Economy of medieval Europe. Subsistence farming in the early Middle Ages. prerequisites for the separation of craft from agriculture Type of economy in the Middle Ages

Feudalism as a whole is characterized by the predominance of agricultural production.

For gatherers and hunters, farmers and pastoralists, land was the main means of production, and soil fertility remained the main factor of well-being for them. This fertility often declined in the early Middle Ages, as people of that era usually did not restore it and did not invest significant funds in agriculture. Farming methods depended on natural conditions, historical traditions and the pace of development of different regions. In the regions of the former Western Roman Empire and among the southwestern Slavs, by the 6th century. arable farming. Until the 7th century, as well as in the steppe regions and on the mountain slopes throughout Europe, hoe-fire agriculture prevailed among the northern Germans, Balts and Eastern Slavs: after destroying the vegetation, they sowed without plowing on warm ash that fertilized the soil. Residents of forests and forest-steppes practiced its slash-and-burn variety, in which they prepared a suitable site in advance (sometimes up to hundreds of kilometers), outlined the sequence of felling trees with notches, then ringed them to speed up their drying, which sometimes lasted up to 15 years, after which they felled the forest , burned it and sowed it also on warm ashes. Having harvested the harvest on the previous burn by autumn, next spring they started burning it on the new undercut. In the first year, they preferred to sow hemp or flax on the scorched layer, in the second year - cereals, in the third year - vegetables. This is how crop rotation germs arose. Usually, after 5 years, an impoverished undercut was used for haymaking or as a pasture, and they returned to it for burning when a new forest grew. Around the 8th century the areas lying to the north of the Romanized ones, hoeing is replaced by arable cultivation, and by the end of the 1st millennium it wins almost everywhere. Since there was enough free land at that time, abandoned plots often grew wild and turned into a deposit. The transition from the fallow system to a more intensive shifting system took place after the deposits and virgin lands began to be lacking. In the forest-steppe, which was the region of the most developed agriculture in medieval Europe, this transition was outlined at the turn of the 2nd millennium. Initially, fallow - the interval between desolation and processing of the site - lasted up to 10 years. However, as the population grew, it decreased, and when it reduced to a year, it was necessary to switch to the use of fallow, i.e., to the double field, in order to increase the fertility of the depleted soil.

The double field, long familiar to Southern Europe, was firmly rooted in the Northern and Eastern Europe in the 2nd millennium. During a one-year fallow, the fallow field was plowed to get rid of weeds, but not sown, and it rested. Regularly combining agriculture with cattle breeding, almost all the peoples of medieval Europe practiced grazing cattle by fallow, turning it into a pasture. AT mountainous areas grasslands appeared. The next step is the transition to the three-field. Now one field was sown with winter crops, the second with spring crops, and the third was left fallow. The three-fields more quickly caused soil dispersal and land depletion. This stimulated the use of fertilizers (organic, especially manure, and inorganic, marl) and the development of new forest areas, and by the 2nd millennium became one of the reasons for the mass uprooting of forests, which was especially widely practiced in the strip from Northern France through Germany and Poland to North-Eastern Russia. but in one way or another was carried on everywhere. The three-field area contributed to the progress of individual small-scale farming and increased the productivity of agriculture: with three times less labor costs per hectare, twice as many people could be fed from it. From the 14th century the three-field system also triumphed in the expanses of the Russian Plain, although in different regions it alternated for a long time with the two-field system.

Back in the 8th century 7 types of field work were known: burning, plowing, fertilizing the soil, sowing, harrowing, weeding, harvesting. Their seasonal distribution and variants were determined by the natural zone.

In Byzantium in the tenth century. the exceptional wealth of agronomic practices and cultivated crops was recorded by the agricultural encyclopedia "Geopopics". Later, similar works appeared in Western Europe (the works of the Englishman Walter Henley in the 13th century, the Italian Pietro from Creshenza in the 14th century).

Medieval tools were quite primitive and improved very slowly. An important role in the progress of agricultural technology was played by the replacement of wooden, tin and bronze working parts of tools with iron ones. A set of typical agricultural tools of the Middle Ages included a hoe for loosening and digging the soil, various arable tools (ralo, plow, plow), harrow or rake, scythe, sickle, pitchfork, flail or threshing board, a shovel (especially a spade) for various earthworks, a knife and an ax for cutting: shrubs and cutting wood, a roller for leveling the sown area, millstones for manual grinding of grain, harness for working livestock.

Archaeological finds show that from the VI to the XV century. arable implements have undergone the greatest changes. At first, a ralo was used - a symmetrical tool with a low center of gravity, drawn by donkeys and oxen (from the 10th century also by horses, which significantly increased labor productivity). The tip of the rall cut the ground shallowly. To make it easier to cut the roots of weeds and expand the clod of reared earth, the spear was strengthened at an angle. This broke the original symmetry and turned the ralo into a plow - an asymmetric tool.

The place of the tip was gradually taken by a plowshare. Now the raised layer, turning over, lay like a grass cover down on one side. In Western Europe, the light Roman plow aratrum (reinforced ralo) has long existed in the south, and the heavy Celtic plow carruca to the north.

