Since early times, agriculture has been pivotal to England's economy. This seven-volume, eight-piece set compiled by the economist James E. Thorold Rogers (1823–90), represents the most complete record of produce costs in England between the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries. Drawing on a variety of sources including college archives and the Public Record Office, Rogers documents the fluctuating prices of commodities such as livestock, wheat, hay, wool, textiles and labour in a time of great economic change, when the growing economy of the early middle ages was shaken by famine and the Black Death, and then gradually recovered towards the Agrarian Revolution. Published between 1866 and 1902 (Volume 7 having been edited by Rogers' son and published after his death), the whole work provides the statistical basis for research into English agrarian history, and essays which help to interpret the raw data.
