peasants?

[hong]

I have a lot of respect for peasants. Just like cavemen and cowboys they're the real adventurers.

"Only the farmers win." -- Yul Brynner, The Magnificent Seven

 

[Agback]

G'day

I just want to put in a good strong plug for Life in a Medieval Village by Frances and Joseph Gies. ISBN 0-06-092046-7. Get it and read it now. Or get the omnibus Everyday Life in Medieval Times by the Gieses, which includes Life in a Medieval Village.

If you are really interested, you might like also to try the (generally less accessible) Peasants in Mediaeval Times by (if memory serves) K Rosener,

I'll just add that some other posters are getting a little bit carried away, and seem to be supposing that all peasants were serfs. In fact in some places and times serfdom was unknown, and all peasants were free. In almost all places and times there were some prosperous peasants, and even sometimes a few who accumulated fortunes and rose up the social scale.

Regards,


Agback

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I'll just add that some other posters are getting a little bit carried away, and seem to be supposing that all peasants were serfs. In fact in some places and times serfdom was unknown, and all peasants were free. In almost all places and times there were some prosperous peasants, and even sometimes a few who accumulated fortunes and rose up the social scale.

Regards,


Agback

Hurrah! Agback is officially my favorite great ape.

 

[Xeriar]

Doing some math for the demographics of my campaign using the Medieval Demographics Made Easy article (http://www.io.com/~sjohn/demog.htm), I was wondering, What do peasants actually do? My players have ran across many travelling the countryside, needing help finding a cure for a disease or defending thier family, etc, etc, etc. But how do they actually survive and thrive in the common medieval community? Using the article: for a city with a population of 10,000 only 700 people had any skill or craft or trade, etc. What about all the rest? How can they afford tax, purchasing items from the skilled, etc? What if I wanted my characters to start out as peasants (albeit more powerful peasants)?

Depending on the level of civilization/technology, anywhere from 50% to 95% were involved in the production and distribution of food and water.

Taxes usually took either one of two forms, depending on the type of civilization.

1: A portion of all goods - two-thirds of a person's production is not unknown.
2: Indentured servitude for two months or so out of the year. Working farms, doing public projects, serving in the army, and so on - the Inca and Egyptian nations both practiced this.

Purchase is, of course, usually done by barter. Something strange has to occur for coin to become completely commonplace - though it may certainly happen.

You may see, for example, a 'poor serf family' with some chickens and two heads of cattle working some land.

They have all the milk, cheese, and eggs they can want - and then some. They barter for stuff, and have a quota of some items they have to meet when the tax collector comes around. He may be allowed to take a certain amount of food as his actual pay (since such items easily spoil).

Other serf families may have less perishable goods, and the goods themselves are taken.

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If you're getting an image of a tax collector loading up a giant wagon full of junk - this is exactly what happens.