In Eastern Europe, the asymmetric plow spread by the 13th century. The plow was suspended or put on wheels, had a knife in front of the plowshare for cutting the ground and a blade (a bar fastened with a rib on the side for dumping the layer). A heavy plow was pulled from 2 to 12 animals, which made it possible to carry out deep plowing even on heavy soils. Three main types of medieval plow gradually developed with different local options: Slavic with a skid, wheeled - light Central European and heavy Western European. Before the major clearings of the 2nd millennium, more often than a plow, there were ralos or plows. Unlike the plow, the plow had a high center of gravity and was better suited for working podzolic or weedy soils, especially in forests. Its classic, East Slavic version with a two-tooth opener up to the 15th century. was without a ridge, instead of which light shafts extending from the transverse bar stretched towards the animal. The harrows were a draft rake, sometimes in the form of knotty sticks tied to a drawbar, in an improved version - a lattice of wooden planks with teeth wedged in them. Grain was ground before the advent of water or windmills by hand on a device of two millstones: a fixed lower one and an upper one rotating along it.

The crop fund accumulated slowly; the experience of previous centuries was used and preserved for a long time. Cereals played a leading role in the field economy. The oldest of them in Europe was millet. It was willingly sown by farmers who did not keep many livestock, since it almost does not need fertilizers, as well as by the inhabitants of dry places, because it manages with little moisture and gives good harvest on the whole. On the contrary, barley, which is not afraid of the cold summer and is acceptable for residents of the northern regions, requires fertilizer. Therefore, it was sown where agriculture was combined with developed animal husbandry, or on loam fertilized with marl. Along with millet, barley was also used in the manufacture of beer malt. Cakes and crackers made from barley flour were always taken on the road by merchants, pilgrims and warriors. The most common cereal crop in the early Middle Ages was unpretentious spelt, but since the 11th century. it gradually gives way to wheat. Since ancient times, soft wheat has been sown in the Mediterranean and from there spread as a winter and spring crop throughout Europe. Hard wheat came from the "barbarian" regions, occupying only the spring field and growing well on the fallow and virgin lands.

Since ancient times, Europeans have sown rye in small quantities on yari. In the Middle Ages, it became an independent important, including winter, culture, from the 5th century. in the steppes, from the 8th century. in the forest-steppe, from the tenth century. in forests.

Together with rye, oats, which spread from the east, conquered Western Europe. As a grain for porridge, it was sown in a spring field; if they were prepared for fodder, then they were allowed in a crop rotation after rye like grass. Oats became more widespread with the beginning of the mass use of horses in military affairs and agriculture. Buckwheat was a relatively rare crop. The Eastern Slavs adopted it from the Volga Bulgars even before the 9th century, and in the 12th century. she already met from 0ki to the Neman. In Western Europe, it began to be cultivated later. Sorghum was a rare cereal here.

Cereal yields remained low for a long time. Gradually in Central England XIII century. on well-established farms, rye ripened at a ratio of 7 to 1, barley - 8 to 1, peas - 6 to 1, wheat - 5 to 1, oats - 4 to 1, in medium-sized farms the yield was lower.

Fruit and vegetable crops were used in a larger assortment than cereals. Thanks to the Arabs, from the VIII century. rice and sugar cane appear in Spain, from the 9th century in Sicily; thanks to the Byzantines, from the tenth century. in Russia, which knew a number of other cultures, cucumbers and cherries began to grow. The olive, which in ancient times was a shrub, thanks to the Greeks and Italians, turned into a well-bearing tree and became widespread in South-Western Europe in a new form.

In continental Europe, apples, plums, raspberries, known to the Romans, were grown everywhere. In areas with an average summer temperature above +17 °, grapes have spread. From overripe, slightly pressed grape berries, light wine was made, diluted with spring water.

In northern Europe, wine was sometimes replaced by beer. Strong Tuscan, Rhine, Burgundy wines began to be made when they learned to use all stages of fermentation - kvass, sugar and wine. Monasteries played an important role in the progress of winemaking. Grapes were widely cultivated in France, Italy and Spain; to the VI century. vineyards reached the Rhine, in the tenth century - to the Oder, in the XIII century. this culture was known even in the south of England. In all areas adjacent to Byzantium, Greek traditions of winemaking were preserved. There were famous Khazar vineyards on the Southern Don. Their products in amphorae often ended up in Russia.

In the forest areas, the most common vegetable was the turnip, which was part of the daily diet of the common people. Radishes, cabbages of various varieties and large beans were common, in the north - swede and small beans, everywhere - onions and garlic. Horseradish is native to Eastern Europe.

Medieval people also cultivated a lot of forest and field plants, which later fell into disuse. Later, their diet was enriched with carrots and beets. They used hardened jam from barberry berries and rosehip broth, thickened infusion of burdock roots and melon dried and cut into sweet sticks. Hawthorn fruits were ground into flour. Dozens of plant species were used for salad and vinaigrette. In summer and autumn, nuts, berries and mushrooms were definitely collected. Exceptional importance was attached to spices as medicines against gastrointestinal diseases and as a means to improve the palatability of coarse, unpretentious food. Black pepper, Asian cloves, etc. were brought from Eastern countries. Of the local spices, cinnamon, laurel, ginger, mustard, anise, thyme and dill were used as seasonings.

Cattle breeding.

Cattle breeding as the main occupation prevailed among the steppe nomads. The European nomadic region knew horses, camels, cattle and sheep. Settled peoples also kept pigs, goats, poultry. Constant companion and helper of the villager, especially

cattle breeder and hunter, there was a dog. In the Middle Ages, their various breeds were bred. For farmers, tillage was impossible without raccoon breeding. If among the nomads horses also predominated quantitatively (in the North - deer), then among the sedentary ones. inhabitants - cattle, in second place were pigs, in third - sheep, even less (with the exception of mountainous regions) there were goats. Cattle breeding, combined with agriculture, was associated with the development of forests and scrub wastelands, where cattle, especially pigs, were grazed. For sedentary residents, a developed cattle-breeding economy required the presence of stables, stalls, fenced pens, pastures, pastures, watering places, and forage harvesting.

