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Was Medieval England more Merrie than thought?
Reuters ^ | December 6, 2010 | Reporting by Stephen Addison; Editing by Michael Holden

Posted on 12/06/2010 1:36:58 PM PST by decimon

LONDON (Reuters) – Maybe being a serf or a villein in the Middle Ages was not such a grim existence as it seems.

Medieval England was not only far more prosperous than previously believed, it also actually boasted an average income that would be more than double the average per capita income of the world's poorest nations today, according to new research.

Living standards in medieval England were far above the "bare bones subsistence" experience of people in many of today's poor countries, a study says.

"The majority of the British population in medieval times could afford to consume what we call a 'respectability basket' of consumer goods that allowed for occasional luxuries," said University of Warwick economist Professor Stephen Broadberry, who led the research.

"By the late Middle Ages, the English people were in a position to afford a varied diet including meat, dairy produce and ale, as well as the less highly processed grain products that comprised the bulk of the bare bones subsistence diet," he added.

He said a figure of $400 annually (as expressed in 1990 international dollars) is commonly is used as a measure of bare bones subsistence and was previously believed to be the average income in England in the Middle Ages.

But the researchers found that English per capita incomes in the late Middle Ages were actually of the order of $1,000.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: england; godsgravesglyphs; unitedkingdom
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To: wildbill

“Shut that bloody bazouki off!”


41 posted on 12/06/2010 4:51:17 PM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: GeronL; 2banana; Tzimisce

/bingo!


42 posted on 12/06/2010 4:53:30 PM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: decimon; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

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Thanks decimon!
Medieval England was not only far more prosperous than previously believed, it also actually boasted an average income that would be more than double the average per capita income of the world's poorest nations today...
That was before someone codified socialism.

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43 posted on 12/06/2010 4:55:28 PM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: decimon

According to my Aunt there was a lot of swelling at the Church Door type of thing going on also. It seems that there was a lot of Merry or Marry in the West Country in those days.


44 posted on 12/06/2010 4:58:45 PM PST by Little Bill (Harry Browne is a Poofter.)
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To: Vigilanteman
You wrote: During this 388 year period, there were a total of three monarchs who could be considered reasonable competent: Edward III (1327-77), Henry IV (1399-1413) and Elizabeth I (1558-1603).

I think that it would be easier to visualize life in Medieval England if you imagined the population transported to Jamestowne, VA which was founded in 1607, after all, by members of the same population indigenous to Merrie Olde England. The Jamestowne Company included tradesmen (perfumers, glassmakers, etc.) and "gentlemen" who didn't seem to know much about anything. They brought body armor and other implements of war which quickly found themselves cast to the bottom of cisterns and wells because this equipment was impossible to use and not needed in frontier Virginia.

But, these Englishmen, although nearly perishing the first winter, were resourceful and within a few years had built a thriving colony from scratch. Women joined them (I forget now whether it was the 2nd or the 3rd crossing) and soon the huts were transformed into real homes. They built churches and factories, held the first Thanksgiving long before the Mass. Pilgrims had left Holland, and bore sons and daughters who became our Founders. They were wealthy beyond compare to anything stodgy old Europe and England produced.

It is important to point out that they nearly starved to death when they operated on a communal basis -- sharing everything. It was not until they divided the land and granted the means of production to INDIVIDUAL families that the colony prospered. This seems to be a lesson that some Congresscritters, as well as the White House, have forgotten, or never learned in school.

45 posted on 12/06/2010 5:33:22 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
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To: decimon; SunkenCiv
Medieval England was prosperous by the standards of the time. After 1066 there was no serious threat of invasion; thus England avoided the wars that devastated other European regions.

More than that, England was an important center of the sheep industry. Wool was the key textile in cool and wet northern Europe. The importance of English wool is symbolized by the Woolsack on which the officer presiding over the House of Lords sits. Eventually this lead to the establishment of a prosperous domestic textile industry rather than exporting most of the wool to the Continent.

46 posted on 12/06/2010 5:38:16 PM PST by colorado tanker
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To: colorado tanker

My Family was in the Staple and lived on Kings Land, Paid A Quit Rent in Money. Some can be verified but they probably treated their underlings badly.


47 posted on 12/06/2010 5:49:51 PM PST by Little Bill (Harry Browne is a Poofter.)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

And those pouring out their chamber pots from their upper stories onto the streets below called “gardy loo” (thought to be a mis-quote of the French “Regardez vous”, or “look out”. All that lousy sanitation brought on the great plague of 1665, and the remedy was when London burned down in 1666, the great fire. I’ve always wondered if that is why the Brits refer to the toilet as “the loo”???


