III. CONCLUSION.
Economic result.
The economic result of the inquiry pursued in this essay may now be summed up in few words.
Its object was not to inquire into the origin of village and tribal communities as the possible beginning of all things, but simply to put English Economic History on true lines at its historical beginning, viz.: the English Conquest.
Two rural systems throughout—the village community in the east, and the tribal community in the west.
Throughout the whole period from pre-Roman to modern times we have found in Britain two parallel systems of rural economy side by side, but keeping separate and working themselves out on quite different lines, in spite of Roman, English, and Norman invasions—that of the village community in the eastern, that of the tribal community in the western districts of the island.
Community and equality in both.
Each had its own open-field system.
Both systems as far back as the evidence extends were marked by the two notes of community and equality, and each was connected with a form of the open or common field system of husbandry peculiar to itself. These two different forms of the common field system also kept themselves distinct throughout, and are still distinct in their modern remains or survivals.
Both pre-Roman.