In the early Middle Ages, livestock were small in size. By the 2nd millennium, there was a desire to create new breeds, expand the territories of their distribution and acclimatization.

To improve the useful qualities of pigs, they were crossed with wild boars. In England, the Leicester breed of sheep was bred with high-quality and fast-growing wool. In continental Europe, the southern, mouflon breed spread, which gave rise to long-tailed sheep, from which the Arab-Spanish merinos originated, and the northern, peat-bog breed, which gave rise to the Scandinavian heather and German short-tailed sheep. The fat-tailed sheep came from Asia along with the nomads. Long-tailed (Merino, Leicester, later Lincoln) supplied raw materials for the manufacture of woolen fabrics; short-tailed wool was used for the production of sheepskins, sheepskins and sheepskin coats. Cheese was made everywhere from sheep's milk, cheese was made from goat's. Goats spread in the Volga region and in Southern Europe (Pyrenees, Apennines, Balkans), goat down was widely used. Groomed bulls (oxen) were fattened, used as a draft and vehicle. The sires were also slaughtered. Dairy products were one of the main components of the diet, and mares and camel koumiss were also used as medicine. Cottage cheese was popular among the inhabitants of the valleys - an indispensable part of ritual pagan, then Christian meals.

The horse that came to Europe from the Asian steppes back in the Bronze Age gave rise to new breeds here: Norian (mountains and forests from Russia to Scotland), eastern (south of the continent). During the migrations from Asia, the Mongolian breed spread to Europe. The first was previously used for draft and transport purposes, the second and third - as a riding animal, along with mules and hinnies bred by crossing. The intensive use of horses for riding is associated in Europe with the great migration of peoples. And then saddles, stirrups and horseshoes gradually entered into mass use. Stirrups were borrowed from Asian nomads, first in Eastern, then in Western Europe. Since the X century. a rigid saddle with a high front moon, arched cutouts and strong supporting stirrups comes into use. This design was intended for a heavily armed knight. From the 9th century for draft horses, a collar and harness were used. emergence new system Harness had a beneficial effect on the development of traction in transport, construction, and agriculture.

The range of crafts related to horse breeding also expanded.

Let us summarize the above material on the development Agriculture medieval Europe. The main tools for cultivating the land among the Western European peoples in the VI - X centuries. there was a plow (a light one that cut the earth without turning it over, and a heavy one on wheels, turning over a layer of earth), as well as a plow. The fields were plowed two or three times and harrowed.

In agriculture, a two-field system dominated, sowed rye, wheat, spelt, oats, barley, legumes, crops were weeded. The grain was processed in mills with a flour yield of no more than 41.5%. Water mills were used.

In gardening, a hoe and a shovel were used. Harrows were widely used, for harvesting hay and harvesting - a sickle and a scythe, and for threshing - a wooden flail. Bulls and oxen were used as draft animals.

In horticulture, the main crops were apples, pears, plums, cherries and medicinal plants. From industrial crops flax and hemp were grown. Viticulture developed.

Animal husbandry developed significantly: cows, pigs, sheep, goats were bred. There is a stall keeping of cattle. Horse breeding gradually turned into a special branch.

Agriculture in the 16th century capitalism spread much more slowly than in industry. This process was most active in England and the Netherlands. The English nobles and bourgeois, having bought up the lands secularized from the monasteries and driven out the peasant holders from them, set up large sheep-breeding or agricultural farms using the hired labor of rural laborers.

Landowners preferred to lease land, which brought them more income. At first it was a share-cropping, when the landowner provided the tenant not only land plot, but often seed, implements and shelter, receiving a share of the harvest.

A variation of sharecropping was sharecropping: both parties bore equal costs and shared the income equally. Ispolshchina and sharecropping were not yet in the full sense of the capitalist lease. This is the nature of farming. The farmer rented a large plot of land, cultivated it with the help of hired labor. In this case, the rent paid to the landowner represented only a part of the surplus value produced by the hired workers.

Farming spread to England, the Netherlands and Northern France. In most of France, the feudal form of holdings, the census, was preserved; sharecropping developed to some extent in the south of the country.

The development of industry and the increase in demand for agricultural products contributed to the growth of agricultural production and its marketability. At the same time, there was no noticeable progress in agricultural production. The technical base of agricultural production remained the same.

The main implements of agricultural production were still the plow, harrow, scythe, and sickle. From the second half of the XV century. in some countries, a light plow began to be used, to which one or two horses were harnessed. Due to the reclamation of swampy and arid areas, the area of ​​cultivated land increased. Improved agricultural practices. Soil fertilization with manure, peat, ash, marling, etc., was practiced more and more widely. The productivity increased. Horticulture and horticulture and viticulture are gaining further distribution.

Cattle breeding developed. In the Netherlands, England and Germany, stall fattening of cattle was practiced, and its breed improved. Industry specialization has been identified. So, in Holland, dairy cattle were bred for commercial purposes, in Castile (Spain), fine-wool sheep breeding was widespread, focused on exporting wool abroad.

