Using the fallow plot for grazing also had dramatic effects on medieval and then on early capitalist economies. “Manure was highly prized, for it was a rare and precious product, none of which must be wasted. The most blessed of all the animals was the sheep.”28 Sheep provided milk, butter, cheese, and meat. Their skins provided the parchment on which scribes copied out books. But most of all, sheep provided wool. Since wool cloth was in very high demand during the Middle Ages, wool fleeces were the major industrial raw material. Woolen cloth industries dominated the early days of capitalism,
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