Norfolk livestock farming 1250–1740: a comparative study of manorial accounts and probate inventories

This paper examines developments in Norfolk livestock husbandry over a period of five centuries. It breaks new ground by combining evidence from manorial accounts and probate inventories and the methodological difficulties of using the two sources are examined in some detail. Despite these difficulties the evidence of accounts and inventories reveals the continuity of developed and dynamic pastoral farming systems in Norfolk. From an early date the distinctive feature of livestock farming was its close integration with arable farming, producing mixed-farming systems of remarkable productivity. By substituting horses for oxen and cultivating fodder crops, Norfolk farmers succeeded in maximizing the ratio of non-working to working animals, thereby permitting the development of specialized sheep farming, cattle-based dairying, and later, fattening. Sheep farming was transformed from a peasant to a landlord activity and dairying shifted in its spatial focus, gradually giving way to fattening, rendering Norfolk farmers increasingly dependent upon the import of young stock from outside the county. The most difficult comparison between accounts and inventories yields the most remarkable finding: between the fourteenth and the seventeenth centuries stocking densities approximately doubled. This implies significant gains in pastoral output per unit area, reinforcing the view that developments in livestock husbandry may well have been of greater importance in increasing agricultural production than the more heavily studied arable sector.     

ANALYZING THE COST OF DEBT FOR SMALL BUSINESS

The available empirical evidence provides mixed views of small businesses' relative bankruptcy risk. The difference between Churchill and Lewis' findings and SBA's and Kirchhoffs' may well lie in the difference in definition of firm “size” used. Risk is not evenly spread; the smallest businesses seem to be less risky than the intermediate size businesses. Yet, Churchill and Lewis' actual loss evidence suggests that small business risk is only marginally greater than for large businesses, the loss rate is still equivalent to less than one half of one percent. The assumptions that lenders will adjust the amount of debt they allow small business clients rather than the interest rate is not rejected by this evidence. In fact, the much higher profitability of the small business department reported by Churchill and Lewis suggests that the bank's loan interest rates are more than high enough to cover loss risk and fixed costs, and borrowers provide profitable deposits. Thus, the logic of my utility theory hypothesis provides a reasonable explanation for the relatively higher debt levels of small firms compared to large firms. But, then the Kirchhoffs' findings cast some doubt on whether small firms actually have higher debt levels. None of these findings justify the 2.75 percent interest rate spread allowed by SBA.     

Old World Traditions, New World Landscapes: Ethnicity and Archaeology of Swiss-Appenzellers in the Colonial South Carolina Backcountry

German-speaking Swiss immigrants from the Appenzell region of Switzerland settled in the South Carolina frontier township of New Windsor in 1737. After initially establishing an insular physical and social relationship with the dominant Anglophone population, the Swiss adopted strategies that increasingly integrated them into the greater regional society. Theory of ethnicity informs archaeological, testamentary, and landholding data concerning the symbolic action of the Swiss to assert and then transform their cultural identity. Evidence of competition, ethnocentrism, and differential power reflects the dynamic process of ethnogenesis that characterizes the South Carolina frontier.     

Book reviews

UNITED NATIONS. THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS. Clark M. Eichelberger. New York, Harper and Row, 1965. Pp. 176. $3.50.

THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND: LEGAL BASES, STRUCTURE, FUNCTIONS. Hans Aufricht. Published under the auspices of the London Institute of World Affairs. London, Stevens and Sons, 1964. Pp. 126. Australian price $4.55.

THE PRICE OF FREEDOM. B. A. Santamaria. Melbourne, Campion Press, 1964. Pp. 258. 35/‐d.

THE ANZUS TREATY ALLIANCE. J. G. Starke. Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 1965. Pp. xiv + 314. $8.50 (Australian).

CAMBODIA'S FOREIGN POLICY. Roger M. Smith. Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 1965. Pp. x + 273. U.S.$5.75.

CONFLICT IN LAOS. THE POLITICS OF NEUTRALIZATION. Arthur J. Dommen. London, Pall Mall Press, 1965. Pp. xiv + 338. Australian price 63/6d.