GENERAL REMARKS. The formation of the European peasantry and the formation of feudal relations in the early medieval village was already considered in the first part of our manual, in the topic " Agrarian orders". Now let's turn to the further history of the medieval peasantry in Europe west of the Bug.

It has already been noted that rural life and medieval agrarian practices are the basis and cornerstone of feudalism. If the city in the process of its development outgrew the framework of the system and gradually destroyed it, the village preserved the established order with its way of life. It was on them that feudal landownership, the estate system, relied. And only under the influence of the city, gradually, changes began to ripen in the rural world: forces appeared that were interested in eliminating the noble monopoly on land. As a result, huge masses of the rural population supported the bourgeoisie born in the cities, and in the course of bourgeois revolutions it seized political power - the so-called era of capitalism began.

Thus, the main processes of the existence of feudal society were connected with the history of the medieval peasantry. It developed, in fact, precisely in the Middle Ages. The separation of peasants from the general mass of the population began, as noted in the first part of the manual, even in the barbarian kingdoms. The formation of the peasantry proper was completed with the allocation of handicrafts and the beginning of the formation of cities.

Natural conditions critical to rural life were also discussed in the first part of the manual. Here we add that from the middle of the VIII century. warming begins, which lasted, in general, until the end of the 13th century. The warmest were the 11th-12th centuries. - the warmest time in the last two thousand years. From the fourteenth century the climate again begins to change for the worse - the instability of the weather increases: rotten winters and wet summers are more common. XV century was characterized by a temperate climate. And from the middle of the XVI century. a new cooling begins, even called the “Little Ice Age”. Thus, the most optimal for agriculture in the medieval era were the 11th-12th centuries. However, it should be noted that for agricultural activity, not so much the warmest weather is more acceptable as stable, without sharp changes from droughts to floods, to which it was impossible to adapt, and which were real disasters for the peasants. So unstable was the fourteenth century.

It has already been pointed out that the early medieval population settled in the river valleys. In the IX-X centuries. in the context of the beginning of economic recovery, climate improvement and stable population growth in some places Western Europe the development of wooded hills began. In the XI-XII centuries. the development of watersheds throughout Western and Central Europe (from England to Poland and the Czech Republic inclusive) took on a massive character and was called internal colonization or “Great clearings”: forest lands were cleared for villages and fields, virgin, primeval forests were reduced, villages were no longer “tied” to rivers and were more often located along land roads. Water has already been taken from wells. As a result, the Western and Central European population, divided in the early Middle Ages by vast virgin forests, acquired geographical unity, which, we note, also affected the political consolidation that had begun (more on this later). By the fourteenth century Almost all suitable lands were involved in the economic turnover, almost all the villages that existed later were founded, that is, a modern agricultural landscape was formed. In the process of internal colonization, linear (ribbon) villages, located on both sides of the roads, and street villages (larger in several parallel rows) became predominant. Modern research does not trace any ethnic differences in rural planning.

The size of villages, as in the early Middle Ages, rarely exceeded 10–15 manor houses. There were settlements with several households, and even farms. Later, there were more larger villages, but most remained small. This was due to the availability of economic lands. There were also many small-yard villages, their number also increased in the course of colonization, when part of the excess population from old settlements spun off to new places. But if the place for the settlement was chosen well, the farm or small village gradually grew. This was the initial history of most modern villages. And if the village was at the crossroads of trade routes or in another favorable place, it could develop into a city. And vice versa, if trade routes and the administrative center moved or disappeared, the city gradually left its specific inhabitants, and the remaining population was agrarianized.

ECONOMY. XI-XIII centuries characterized by a further rise in the rural economy. Agricultural machinery developed - a heavy plow with an iron blade (instead of the former wooden one) is spreading. By the XIII-XIV centuries. have already become the leading arable tool in the main agricultural regions of Europe. Such a long distribution of the plow was associated not only with its complexity, but, hence, with the high cost and the need to use a more powerful draft force than for the ral. Sometimes (on heavy lands and for a heavy plow) even a pair of horses or even oxen was not enough. Peasants often started one plow for several yards. There is also a new type of axe, more convenient for cutting trees. As a draft force, a horse is increasingly used, the endurance and carrying capacity of which, primarily due to the improvement of the food supply, is gradually increasing.

Three fields are becoming more and more common. The significance of the transition to the three-field was enormous. 2/3 of all field lands were used annually. more evenly distributed field work- with one inventory and livestock, a 2 times larger area was cultivated than with a two-field system. Since the crop matured in different weather conditions, the risk of losses was reduced. But the three fields intensified the fragmentation of allotments. It also led to rapid soil depletion, was possible on quality lands and therefore required careful cultivation and fertilization. This explains the slow introduction of the three-field system. And it did not take root everywhere. The two-field system was preserved in the south, in the Mediterranean, where, due to hot and dry summers, there was not enough moisture for spring crops. On the northern lands: in Scandinavia, North-Eastern Europe, because of the harsh winters in the sown areas, one crop barely had time to ripen, which also did not contribute to the introduction of the three-field.

However, in the main areas of agriculture, agriculture improved. Three times plowing was often used, the quality of the fields was often improved with the help of drainage. The sowing of wheat and fodder crops is expanding. The stall keeping of livestock is spreading, which made it possible to fertilize the soil more regularly. All this led to an increase in productivity: in the Rhine lands in the XII-XIII centuries. it was CAM-3 - Sam-4, in Tuscany XIII-XIV centuries. - CAM-4 - CAM-5, in the Paris region - up to CAM-8 (which was 15 centners of grain per hectare).

