Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West. Translated by Cynthia Postan.

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Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West

by Georges Duby Translated by Cynthia Postan

Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd.

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.~LI ~I'/ @

T I

._

EDWARD ARNOLD (PUBLISHERS) LTD. 1968

Authorized translation from the French L'Economie Rurale ct la Vie des Campagnes dans l'Occident MMU11al Published by Aubier, Editions Montaign e First Published

SBN: 7r3r

1962

5120

X

Printed in Great Britain by Robert Cunningh am and Sons, Ltd Alva

Contents Preface to the French Edition Preface to the English Edition

XI

xv

BOOK I - IX AND X CENTURIES

[Introduction]

3

Chapter I - La11d and Labour

5

Settlement of the Soil. Systems of Production and Organization of the Village Lands 2. How Many Men Were There? 3. The Tools 4. Agricultural Practices

22

~hapter II - Wealth and Society. The Manorial Economy

28

r.

l.

2.

3. 4.

5. 6.

The Framework of the Family The Great Landed Estates Farming the Demesne The Destination of the Demesne Profits Differences in manorial structure The Great Estate and the Peasant Economy

5 l l

16

28 33

37 42 ~

47 54

BOOK II - XI-XIII CENTURIES - THE RHYTHM AND LIMITS OF EXPANSION

[Introduction]

61

Chapter I - The Extension of the Arable

65

The Advance of the Arable 2. The Enlargement of the Ancient Village Territories 3. The New Villages 4. The Settlement of the Intervening Spaces

67

r.

72

75

81

v

·r

Co11te11ts

Chapter II - Work in the Fields I.

2. 3.

88

Cycles of Cultivation Yields Working the Land

90 99 103

Clwpter III - Agricultural Expa11sio11 a11d the Strttcture of Society I.

2.

3. 4.

The Condition of the Peasant The Family Farm Demographic Growth Overpopulation

n3 l l

3

II6

119 122

Cltaptcr IV - The Growth of Exchange a11d its Effects

126

Demand 2. The Mechanism of Trade: money and m.arkets 3. The Com Trade 4. Wine 5. Products of Forest and Pasture 6. Commercial Growth and Social Development 7. The Village Community and the Entrepreneurs

126

I.

l 30 l 34 137 141 150 156

BOOK ill - XI-XIII CENTURIES - THE MANOR AND THE RURAL ECONOMY

[Introduction}

169

Chapter I - Wealth and Poiver in the XI and XII Ce11turies

17 3

I.

The Landed Patrimony of the Great Religious Foundations 2. Lay Fortunes 3. Power over the Peasants

173 l 82 186

Chapter II - Lords and Peasants i11 the XI a11d XII Ce11t11ries

197

r.

2.

Manorial landownership (a) The Size of the Demesne (b) Domestic Labour (c) Labour Services (d) The Structure of Manorial Rent The Exploitation of Men (a) The Familia (b) The Ban

197 197

2or 203

212 220 220 224

Vl

Colltellts

Cl1apter III - The XIII Ce11t11ry (1180-1330): Evolution of Feudal Rent: Peasant D11es r. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The Mobilization of Seigneurial Wealth The Decline of Rents .Rising profits: Fines on Transfers of Property ...-.. The Exploitation of the Power over Men: Tallage Peasant Indebtedness and its Effects -

Chapter IV - The XIII Ce11tury (1180-1330): The Exploitation of the Demesne r. 2.

England The Continent

232 233 237 2 39 242 252

260 260 264

Concl11sio1l - Peasa11ts and the Ma11or 011 the Eve of the XIV Ce11t11ry

279

BOOK IV - CHANGE AND UPHEAVAL IN THE XIV CENTURY

[Introduction]

Chapter I - New Features in the Rural Eco11omy

293

r.

The Catastrophes2. The Depopulation of the Countryside 3. The Shrinking of the Cultivated Area,4. Evolution of Prices and Wages 5. An Interpretation-

294 298 3or 302 305

Chapter II - The Decay of the Manorial Economy -

3r2

r. 2.

