Chapter 15 - The Experiences of Life in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1650

Economic Life

• Class dictated culture more than country or geography

1. Nobles from across Europe had more in common with each other than with    peasants on their own manors

• Trends:

1. Increase in agricultural production - more land brought into cultivation and      cleared
2. Increase in population
3. Increase in commodity prices

Rural Life in the 16th Century:

• 90% of the people lived on farms and small villages

1. Social organization revolved around three factors:  Manor, Parish and rural      administration

• Cost peasants up to 50% of their income
• Bad harvests presented a constant threat

• Household:  family unit (home)

1. Life centered on the hearth
2. Few possessions:  wooden chest, few clothes, straw bed, table + chairs (luxury)
3. Rarely traveled outside village

• Agriculture:

1. Northern Europe:  3 field system - winter wheat / rye, spring barley, peas,   beans 
2. Mediterranean World:  2 field rotation, olives and grapes supplemented income
3. Mountains:  Animal husbandry - sheep (mountains), pigs (woodlands), cattle (farms)
4. Impact:  agriculture was the main profession, land was the principle       resource

• Lords owned land - rented it
• Western Europe peasants owned a greater percentage of land
• Feudal contracts dominated social / econ. Relationship
• Fields were planted / harvested communally

• Town Life

1. Guilds dominated social / econ. Life

• set standards for training, labor conditions, wages and quality standards

1. Towns were interdependent upon one another and the countryside
2. 25% poverty rate, general welfare better than the countryside
3. Larger the town the greater the specialization of labor

• Economic Change:

1. Population explosion between 1550 and 1650
2. At first an increase in agricultural production (increased land in production)

• Cycle of growth resulted in surplus labor and commodities for urban growth
• Eventually population outgrew production (new farm land tended to be less productive)

1. Population increases caused problems in cities

• Increased poverty, crime, lower wages

Price Revolution:

• Between 1500 and 1650 cereal prices increased 5 to 6 times, manufactured goods 2 to 3 times

1. Causes:

• Population increase
• Increase in precocious metals (new world)
• War and increased state deficits led to debasement of currency
• Highly susceptible to inflationary problems

1. long term rents (99 years), rights to purchase products at fixed prices

Result:  "social dislocation"

• Towns:  manufactured goods inflated slower - loss of purchasing power
• Landowners:  income tied to rent, fixed rent meant a loss of purchasing power

1. Payment in kind rents, became wealthier

• Peasants:  largely insulated, rarely participated in economic exchange

1. Greater incentive to produce surplus crops - greater specialization
2. increased unequal distribution of wealth among the peasantry

• Urban workers:  hardest hit, many became migrant laborers

IMPACT:  new understanding of wealth:

• People used to see land / tenants as wealth (asset), shift to liquid assets as a   sign of wealth

Social Life:

• Basic assumption:  inequality, hierarchy and stratification

1. The group was the basic pattern of organization rather than the individual

• Hierarchy was the basic organizational form of society:

1. Wealth was a poor indicator of position (rise of the new rich)
2. STATUS was the key:  conferred privileges and responsibilities, reflected everywhere as publicly as possible
3. The Great Chain of Being:  universe was a chain, everything has its place from God all the way down to rocks (implied hierarchy and interdependence, precluded social mobility)

• All life connected and interdependent

          

• Body Politic:  Metaphor that saw the state as a body (implied hierarchy and interdependence, precluded social mobility)

1. Head = rulers
2. Arms = protectors
3. Stomach = nourished
4. Feet = labor
5. Soul = church
6. Hands = crafts

Social Classes

• Nobles:  legal rank that carried privileges and obligations

1. Prince, duke, earl, count, baron
2. Political order:  held govt. positions
3. Economic order:  exempted from most taxation
4. Obligations:  ran local areas

• Town elite / Gentry

1. As wealth increased so to did power - devised their own system of status

• Wealthy farmers who acquired their own tenants, began to act as if they were nobles

1. Rise of the Gentry created a rift in society b/w old money and new money

• Nobility of the Robe:  conferred status
• Nobility of the sword:  hereditary status

• New Rich:  expanding wealth and population created a demand for an increased ruling class (result of the Price Revolution)
• New Poor:  more of them and greater dislocation of the poor (result of the Price Revolution)

1. Traditional poor:  "deserving poor" were cared for by the community in which they lived (church primary actor)

• Problem:  more poor than could be supported, led to migrant labor
• As destitute migrated they lost their rights to alms
• Crime rate increased with poverty, dislocated poor were blamed and targeted for retribution
• Society became increasingly reactionary

• Peasant Revolts:

1. Organized petitions in response to perceived changes in their rights / obligations

• Met tremendous opposition
• Agrarian changes led to the revolts

1. Expansion of agricultural practices

• Enclosures:  fenced off sections, removed decision making fromcommunal agriculture

1. Gave greater freedom to wealthy landowners
2. Hurt the small farmer
3. Seen as an "effect not a cause"

• Ket's Rebellion (England) was in response to enclosures

1. Similar uprisings occurred across Europe

1. German Peasants' War - a series of uprisings

• Agrarian and religious in their motivation
• Twelve Articles of the Peasants of Swabia (1525)

• List of demands:  Marriage, freedom of movement, elimination of death taxes, stable rents, limit on labor service

• Crushed by the German nobility

Private Life

Life was in a state of change:  new worlds, centralization of state, war and religious reform

The Family:

• Primary kin group
• Nuclear:  married couple w/ children

1. Extended family more common in Eastern Europe (taxes based on household)

• Linage determined one's status

1. Provided stability and predictability to society

• Social organization provided discipline / hierarchy that society was based on

Gender roles

• Women experienced as many pregnancies as possible, often dictated gender roles

1. Dominated work in the household
2. Roles changed over lifetime
3. Work was conducted within the household - private life

• Men worked in public and were seen as the leadership within the household

1. Work often focused on heavy labor

Local Communities:

• Guided by lords (acted as administrators of justice) and priests (conduits of communication)

Weddings:

• Public events which served as a rite of passage into the adult community
• Property was exchanged and status was conferred (maintained a stable society)

Popular beliefs:

• Preliterate society, very superstitious
• Magical practices were still accepted

1. Magicians:  herbs & plants focused on diseases
2. Alchemists:  rocks, minerals - precursor to experimental science
3. Astrologers:  studied the stars to predict the future
4. Witches:  animals

Social Disorders:

• Skimmingtons / Charivari:  shaming ritual to ensure traditional gender roles

1. Aimed at women who challenged traditional gender hierarchy
2. Became increasingly common as economic pressure increased

• Witchcraft craze

1. Witchcraft = use of magic for evil
2. 1550-1650 30,000 victims (80% women)
3. Why single women?

• Fringes of society
• Often sold herbs as a means of income
• No male protector
• Traditional bias (religion)