Subsistence economy reigned supreme in Europe in the first centuries of the Middle Ages. In the countryside, the peasant family itself produced agricultural products and handicrafts, satisfying not only their own needs, but also paying dues to the feudal
chalu. A characteristic feature of the subsistence economy was the combination of rural and industrial labor. On the estates of large feudal lords, there were only a small number of artisans who did not or almost did not engage in agriculture. There were also few peasant craftsmen who lived in the countryside and were specially engaged in some kind of craft along with agriculture. The exchange of products was mainly reduced to trade in such rare, but important items in the economy, which could be obtained only in a few places: iron, tin, copper, salt, etc. This also included luxury items that were not then produced in Europe and were brought from the East: expensive jewelry, weapons, silk fabrics, spices, etc. This exchange was carried out by traveling merchants (Byzantines, Arabs, Syrians, etc.). The production of products intended for sale was almost not developed. In exchange for imported goods, merchants received only an insignificant part of agricultural products.
In the early Middle Ages, there were cities that survived from antiquity. New cities were built as administrative centers, fortified points, or church centers (residences of archbishops, bishops, etc.). But under the conditions described, these cities could not be the focus of crafts and trade. The only exceptions were some cities of the early Middle Ages, where already in the VIII - IX centuries. there were markets and handicraft dominance developed. In general, this did not change the picture.
By the X - XI centuries. in the economic life of Europe there were important changes. Technique and handicraft skills were developed, individual crafts were improved: mining and processing of metals, blacksmithing and gunsmithing, dressing of fabrics, rut processing. There was a production of more advanced clay products using a potter's wheel. Construction, mill business, etc. developed. Further specialization of the craftsman was required. But this was incompatible with the position of the peasant, who had his own farm and worked simultaneously as a farmer and as an artisan. There is a need to transform handicrafts from auxiliary production in agriculture into an independent branch of the economy.
A certain progress in the development of agriculture and animal husbandry also prepared the separation of handicrafts from agriculture.
1o economy. Significant increase in labor productivity
in agriculture has become possible thanks to the improvement of tools and methods of tillage. This was especially favored by the spread of the iron plow, two-field and three-field. Thanks to this, the number and variety of agricultural products in agriculture has increased. The time for their production was reduced, and the surplus product appropriated by feudal lords and landowners increased. Part of the product began to remain in the hands of the peasant, which made it possible to exchange part of the products Agriculture for artisan products.

The development of the economy and economic thought of European civilization in the Middle Ages (V-XV centuries)

Economic development of Western European countries in the Middle Ages

The medieval economy was based on the ownership of the land by the feudal lords and their incomplete ownership of the producers, the krypachenyh peasants.

The main income people received from the land is the main wealth. The persons who owned it dominated the society. The peasants were in personal, land, judicial-administrative and military-political dependence on the landowners. Subsistence farming dominated. Exchange played a secondary role. Almost all the wealth of society was created by manual labor. The tools of labor were primitive. The energy of wind and rivers, coal and wood began to be used only in the late Middle Ages and at first it was very limited.

A person's place in society was determined not by her personal qualities or merits, but by origin: the son of a lord became a lord, the son of a peasant became a peasant, the son of an artisan became a craftsman.

The peasants were allotted land and had their own farms. They were obliged to cultivate the land of the feudal lord with their tools or to give him an additional product of their labor - rent (from lat. - I return, I cry).

Three forms of feudal rent:

1. developmental (corvee)

2. grocery (natural quitrent)

3. money (cash quitrent).

Basic forms economic activity were:

Feudal patrimony (French lordship, English manor)

Craft workshop, trade guild.

In general, the economy was agrarian-handicraft, which united it with the economy of ancient civilizations and gave reason to call the civilization that existed until the end of the 15th century Agrarian-handicraft, and society - traditional.

So, the feudal economy of the Middle Ages is characterized by the dominance of private ownership of land.

The development of the economy of the Middle Ages can be divided into three periods:

1) Early Middle Ages ^ X century) - The defining features of the feudal economy were formed and established (genesis period)

2) XI-XV centuries. - The period of maturity of the feudal economy, internal colonization, development of cities, crafts and commodity production;

3) The late Middle Ages (XVI - the first half of the XVII century) - the market economy was born, signs of industrial civilization appeared.

Genesis and development of new economic forms in medieval Europe were formed mainly on the socio-economic heritage of the Roman Empire and the economic achievements of the Germanic tribes.

The formation of the medieval economy can be traced on the example of the Kingdom of the Franks (B-IX centuries), which was created by the German tribes of the Franks on the territory of the former Roman province - Northern Gaul (modern France), and from the VIII century. dominated much of Western Europe.