The Decline of Direct Cultivation ,. . _ Fixed Payments=-

3r7 327

Chapter III - The Peasants

332

Popular Revolts 2. The Rich and the Poor 3. Agricultural Production 4. Peasants and Traders

332 336 34r 345

r.

Vll

Co11te11ts

Documents I IX-X Centuries A. THE CAPITULARY B. THE

De Vi llis

AND ITS ANNEXED DOCUMENTS

Polyptyques

C. SIGNS OF CHANGE D. REGIONAL DIFFERENCES E. THE ECONOMIC FUNCTIONS OF THE GREAT DEMESNE F. THE FATE OF LAY WEALTH G. THE PARISH CHURCH H. A GLANCE AT THE ENGLISH COUNTRYSIDE

361 366 371 374 378 382 384 385

II XI-XIII Centuries. The Expansion 387 387 390

A. TECHNIQUE 1. 2.

Economic Treatises Tools

B. THE EXTENSION OF THE CULTIVATED AREA

Stratigraphic Study of Peat Pollen 2. Clearing of the Waste Organized by the Lords 3. Peasant Initiative 4. Other Topographical Traces 5. Common Lands and Protected Lands 1.

C. WIDENING OF EXCHANGE ACTIVITIES 1. 2.

Traffic in Goods Credit Operations

III

391 391 391 398 403 404 409 409 417

The Manor. XI-XII Centuries

A. LANDED WEALTH

The Domesday Book 2. Lay Property seen through Pious Gifts 3. Cistercian Demesnes 1.

428 428 433 435

B. PEASANT TENURE IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY

437

C. PERSONAL DEPENDENCE AND ITS EXPLOITATION

442

D. PRIVILEGED MONOPOLIES 1. 2.

(The Ba11)

The King Advocates and Castellans Vlll

446 446 450

Contents E. RENTALS AND CUSTUMALS

England 2. Eastern France 3. Rhineland I.

F.

THE MANORIAL STEWARDS

IV XIII Ceut11ry. Lords and Peasants

479 479 489

A. nmcRIPTIONSOFMANOM I. Ecclesiastical Manors 2. Lay Manors B. THE MANAGEMENT OF THE DEMESNE

Direct Cultivation 2. Farm Leases I.

495 495 498 503 503 507 512 517

c. THE CONDITION OF THE PEASANTS

T errancies 2. Justice 3. Franchises 4. Individual Wealth I.

V

479

XIV-XV Centuries

520

A. DEPOPULATION AND ITS EFFECTS

520

B. MANORIAL FARMING

528 528 533

I. 2.

The Demesne Farming Contracts

544

C. PEASANT BONDAGE D. THE CONTRIBUTION OF URBAN CAPITAL AND THE MOVEMENT OF

546

EXCHANGE

Glossary

554

Bibliography

556

Index

586

RE A"'

lX

Preface to the French Edition In the history of the world nc;i civilizatio~ppeared to be n~ complet~l~----­ ru;:al than that of the Middle Ages. W c first see it taking shape as the urban scaffolding which the Romans for a while erected amongst the encompassing fields, pastures and woods, was slowly dismantled and at length collapsed. When medieval civilization came to its final fulfilment urban society and culture in all its aspects was utterly absorbed into the life of the countryside. But eventually, as its towns and burgesses gained strength, freed themselves from their rustic yoke and came to dominate the country around them, the medieval world itself expired. If so, it may seem paradoxical that we should know so much about medieval monks and priests and be so familiar with medieval warriors and merchants and yet remain so much in the dark about the countryside itself, and particularly its economic life. Of course, the medieval peasant had no history. It is not that the framework of his life was, as Spengler presented it, rigid and untouched by the movements which affected the world of court, church and city. It is obvious that the rural framework was also drawn into the movements, although more slowly and with long delays. But if the changes are at first sight so hard to discern, the fault lies with the sources through which we can learn about them. The sources are both uncommunicative and scarce; and as most of them originated outside the rural scene, the picture they present is distorted and blurred. It is therefore no wonder that, deprived of the tools with which to tackle the story of the countryside, the historian should gropingly turn his attention to cloisters, courts, workshops, studios, and urban centres of trade, and that the countryside's past, so badly illuminated by the archives, should still remain unexamined by the enquiring historian. It is true that nowadays history is not written from documents alone. The history of the medieval peasant and of his lord has to rely more than any other on those relics of the past which complement written sources. It requires the detailed assistance of auxiliary research by the archeologist and the geographer and even the botanist and the soil chemist. It is not possible to refer to the archeology of everyday things without regretting that its study should have been so much neglected in Western Europe. But we must remember that in France, at least, geographers may have contributed to our knowledge of rural life at the time of Charlamagne and St Louis more than have historians in the strict sense of the word. Be that as· it may, the relative Xl

