Modelling Population and Resource Scarcity in Fourteenth-century England
Hallam argues that the steady population rise of the 12th and 13th centuries may not have been the main cause of the crisis of the 14th century. First, unprecedented harvest failures and animal diseases between 1315 and 1322 had significant adverse effects on peasant welfare.
Managing tithes in the late middle ages
Tithe represented a diversion to religious uses of around one-tenth of England’s agricultural wealth.
Hand-Mills to Wind Turbines: Technology Gatekeeping in Medieval Europe and in Contemporary Ontario
In contemporary Ontario and in medieval England, the power and political influence of propertied classes and labour aristocracies were (and are) used to restrict popular access particular technologies, and to facilitate private appropriation of wealth.
Irrigation and taxation in Iraq 6th to 10th Century
Water management was crucial for agriculture in Iraq. The delicate ecological balance that allowed high soil productivity could be seriously threatened by irresponsible land administration.
Technological Change in Medieval England: A Critique of the Neo-Malthusian Argument
The last two sections will address this issue by dividing the material into two periods preceding and following the great epidemic. The interpretation that will be provided is heavily indebted to Brenner.
A Reevaluation of the Impact of the Hundred Years War On The Rural Economy and Society of England
This paper seeks to examine both the positive and negative impacts of the Hundred Years War on the rural society and economy of England and to demonstrate that the overall impact of the war was not as negative as the majority of historians have previously maintained.
Settlement and Field Structures in continental North-West Europe from the Ninth to the Thirteenth Centuries
Since the eighties and increasingly during the nineties there has been a renewed interest on the continent in medieval rural settlement, mainly among archaeologists and geographers
Leicestershire settlements through the late fourteenth century poll tax records – urban or rural?
Leicestershire’s medieval settlement pattern consisted of nucleated villages, generally 1·2 miles apart; these followed a regime of mixed farming on common fields.
The Gallic Aristocracy and the Roman Imperial government in the fifth century A.D.
The recovery, however, proved to be too superficial for the continuing prosperity of either Gaul or the Western Roman Empire. The problems of the imperial government continued with little relief. The government still had to drive out and keep out the barbarians…
English rural life in the fifteenth century
A rare opportunity to know English provincial life in the fifteenth century is afforded in that wonderful collection known as ‘The Paston Letters.’
The medieval peasant house in Bohemia – continuity and change
The archaeologically resolved theme of the medieval peasant house can be divided into three developmental areas, an understanding of which has various groundings, while yielding diverse results.
Medieval Fishing at Gufuskálar, Snæfellsnes, Iceland
Recent excavations at the site of Gufuskálar on the far western tip of Iceland’s Snæfellsnes peninsula are attempting to rescue valuable archaeological information from a quickly eroding coastline.
How Great Was the Great Famine of 1314-22: Between Ecology and Institutions
The first aspect to be examined is the extent of harvest failures within different crop sectors. The second issue is to what degree was the Great Famine of 1314-22 a subsistence crisis…My project is based on over 3,000 manorial and monastic accounts compiled between c.1310 and 1350.
Agricultural wage labour in fifteenth-century England
In the period when agriculture dominated almost every aspect of daily life, the lords and wealthy peasants relied on paid labourers for farming business, yardlanders hired labourers to work with them, whilst moderate and landless villagers worked for hire. Agrarian wage labour is a window on the economy as well as on agricultural society.
Labor Markets After the Black Death: Landlord Collusion and the Imposition of Serfdom in Eastern Europe and the Middle East
The differences in the imposition of serfdom led to different economic and political effects for the peasantry in Europe. In Western Europe, wages rose, grain prices fell, and the consumption of meat, dairy products, and beer increased. More and more peasants moved into a widening “middle class” that could afford to buy manufactured goods.
Herding horses: a model of prehistoric horsemanship in Scandinavia – and elsewhere?
This article discusses a possible system of horse keeping, used in prehistoric Scandinavia, with focus on the Late Iron Age.
What work did Viking slaves do?
‘Slave work in general was heavy and dirty’ explains Janken Myrdal in his article ‘Milking and Grinding, Digging and Herding: Slaves and Farmwork 1000-1300’.
A Tale of “Benevolent” Governments: Private Credit Markets, Public Finance, and the Role of Jewish Lenders in Medieval and Renaissance Italy
In Tuscan private credit markets, Jewish lending helped households to smooth consumption, buy working capital, and provide dowries for daughters.
Plague And Changes In Medieval European Society And Economy In The 14th And 15th Centuries
Standards of hygiene in the Middle Ages appeared high enough to prevent diseases as medieval Europeans, contrary to popular beliefs, bathed quite often. However, contact with domestic animals, which were frequently kept in the part of the house reserved for human activity, exposed people to animal-related diseases passed to humans via insects.
The Decline of the Cow: Agricultural and Settlement Change in Early Medieval Ireland
This article considers cows and dairying as the basis of value system in early societies, particularly in Ireland.
The Rabbit and the Medieval East Anglian Economy
The rabbit was a rare beast in medieval England, and much sought after for both its meat and its fur.
The North Italian Cotton Industry 1200-1800
The versatility of cotton and its adaptability to a wide range of climatic conditions ensured a steady demand among urban and rural consumers linked by extensive commercial networks.
Modernization of the Government: the Advent of Philip the Good in Holland
As I have shown elsewhere, the county of Holland underwent a structural change in the second half of the fourteenth century, when economically the emphasis shifted from agriculture to trade and industry and demographically from the country to the towns. The institutions however did not change.