In the V-VI century. in the Frankish kingdom, a process of transformation of the tribal agricultural community into a neighboring one took place - brand, in which the individual family economy prevailed - the main production link of the Frankish community. All land was collectively owned by the community. As an inheritance (sons, brothers of the deceased) allotments of arable land, gardens, vineyards, forests, meadows and pastures were transferred. There was private ownership, which extended to the house with personal plot land and movable property. Indivisible lands were the common property of the members of the community. The Franks did not know the rights of alienation (free disposal) of land.

The property and social differentiation that took place among the Franks continued to increase significantly after the conquest and colonization of Gaul. A significant part of the land and other wealth was received by kings, nobility, combatants. At the same time, the economy of those members of the community who died in the war, as well as due to diseases, epidemics and other causes, was ruined. The dualism between collective property and parcel (individual) farms intensified. Gradually, hereditary allotments increased and turned into allod - private family property, freely alienated - sold, exchanged, bequeathed and donated without the permission of the community(brands). The mark was thus based on private ownership of arable land, collective ownership of land, and the free labor of its members. At the same time, the landed property of the Gallo-Roman population and the church was preserved. Roman law continued to protect this property. At the same time, the landownership of the Frankish kings and nobility grew.

In the eighth-ninth centuries. in the Kingdom of the Franks, agrarian relations underwent a complex evolution, the catalyst for which were constant wars and the strengthening of the role of the state in economic life. Since wars and military service were too burdensome for the peasantry and led to their ruin, the national militia lost its significance. The basis of the then army, the service in which was prestigious, was heavily armed equestrian warrior-knights. Karl Martel, king of the Frankish state (714-751), carried out military and agrarian reform. Its essence was to provide the warrior-knights with life-long allotments of land - benefice - subject to their military service and the vassal oath of allegiance to the senior king. Owners-beneficiaries gave part of the received lands to their vassals. So it happened beneficiary - conditionally service, temporary land tenure, which was based on seignioral-vassal relations. Ownership of land was retained by the lord, who provided it and could take it away in case of refusal to serve or treason.

At the same time, the reform prepared the conditions for the disintegration of the community, limiting the rights and obligations of its members and exempting them from military service, participation in court, and local government. During the reign of the Carolingian dynasty (since 751), the provision of beneficiaries became a system. In the ninth century vassalage became hereditary. Beneficiary turned into fief (flax) - the main, most common form of land tenure of the middle. The feudal economy was established and developed within seigneurial estates. Royal charters were granted to feudal lords immunity - privileges to exercise functions in their possessions state power: fiscal and judicial-administrative. The earth was divided into domain, where the landowner himself was in charge, and peasant allotments. Seniors of the usual type were of considerable size (several hundred hectares). The arable land of the domain with grain production accounted for almost a third of it. total area. The monopoly of the feudal lords on land grew, which was expressed in the principle "there is no land without a lord."

Simultaneously with the growth of large landownership, a feudally dependent peasantry was formed. It included servos (descendants of former slaves, columns), who were in personal hereditary dependence on seniors. Free Frankish soldiers and small Gallo-Roman landowners gradually passed into the state of peasants. their transition was due to various circumstances - large taxes, debts, wars and civil strife, the elements, the natural nature of the economy, which made people dependent on natural conditions and made other activities impossible. Were distributed precarious agreements, known since Roman times, according to which the allod of a free small landowner was alienated in favor of a seigneur or a church, and then returned to the peasant for life use as a precarium (land, issued upon request). Gradually, the precaria became hereditary, the relationship between peasants and landowners was conditioned by the payment of rent in kind or cash, the fulfillment by the peasant of duties in favor of the feudal lord and the duties of lords in relation to the peasants. There were other ways of transition to the peasant class and forms of their dependence. Peasants of different categories, origins and dependencies were distinguished by the provision of land, the duties of the landowner. Most of the villagers were not hereditarily dependent, their duties were preserved as long as they used the allotment in this seigneury. The peasants were not attached to the land, and the attempts of Charlemagne (768-814) to forbid the departure of the peasants from the land were not successful.

Western Europe reached its highest socio-economic rise under the reign of Charlemagne (771-814). During the four decades of his reign, he managed to consolidate the feudal system of land ownership, increase grain yields through the introduction of a more rational land use system with elements of irrigation. . he united under his rule most of the lands of the Western Roman Empire, including the territory of modern France, West Germany, Northern Italy, Belgium and Holland, Austria and Switzerland. Roman law was restored. Robbery on the repaired roads gradually stopped, which allowed the development of trade and crafts. Monasteries were built, people were attracted to science and art. Charlemagne completed the land reform begun by Charles Martell, that is, there was a division of land. After the death of Charles, his empire was divided into three parts: French, German and Italian.