But livestock, even cattle, remained undersized, unproductive, used primarily for meat. Cows and pigs predominated. Selection, breeding of special meat and dairy breeds, stall keeping of livestock has been noted, first of all, in the Netherlands and Germany since the 14th century. Then the level of Roman animal husbandry was finally exceeded. Geese and ducks were considered ornamental birds for a long time and were distributed only in the households of feudal lords.

Social factors also contributed to the gradual rise in agriculture: an increase in demand for food and raw materials due to the growth of the urban population, the general development of commodity-money relations. In accelerating the pace of agricultural development, the above-mentioned internal colonization also played an important role, which consisted in expanding the area of ​​cultivated land through the development of wastelands, draining swamps, and deforestation. The technical improvements noted above contributed to the development of new lands. The accumulation of agricultural experience also had an effect. If in the early Middle Ages the old lands were considered the best, then with their depletion and the emergence of new opportunities, the peasants began to prefer new, virgin lands. Therefore, they began to resort to clearings even where land hunger had not yet been felt. It stimulated internal colonization and the growing demand for agricultural products from the townspeople, as well as increased pressure on the peasants from the feudal lords (from the 13th century). In turn, internal colonization contributed to the progress of agriculture: the three-field system was more often used precisely on new lands, because there were no communal restrictions such as a system of open fields, etc. The development of new lands by peasants also contributed to the separation of the domain from communal orders, the concentration of master lands into one array. Internal colonization also contributed to the emergence of a new phenomenon in European agriculture - the formation of commodity specialization of individual regions.

But it was clearings, massive deforestation that contributed to the deterioration of the climate. The flow of melt and rainwater from the uplands accelerated, which led to catastrophic spring floods and swamping of river floodplains. In addition, an increase in the flow of water into the World Ocean led to an increase in ice in the north and, as a result, to a cooling of the 15th-16th centuries.

Regional features of economic development. In the northern part of France, in Germany, England, as well as in the Slavic lands, peasant fields did not have fences - there was a system of open fields, consisting of narrow long strips of each family. In France, south of the Loire, there were various fields of irregular shapes. The same was true in Italy. Communal orders here were less obligatory, and in the south they did not exist at all, and the fields had permanent hedges. Peasants under both systems had several plots in different "pieces" of land.

In England, the highest rise in agriculture took place in the second half of the 13th and early 14th centuries, when the three-field system finally won and commercial grain farming expanded. The progress of agriculture was faster in the farms of the feudal lords, who had the resources for innovation, in particular, for the purchase of a heavy plow that required 4 or even 8 oxen. For many peasants, such costs were unbearable. Since that time, the transformation of sheep breeding for the production of wool into one of the most important branches of the English economy has been noted. But raising sheep required large areas under pastures and in the XIV-XV centuries. began the offensive of the feudal lords on communal lands.

XIII - beginning of the XIV century. - the time of the most intensive agricultural development of France. By the beginning of the XVI century. the main agrarian specialization is already taking shape. In the north, where the system of open fields previously dominated, in the conditions of the spread of a heavy wheeled plow, peasant fields were long narrow strips (belt fields) in order to minimize the turns of the plow. In the south, where individual peasant allotments had already spread since Roman times, block fields of various shapes (rectangular, square, etc.) developed. A light plow was used here (without a wheeled limber), which did not require much space for a turn. The country is also characterized by the development of poultry farming, the improvement of horticulture, especially in the cultivation of grapes.

The German peasants west of the Elbe until the fourteenth century. the main thing was arable farming. Then specialization began: areas with predominant breeding of large cattle, pigs, sheep, with horticulture and viticulture. The area under grain crops was reduced, but the best lands remained under them. By the fifteenth century in the production of grain for sale, the role of the East German regions increased. As in France, poultry farming developed, especially chicken breeding. The role of cattle breeding has been increasing since the 14th century. due to increased demand from residents. This stimulated the improvement of forage extraction methods. In previous times, the main livestock - pigs - fed on acorns and beech nuts all year round on communal forest pastures. With such a shepherdless way of grazing, pork was inexpensive. But internal colonization led to a sharp reduction in forest pastures. And where forests remained, oak and beech were replaced with conifers, valued as building material. Pigs began to be transferred to stall keeping, feeding them grain, flour, which made their maintenance less profitable and the role of cattle, horses, and sheep began to increase. Breeding of more productive breeds of cows began. Increased attention to grassland. Unproductive, depleted fields began to be turned into meadows. In the XIV-XVI centuries. there is a significant increase in the role of horticulture and horticulture. Garlic ("peasant medicine"), as well as onions, cabbage, etc., played an important role in the diet. Dried fruits and fruit juices are prepared for sale.

In Italy there was a shift of advanced agriculture from south to north. If in the early Middle Ages in the south, less devastated by the barbarians, having experienced Byzantine and Arab influences, ancient agrarian traditions were preserved, and even cotton, sugar cane, citrus fruits were grown in Sicily, then in the developed Middle Ages, the massive development of cities in the north contributed to the progress of agriculture there. If in the countries discussed above, the yield did not rise above CAM-4 - CAM 5, then in Northern Italy in the 13th century. she reached CAM-10. As a result, the agricultural economy of northern Italy overtook the south, and this difference has persisted to this day.

