Medieval farming and craft work

Class structure

Social divisions, or class structure, in the medieval world reflected a division of labour. The noble class essentially contributed to the organization of work. Because they controlled the land, basic to production in this agrarian society, the nobles alone possessed the wealth to purchase the products of artisans, to buy goods brought from a distance, to acquire the weapons and armour made by metallurgists, and to construct castles and fortresses. The lords also decided, in accordance with prevailing custom, how the farmwork should be organized.

The clergy were both consumers and producers whose primary responsibility was the spiritual care of their parishioners. The monasteries were self-sufficient agrarian units that often produced a surplus for trade; indeed, the monks experimented in improving farming techniques and in producing special cheeses and wines that were sold outside the monastery. Finally, the great churches required specialists in stained glass, bell founding, stonemasonry, wood carving, and other trades.

The bulk of the population comprised farmers of varying legal and social status. Most were serfs bound to the plots of ground their ancestors had tilled and provided services or goods to the lord of the manor, who extended protection in return. A few inhabitants of the manor were tenant farmers, or sharecroppers, who rented land in return for payments of a share of the produce. Fewer still were free farm labourers who worked for wages. Slavery had all but disappeared. Because the manor was practically self-sufficient, peasants of whatever status performed a variety of tasks connected with their agricultural occupation.

Agricultural production

Four interrelated factors determined the work organization of medieval agriculture: the economic self-sufficiency of the manor, the development of mixed agriculture based on crops and livestock, such technological improvements as the heavy wheeled plow and rigid horse collar, and the system of land tenure and division of holdings. Each peasant household produced nearly everything it needed. Exceptions included the use of a feudal mill or winepress for which the peasants paid not in money but with a percentage of the crop being processed.

While stock raising and crop production had been separate enterprises in antiquity, the two were combined during the Middle Ages in northwestern Europe. Livestock was raised for use as draft animals and for food, and, because the yield of the grainfields did not greatly exceed human requirements, stock was pastured on poor land or harvested fields. Thus, a certain amount of land was reserved for pasturage, and some villager, usually an older member of the community, became a herdsman.

Communal organization was favoured by the land-tenure arrangements and by the way in which arable land was divided among villagers. In order to assure an equitable apportionment, the land was divided into large fields. Each peasant held strips in each field, meaning that the work of plowing, planting, and harvesting had to be done in common and at the same time.

The wheeled plow, gradually introduced over several centuries, further reinforced communal work organization. Earlier plows had merely scratched the surface of the soil. The new plow was equipped with a heavy knife (colter) to dig under the surface, thereby making strip fields possible. Yet because the new plow required a team of eight oxen—more than any single peasant owned—plowing (and indeed all heavy work on the manor) was pooled. Such a system allowed little room for individual initiative; everyone followed established routines, with the pace of the work set by the ox team.