Thus, for Art. in the Frankish state, a classical form of feudal service land tenure and seigneurial peasant relations was formed. The small economy of the Franks, based on alodal property, displaced the feudal estate-seigneury - a closed subsistence economy, the owner of which (seigneur) had full power in his territory.

Feudal relations in France, as in England, Germany and other European countries, reached maturity in the 11th-15th centuries. In the XI-XIII Art. feudal land ownership of three types dominated - royal, secular, church. The hierarchical structure of land tenure (supreme, seigneurial and vassal property) limited the rights of an individual feudal lord to land. However, during the period of political fragmentation, fewer possessions began to be alienated. The values ​​and sizes of vassal property have grown, primarily due to forests, meadows, and pastures. Senior rights were expanded and strengthened.

From the 13th century in France, and then in other countries, the crisis of the corvée system begins. The subsistence economy of the feudal estates is exhausting its possibilities. Therefore, the feudal lords carry out a mass transfer of serfs from corvée to natural, and subsequently cash quitrent. This process has been named "rent switching". Its economic basis was higher labor productivity in peasant economy than on the corvee. The growth of cities and the development of commodity-money relations contributed to the spread of monetary rent. It was profitable for the feudal lords to receive money from the peasants, transferring the problem of selling an additional product to the sphere of agriculture.

In the XIV-XV centuries. feudal farms are increasingly drawn into commodity-money relations. At the same time, the legal and property status of the peasant is changing, gradually leaving the jurisdiction of the feudal lords, their land ownership is growing. Appear new economic and legal forms of relations between feudal lords and peasants - rent, rent, etc., oriented to the market.

At the beginning of the 11th century, a rapid economic and demographic rise began in Western Europe, which contributes to the acceleration of economic development, the population is growing steadily and reaches 73 million people in 1300 quality characteristics. Child mortality has slightly decreased. Physical parameters have grown: weight for men - up to 125 pounds (55 kg), height - up to 5 feet (157 cm).

With the beginning of the new millennium, a gradual revival of forgotten skills and crafts begins. Mining will start at 1150 hard coal, and gunpowder will be borrowed from China in 1240, which will begin to be used in military affairs, which will subsequently provide Europe with an important advantage in the struggle for world domination.

The horse will gradually begin to replace the ox as a tractive force. A three-field system is being created. The cultivation of the land is improving - oranka is carried out up to 4 times. Land is being cleared for new arable land.

The first paper mills will be built in Spain, which in turn will lead to the widespread use of paper in book business. The first non-monastic educational centers appeared: Oxford, Cambridge, Sorbonne, Charles University.

During this period, many new cities appear. Only in Central Europe - more than 1500. The old cities of Lutetia (Paris, 60 thousand inhabitants), Toulouse, Lyon, Bordeaux, Genoa (50-70 thousand inhabitants each), Venice (65-100 thousand), Naples are also being revived (about 80 thousand), Florence (100 thousand), Milan (80 thousand), Seville (about 40 thousand), Cologne (25-40 thousand). The share of the urban population is growing rapidly and reaches 20-25%.

But a typical medieval town is very small. So in Germany at that time there were more than 4,000 cities with a population of less than 2,000 inhabitants each, 250 cities with a population of 2 to 10,000, and only 15 cities with a population of more than 10,000 inhabitants. The area of ​​a typical city is also very small - from 1.5 to 3 hectares.

Cities ranging from 5 to 30 hectares were already considered quite significant, and over 50 - just huge. By the beginning of the 18th century, the streets of the most important French cities, as well as the largest cities in Europe such as Prague, will be paved with stones.

As the number of cities increases, so does their importance. The division of labor is growing. In the largest cities, there are already up to 300 craft specialties, in the smallest - at least 15.

Diverse people flock to the cities: poor pilgrims, scientists, students, merchants. The free world of the city will set a faster pace of life than in the countryside. Life in the city is less tied to natural cycles. Cities are becoming centers of exchange in the broadest sense of the word.

• N.K. Cherkasy. Economic history: Tutorial. - Kyiv: TsUL, 2002. -p.41.

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.

Development 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 public 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 magnates of the church, created material and legal framework senior government. 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. 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 the hallmarks of 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 norms and values, traditions and rituals of behavior (up to the prescribed type of clothing), supported by the 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.



