"average European" of the 16th century

1. a peasant

2. lived on farms or in small rural villages

3. constantly had to worry about food for themselves and their families

Pieter Brueghel

1. painted "Haymaking" and "Children's Games"

2. subjects of his paintings were mainly peasants and landscapes - an example of Northern Renaissance art

the family chest

A. advantages

    1. families kept all their belongings inside to be carried away immediately in times of danger

    2. served as table/bench/sideboard upon which food could be served

differences in Northern/Southern agriculture/diet

1. Northern

    a. kept a 3 field rotation system

    b. essential food = bread

2. Southern

    a. kept a 2 crop rotation system

    b. essential food = fruit

differences between Eastern/Western peasants

1. western

    a. owned 1/3 - 1/2 the land they worked

    b. labor service was replaced with monetary payment

2. eastern

    a. owned little of any land at all

    b. labor service continued (called the "robot")

"excess children"

- *children on subsistence farms for which there isn't enough to support*

- they had to fend for themselves

  a. got married in the village

  b. migrated to towns

women-dominated occupations

a. dominated the food trade

b. midwives

c. nurses

d. prostitutes

e. public bathhouse workers

advantages of massive population growth

1. prosperity - extra hands = increased productivity = surplus on farms = economic growth

2. more opportunities for those on farms

3. more food supported more workers

4. more workers produced more foods and services (which were exchanged for more food)

Breaking point of population growth

1. more mouths to feed

2. more crops planted

3. new fields in less fertile areas

4. that land became unavailable for other uses

THERE'S A LIMIT TO HOW MANY PEOPLE CAN WORK IN ONE TRADE

Over-population results

1. insufficient fields and work

2. guild membership (= guaranteed work) more expensive

3. low wages

Price Revolution of the 16th Century

* the fall of wages against inflation *

A. Causes

    1. population growth

    2. import of precious metals from the New World

    3. inflationary cycle

    4. debased coinage

Society hurt most by Price Revolution

1. govt finances

2. international trade

3. peasants who sold their land

PROFOUND SOCIAL DISLOCATION

Eastern Europe profits from PR

- Eastern Europe still had labor service

- labor service enriched nobility

- nobility able to export grain in the market

- used law to tie peasants to the land to ensure the cultivation of grain for the market

Hierarchy of Aristocratic Titles

Prince

Duke

Earl

Count

Baron

differences between Eastern/Western noble privileges

A. Eastern

    - a lot more tax exemptions

B. Western

    - enjoyed less immunities - not necessarily less valuable ones

Role of the Nobility in the 16th Century

A. Change in their roles

    1. Past role = in charge of the army - now the armies are huge - State has to organize the armies (want ppl who know what they're doing to do it) - [militarily unskilled] nobles left without jobs

B. dependancy of the peasants on them

    1. for food in times of hunger

    2. to settle disputes

    3. to provide food for the needy

the Gentry

*prosperous townsmen who were not nobles*

1. citizens

2. threatened the old nobility

    a. gentry could take their power

    b. disturbs social order

3. threatened the peasants

    a. were jealous of the gentry - came from the same places as the peasants but managed to get higher, while peasants didn't

    b. took their land, made them poor

    c. disturbs the social order

Opportunities to become rich for the commoners

1. increase in commodity prices - surplus producers rapidly increase economic position

2. state service - source of unlimited riches ex) tax collecting, office holding, administering of law

Deserving poor/Sturdy poor

A. Deserving poor

    1. widows

    2. orphans

    3. cripples

B. Sturdy poor

    1. men/women capable of working but incapable of finding more than occasional labor

Peasant Revolt

A. Causes

    1. peasants didn't like treatment of nobles towards them - was really about control, and peasant rights (since the world was changing)

forest rights

A. compromised by overpopulation

    - nobles had these

    - peasants = growing = backing (stretching) into the forests

    - nobles' game hungry since peasants' domestic animals ate their food, so they ate peasants' crops

Enclosure

*common land is taken in to fully private ownership and use*

1. advantages for the wealthy

  a. more land accumulated by fewer families

  b. families consolidated its holdings by swaps and sales

    - so that the land they held would be all in one piece - not random strips all over

  c. gained an estate large enough to be used for crops AND grazing

Cornish rebel's slogan = "kill the gentlemen"

Gentlemen = nobles

- they want to kill the nobles who are ruling over them and treating them unfairly

German peasant uprisings

- more organized than other uprisings

- led by real experience soldiers

A. goals

    1. demanded release of peasantry from status as serfs

    2. wanted to be able to move off land, marry out of village, be free of death taxes

    3. wanted stable rents fixed , limit on labor service

    4. return to ancient customs which governed relations between lords and peasants

motivations of young people to move to the New World

1. shrinking of economic opportunity

2. intensity and devastation of wars

3. escape of persecution 

communal decisions necessitated by a feudal system

1. use of common lands

2. rotation of labor service

3. form in which rents were paid

Perambulation

1. the priest blessed the fields

2. farmers could assess damage done to fields during winter

3. community defined its geographical space in distinction to the space of others

4. individuals who took part reaffirmed their shared identity with others in the village

Magic vs. Science

"Magic was then what science is now."

- only skilled practitioners could 'perform' it

- had its own language

- practitioners specialized

- a technical subject - combined expertise on plants/animals with composition of human and heavenly bodies

- used to cure 

surfacing of witch-hunting in European society

- the world would seem out of balance and forces of good retreated before the forces of evil

- needed someone to blame

- times of natural disasters such as plague and human disasters like war

- social/economic stress

Dominican priests

*monks called the "hounds of the Vatican" to maintain the purity of belief in Chr-endom*

village magicians = women

1. belief that women had unique knowledge and understanding of the body

2. were familiar with properties of the herbs from which most remedies derived

3. single women = existed on fringes of society, isolated, exploited

4. male reaction against no more woman icons in Calvinism in Scotland

5. male dominance threatened by women

Xian beliefs vs. Magical beliefs 

- shared belief in the prevalence of good and evil spirits 

- magic wasn't yet condemned -> combined them

- practice of witchcraft then came to be associated with contact with the devil and evil