Preface shortcomings of the documents have meant that progress in medieval agrarian history must depend largely on research conducted, so to speak, at ground level. A researcher must begin by an area covered by a sufficient number of documents; proceed to a searching scrutiny of the landscape as it is today, and the natural conditions which govern peasant activity, climatic features and soil fertility; tramp the countryside and gradually acquire a familiarity and intimacy with it until those hitherto unnoticed features which were so often deeply implanted upon it by the toil of an earlier generation are at last revealed beneath the outward appearance; then tackle the medieval documents and systematically despoil them; reconstruct from them a society with all its ramifications and attempt to isolate the relationships which bound hamlet and village to market town and peasant household to the lord's residence. These methods have the obvious advantage that they draw together all the threads from which are spun landscape, nature and man, and relate all the social groups who, be they local or distant, combined to exploit the soil. For, in the crucial phases of all worthwhile research, it is always necessary to come back to regional studies such as these.

*

*

*

This book is, in fact, written in quite another spirit, with the deliberate aim of a wider synthesis. Its primary objective is to bring together the results of the more fruitful local researches and to try to distil from them lessons from a wider range. It attempts also to escape from the national straitjacket which has for so long imprisoned historical research in Europe and which often keeps it still, willingly or unwillingly, captive. It is now thirty years since Marc Bloch published his great book in which, by the constant use of the comparative method he managed to demonstrate in such a masterly fashion the original character of French rural history. 1 We owe to this study the lively interest in agrarian history which was then awakened in France and has never since slackened. It is indeed regrettable that similar studies should not exist for other Wes tern countries too. Nevertheless, for those who wish to understand the economy of the medieval countryside and its deeper workings, the actual frontiers of European states are of no significance. On the contrary, they obstruct the real historical perspective. It has to be admitted that attitudes, spawned in the nineteenth century from political divisions, from the particular arrangement of repositories of archives, from different traditions of universities and oflearning, and, 1 May I express here my gratitude to the Marc Bloch Association and to Robert Mandrou, director of the Sixieme Section of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, who have given me permission to consult the notes collected by Marc Bloch in the preparation of t.his book?

Xll

Pr~{acc

above all else, from the influence of a few pioneering scholars who blazed their own trails and thereby led their disciples into divergent paths, have created differences, often purely artificial, in the pictures which various countries now have of their own rural past. These differences have to be erased so that others may become visible, and for this purpose our horizons must be widened. But if we wish to mark out the real boundaries which invest the agrarian practices and the rural economy of the Middle Ages, we must first destroy the arbitrary frontiers. It was only his command of the heights of provincial history that enabled Marc Bloch to sketch out the broad lines of a historical geography of the French countryside. It is our task now to lengthen our sights and to extend our field of observation still further. It is only to be expected that this wider view will reveal to us not merely the favoured regions already well covered by historical research, but also the contrasting backward sectors. This means that it will suggest new explorations and prepare new itineraries for the scholar. It will also give medievalists in various countries an opportunity to modify their plans for research by reference to results obtained elsewhere and to the methods used in their attainment. To show French research workers how their English colleagues have succeeded in throwing light on the topographical, economic, and demographic aspects of the thirteenth-century manor and to draw their attention to the way in which German historians have recently tackled the study of village lands in the Middle Ages, the retreat of cultivation and the economic changes of which this was the expression, is surely to direct their curiosity and their efforts into channels not hitherto explored in their own country. While conversely, their own excellent work on the colonization of the wastes, and on the lords' exploitation of their powers over men could encourage historians outside France to look again at these problems. The hope of stimulating new individual studies and of thereby gaining knowledge more than justifies this essay in synthesis.

