Medieval Economies and D+D
Posted: Wed May 01, 2013 1:31 pm
Discussion about adventurer economies is kind of meaningless if we don't know what the background economy looks like before adventurers. Since we all seem to want a pseudo-medieval world, or at least treat that as a base point, let's talk about actual medieval economies. (Note, this is all from memory, I'm not dealing with primary or even secondary sources in a direct way).
Medieval Economic Actors:
-Serfs (work land for nobles)
-Nobles (own lots of land, owe service)
-Freemen / yeomen (own their own land, pay taxes)
-City Folk (City has a royal charter, pay taxes)
-Clergy (Belong to an organization which acts like a noble, but owes no taxes)
The differences between medieval economies typically depend on what the balance between nobles and yeomen are in terms of land ownership. If you're medieval scandinavia, you have very few nobles and a lot of yeomen. (In which I mean noble as 'own lots of land which is worked by serfs' and not 'have a title'). If you're medieval Poland, yeomen are basically unheard of and almost all the land is worked by serfs and owned by nobles.
If you were to make a spectrum from yeomen dominated to serf dominated economies, it might look something like Scandinavia - England - France - Poland/Russia.
Towns and cities are completed separate from this organization for a few reasons. On the one hand, they don't engage in agriculture. (Indeed, the land around a town or city is typically owned by a noble or the church). On the other hand, in order to even function as a town they needed to acquire a charter, which was either achieved by buying off the local landowner or gaining royal sanction, and which made the town itself a distinct legal entity.
Wikipedia actually has a pretty good summary of the medieval commune (which is the basis of the medieval town): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_commune
Since we typically assume a kingdom of some sort (and therefore not Italy or Germany), as convenient shorthand let us say that cities are directly subordinant to the King rather than local nobility, and thus the city (collectively) is heirarchically equal to a noble.
(A note on terminology: a town and a city are both incorporated entities that differ mainly in size and organization. A city would usually involve multiple communes, and may have incorporated multiple towns within itself. Most importantly, a town is not just a bunch of peasants living near one another. Hamlet, village, or thorp are the appropriate designations for an unincorporated clustering of houses, and these may equally well be yeomen who own the surrounding land or serfs who work the local noble's fields.)
Serfs and yeomen work the land in some way. Serfs then owe the noble much of the product of this labor. Yeomen must find a way to turn some of this product into currency, so they can pay taxes. Similarly, nobles must find a way to turn some of their portion into either currency (to buy out of the service requirement) or other goods (notably armor, weapons, and horses) to fulfill their service obligations. Generally this means trade.
Although trade is possible without towns, for a convenient shorthand we'll assume that universally a town's major function is to enable trade. It gathers together a collection of professionals who couldn't be sustained solely by a noble, and it provides a place for yeomen and agents of nobles to sell and buy, and a destination for merchants to visit and unload wares from far away. Towns are rarely engaged in primary production (the major exception being fishing, where applicable). Serfs might also carry some goods to market when they have excess after relinquishing the noble's share.
There's a definite division of typical production between yeomen and serfs. The growing of crops is predominantly handled by serfs, although some yeomen are also engaged in this manner. Animal husbandry is predominantly handled by yeomen. (Nobles may own pastureland or herds, but these are at least as likely to be worked by yeomen hired for the task as serfs compelled to serve the noble).
Organization for the extraction of mineral resources like metal ores, clay for porcelain, and sand for glassworking is somewhat complicated. Early on these can be regarded as effectively serfs working open pit mines. Low skill and working primarily for food. As mining technology improves, these become increasingly specialized craftsmen capable of moving around to where miners are needed. The minerals themselves remain the property of some controlling landlord, and in many cases the royal estate maintains ownership of all or some minerals regardless of who directly owns or controls the overlying land. Late medieval mines were frequently operated by an agent or a company who would pay royalties to the actual land or mineral rights owner. (It should be noted that metallurgists located themselves near mines early on, and later on took up residence in towns where metals were brought to them, but in all cases remained independent and skilled craftsmen. Similarly, even early mines needed a skilled overseer to direct mining operations).
Short answer: early medieval tech open pit: can treat as peasants with paid specialists. later medieval tech: treat as specialists paid to mine, with a local operator who owes dues to a distant noble or royal owner. ie, not too terribly different from modern mining, except for the nature of land ownership.
Note: the turnip economy is almost entirely the domain of serfs. Yeomen can and do interact with the gold economy, as do towns, although they may choose to use the turnip economy instead. (That is, the yeomen can sell his goods in town, but he may find it convenient and more lucrative to cut out the middleman if he trades some of his product directly for things he needs right then).
Most long-distance trade involves valuable commodities, especially when overland transport is required. It's economical to ship goods like iron and lumber, but you'd never haul large quantities of these significant distances overland, and generally even the use of river or ocean transport for bulky goods will represent local or regional trade. You simply don't ship iron long distance, even by sea. Major long distance trade will include things like spices, silk, wool, gems, precious metals, and works of craftsmanship.
