Edward Thompson's influence on this field and period of history has been immense, and his intellectual presence is likely to remain even after his death in 1994. His Customs in Common (1991) undoubtedly belongs to that energetic and burgeoning field of eighteenth- century studies investigating enclosure, customs and crime. The ‘moral economy’ continues to fascinate academic interest so much that the concept has taken on a life and a direction unimagined by its originator (E. P. Thompson 1971). The research of Randall and Charlesworth (2000), for example, is taking the moral economy concept far beyond the food market, as indeed has Scott who has, in Weapons of the Weak (1985), brought to the study of South East Asian peasants a new sophistication that might usefully be imported to eighteenth-century England.

The study of rural protest has shown itself to be remarkably vigorous and innovative in other directions, not least the unresolved Wells–Charlesworth argument which debated the relationship between proletarianisation and forms of protest. Further work is perhaps required on protest during the Napoleonic war years and the influence or otherwise of paternalism on social relations and resistance. This debate has until now been located in the narrow confines of East Anglia, Sussex and Kent, yet it is apparent that there still remain counties awaiting some kind of preliminary investigation. Even the heavily researched regions and themes would repay further reinterpretation and review. Captain Swing falls into this category, since the extent and complexity of these riots have been underestimated by Hobsbawm and Rudé (1973). The rediscovery of the English peasant and the impact of enclosure, which Neeson's (1993) and Reed's (1984) work has brought to light, will probably lead to further studies. Slow to bear fruit have been the ‘and now to Lower Hardres’ (the first village to break threshing machines in 1830) micro-study village community investigations as suggested by Cobb in his review of Hobsbawm and Rudé's Captain Swing (Cobb 1969).