The serfs may have had it good. According to two very brainy economists, we should be so lucky as to have been alive and working in the 12th century.
See, it turns out that serfs worked to live, and, frankly, to party.
In a recent chat at the highly literary Hay Festival in Wales, Andrew Simms and David Boyle, authors of The New Economics: A Bigger Picture and both directors of the New Economics Foundation think-tank, argued that for a small farmer in the 12th century to make a sufficient amount to live on for a year, he would be able to (and did) take 170 days’ holiday – almost half a year!
Sure back then the dentistry was bad and there was that constant worry of plague, pillage and pestilence, but any poor serf could look forward to loads of festivals and convivial partying. Boyle said the period looks pretty fine when you think of it: “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.”
He said, “When you dig up 12th-century skeletons you find they are taller than or as tall as skeletons at any other part of history other than our own. That suggests they were getting economics right.”
So what went wrong? By 1564 serfs were committed to work 40 weeks a year and in 2010 most North American households require two adults to work full-time to support a home and family.
What went wrong is what we have quite a bit of today – a headlong race for “stuff”, a hedonic treadmill. What serfs didn’t have and we do is, says Boyle, “a very healthy skepticism about money and money values.”
Is that Lexus (or dream of it) improving your life or damning you to servitude?
Then again, maybe it was the serfs’ party-hardy attitude that did them in.
Worth thinking about though, no?
It would be fun to bring back the notion of a “just price” for goods. If memory serves, there was little or no inflation in medieval England for scores of years, if not for centuries, because the prices of things like bushels of wheat and pints of beers – were regulated.
The mere notion that the “average” modern worker has it worse than a 14th century “serf” is both ridiculous and so typically self centered of the unfortunate attitude of the 21st century(I’m guessing the authour of this fiction must be under 30). In short, the difficulties we find ourselves in today can mainly be attributed to several causes. 1.) GREED: (self explanatory) 2.) LACK OF PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY/CONTROL: Nobody forced the average Joe out there to accumulate “stuff” at the breakneck speed we have since the 70’s,living within one’s means is no longer fashionable so when OFFERED” credit many took it thus putting THEMSELVES into a form indentured servitude. LACK OF VISION: (this is for all us Gen Xer’s and late Boomer’s out there) a lot of my friends are in a lot of trouble because of the for-mentioned reasons as well as spawning a strange phenomena…Stupid, thoughtless children who are completely enraptured buy the corporate culture and are willing to abdicate f!
reedom for comfort, physical and mental health for small pleasures(my life sucks but I can whin about it while “blogging on my Ipad” instead of DOING anything about it), the tried and true formula of “Bread and Circus” has taken root sadly, quite deeply. In short, we have a choice today we didn’t have a choice in the 14th and 15th century and we do and a long life span to make it(77yrs vs 30yrs for the serf) this makes this time unique in human history! Take your lives back! Quit working for your car and big screen TV and you will find the order of things will indeed change in your favour.
I loved this article because , what if she’s right? And even if not perhaps it will get us, people, looking at a bigger picture and changing our values to working to live life [ lots of time off like in the 12th century but with no mind numbing tasks [[ that is what technology is for ! ]], and live comfortably , enjoy festival’s ,, and if you contribute more, because what you pursue is fun to do … then you can experience more in the act of doing and sharing for the benefit of all.
right now there is a lot of legal slavery that exists and if you are being born into poverty it is very hard to climb out, there are just not enough good jobs to go around … the way the world is run ,, to a large extent now , by money ,,, that’s the way it will stay … and get worse … if we don’t change.
Using a idea so flawed as “life was better in the 12th Century” as a hook to get people to read your article is obviously effective. I usually don’t read most articles (I don’t have the time). This one I not only read but commented. Kudos for clever writing.
I agree we are overly materialistic. I also note that you report the 12th Century idea without stating that you believe it. Hopefully, you don’t truly subscribe to it.
Its easier to comment about a world where capitalism was still in its infancy and the population did not delve as much into hedonism as it did for elitism.