48 posted on 12/06/2010 5:55:43 PM PST by kiltie65
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To: Little Bill
Was that in the Calais Staple or one of the English staple towns?

I imagine like any human endeavor the people on top lived well and their laborers were worked hard. :-))

49 posted on 12/06/2010 6:03:59 PM PST by colorado tanker
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To: colorado tanker
Staple Town in the Cotswold's, never made it to the big time, but then again those people were agents of the Staplers. My Grandmothers Maiden name is ME for Merchant, the rest of have to tug the forelock with common English Names.
50 posted on 12/06/2010 6:13:29 PM PST by Little Bill (Harry Browne is a Poofter.)
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To: colorado tanker
Medieval England was prosperous by the standards of the time.

Standards I doubt any of us would wish to experience. I hear the internet was really slow back then.

51 posted on 12/06/2010 6:38:26 PM PST by decimon
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To: pallis

Chaucer’s England would be a nice place to live, as long as one had a supply of antibiotics, good toothpaste, plenty of room deodorizers, flea spray, rat poison, a couple of good airtight (or at least Franklin) stoves, a coal powered refrigerator, proper firarms and plenty of ammunition....


52 posted on 12/06/2010 6:54:02 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (Made in America, by proud American citizens, in 1946.)
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To: wildbill
"Blessed are the cheesemakers."

"Well, obviously it's not meant to be taken literally; it refers to any manufacturers of dairy products."

53 posted on 12/06/2010 7:05:58 PM PST by Flag_This (Real presidents don't bow.)
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To: ModelBreaker
"Great deal. If you’re a Lord."

Surprisingly, the Black Death in 1348 destroyed that system. With up to a third of the population wiped out, laborers became extremely valuable. Wages and opportunities rose and serfdom was pretty much done in Western Europe.

54 posted on 12/06/2010 7:16:06 PM PST by Flag_This (Real presidents don't bow.)
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To: colorado tanker
Just quibbling (I think you and I love to do that about Jolly Old'), England was at war continually from 1066 through 1945; it was as you noted mostly over the border or away from its shores (the Norman dynasty established the first hold on Ireland, for example), but internal turmoil was considerable due to the might-makes-right model the "royalty" and "nobility" followed, including both the baronial uprising against King John which led to the Magna Carta, and Wat Tyler's rebellion. The culmination could have been the Wars of the Roses, but that was followed by the uprisings and intrigues against Henry VIII, the back and forth suppression of leaders (and followers) of various religions, the English Civil War, and not ending until the so-called Glorious Revolution when William and Mary chased James II right out of the isles. :')
55 posted on 12/06/2010 7:51:11 PM PST by SunkenCiv (The 2nd Amendment follows right behind the 1st because some people are hard of hearing.)
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To: GeronL

Originally, a masterpiece was a piece that a journeyman craftsman produced to convince the guild to promote him to master craftsman.


56 posted on 12/06/2010 8:06:26 PM PST by Michael Zak (is fighting the good fight.)
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To: GeronL
I hear they would have a central bakery so the local Lord charged the peasants for turning their own flour into bread.

Most families had neither ovens, nor nor any of the bowls, pans and other hardware needed to produce bread. So those who did have such things, usually produced more than they needed, and sold, or exchanged, the excess.

Only (in England)it wasn't the Lord of the manor, but the Lady, or the Squire's, or most prosperous local farmer's, wife. By custom and tradition, if not the letter of the law, the profits the Lady made baking bread, or brewing beer, for her neighbors who did not have the capital to bake and brew for themselves, were hers to dispose of as she pleased, and not controlled by her husband.

57 posted on 12/06/2010 8:07:05 PM PST by Pilsner
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To: Pilsner

Lady — loaf kneader
Lord — loaf ward


58 posted on 12/06/2010 8:08:51 PM PST by Michael Zak (is fighting the good fight.)
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To: Michael Zak

yup.


59 posted on 12/06/2010 8:28:34 PM PST by GeronL
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To: decimon
Hmmm...good economy but limited freedom. The first fascist state?

Marx wanted a return to this type of system of government.
60 posted on 12/06/2010 8:38:58 PM PST by Tzimisce (It's just another day in Obamaland.)
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