Work on farms was still year-round. In January and February, fields were plowed and harrowed and the manure spread. Also, trees and hedges were set, fruit trees pruned, and timber lopped. In March and April, the fields were stirred again and the wheat and rye sown. In May gardens were planted, hop vines trained to poles, ditches scoured, lambs weaned, and sheep watched for "rot". In June sheep were washed and sheared, and fields were spread with lime and clay, and manured. In July hay was cut, dried, and stacked. In August crops were harvested, which called for extra help from neighbors and townsmen who took holidays at harvesting. Then there was threshing, and the sowing of winter wheat and rye. In the autumn, cider from apples and perry from pears may be made. By November the fall planting was finished and the time had come for the killing of cattle and hanging up their salted carcasses for winter meat. Straw would be laid down with dung, to be spread next spring on the fields. Stock that could not live outdoors in winter were brought into barns.
Government regulated the economy. In times of dearth, it ordered Justices of the Peace to buy grain and sell it below cost. It forbade employers to lay off workers whose products they could not sell. It used the Star Chamber Court to enforce economic regulations.
There were food riots usually during years of harvest failure, in which organized groups seized foodstuffs being transported or in markets, and enclosure riots, in which organized groups destroyed hedges and fences erected in agrarian reorganization to restrict access to or to subdivide former common pasture land. These self- help riots were last resorts to appeals and were orderly. The rioters were seldom punished more than a fining or whipping of the leaders and action was taken to satisfy the legitimate grievances of the rioters.
The poor came to resent the rich and there was a rise in crime among the poor. Penal laws were frequently updated in an effort to bring more order.
Enclosures of land were made to carry on improved methods of tillage, which yielded more grain and more sheep fleece. Drainage of extensive marsh land created more land for agriculture. Waste land was used to breed game and "fowling" contributed to farmers' and laborers' livelihoods. Killing game was not the exclusive right of landowners, but was a common privilege. The agricultural laborer, who worked for wages and composed most of the wage- earning population, found it hard to make ends meet.
In 1610, weekly wages for a mason were 8s. or 5s., for a laborer were 6s. or 4s., for a carpenter 8s. or 6s. An unskilled laborer received 1s. a day.
There were conventions of paternalism and deference between neighbors of unequal social status. A social superior often protected his lessers from impoverishment For instance, the landlord lessened rents in times of harvest failure. A social superior would help find employment for a lesser person or his children, stand surety for a recognizance, intervene in a court case, or have his wife tend a sick member of his lesser's family. A social obligation was felt by most of the rich, the landlords, the yeomen farmers, and the clergy. This system of paternalism and social deference was expressed and reinforced at commonly attended village sports and games, dances, wakes and "ales" (the proceeds of which went to the relief of a certain person in distress), "rush-bearings", parish feasts, weddings, christenings, "churchings" to give thanks for births, and funerals. Even the poor were buried in coffins. Also there was social interaction at the local alehouse, where neighbors drank, talked, sung, and played at bowls or "shove goat" together.
Quarrelling was commonplace. For instance, borough authorities would squabble over the choice of a schoolmaster; the parson would carry on a long fight with parishioners over tithe hens and pigs; two country gentlemen would continue a vendetta started by their great-grandfathers over a ditch or hunting rights; the parishioners would wrangle with the churchwardens over the allocation of pews. The position of one's pew reflected social position. Men tried to keep the pews of their ancestors and the newly prosperous wanted the recognition in the better pews, for which they had to pay a higher amount. But, on the other hand, farmers were full of good will toward their neighbors. They lent farm and kitchen equipment, helped raise timbers for a neighbor's new barn, sent food and cooked dishes to those providing a funeral feast and to the sick and incurable.
Village standards of behavior required that a person not to drink to excess, quarrel, argue, profane, gossip, cause a nuisance, abuse wife or children, or harbor suspicious strangers, and to pay scot and bear lot as he was asked. Neighbors generally got along well and frequently borrowed and loaned small sums of money to each other without interest for needs that suddenly arose. Bad behavior was addressed by mediation and, if this failed, by exclusion from holy communion. There was also whipping and the stocks.
Marital sex was thought to be good for the health and happiness of the husband and enjoyable by wives. The possibility of female orgasm was encouraged. Both women and men were thought to have "seed" and drank certain potions to cause pregnancy or to prevent birth. Some argued that orgasm of both partners was necessary for the "seed" of the male and female to mix to produce pregnancy. Most women were in a virtual state of perpetual pregnancy. Both Catholics and Protestants thought that God wanted them to multiply and cover the earth. Catholics thought that the only goal of sex was procreation. Men were considered ready for marriage only when they could support a family, which was usually at about age 30. Brides were normally virgins, but there was bridal pregnancy of about 20%. Women usually married at about age 25. Marriages were usually within one's own class and religion. The aristocracy often initiated matches of their children for the sake of continuity in the family estates and tried to obtain the consent of their children for the match in mind. The age of consent to marry was 14 for boys and 12 for girls. Girls in arranged marriages often married at 13, and boys before they went to university. But the girls usually stayed with their parents for a couple of years before living with their husbands. If married before puberty, consummation of the marriage waited for such time. In other classes, the initiative was usually taken by the child. Dowries and marriage portions usually were given by the parents of the bride. Wet-nurses frequently were used, even by Puritans. There were no baby bottles. Many babies died, causing their parents much grief. About 1/4 of women's deaths occurred during childbirth. A child was deemed to be the husband's if he was within the four seas, i.e. not in foreign lands, for an agreed length of time. Illegitimacy was infrequent, and punished by church-mandated public penance by the mother and lesser penance and maintenance by the father. Adultery was subject to church court sanctions as was defamation for improper sexual conduct.