The rate of technological change, though slow by modern standards, did not prevent Europe from doubling its agricultural productivity between the years 1000 and 1250. Population doubled as well. Climatological evidence suggests that a general warming trend extended the growing season and permitted the extension of cultivation to more northern regions and to higher elevations. No major famines occurred during this period, and crises of subsistence tended to be local and of short duration. However, changes in the climate alone cannot account for such an unprecedented expansion.

The return of more-or-less settled conditions after the great raids of the ninth and tenth centuries was certainly a factor. The annual loss of food, tools, livestock, and seed grain to the marauders had been substantial. When augmented by forced requisitions and by the depredations of local feudatories its impact on subsistence must have been great. A number of technical innovations increased productivity, though some were dependent upon a preexistent improvement in conditions for their success. The extension of the three-field system through much of northwest Europe is an example. By leaving only one-third of the land fallow in any given year, as opposed to half under the earlier system, peasants were able to increase their yields without seriously diminishing the fertility of their land. They typically planted a winter crop in one field and a summer crop in another while leaving the third free to regenerate itself.

The success of this scheme depended upon the quality of the soil and the availability of adequate rainfall. Northwestern Europe, though at the same latitude as Newfoundland or Labrador, is mild and moist. Its weather is moderated by the Atlantic Ocean and, in particular, by the Gulf Stream, a warm water current that rises in the Caribbean and washes the shores of England and France. Pleasant summers with temperatures that usually do not exceed 80 degrees Fahrenheit follow long, wet winters in which prolonged freezes are rare. The prevailing winds are westerly, bringing abundant rainfall even in the summer months as Atlantic squalls, forced northward by high pressure over the Iberian Peninsula, drop their moisture on the land. In much of the Mediterranean basin, where little or no rain falls to support summer crops, the two-field system remained dominant; in the harsh, dry tablelands of Castile, seven-field systems in which only one-seventh of the land was cultivated at a time was common.

Production was further increased by the introduction of the heavy iron plow, or carruca, and the complex technology that surrounded it. This device was apparently of Slavic origin. Mounted on wheels, it consisted of a horizontal plowshare and an angled mould-board that turned the sliced earth aside. Cutting a deeper furrow than its Roman predecessor, the iron plow made the seed less vulnerable to late frosts and to the depredations of birds and rodents. This increased yields and extended the limits of cultivation by allowing the seed to survive in colder climates. Heavy clay soils that were impervious to the scratchings of ancient plowmen could now be utilized for the first time, and the clearing of virgin land was greatly simplified. . .

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