GAINAGIUM, in our ancient writers, signifies the draught oxen, horses, wain, plough, and furniture, for carrying on the work of tillage by the best sort of freemen and villains.

Gainage is the same with what is otherwise called wainage. Bradton, lib. i. cap. 9. speaking of lords and servants, says, Ut si eos desertum, quod falsum non posset eis esse waining um sum. And again, lib. iii. tract. 2. cap. 1. Vellanius non americiabilius, nisi falsos wainagis fuit: For anciently, as it appears both by Magna Charta, and other books, the villain, when amerced, had his gainage or wainage free, to the end his plough might not stand still; and the law, for the same reason, does still allow a like privilege to the husbandmen; that is, his draught horses are not in many cases distrainable.

GAINAGE is also used for the land itself, or the profit raised by cultivating it.