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Look at the rate the Hungarian Black Army was being paid, after a year in that army a regular paviseman could afford a whole textile mill of they wanted one…
England was an economic and cultural backwater in the middle ages. One of the biggest problems we have in understanding the medieval (and Early Modern) world is we see it so much through an English filter. I can’t speak to Pavia I don’t know what kind of troops you are referring to, maybe poor Spaniards from Estremadura?
So I don’t think the analogy of modern Saudi Arabia or Dubai is quite apt for 15th Century Central European towns. Maybe Venice or Genoa….
Yes, all fair points – and the precise guild politics and economic structure of each town could be radically different, even among the so-called guild towns.
Italy is different in some important ways, and the 14th Century is different. I am gradually acquiring a sense of it. We went to Sienna and Florence and a few other towns, and I saw the Artes still thriving in both marvelous places. But there are many differences, like the Italian towns had nobles in them and they were part of the family rivalries, which the German burghers derided as Hausmachtpolitik. I think maybe the German and Czech etc. burghers had more of a conscious sense of themselves as a separate estate outside of the feudal order.
I do think the non-citizens were people too, and mattered too, and so did the peasants. Some towns exploited the rural areas, Ulm and Bern come to mind, like forcing them to grow certain crops they wanted for their mills. And some of the Livonian towns. Though many others extended citizenship fairly far out into the countryside. Erfurt and the other towns of the Färberwaid paid the regional peasants very well for their woad, and they had a kind of symbiotic relationship with them. Strasbourg lent money to Alsatian peasants to set up vinyards so they could produce more wine. In Prussia and a lot of Poland, even the tiny market villages and the little cottage industry “towns” of less than 500 people (which often worked as sort of subcontractors for the “bigger”* cities) had a form of German town law, which extended to the Slavic, Prussian, and Kashubian residents and surrounding peasants, as well as the German speakers. The same was true for much of Swabia and the Rhineland, and parts of the northern fringe where the Hanse towns were.
For many of the servants, just being in the town gave them a much greater degree of safety. She wouldn’t have to worry so about the kind of arbitrary abuse of power or the violence of raids she might experience in the rural world. I have court records of a (quite lowly) bath-house attendant in Prague who won a court case against a squire who was backed up by a powerful noble, over someone else’s inheritance she didn’t even directly have to do with. There is another case in a little market town in the Tyrol where a woman, just the wife of a low-status artisan, was called a ‘hunden‘ by a visiting merchant, and she cut him with a knife. The court ruled in her favor and fined the man 6 groschen. In another case, a wealthy tavern owner was fined for yelling at and insulting two of his employees, a cook and a scullion. And this was a little town ruled over by an Abbot, but it still had a charter under town law, a variation on Litoměřice law. So he had to follow the rules.
By being in the town, that young scullion or cook might have an opportunity to get involved in some kind of business like brewing or peddling some kind of goods, or work in one of the many precursor ‘cottage industries’ such as spinning. Even if she never did advance herself much in life, there is a good chance that her kids, if she had any, could become apprentices and thereby move into the artisan or even the merchant estates.
Now the craft artisans could be oppressive to one another. Individual craft workshops were limited in how many apprentices or journeymen they could have but wealthy merchant artisans could contract out to dozens of poorer masters for a single contract or ongoing operation. The weavers in Augsburg was set up like that for example. Other towns were more egalitarian, with quite large middle classes of wealthier artisans, professionals, and lower ranking (local) merchants, based on the income levels I’ve seen – as much as 40%. That probably compares pretty well to the town where I live.
Peasants in the countryside also benefited from the towns quite a bit. Many towns like Nuremberg (and / or their citizens) had industrial operations like fulling mills, wire pulling and metal working mills, bloomery forges and so on scattered all over the countryside. The people (mostly men) who worked in these places were sometimes granted paleburgher status, meaning they could move into the town. And of course, many
This famous sketch by Dürer is a ‘Drahtziehmuehle’, a water powered wire puling mill, which Nuremberg set up about 30 miles outside of town. The finished spools of wire would be floated up the river to town where the skilled artisans could make armor, or clocks or whatever they were doing with it.
One of the biggest things, which I suspect was also true in Italian city states though I’m not certain, is that they had all that time off. Typical in German speaking or West-Slavic areas (Poland, Bohemia, Moravia, etc.) was 120 ‘Holy’ days per year. Even when they were working they got usually a day off plus half a day for the bath. Which is much better than workers in England or the US in much of the 19th Century, or today in places like Bangladesh.
*Caveat that a ‘big city’ in medieval Germany was about 30,000 souls, the biggest had maybe 50,000 at their zenith. So that’s another difference from places like Florence.
One of the things about living in the town, only people who could afford to be taxed were taxed, and most of the artisan and lower ranking merchant or professional estates lived in houses which had been paid for in previous generations. There were no ongoing rents. They did have to pay to enter the guild and some ongoing guild fees, as well as to buy armor and weapons for their role in the militia (and sometimes a horse, depending on their craft). But most of the rest of their spending was discretionary. Quite a bit on food, drink and clothing, raw materials for their workshop. And wax or lamp oil, and firewood or charcoal.
Peasants by contrast did have to pay some rent though depending on the region, it was usually low.
Yes I suspect we disagree on the demographics. But it’s a complex enough subject that you can support many different perspectives.
My main comment regarding your point about the ratio of ‘comfortable’ guild members vs. servants etc., is that while the ratio does vary substantially by town, in the larger towns in Central Europe about half of the population overall are servants or apprentices or day laborers of some kind, and about half are sufficiently well off as to be taxable.
