The European countryside in the fifteenth century was more sparsely populated than at any time since 1150. This chapter focuses on the view of a 'demographic crisis' that helps understanding of the fifteenth century, but that excessive dependence on it leads to a distorted and incomplete picture. The desertion and shrinkage of settlements followed from the demographic crisis. The developments in farming amounted almost to a new ecological balance, reflected in the scientific evidence of pollen samples by a diminishing proportion of cereals and the weeds of cultivation, and increases in grass and tree pollen. The examination of the varied history of different regions suggests that the 'demographic crisis' applies most appropriately to lowland arable farming regions. Fifteenth-century Europe had experienced centuries of commercialisation and urbanisation. Peasants accounted collectively for the bulk of agricultural production. Despite the widespread abandonment of direct production for the market, home farms still produced for lords' households, and some nobles ventured into profitable enterprises.