So, if we paint the economy of, say, late medieval england in broad terms, we have a local trade in grains, cheese, meat, iron, copper, lumber, and so on. Nobles originate most of these goods and trade some of them in towns. The major cash good is wool, which is controlled mostly by yeomen, and much of it is shipped out of the country, which generates wealth that draws the import of luxury goods. (And taxes thereby generate much of the wealth which funds the crowns wars).
Disruptions of this economy historically happen in a number of ways.
-Invasive raids: although uncommon in England by the late medieval period, raids by 'vikings' is not uncommon earlier. This does little to disrupt the actual base of the economy, since raids typically happen in winter (because the vikings also have fields to work and don't raid during those times). But it does extract accumulated wealth from the economy, damage capital (burnt buildings, etc..), and kill productive individuals. Livestock may also be taken or killed. (Or may even be the targets of such activity, see cattle raiding in Ireland).
This scales all teh way up to battles and wars, but the absence of professional armies means that even these are fought around the productive cycle of most of the economy, not during it. Armies are less likely to harm capital, but more likely to deplete accumulated wealth, especially food stores.
Note that raids and especially battles tend to happen flat ground, so activities like mining are rarely disrupted in the course of such activities. Yeah, you might take a force and sieze someone's mine, but that doesn't really stop its activity. You simply show up, tell the serfs they're working for you now, and now you're the one giving them food for ore.
-Siege: Sieges are unique in terms of typical armed combat because they tend to last through productive cycles. This goes well beyond any service obligations imposed on nobles or yeomen, which means the crown needs to pay for their continued service. Withstanding a siege frequently involves burning fields to deny the invading army the ability to live off the land, which means the entire agricultural productivity is destroyed for the year (or longer!). Maintaining a siege is extraordinarily expensive.
-Bandits: Bandits typically prey upon trade, usually by watching major roads. While merchants from far away lands will tend to carry more of value, they also tend to have more guards and their goods are harder to use or sell by people interested mostly in subsistence. Thus the weight of banditry usually falls on yeomen or agents of nobles bringing local product to market. Note: 'lawless nobles' are a serious problem in medieval society, which basically involves nobles using their retainers as bandits. These might be sufficiently trained, supplied, and motivated to target long-distance trade or even agents of the king. Piracy is banditry on the water.
-Natural disasters: I don't see much need to elaborate here.
-I'm sure I missed something relevant.
Next post, we'll talk about how D+D is different, and what that means.
Medieval Economic Actors:
-Serfs (work land for nobles)
-Nobles (own lots of land, owe service)
-Freemen / yeomen (own their own land, pay taxes)
-City Folk (City has a royal charter, pay taxes)
-Clergy (Belong to an organization which acts like a noble, but owes no taxes)
The differences between medieval economies typically depend on what the balance between nobles and yeomen are in terms of land ownership. If you're medieval scandinavia, you have very few nobles and a lot of yeomen. (In which I mean noble as 'own lots of land which is worked by serfs' and not 'have a title'). If you're medieval Poland, yeomen are basically unheard of and almost all the land is worked by serfs and owned by nobles.
If you were to make a spectrum from yeomen dominated to serf dominated economies, it might look something like Scandinavia - England - France - Poland/Russia.
Towns and cities are completed separate from this organization for a few reasons. On the one hand, they don't engage in agriculture. (Indeed, the land around a town or city is typically owned by a noble or the church). On the other hand, in order to even function as a town they needed to acquire a charter, which was either achieved by buying off the local landowner or gaining royal sanction, and which made the town itself a distinct legal entity.
Wikipedia actually has a pretty good summary of the medieval commune (which is the basis of the medieval town): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_commune
Since we typically assume a kingdom of some sort (and therefore not Italy or Germany), as convenient shorthand let us say that cities are directly subordinant to the King rather than local nobility, and thus the city (collectively) is heirarchically equal to a noble.
(A note on terminology: a town and a city are both incorporated entities that differ mainly in size and organization. A city would usually involve multiple communes, and may have incorporated multiple towns within itself. Most importantly, a town is not just a bunch of peasants living near one another. Hamlet, village, or thorp are the appropriate designations for an unincorporated clustering of houses, and these may equally well be yeomen who own the surrounding land or serfs who work the local noble's fields.)
Serfs and yeomen work the land in some way. Serfs then owe the noble much of the product of this labor. Yeomen must find a way to turn some of this product into currency, so they can pay taxes. Similarly, nobles must find a way to turn some of their portion into either currency (to buy out of the service requirement) or other goods (notably armor, weapons, and horses) to fulfill their service obligations. Generally this means trade.