The writer has clearly blurred the difference between modern hedonism and economic regulations, both of which give rise to modern serfdom, but for different reasons. One is self-inflicted, while the other is not, although comfort is a trade-off in both.
Also, imagine a world where ‘healthy skepticism’ still existed and we all stashed away our earnings for the rainy days? That would give a whole new meaning to ’serfdom’ and the writer would conveniently advocate that too succumbing to economic fad ism.
The other group that had less stress and less stuff than we beleaguered 21st century citizens were the hunter-gatherers. All of them. They would work until they had enough, then engage in cultural activities (the sorts of things that help the First Nations endure the Euro-settler onslaught) until it was time to hunt, gather or fish again.
Yes, there were more diseases, but all things considered, life outside of the industrial / capitalist box doesn’t seem so bad!
Life may not have been entirely better, but there may be a chance that the serfs could have been happier. We earn money to buy “stuff” once our basic needs are taken care of. Even in the basic needs department, there is plenty we could do without.
They earned money for the same reason (to fulfill their basic needs), but where they got it right was that there was an emphasis on living by way of experience. Fairs and festivals, time to wander the landscape and explore, etc. I truly believe that if we stopped spending money on $200 jeans and saved it to be used for experiences (traveling, skydiving, minigolf, etc.) we would feel more content with our lives because we are engaging every part of ourselves and interacting with this world.
I don’t see any jobs posted for serfs…
It is true that the average person today doesn’t live a life as good as the serfs- it is so much better as to be nearly magical. Our life is more akin to that of the most pampered noble and in many ways it is vastly superior to that of a king. Our lives are amazingly easy and trouble free compared to the medieval lot- and the life of a hunter gatherer is mind numbingly impoverished in every sense of the word when compared to the lowest standard of living you can find in the developed world. Don’t point to the homeless, in the days of the hunter/gatherer they would have died of starvation and disease or been killed as cursed by evil spirits because of their mental state.
The opportunities we have for leisure, work, advancing ourselves, fulfilling our dreams and desires is unrivalled in all history and we should rejoice in the free minds and free markets that have enable this… despite the shackles places on them by self interested politicians and ignorant voters.
The 12th century serf had no credit and their land holdings were a disorganized jumble of micro size plots if they were lucky enough to have clear tenure. Poor infrastructure prevented surplus production from leaving the neighbourhood at a profit. No wonder there existed price stability and plenty of leisure time! Why work hard to overproduce when it would rot anyway? No one had coins or gold to buy it for that matter. Credit was mostly illegal and trade was in new ideas (arabic numerals and eventually limited liability corporations) not bulk commodities like wheat or iron ore. Tourism was big. There was relative peace. What changed? Blame the invasion of South America buy the Catholic Empires of Spain and Portugal. The massive boost to the money supply brought about by Incan gold and silver dumped into the European (then mostly an agrarian) economy generated a price spiral of sorts that has lasted more or less for 500 years.
Apparently work conditions and choice of work didn’t occur to the author of this article. Consider serfs were indebted for life to their lords/barons. They owned very little of what they made. The vast majority were farmers as the vast majority of society at that time was agricultural. The lord could rip them off and not pay them what he promised if he felt like it. Women were fair game for the lords who traversed their lands to check on them and often these women ended up with his kids that were unrecognized as a result. Their work conditions sucked. They couldn`t afford the warmest clothing and they had to be outside ploughing and reaping etc in frozen, awful weather sometimes with their children helping them. Infants were left inside the cottage and often a toddler was left to `care“ for them accounting for the high infant mortality rate at that time (so much for corporate daycare).
Um, no thanks.
The author is obviously high on something made illegal (FOR GOOD REASON!) well after the Middle Ages. This ridiculously stupid and smelly article makes me want to roust an angry, drunken mob together…and get some tar and that other thing, what’s that thing? I forget the name. The thing that keeps fowl warm on lonely night? No, not Uncle Harry, the thing on the skin, of chickens, that tickles…you know what I’m talking about? anyways this article was CLEARLY written by someone who has never been to the Middle Ages. Harrumph!