*

*

*

That some of the countries of Western Christianity forming part of medieval civilization are omitted may well cause surprise. My lack ofknowledge of the Slav languages and my consequent difficulty in coming to sufficiently intimate terms with the scientific literature of those countries has forced me to exclude Poland and Bohemia, though not without very real regret. But we can at least record that special circumstances have here for the last fifteen years encouraged rapid progress in archeological activities devoted not only to artistic remains, but also to humbler objects. The unusual circumstances are not only the scarcity of written documents, but also a patriotic urge to uncover the very foundations of national origins. The Marxist

xiii

Preface approach has also encouraged detailed examination of the material conditions of everyday life and the factors of production. Incidentally these studies could provide useful models for those French historians who are interested in the organization of villages, their houses, lands and tools. A whole book could well be devoted to such developments. The language barrier has also prevented me from including Scandinavia. And here I may point out that the different agrarian systems on the fringes of Western civilisation in the Middle Ages, and the structure of rural life built upon them, has produced peculiarities which go some way to explain why my study has not included Scotland, or the islands of the extreme West, or some Celtic enclaves on the European mainland itself. As for the two Mediterranean peninsulas, Spain and Italy, it is well known that their natural aptitudes, the vicissitudes of history and the economic and social climate which they experienced, placed them in a world totally unlike that of the western countries subjected, to a greater or lesser degree, to Carolingian rule. It seems preferable to consider separately the as yet unfinished outline of their rural societies, at least in the preliminary stages. There remains France, England and the Empire - a vast enough field in __ alJ conscience. ToeiiC'Olnpass1tln one sweep, to combine and compare the ~ principal studies devoted to the economic development of areas so remote from each other and so diverse, demands a tremendous effort, and I am fully aware of the temerity of such a task. It is not easy to free oneself, as one must for such an enterprise, from previous experience and from the myopic habits of vision acquired in examining in detail certain smaller regions which have to be integrated without distortion into the whole. The reader should therefore not be surprised to find in these pages more numerous and more detailed references to peasants and lords in France, and especially in those provinces whose history is familiar to me, i.e. Burgundy, Ile de France and Provence. This is the view of medieval Europe of a Frenchman writing first and foremost for French readers. This is said to forestall criticisms which the imperfections of this essay may justify. The reader will easily discover some local results misinterpreted, some others placed in the wrong perspective and many regional studies not given the full attention which they deserve. I must add that this area of historical research has seemed to me served by studies which are often still too superficial and too few in number for me to dare to attempt more than an indication of the points of departure for future enquiry. This is why the chronological framework against which my enterprise is set may fit the realities of economic growth less well than it does the present state of documentation, or the current controversies, or the phases into which it is customary to divide the general history of European civilization. It is neatly divided into three sections, one for the Carolingian period,

-

,--

Xl.V

Preface one for the eleventh, twel~h and thirteenth centuries, and one correspond.-ing to the troubled period between l 3 3o and the beginning of the fifteenth century....:. A convenienTframework this may be, but it can only be provisional - as indeed are all the conclusions of a book which calls on each page for corrections and further advances and whose very purpose is to provoke and to instigate them. I should like it to be considered as the master plan of a vast undertaking, useful for new discovery, but which will be rendered out of date as work progresses. The nature of this undertaking entails a very large bibliographical guide (it will be seen that this, too, accords a privileged place to French research) and many documents, maps, pictures and, especially, original texts, most of which are briefly commented upon. It has seemed, indeed, that direct contact with the materials of a history which is still in the course of construction could provoke ideas, raise questions and invite new answers. The pages which follow need generous margins to provide space for corrections and additions. This book can therefore be best likened to that essential foundation of rural economic history, the manorial inventory: barely will it be completed before its text will be scored through with erasures and corrections. Ifit is soon replaced by those who use it, it will have achieved its aim. Plateau de Valeusole, July 1961

