Medieval English Crop Yields and Agricultural Variables

A collection of agricultural and climatic variables for manors in medieval England, supporting replication of the study 'The Persistence of the Harvest in Medieval England'. It includes wheat, oat, and barley yields per acre and per seed, alongside variables for sowing rates, livestock counts, precipitation, temperature, and population density. The data is provided in two STATA files with accompanying do-files for replicating specific tables and figures from the original paper.

Use Cases

• Analyze the relationship between wheat yields (yldw) and 30-year moving averages of precipitation (preciptr) and temperature (tempr) to model climate impacts on medieval agriculture.
• Model the influence of manor characteristics like distance to London (dis), population density (pop), and soil type (soiltype) on oat yields (yldo) and barley yields (yldb).
• Examine the correlation between typical numbers of draft animals (ani) and sheep (sheep) by manor with crop yields per seed across different periods.
• Cluster manors based on crop mix (croptype), husbandry practices (hustype), and farming strategy (farmtype) codes to identify distinct agricultural regimes.

Strengths

• Includes multiple yield measures (per acre and per seed) for three major cereal crops: wheat, oats, and barley.
• Provides long-term climatic indicators through 30-year moving averages for precipitation (preciptr) and temperature (tempr).
• Contains detailed manor-level control variables such as sowing rates, livestock counts, population density, and soil type.
• Comes with specific STATA do-files for replicating the tables and figures from the associated published study.

Limitations

• The exact number of rows, columns, and temporal coverage is unspecified in the provided metadata.
• Data is specific to medieval England, limiting generalizability to other regions or time periods.
• As a replication package, the dataset's structure and variables are tightly coupled with the specific analysis of the original paper.

Provenance

Source

Replication package for 'The Persistence of the Harvest in Medieval England', harvested by ICPSR from Dataverse.

Collection Method

Compiled from historical manorial records and climatic data, as described in the associated study.

Time Range

Medieval period (specific years not detailed in input).

Freshness

null

Geography

Manors in medieval England.