In one in the eye for the welfare state ethos of 'welfare benefits' for life (which has made sections of us the poorest and fattest society in Western Europe), it was revealed this week that peasants living in medieval England, were better off under the feudal system, than the poor in many African countries today!
I had heard this idea of English peasants lives before (notably on Terry Jones history show about peasants that showed that with all the religious holidays and other holidays, they actually worked less than most of us today ..... they averaged three days a week off), but this latest study suggests that economically, they were doing OK as well. This despite the fact that the period was a particularly violent, with warfare and plagues a regular set of events.
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| Rich Medieval Peasants? |
The report showed that the average income per head was $1,000 (around £638 in 1990 terms), and living standards were higher then, than in countries such as Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo), with an average income of $249, and Burundi ($479), in 1990. Even on the eve of the eruption of the Black Death, which first struck in 1348-49, peasant per capita incomes were more than £510, the report "British Economic Growth 1270-1870" has disclosed.
This means that people could afford a much more varied diet rather than the one based on grains and oatmeal, which is normally described in books, according to Prof Stephen Broadberry from the University of Warwick. He based his research upon a wide variety of records that have survived since the Norman conquest, which produced the most literate and numerate society (judging from the court records from the time, in which peasants were forever in court suing for their 'rights'), in Europe, and possibly in the world at this time.
- Zaire ($249)
- Burundi ($479)
- Niger ($514)
- Central African Republic ($536)
- Comora Islands ($606)
- Togo ($617)
- Guinea Bissau ($628)
- Sierre Leone ($686)
- Haiti ($686)
- Chad ($706)
- England in the late Middle Ages ($1,000)
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| African Peasants |
‘The path to the Industrial Revolution began far earlier than commonly has been understood,’ said Prof Broadberry ...... According to the World Bank, countries which had a per capita income of less than $1,000 last year (2009) included Ghana ($700), Cambodia ($650), Tanzania ($500), Ethiopia ($300) and Burundi ($150), while in India, one of the BRIC emerging economies, the gross income per capita stands only just above European medieval levels at a mere $1,180.
NB: The other episodes from Terry Jones series on the middle ages are here:
The Monk
The Damsel
The King
The Minstrel
The Knight
The Philosopher
