The role of demesnes in the trade of agricultural horses in late medieval England

This paper explores the question of how medieval England was supplied with working horses. It uses a national sample of over 300 manorial accounts from c.1300 to assess the role of demesnes in the production and distribution of these animals. It finds that demesnes were significant net consumers of horses, relying primarily upon the market for their supply. This illustrates that there was a well-established market for these animals by c.1300, but also that these large institutional farms did not breed enough horses to sustain their own demand, let alone a surplus that could have supplied the market. Demesne managers did, however, fill an important distributive role in the trade of agricultural horses by acting as 'middle men' in marshalling the various channels of work horse acquisition and dispersion.