The vast majority of the medieval population lived in villages. In the countries of Europe, such settlements were, as it were, templated, and if there were any differences between them (depending on countries and cities), they were quite insignificant. The medieval village is a special reminder for historians, which allows you to restore the picture of the past life, traditions and features of the life of the people of that time. Therefore, now we will consider what elements it consisted of and what it was characterized by.

General description of the object

The plan of a medieval village has always depended on the area in which it was located. If this is a plain with fertile lands and spacious meadows, then the number of peasant households could reach fifty. The less useful the land was, the fewer households there were in the village. Some of them consisted of only 10-15 units. In mountain ranges, people did not settle in this way at all. 15-20 people went there, who formed a small farm, where they ran their small farm, autonomous from everything else. A notable feature was that the house in the Middle Ages was considered a moving property. It could be transported on a special wagon, for example, closer to the church, or even transported to another settlement. Therefore, the medieval village was constantly changing, moving a little in space, and therefore could not have a clear cartographic plan, fixed in the state to which it belonged.

cumulus village

This type of medieval settlement is (even for those times) a relic of the past, but such a relic that has existed in society for a very long time. In such a settlement, houses, sheds, peasant lands and the estate of the feudal lord were located "just like". That is, there was no center, no main streets, no separate zones. The medieval village of the cumulus type consisted of randomly arranged streets, many of which ended in dead ends. Those that had a continuation were taken out into the field or into the forest. The type of farming in such settlements was, accordingly, also disorderly.

cruciform settlement

This type of medieval settlement consisted of two streets. They intersected each other at right angles, thus forming a cross. At the intersection of roads, there was always the main square, where either a small chapel was located (if the village had a large number of inhabitants), or the estate of a feudal lord who owned all the peasants living here. The medieval village of the cruciform type consisted of houses that were turned with their facades to the street on which they were located. Thanks to it, it looked very neat and beautiful, all the buildings were almost the same, and only the one that was located on the central square stood out against their background.

village-road

This type of settlement was typical for areas where there were large rivers or mountain slopes. The bottom line was that all the houses where peasants and feudal lords lived were gathered in one street. It stretched along the valley or river, on the banks of which they were located. The road itself, of which, in general, the whole village consisted, might not be too straight, but it exactly repeated the natural forms that it surrounded. The terrain plan of a medieval village of this type included, in addition to peasant lands, the feudal lord's house, which was located either at the very beginning of the street or in its center. He was always the tallest and most luxurious compared to the rest of the houses.

beam villages

This type of settlement was the most popular in all cities, because very often its plan is used in cinema and in modern novels about those times. So, in the center of the village there was the main square, which was occupied by a chapel, a small temple or other religious building. Not far from it was the house of the feudal lord and the courtyards adjacent to it. From the central square, all the streets diverged to different ends of the settlement, like the rays of the sun, and between them houses were built for peasants, to which plots of land were attached. The maximum number of inhabitants lived in such villages, they were distributed in the north, and in the south, and in the west of Europe. There was also much more space for various types of farming.

Urban situation

In medieval society, cities began to form around the 10th century, and this process ended as early as the 16th. During this time, new urban settlements arose on the territory of Europe, but their type did not change at all, only their sizes increased. Well, the village had a lot in common. They had a similar structure, they were built up, so to speak, with typical houses in which they lived simple people. The city was distinguished by the fact that it was larger than the village, its roads were often paved, and in the center a very beautiful and large church (and not a small chapel) certainly towered. Such settlements, in turn, were divided into two types. Some had a direct arrangement of streets, which could, as it were, be entered into a square. This type of construction was borrowed from the Romans. Other cities were distinguished by the radiocentric arrangement of buildings. This type was characteristic of the barbarian tribes that inhabited Europe before the arrival of the Romans.

Conclusion

We examined what were the settlements in Europe in the darkest historical era. And to understand their essence was easier, the article has a map of a medieval village. In conclusion, it can be noted that each individual region was characterized by its own type of construction of houses. Somewhere clay was used, somewhere stone, in other places frame dwellings were erected. Thanks to this, historians can identify which people exactly belonged to a particular settlement.

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 in agriculture. significant funds. 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. Grassland appeared in the mountainous areas. 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 Rus'. 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 up 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, knife and 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 variants: 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 a lot of 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 a good harvest on virgin lands. 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 Rus', 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 Rus'.

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, large 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 fed, used as draft and vehicle. The sires were also slaughtered. Dairy products were one of the main constituent parts 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.

Came to Europe from the Asian steppes back in bronze age the horse gave rise here to new breeds: Norian (mountains and forests from Rus' 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 of agriculture in 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 lease, when the landowner provided the tenant not only with a plot of land, but often with seed, implements and housing, 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 a hired work force. 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.