Open
ISSN:	0022-0507
Funders:	Economic History Society
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	17 July 2024
Date of Acceptance:	31 January 2022
Last Modified:	18 Jul 2024 14:08
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/170635

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