Yeoman is an English term for a more well off peasantry to middling member of the country gentry. In England there was a very different pattern from Central Europe in that the country was relatively peaceful and (so long as you had a somewhat fortified estate) was considered generally safer and a better life than the cities, which tended to be dirty, crowded and subject to both internal unrest and sackings or crackdowns by princely or Royal authorities.
In Central Europe it was the opposite, the princes were comfortable enough but the lower to middle nobility, let alone the peasants, felt a great sense of unease and lack of security and comfort. The towns by contrast were fare better organized and the larger ones at least were comparatively safe. Even when Europe was devastated by horrific religious wars in the 16th and 17th Centuries, the larger towns offered the best hope of safety and security (unless they made the mistake of allowing “allied” troops to garrison within their walls).
Towns, as you may be aware, generally had a majority female population, and these people were the bulk of the servants – washer women, cooks and maids, wet nurses and so on. Even relatively poor families often had a servant. Male servants included guards, carters and porters, horse grooms, clerks and scribes (also sometimes a role women took on). Most day-laborers actually didn’t live in the towns, and often came in from the countryside.
The apprentices were almost always young, and as they aged they tended to move up in rank. Social mobility was fairly brisk. Towns had a much lower birth rate than the country, rarely achieving demographic replacement. Journeymen were kind of an estate of their own, and by definition were roaming around.
There is a lot of confusion about the role of apprentices and journeymen because of changes in their role in the Early modern and modern era (17th -18th Centuries, usually ending after the French revolution or Napoleonic Wars, but in some cases well into the 19th) particularly in places like England. By the 1750s, say, it wasn’t unusual for apprenticeships to last 10 years or longer, and journeymen might never acquire the title of master, or only in middle age.
In the medieval world, this was very unusual. Apprenticeships rarely lasted past the age of 16, typical duration was 2-3 years, sometimes up to 5, very rarely for highly elite crafts like goldsmithing maybe up to 7. Journeymen were expected to go on the ‘walz’, roaming around from town to town, typically for 1 year, sometimes up to 3. Part of the point of moving around was finding a niche. They cold also change specialization – a cutler or some other type of metalworker could be come a lockmaker or a clockmaker, or a gunsmith, for example, if they found the right opportunity on the road.
If you look at the craft guild alderman rolls for a town like Strasbourg or Augsburg, many of them were in their 30’s, a few in their 40’s. Older than that they tended to move on into the town council or back toward semi-retirement. Most retired by their 60’s. Militia obligation typically ended for the able-bodied at age 64.
Most artisans who lived long enough and didn’t get into serious legal trouble achieved master status and were able to set up a workshop in their 20’s. How soon they were making a good income depended greatly on the craft and the individual economy of the town, and the skill of the individual artisan. Also things like how industrious and helpful their family was. Did the wife help with the books and brew beer or run the storefront? Did the kids stay in the craft and help the dad out or move on to something else? Most master artisans had 1-2 apprentices and 1-2 journeymen, depending on the craft and the town. The numbers were strictly regulated. Journeymen had their own societies and social clubs and would routinely riot if pay and conditions were not sufficient. Often food was the major issue.
The really rich people in a town of course were the merchants, especially the long distance merchants. But compared to a typical 30 year old American in 2021 who has $80k in debt, and a median net worth (by household) of also about $80k in assets, the typical artisan who was usually debt free or carried very little debt, and owned their own workshop and a relatively small house (typically three stories – bottom for the workshop, 1st floor living space, top floor storage), tools, and inventory, had the right to vote directly on all major community decisions (like raising taxes, joining an alliance or going to war) I’d say they were doing better. Merchants of course, much better.
But no smart phones, washing machines or cars.
On the other hand, probably much nicer clothes. And all organic / better food.
Cotton was fairly commonplace by the 15th Century. Fustian, a cotton / linen hybrid fabric somewhat similar to Denim, was probably the main textile in production in a lot of South German towns.
Yes I think the low thread count, cheap cloth, idiocracy style ad slogans, flimsy / poor fabrication standards, and lack of overall quality would be shocking to a mid-level peasant or artisan, let alone a noble or a patrician.
For that matter, a typical peasant in Germany / HRE in the 15th century owned at least a few acres of land, a middling (‘yokel’) standard was about 20 acres, a bauer had anywhere from 40-120 acres. How many Americans can say that today?
And a middling artisan in a Central European town owned his own workshop, tools, and had at least a few servants and apprentices. How many people meet that standard today?
No smart phones or internet though..
Robin Laws is one of the main writers for Pelgrane
https://site.pelgranepress.com/index.php/staff-directory/
When I was writing for them (as a Free Lancer) it was for their old game Dying Earth, which was great fun – Robin basically wrote that game.
I’m not sure who was who (always struggle with that on podcasts), but they both knew a ton about film, which was interesting, and one of those guys was quite erudite. They are deep into the occult history stuff, I learned a bit about Michael Scot. I knew he and Fibbonaci knew each other, but I didn’t know he and Fibbonacci were so tight. That the Liber Abaci was dedicated to Scot, that’s quite interesting. Or that he was instructor of Roger Bacon (who decidedly didn’t like him lol)
Also amusing that he was offered a Bishopric in Ireland (but declined). He had such a sinister reputation in later eras, though probably not deserved, it’s funny to think of him as a prelate. I think that was more because he was openly active as a court astrologer (and other somewhat non-Christian avocations) at a time when people were more orthodox than in say, the late medieval world.
Neat! Medieval clothing is another fascinating subject. What do you think a typical medieval peasant or artisan would think of typical modern clothing?
But once they get it, a light goes on. Thanks Jack sounds like a fun time. Look forward to hearing about the next one. I’ll also start a thread to discuss some more horsemanship rules …
Interesting concept. Michael Scott is a wonderful interesting and enigmatic historical figure, almost as much for the legends built around him after he died as what he did in his life. I’ll definitely check it out.
