Medieval agriculture, the southern French countryside, and the early Cistercians: a study of forty-three monasteries
In: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 76,5
In: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 76,5
In: Slavic review: interdisciplinary quarterly of Russian, Eurasian and East European studies, Band 42, Heft 1, S. 14-35
ISSN: 2325-7784
In loving memory of Angle Arvidson (1961-1982)Over a decade ago, Georges Duby wrote his account of the development of the European economy between the seventh and twelfth centuries. The essential change he described was the transition from a society ruled by an elite of warriors, accumulating wealth through conquest, booty, and hoarding, to a society ruled by an elite of landholders, accumulating wealth through economic investment in land and places of production and exchange — workshops, markets, and fairs. The social groupings became increasingly complex. The simple societal divisions — between warriors and peasants, and between the free and the slaves — were replaced by complex and fluid structures of lordship and service. The resulting social arrangements and their language varied in different parts of Europe. Poland completed the transition from an economy based on force and warfare to one based on intensive agriculture and craft specialization in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. This essay describes the structure of rural services and tributes resulting from this transition in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. The first part describes village settlements and division of labor; the second part examines the concept of lordship and in particular the origins of involuntary services rendered by the peasants to the lords — "serfdom" — in Poland during the first decades of the thirteenth century.
In: Acta Salmanticensia
In: Textos medievales 10
In: Documentos y estudios para la historia del Occidente peninsular durante la Edad Media 10
In: Cambridge studies in Islamic civilization
In: Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought 4th ser., 12
A theory of the margin has long featured in the work of medieval historians. Marginal regions are taken to be those of poor soil or geographical remoteness, where farmers experienced particular difficulties in grain production. It is argued that such regions were cultivated only when demographic pressure intensified in the thirteenth century, but that a combination of soil exhaustion and demographic decline resulted in severe economic contraction by the end of the fourteenth century. Marginal regions are seen not just as sensitive barometers of economic change but as important catalysts in that change. Despite the importance placed by historians on the general theory of the margin, this book represents the first detailed study of a 'marginal region'. It focuses upon East Anglian Breckland, whose blowing sands are among the most barren soils in lowland England. Drawing upon a wide range of sources, this study reconstructs Breckland's late medieval economy, and shows it to be more diversified and resilient than the stereotype depicted in marginal theory
In: Biblioteca di storia agraria medievale 5
This study was devoted to the development of the transhumance in Spain, Italy, Southern France, and the Balkan countries. It elaborated an idealtype of evolution of transhumance within the context of medieval European economies. The ideal-type modes of organization range from the integration of sheep raising, in the business cycles of rural communities to the regulations for extensive migratory sheep raising by public institutions. The degrees of spatial interrelatedness, the separation of pastoral production and reproduction from the rural production and living units, and the disposition of the yields from transhumant sheep raising are used as criteria for characterizing each stage. Spatial relations between the places of rural and pastoral productions allege the labelling of the various stages: intra-local sheep raising (use of the common land; no supplementary pastures; division of labour between the members of the rural production unity; the head of the household is authorized to dispose of the surplus); inter-local migratory pastoral economy (supplementary pastures in different village lands; division of labour between shepherd and rural production unity; the shepherd's participation in surplus and income from sales); intra-regional migratory pastoral industry (supplementary pastures beyond the village, but within the same physiographic region; division of labour between shepherd and rural production unity or larger production unities; aside from them, owners of pasture grounds and landowners in regions through which flocks pass during their migrations participate in surplus and income from sales); inter-regional migratory pastoral industry (supplementary pastures in different physiographic regions, division of labour between shepherd and rural or larger economic unities or flock owners; also division of labour within the pastoral production unity; aside from shepherds, peasants, flock owners, owners of pasture grounds, and landowners in regions through which flocks pass during their migrations, the government or similar organizers of transhumance participate in surplus and income from sales).
BASE
In: Historical Social Research, Band 10, Heft 4, S. 99-104
This study was devoted to the development of the
transhumance in Spain, Italy, Southern France, and the
Balkan countries. It elaborated an idealtype of evolution
of transhumance within the context of medieval European
economies. The ideal-type modes of organization range from
the integration of sheep raising, in the business cycles of
rural communities to the regulations for extensive migratory
sheep raising by public institutions. The degrees of
spatial interrelatedness, the separation of pastoral production
and reproduction from the rural production and
living units, and the disposition of the yields from
transhumant sheep raising are used as criteria for characterizing
each stage. Spatial relations between the places
of rural and pastoral productions allege the labelling of
the various stages: intra-local sheep raising (use of the
common land; no supplementary pastures; division of labour
between the members of the rural production unity; the
head of the household is authorized to dispose of the
surplus); inter-local migratory pastoral economy (supplementary
pastures in different village lands; division of
labour between shepherd and rural production unity; the
shepherd's participation in surplus and income from
sales); intra-regional migratory pastoral industry (supplementary
pastures beyond the village, but within the
same physiographic region; division of labour between
shepherd and rural production unity or larger production
unities; aside from them, owners of pasture grounds and
landowners in regions through which flocks pass during
their migrations participate in surplus and income from
sales); inter-regional migratory pastoral industry (supplementary
pastures in different physiographic regions,
division of labour between shepherd and rural or larger
economic unities or flock owners; also division of labour
within the pastoral production unity; aside from shepherds,
peasants, flock owners, owners of pasture grounds,
and landowners in regions through which flocks pass during
their migrations, the government or similar organizers of
transhumance participate in surplus and income from
sales).