THE LEFT‐WING MOVEMENT IN JAPAN, 1945–1964. Fukao Noda (ed.). Journal of Social and Political Ideas in Japan, Vol. III, No. I, April 1965. Tokyo, The Centre for Japanese Social and Political Studies. U.S.$2.00.

MOHAMMED, MARX AND MARHAEN. THE ROOTS OF INDONESIAN SOCIALISM. Jeanne S. Mintz. London, Pall Mall Press, 1965. Pp. 246. Australian price 66/‐d.

THE RISE OF POLITICAL ANTI‐SEMITISM IN GERMANY AND AUSTRIA. P. G. J. Pulzer. New dimensions in history: essays in comparative history. New York, Wiley, 1964.

BRITISH STRATEGY AND POLITICS, 1914–1918. Paul Guinn. London, Oxford University Press, 1965. Pp. xvi + 360. 8 maps and 14 illustrations. Australian price 67/6d.

THE POLITICS OF NAVAL SUPREMACY. The Wiles Lectures, 1963–4. G. S. Graham. London, Cambridge University Press, 1965. Pp. viii + 132. 2 maps. 30/‐d. stg.

THE UNITED STATES AND THE ITALO‐ETHIOPIAN CRISIS. Brice Harris, Jr. Stanford University Press, 1964. Pp. vi + 187, bibliographical essay. Australian price 75/6d.     

Reviews

LYNDON B. JOHNSON AND THE WORLD. Philip Geyelin. Frederick A. Praeger, U.SA., 1966. Pp. viii + 309. $5.95 (U.S.).

AN EXPLANATION OF DE GAULLE, Robert Aron. Harper & Row, New York, 1966. Pp. xiv + 210. $4.95 (U.S.).

DE GAULLE AND THE WORLD. THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE FIFTH FRENCH REPUBLIC. W. W. Kulski. Syracuse University Press, 1966. Pp. xvi + 428. $8.50 (U.S.).

MODERN CAPITALISM. THE CHANGING BALANCE OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE POWER. Andrew Shonfield. London, Oxford University Press, for the Royal Institute of International Affair?, 1965. Pp. xvi + 456. $8.33 (Aust).

THE DISINTEGRATING MONOLITH. PLURALIST TRENDS IN THE COMMUNIST WORLD. /. D. B. Miller and T. E. Bigby (eds.). Canberra, Australian National University, 1965. Pp. xiii + 264. $6.00 (Aust).

AUSTRALIA AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS. Anthony Chinies Ross and Peter King. Sydney, Sydney University Press 1966. Pp. 111. $2.00 (Aust.). ASPECTS OF AUSTRALIA'S DEFENCE. Max Teichmann (ed.). For The Political Studies Association, Monash University, 1966. Pp. 88. $1.25 (Aust.).

AUSTRALIA, BRITAIN AND THE E.E.C. H. G. Gelber. Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1966. Pp. xii + 296. $9.50 (Aust.).

AUSTRALIAN POLICIES AND ATTITUDES TOWARD CHINA. Henry S. Albinski. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1965. Pp. 468. $14.75 (Aust.).

TOWARDS PEACE IN INDO‐CHINA. Anthony Eden {Earl of Avon). Chatham House Essays No. 14. London, Oxford University Press, 1966. Pp. x + 41 + 30 Select Documents. $1.80 (Aust.).

THAILAND AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOUTHEAST ASIA. Donald. E. Neuchterlein. Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, 1965. Pp. 279. $6.70 (Aust).

MASK OF ASIA. THE PHILIPPINES. George FarweU. Melbourne, F. W. Cheshire, 1966. Pp. 227. $4.50 (Aust.).

JAPAN. LAND OF SUN AND STORM. Mildred Watt. Melbourne, F. W. Cheshire, 1966. Pp. 195. $5.00 (Aust).

THE ANGLO‐JAPANESE ALLIANCE: THE DIPLOMACY OF TWO ISLAND EMPIRES 1894–1907. I. H. Nish. London, Athlone Press, 1966. Pp. 420. 63/‐(stg.).

THE NEW ELITES OF TROPICAL AFRICA. P. C. Lloyd (ed.). London, Oxford University Press, 1966. For the International African Institute. Pp. x + 390. $7.80 (Aust.). This book is an attempt to open a new field in modern African studies.