Sharp differences were also observed in medieval Spain. In the southern part of the Iberian Peninsula, among the Arabs, irrigation was used, the soil was carefully cultivated, rice, sugar cane, citrus fruits, and cotton were grown. In the Christian north, the level of agriculture was much lower. The cultivation of grain (oats, millet) prevailed, horticulture was practically absent, but cattle breeding was developed. The gradual conquest of Arab Spain by Christians erased these economic differences, although the geographical differences between the mountainous north and the flat south undoubtedly had an effect. In the 14th-15th centuries, due to the increase in European demand for wool, sheep breeding was greatly developed in the arid mountain plains of northern and central Spain. Of the other industries, horticulture has reached a high level.

Byzantine agriculture is characterized by routine. Back in the ninth century. the plowing system of Homeric times was preserved with the help of a light plow without a blade (rather, a plow). In the developed Middle Ages, a light wooden plow with an iron tip has been preserved. They plowed exclusively on oxen. Three fields wins in the XIII-XIV centuries. At the same time, clearing of forests is noted, although in general, internal colonization was hardly noticeable.

In the Czech Republic, Hungary, and even more so in Poland and further to the east of Europe, the development of agriculture took place in less favorable conditions than in the West. The heritage of Roman agriculture was almost inaccessible here. It was necessary to create arable plots, cutting down centuries-old forests and draining swamps. But this is not yet an internal colonization, but the creation of a minimum of arable land, scattered along with settlements among difficult forests. Here, rye, resistant to weeds, cold and undemanding to fertilizers, was the most popular. It appeared in the 11th-13th centuries, earlier than in the West. In the XII-XIV centuries. account for the spread of the steam system, including the three-field.

Economy. Agriculture in the Middle Ages.

The main branch of the economy of Western European countries in the period, as before, was agriculture. The main characteristics of the development of the agricultural sector as a whole was the process of rapid development of new lands, known in history as process of internal colonization. It contributed not only to the quantitative growth of the economy, but also to serious qualitative progress, since the duties imposed on the peasants on the new lands were predominantly monetary, and not in kind. The process of replacing in-kind duties with monetary ones, known in the scientific literature as rent switching, contributed to the growth of economic independence and entrepreneurial spirit of the peasants, to increase the productivity of their labor. The sowing of oilseeds and industrial crops is expanding, and oil and winemaking are developing. Grain yield reaches the level of sam-4 and sam-5. The growth of peasant activity and the expansion of the peasant economy led to a reduction in the economy of the feudal lord, which in the new conditions turned out to be less profitable.

Progress in agriculture was also facilitated by the liberation of peasants from personal dependence. The decision on this was also made by the city near which the peasants lived and with which they were connected socially and economically, or by their lord-feudal lord, on whose land they lived. The rights of peasants to land allotments were strengthened. Increasingly, they could freely pass on land by inheritance, bequeath it and mortgage it, lease it, donate it, and sell it. So gradually formed and becomes wider land market. Commodity-money relations develop.

Medieval cities. the most importantcharacteristic thisperiod was the growth of cities and urban crafts. In the classical Middle Ages, old cities quickly grow and new cities appear - near castles, fortresses, monasteries, bridges, river crossings. Cities with a population of 4-6 thousand inhabitants were considered average. There were very large cities, such as Paris, Milan, Florence, where 80 thousand people lived. Life in a medieval city was difficult and dangerous - frequent epidemics claimed the lives of more than half of the townspeople, as happened, for example, during the "black death" - a plague epidemic in the middle of the 13th century. Fires were also frequent. However, they still aspired to the cities, because, as the proverb testified, “city air made a dependent person free” - for this it was necessary to live in the city for one year and one day. Cities arose on the lands of the king or large feudal lords and were beneficial to them, bringing income in the form of taxes from crafts and trade.

At the beginning of this period, most cities were dependent on their lords. The townspeople fought for independence, i.e. for the transformation into a free city. The authorities of independent cities were elected and had the right to collect taxes, pay the treasury, manage city finances at their own discretion, have their own court, mint their own coin, and even declare war and make peace. The means of struggle of the urban population for their rights were urban uprisings - communal revolutions , as well as the redemption of their rights from the seigneur. Only the richest cities, such as London and Paris, could afford such a ransom. However, many other Western European cities were also rich enough to gain independence for money. So, in the XIII century. About half of all cities in England gained independence in collecting taxes - 200 cities. The wealth of cities was based on the wealth of their citizens. Among the wealthiest were usurers andchangers. They determined the quality and usefulness of the coin, and this was extremely important in the context of the constantly practiced mercantilist governments defacing coins; they exchanged money and transferred them from one city to another; took on the preservation of free capital and provided loans.

At the beginning of the classical Middle Ages, banking activity was most actively developed in Northern Italy. There, as well as throughout Europe, this activity was concentrated mainly in the hands of the Jews, since Christianity officially forbade believers from engaging in usury. The activities of usurers and money changers could be extremely profitable, but sometimes (if large feudal lords and kings refused to return large loans) they also became bankrupt.

The origin of the feudal system of economy and its main features.

Further development of feudalism. The formation of the centralized states of Western Europe.

Economy of Russia-Ukraine in the princely period and in Lithuanian-Polish times.

The origin of the feudal system of economy and the periods of its development.

Western European feudalism was formed as a result of the interaction of two processes - the collapse of ancient society and the decomposition of the primitive communal system among the tribes surrounding the Roman Empire(Germans, Celts, Slavs, etc.). The beginning of feudalism in Western Europe is considered to be the fall of the slave-owning Western Roman Empire (V century), and the end - the English bourgeois revolution (1642 -1649).

