The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Economics => Topic started by: bijou on July 25, 2010, 05:15:30 PM
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Health care and a terrifyingly low life expectancy were some of the downsides to 12th century life, but medieval Britons could at least claim to have a "healthy scepticism about money."
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Asked what the 12th century lifestyle could teach modern Britain, he said: "Debt-free living; a lot of holidays and parties and a lack of work ethic; the idea of a 'just price' for goods; some aspects of the medieval guilds and the importance of craftsmanship; and a more spiritual response to money."
A small farmer in the 1100s would be able to make enough money to live off while taking up to 170 days off a year, but since then work has gradually become more dominant in our lives, he said. ...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7802487/Medieval-life-could-teach-us-about-debt-free-living.html
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There were of course a few downsides, such as every felony being a capital offense (And virtually every offense that is a misdemeanor now was a felony), the possibility of being called up for military service on the King, Duke, or Baron's demand for a given number of days per year (Essentially to serve as cannon fodder, if they'd had field artillery in the 12th Century, but you get the idea - the job of the peasant levies was to tie up the real soldiers on the other side with so much killing that the chivalry and household troops could make a successful shock attack), and of course being regarded as a 'resource' to be destroyed by any invader conducting a chevausee in what passed for strategic warfare in that period.
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Does anybody actually believe that any small farmer takes over half the year off? His "non-working" time was undoubtedly spent repairing things, building things, hunting (but avoiding poaching), fishing, gathering wood, any other number of small tasks that would allow him to survive. Lets not even mention his wife...
Quite simply, money would have only been used to items that could not be produced by a farmer and his family, but they would have expected to spend many of their waking hours supplying their family's basic needs.
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Of course, if this administration gets its way, we'll get to experience it first-hand.
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Of course, if this administration gets its way, we'll get to experience it first-hand.
All things considered, it's good to have the skills and resources to survive in relative isolation from the larger economy 'Just in case,' but it truly sucks to have to really be dependent on that for day-to-day survival.