Preface to the English Edition This book was written in l96I. It was even then incomplete and recent accretions to historical research have placed in question some of its conclusions. But it appears still too early to put forward a new edition and the text printed here reproduces in its entirety that of the first French edition. However, thanks to three individuals, it has been possible to include certain amendments. Cynthia Postan, who has undertaken the translation, has provided me with the opportunity to remove some errors and obscurities. M. M. Postan, whose studies had already helped me while I was composing this book, has offered me his friendly criticisms. Lastly, Rodney Hilton has reread these pages in English and his suggestions have been invaluable. This is a suitable place to express my gratitude for their help. October 1966

xv

BOOK I

IX and X Centuries

BOOK I

IX and X Centuries Introduction The story of the countryside in western Europe gets suddenly flooded with light in the reign of Charlemagne. Before that time written documents were rare and unrevealing and could throw no more than a few feeble rays into the all-but impenetrable darkness. We have, it is true, one silent witness whose testimony is constantly before our eyes and must not be ignored. I mean, of course, the face of the countryside itself upon which the life of the peasants in the very early Middle Ages left indelible marks visible even today in the topography and vegetation, the pattern of field and path, the external appearance of the village and even in the very houses themselves. But for historical knowledge to be precise and well founded these visible traces of the past must be combined with what we can learn from documents. Only the latter can give us the time sequence we need to keep our generalizations from being too vague. We cannot get the history of rural life into focus without some chronological landmarks: its rhythm is so leisurely that it is essential to chart its rise and fall in detail. Before the year 800 the surviving documents are too few to allow even the broadest outlines to appear. Burafter1liatdateall is different. " A numbefof~orically significant documents appear in quick succession during what we may call the Carolingian renaissance;: the period in the history of the Frankish lands when dehberate efforts wer£._ 1.Tu}g~ give _g~w Vigour to the clrrirCllaiid the state, from which it was hardly distinguishable, ; / ~!?y-~g into them new life, by_recreating scholarly institution;;nd by restonng aaffiilliStfiii~tices based 01! tb.e r~g~ J lSe of_ the l\7ri~en word. The documents also became more durable,-for they were all written ·---on--mat indes~ctiblesunstanc,~clune'fil.;Many of these documents have been preserved and their evidhl.tt-forms the foundation of what we now know of this period and of the conduct of rural life. However, their number must not be exaggerated: in all there are not 3

ltttrod11ctio1t more than a few dozen. Furthermore, they were all drawn up either at the court of the King or in the religious communities closest to him, which severely restricts the area they cover. Indeed, outside the Empire there is nothing to dissipate the prevailing obscurity: of the Anglo-Saxon countryside we know no more than what we can glean - and that is very little from collections oflaws and the very few charters which guaranteed the King his rights. Even within the Empire itself huge areas were devoid of all written record. Amongst these were all the southern half of Gaul, incompletely controlled by the Frankish kings and little affected by the revival of letters. Bavaria and the Lombard countries, where the cultural traditions inherited from Roman antiquity remained to some extent alive, were more favoured. However, the region to which the greatest number, as well as the most explicit, of the documents refer was situated between the Rhine and the Loire. It is this region alone that is illuminated at all clearly by the documents. Yet even there we can observe no more than certain limited aspects of rural life, since the evidence relates mostly to the management of the larger landed estates. A very great deal remains uncertain and many questions must remain for ever unanswered. There is but little hope of further important discoveries of documentary evidence for this period. The archives have given up all their secrets, and new interpretations of texts can hardly be expected to yield much. My task in the section dealing with this early period will therefore be a comparatively simple one. It will be to describe briefly the state of existing knowledge, to make some reflections upon it, and here and there to suggest some hypotheses; to indicate where research could perhaps be pushed a little further and to point out the few problems in which neighbouring disciplines might be able to carry forward the lessons of the documents. These then are the intentions of the following pages.