The economy of the Middle Ages can be characterized by the following features:

The dominance of private property, the basis of which was land in the form fief, feodum- estate (in the countries of Western Europe in the Middle Ages, this word denoted land ownership granted by the overlord to his vassal for hereditary use with the condition that he perform feudal service).

The monopoly of the feudal lords on land.

Hierarchical structure of land ownership based on vassalage.

The contradiction between large-scale land ownership and small-scale peasant production.

Personal, land, judicial-administrative and military-political dependence of the peasant on the landowner.

Rent form of exploitation of the feudal-dependent peasantry.

The predominance of subsistence farming and the secondary role of exchange.

Seignory, handicraft workshop, trade guild as the main economic forms.

Non-economic coercion of peasants to work.

The predominance of agricultural production. In Western Europe, during the period of early feudalism, this feature was due to the conquests of the barbarians, when many cities, which were centers of crafts and trade, were ruined and fell into decay.

The development of medieval society was accompanied by significant shifts in the economy, social and political system. Taking into account the totality of changes, conditionally allocate three periods:

-early Middle Ages- the period of formation of the feudal mode of production (V - X centuries);

-classical Middle Ages- the period of developed feudalism (XI - XV centuries);

-late Middle Ages- the period of the decomposition of feudalism and the emergence of the capitalist mode of production (end of the 15th - mid-17th centuries).

Early feudalism - the time of the formation of the feudal mode of production (V - the end of the X centuries)

The formation of the feudal economic system proceeded faster in countries where colonate(small property of free peasants) interacted with the primary mode of production. Among the peoples whose economy was formed on the basis of the collapse of tribal relations, this process began later and proceeded more slowly (Southern Europe).

The ways of the formation of the feudal economy in each country were peculiar. In France, an important role was played by precariam(conditional land ownership, when the land was given for a period determined by its owner) and comments(the form of the transformation of free peasants into dependents).

In England of the pre-Mannian period, as well as in Scandinavia, the defining moment in the process of feudalization was the right of the ruling elite to taxation, justice, trade duties. Gradually, thanks to these advantages, the feudal lords appropriated public lands and theirowners turned into dependent peasants. The economic realization of feudal landed property was rent in kind. Only in southern France and the West German lands did domain economy with workings. Domain - the land on which the landowners farmed. At the same time, the kings gave the feudal lords immunity privileges of non-economic coercion against the peasants. Feudalization was of European importance brand communities.

This stage is characterized by a low level of development of productive forces, the absence of crafts, agrarianization of the economy. The economy was natural, there was no money circulation. The main classes of feudal society are formed - landowners and dependent peasants.

The economy combined different ways: slave-owning, patriarchal (free communal land ownership) and emerging feudal (various forms of land and personal dependence of peasants).

Church and secular feudal lords often used the system precarious contracts, when the peasant transferred them the ownership of his allotment, while maintaining lifelong duties.

The established feudal ownership of land and the system of personal dependence associated with it became the basis feudal exploitation, non-economic coercion of the dependent population.

The main economic unit of medieval society becomes a large feudal economy where the process of feudal production was carried out. In Russia, these were estates, then estates, in England - manors, in France and in a number of other European countries - seniors. Within their fiefdoms, the feudal lords had full administrative and judicial power. Feudal production was carried out in two main forms: corvée and quitrent economy.

At corvée economy the whole land of the feudal estate was divided into two parts. It is part of the lordly land, on which the peasants, with their tools of labor, carried out the production of agricultural products, fully appropriated by the feudal lord. Another part of the land is peasant land, called allotment. On this land, the peasants farmed only for themselves. Under the conditions of the corvée system, on certain days of the week, the peasants worked in their own field, and on other days - in the master's.

At quitrent system farms, almost all the land was transferred to the peasants in the allotment. All agricultural production was carried out in peasant farms. Part of the created product in the form of dues was transferred to the feudal lord, and the other remained for the reproduction of the peasant's labor force, inventory, and the maintenance of the existence of his family members.

Corvee and dues were forms feudal land rent- a combination of various duties that the peasants carried in favor of the feudal lord.

Further development of feudalism. The formation of the centralized states of Western Europe.

By the 11th century, the areas occupied by forests had shrunk in Western and Central Europe. In the dense forest thickets, the peasants cut down trees and uprooted stumps, clearing land for crops. The area of ​​arable land has expanded significantly. The two-field was replaced by the three-field. Improved, albeit slowly, agricultural technology. The peasants had more tools made of iron. There are more orchards, orchards and vineyards. Agricultural products became more diverse, crops grew. Many mills have appeared that provide faster grinding of grain.

In the early Middle Ages, the peasants themselves made the things they needed. But, for example, the manufacture of a wheeled plow or the manufacture of cloth required complex devices, special knowledge and skills in labor. Among the peasants stood out "craftsmen" - experts in a particular craft. Their families have long accumulated work experience. In order to be successful in their business, artisans had to devote less time to agriculture. The craft was to become their main occupation. The development of the economy led to a gradual separation of handicrafts from agriculture. The craft turned into a special occupation of a large group of people - artisans. Over time, wandering artisans settled down. Their settlements arose at crossroads, at river crossings and near convenient sea harbors. Merchants often came here, and then merchants settled. Peasants came from the nearest villages to sell agricultural products and buy the necessary things. In these places, artisans could sell their products and buy raw materials. As a result of the separation of craft from agriculture, cities arose and grew in Europe. A division of labor developed between the city and the countryside: in contrast to the village, whose inhabitants were engaged in agriculture, the city was the center of crafts and trade.

