With developments in trade and transport, land could be used to reap huge profits from crops grown to meet demands for food across the known world. Land became the favoured form of investment as the big estate owners looked to manage their estates carefully to maximise production and profit. Increasing the peasant labour force was the simplest method of getting more from arable farmland, but there was also the option of investing in animal husbandry, or leasing plots to tenant farmers to profit from rents.