4

CHAPTER I

Land and Labour I.

SETTLEMENT

OF

THE

SOIL.

SYSTEMS

OF

PRODUCTION

AND

ORGANIZATION OF THE VILLAGE LANDS

One fact is outstanding: in the civilization of the ninth and tenth centuries '--' the rural way of Iifewas universal. Entire countd~~' like England and almost a11t1leGermamc lanCIS: vvere absofutely witho~_towns. Elsewhere some towns existed: such as the few ancient Roman cities in the south which had not suffered complete dilapidation, or the new townships on trade routes which were making their appearance along the rivers leading to the northern seas. But exc~pt for some in Lombardy, these 'towni__ap_pear ~s_minute centres of population, each numbering at most a few hWldred permanent --m:n-aEitants anadeeplyimmersed in the life of the sur~oundirlg countryside. r-rnaeedthey coufd hardfy be distinguished from it. Vineyards encircled then;; fields penetrated their walls; they were full of cattle, barns and farm labourers. All their inhabital}!s from the very richest, bishops and even the king himself, to the few specialists, Jewish or Christian, who conducted long-distance trade, remained first and foremost countrymen whose whole life was dominated by the rhythm of the agricultural seasons, who depended for their existence on the produce of the soil, and who drew directly from it their _entire worldly wealth. The historian of this· period does not need therefore to consider the problem, so pressing in succeeding times, of the relationship between town and country. Another thing is also certain. It was a countryside created by man around a few fixed pomts of settlement. Western Europe was peoplecrbya stable peasantry rooted 1~ i~ environment. Not1hat we should picture it as totally_ immobile. Tliere was stilr room in rural life for nomadic movements. In high s~mer carta~11_d _p_astoral~c;:Jiyit~ook n:_any_ i:~asa~ts to dist~nt places, while others were occupied in gathering the wild products of the "W"Oodland, in hunting, in raiding their neighbours, and in some other actiN .B The detailed subdivisions of the bibliographical section have already indicated the extent of the printed material which supports the different parts of the account which follows, and will enable the reader to carry his interest further. Footnotes to the text give precise references and the figure which follows the author's name is the number given to the work in the bibliography.

5

R11ral Eco110111y a11d Co1111try Life

V

vities that were necessary to acquire vital food supplies for survival. Other members of the rural population regularly participated in warlike adventures. However, most of these were only seasonal or part-time nomads. They spent most of their days on land which housed their families and formed part of organized village territories. They give the impression of belonging to villages. Indeed the countryman's life was very_ rarely conducted in solitude:: Dwellirig houses appear toliave be7ri cLose together and ver_:y seldom iSOlated._ ._Clusters of houses were u'ruaCSOine historians and geographers (particular! y in France where history and geography live together harmoniously to their mutual profit) anxious to draw from the remote past an explanation of the agrarian structure of today, have been able here and there to uncover in early medieval sources different types of settlement, some large villages, others more modest hamlets, contrasting types which doubtless reflected soil conditions as much as different social habits. 1 Deleage' s exhaustive work on Burgundian sources shows the pitfalls inherent in these researches, but it also shows the fruitfulness of the ideas.2 This is one of those fields of study where by drawing on the most varied range of observations it is sometimes possible to illuminate the laconic information provided by the documents. It would be worthwhile to carry these methods still further. But in the present state of researches it merely appears that the village, whatever its size or shape, provided the normal background of human existence. In Saxon England, for ip_stance, the -y!llage served as the basjs for the levy!gg and colTeCtiOii(jf taxes. Around these fixed points was laid out the pattern of the cultivatea lillil;aild pa;d.;ularly the network of trackways and £_atlis, whichappeari·nfhe land/ - ~C~.P.e of today as the most tenaci9us relic of our ancient heritage, die reality which provides the starting_point for archeologiCal stud.yof the v-illage -

.

- - - --

--=-