The subsistence economy in Europe was preserved, but the commodity economy also gradually developed. A commodity economy is an economy in which the products of labor are produced for sale on the market and are exchanged through money.

Trade in times of feudal fragmentation was profitable, but difficult and dangerous business. On land, merchants were robbed by "noble" robbers - knights, at sea pirates lay in wait for them. For passage through the feudal lord's possessions, for the use of bridges and crossings, one had to pay duties many times. To increase their income, the feudal lords built bridges in dry places, demanded payment for the dust raised by wagons.

The development of the social structure and statehood among the peoples of Western Europe during the Middle Ages went through two stages. The first stage is characterized by the coexistence of modified Roman and German social institutions and political structures in the form of "barbarian kingdoms". At the second stage, feudal society and the state act as a special socio-political system, described below. At the first stage of the Middle Ages, the royal power played the most important role in the feudalization of barbarian societies. Large royal land grants, as well as the distribution of tax and judicial privileges to the magnates of the church, created the material and legal basis of the seigneurial power. In the process of social stratification and the growth of the influence of the landed aristocracy, relations of domination and subordination naturally arose between the owner of the land - the lord and the population sitting on it.

The economic conditions that had developed by the 7th century determined the development of the feudal system, characteristic of all regions of medieval Europe. This is, first of all, the dominance of large landed property based on the exploitation of small, independently managing peasant farmers. For the most part, the peasants were not owners, but only holders of allotments, and therefore were in economic, and sometimes also in legal and personal dependence on the feudal lords. In the property of the peasant, the main tools of labor, cattle, and estates were usually preserved.

The basis of the feudal system was the agrarian economy. The economy was predominantly subsistence, that is, it provided itself with everything necessary from its own resources with almost no recourse to the market. The gentlemen bought only for the most part luxury goods and weapons, and the peasants - only the iron parts of agricultural implements. Trade and crafts developed, but remained a minor sector of the economy.

A characteristic feature of the feudal society of the Middle Ages was its estate-corporate structure, which followed from the need for separate social groups. For both peasants and feudal lords, it was important not so much to increase material wealth as to preserve the won social status. There. Neither the monasteries, nor the large landowners, nor the peasants themselves showed a desire for a continuous increase in income during this period. The rights of individual groups-estates were legally fixed. Gradually, with the development of cities, an urban estate also developed: the burghers, which in turn also consisted of a number of groups - the patriciate, the full-fledged burghers and the incomplete plebs.

One of distinguishing features medieval society was corporatism. Medieval man always felt part of a community. Medieval corporations were rural communities, craft workshops, monasteries, spiritual and chivalric orders, military squads, and the city. Corporations had their own charters, their own treasury, special clothes, signs, etc. Corporations were based on the principles of solidarity and mutual support. Corporations did not destroy the feudal hierarchy, but gave strength and cohesion to various strata and classes.

A characteristic feature of medieval Europe is the domination of Christianity, to which morality, philosophy, science, and art were subordinated. However, Christianity in the Middle Ages was not united. In III-V centuries. There has been a division into two branches: Catholic and Orthodox. Gradually, this split took on an irreversible character and ended in 1054. From the very beginning, a strict centralization of power developed in the Catholic Church. The Roman bishop, who received in the 5th century BC, acquired a huge influence in it. name of the pope. The system of education in medieval Europe was actually in the hands of the church. Prayers and texts of Holy Scripture in Latin were studied in monastic and church schools. The episcopal schools taught the seven liberal arts: grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.

The mentality of a person of that era, first of all, was determined by belonging to a community, regardless of whether the person was an aristocrat or a peasant. Corporate regulations and values, traditions and rituals of behavior (down to the prescribed type of clothing), supported by a Christian worldview, were considered to prevail over personal desires.

The world of a man of that time, it would seem, connected the incompatible. The preaching of Christian mercy and the mercilessness of wars, public executions, the thirst for a miracle and the fear of it, the desire to protect oneself from the world with the walls of one's own house and the movement of thousands of knights, townspeople and peasants to unknown lands during the Crusades. A peasant could sincerely fear the Last Judgment for sins and repent of them and at the same time furiously indulge in the most violent revelry during the holidays. Clergymen with genuine feeling could celebrate the Christmas mass and openly laugh at parodies of the church cult and creeds well known to them. Man's fear of death and God's judgment, a sense of insecurity, sometimes the tragedy of being, was combined with a certain carnival worldview, which found expression not only in the city carnivals themselves, where a person acquired a feeling of looseness, where hierarchical and class barriers were abolished, but in that comic culture, which came in the Middle Ages from the ancient world, retaining, in fact, a pagan character in the world of Christianity.

A person sometimes perceived the world around him just as realistically as the other world. Heaven and hell were as real to him as his own home. The man sincerely believed that he could influence the world not only by plowing the land to get a harvest, but by praying or resorting to magic. The symbolism of the worldview of medieval man is also connected with this. Symbols were a significant part of medieval culture: from the cross as a symbol of salvation, the knight's coat of arms as a symbol of family and dignity, to the color and cut of clothing, which was rigidly attributed to representatives of various social groups. For a medieval person, many things in the world around him were symbols of the divine will or some mystical forces.