Farming Calculations

Example: Thomas Wood (family of four)

Land Rented: 10 acres

Rent: 13 pence (13 sheaves) per acre

Year 1336 Production per Acre 40
Assets Debits
Food Production 400 Tithes 40
Wages Rent (not serfs) 130
Thomas Wood (mason) 160 Food Consumption 320
Wages (paid)
Total 560 Total 490
Assets Total 560 Debits Total
Debits Total 490 Assets Total
Surplus 70 Deficit
Food Production
Sheaves per Acre 4 acres 5 acres 6 acres 7 acres 8 acres 9 acres 10 acres 11 acres 12 acres
36 144 180 216 252 288 324 360 396 432
38 152 190 228 266 304 342 380 418 456
40 160 200 240 280 320 360 400 440 480
42 168 210 252 294 336 378 420 462 504
44 176 220 264 308 352 396 440 484 528
46 184 230 276 322 368 414 460 506 552
48 192 240 288 336 384 432 480 528 576
Rent
(13 sheaves per acre)
Food Consumption
(80 sheaves per person)
Acres Cost People Sheaves
4 52 3 240
5 65 4 320
6 78 5 400
7 91 6 480
8 1044 7 560
9 117 8 640
10 130 9 720
11 143
12 156
13 169
14 182
15 195
16 208
17 221
18 234
19 247
20 260

Primary Sources

(1) John Brown, A Memoir of Robert Blincoe (1828)

A girl named Mary Richards, who was thought remarkably handsome when she left the workhouse, and, who was not quite ten years of age, attended a drawing frame, below which, and about a foot from the floor, was a horizontal shaft, by which the frames above were turned. It happened one evening, when her apron was caught by the shaft. In an instant the poor girl was drawn by an irresistible force and dashed on the floor. She uttered the most heart-rending shrieks! Blincoe ran towards her, an agonized and helpless beholder of a scene of horror. He saw her whirled round and round with the shaft - he heard the bones of her arms, legs, thighs, etc. successively snap asunder, crushed, seemingly, to atoms, as the machinery whirled her round, and drew tighter and tighter her body within the works, her blood was scattered over the frame and streamed upon the floor, her head appeared dashed to pieces - at last, her mangled body was jammed in so fast, between the shafts and the floor, that the water being low and the wheels off the gear, it stopped the main shaft. When she was extricated, every bone was found broken - her head dreadfully crushed. She was carried off quite lifeless.