Although trade is possible without towns, for a convenient shorthand we'll assume that universally a town's major function is to enable trade. It gathers together a collection of professionals who couldn't be sustained solely by a noble, and it provides a place for yeomen and agents of nobles to sell and buy, and a destination for merchants to visit and unload wares from far away. Towns are rarely engaged in primary production (the major exception being fishing, where applicable). Serfs might also carry some goods to market when they have excess after relinquishing the noble's share.
There's a definite division of typical production between yeomen and serfs. The growing of crops is predominantly handled by serfs, although some yeomen are also engaged in this manner. Animal husbandry is predominantly handled by yeomen. (Nobles may own pastureland or herds, but these are at least as likely to be worked by yeomen hired for the task as serfs compelled to serve the noble).
Organization for the extraction of mineral resources like metal ores, clay for porcelain, and sand for glassworking is somewhat complicated. Early on these can be regarded as effectively serfs working open pit mines. Low skill and working primarily for food. As mining technology improves, these become increasingly specialized craftsmen capable of moving around to where miners are needed. The minerals themselves remain the property of some controlling landlord, and in many cases the royal estate maintains ownership of all or some minerals regardless of who directly owns or controls the overlying land. Late medieval mines were frequently operated by an agent or a company who would pay royalties to the actual land or mineral rights owner. (It should be noted that metallurgists located themselves near mines early on, and later on took up residence in towns where metals were brought to them, but in all cases remained independent and skilled craftsmen. Similarly, even early mines needed a skilled overseer to direct mining operations).
Short answer: early medieval tech open pit: can treat as peasants with paid specialists. later medieval tech: treat as specialists paid to mine, with a local operator who owes dues to a distant noble or royal owner. ie, not too terribly different from modern mining, except for the nature of land ownership.
Note: the turnip economy is almost entirely the domain of serfs. Yeomen can and do interact with the gold economy, as do towns, although they may choose to use the turnip economy instead. (That is, the yeomen can sell his goods in town, but he may find it convenient and more lucrative to cut out the middleman if he trades some of his product directly for things he needs right then).
Most long-distance trade involves valuable commodities, especially when overland transport is required. It's economical to ship goods like iron and lumber, but you'd never haul large quantities of these significant distances overland, and generally even the use of river or ocean transport for bulky goods will represent local or regional trade. You simply don't ship iron long distance, even by sea. Major long distance trade will include things like spices, silk, wool, gems, precious metals, and works of craftsmanship.
So, if we paint the economy of, say, late medieval england in broad terms, we have a local trade in grains, cheese, meat, iron, copper, lumber, and so on. Nobles originate most of these goods and trade some of them in towns. The major cash good is wool, which is controlled mostly by yeomen, and much of it is shipped out of the country, which generates wealth that draws the import of luxury goods. (And taxes thereby generate much of the wealth which funds the crowns wars).
Disruptions of this economy historically happen in a number of ways.
-Invasive raids: although uncommon in England by the late medieval period, raids by 'vikings' is not uncommon earlier. This does little to disrupt the actual base of the economy, since raids typically happen in winter (because the vikings also have fields to work and don't raid during those times). But it does extract accumulated wealth from the economy, damage capital (burnt buildings, etc..), and kill productive individuals. Livestock may also be taken or killed. (Or may even be the targets of such activity, see cattle raiding in Ireland).
This scales all teh way up to battles and wars, but the absence of professional armies means that even these are fought around the productive cycle of most of the economy, not during it. Armies are less likely to harm capital, but more likely to deplete accumulated wealth, especially food stores.
Note that raids and especially battles tend to happen flat ground, so activities like mining are rarely disrupted in the course of such activities. Yeah, you might take a force and sieze someone's mine, but that doesn't really stop its activity. You simply show up, tell the serfs they're working for you now, and now you're the one giving them food for ore.
-Siege: Sieges are unique in terms of typical armed combat because they tend to last through productive cycles. This goes well beyond any service obligations imposed on nobles or yeomen, which means the crown needs to pay for their continued service. Withstanding a siege frequently involves burning fields to deny the invading army the ability to live off the land, which means the entire agricultural productivity is destroyed for the year (or longer!). Maintaining a siege is extraordinarily expensive.
-Bandits: Bandits typically prey upon trade, usually by watching major roads. While merchants from far away lands will tend to carry more of value, they also tend to have more guards and their goods are harder to use or sell by people interested mostly in subsistence. Thus the weight of banditry usually falls on yeomen or agents of nobles bringing local product to market. Note: 'lawless nobles' are a serious problem in medieval society, which basically involves nobles using their retainers as bandits. These might be sufficiently trained, supplied, and motivated to target long-distance trade or even agents of the king. Piracy is banditry on the water.
-Natural disasters: I don't see much need to elaborate here.
-I'm sure I missed something relevant.
Next post, we'll talk about how D+D is different, and what that means.