523-4 – Boethius writes The Consolation of Philosophy
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, a Roman senator and official, is imprisoned by King Theodoric the Great. As he awaits his trial, Boethius writes this philosophical treatise, which examines various questions, including why bad things happen to good people. It has since become a major work of philosophy.
525 – Anno Domini calendar invented
A monk named Dionysius Exiguus creates this new dating system as part of his efforts to understand the dating of Easter. It wanted the year 1 AD to be the date when Jesus Christ was born, although later calculations show that his birth occurred before this. Gradually use of this calendar became more widespread, and is now the most widely accepted system for counting years in the world.
529-34 – Code of Justinian issued
A set of laws created during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, it is considered an important milestone in the history of law.
563 – St Columbus founds Iona
The Irish missionary Columba and 12 companions set up a monastery on the Isle of Iona, just off the Scottish coast. This event marks an important point in the development of Christianity in the British Isles and the rise of monasticism in Western Europe.
590 – Gregory the Great becomes Pope
Gregorius Anicius is elected Pope, taking the name Gregory I. He would reign until 604, and would undertake a series of measures that strengthened the role of the Papacy and spread the Christian religion.
735 – Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
Venerable Bede, an Anglo-Saxon Benedictine scholar, writes the History of the English Church and People in Latin, perhaps the best historical writing of medieval history. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBCUeZVuyxQ
793 – Vikings raid Lindisfarne
Raiders from Scandinavia attack a monastery at Lindisfarne. It is seen as the beginning of Norse attacks and expansion in Europe.
910 – Cluny Abbey founded
Founded by William I, Duke of Aquitaine, this French monastery would become an important centre of Christianity in the Middle Ages.
1054 – Great Schism
An official break between the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox churches which lasts to the present-day.
1095 – First Crusade is launched
At the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II calls upon Christians to undertake a military expedition in support of the Byzantine Empire against the Seljuk Turks. It would lead to the conquest of Jerusalem four years later and a concerted effort by Western Europeans to take control of the Near East.
1098 – Cistercians founded
Robert, abbot of Molesme, establishes a new religious order in Cîteaux. The Cistercians offered a different kind of monastic reform that would be popular in medieval Europe.
1215 – Fourth Lateran Council
Invoked by Pope Innocent III, this meeting would see hundreds of bishops and religious figures attend, and bring about sweeping changes to Catholic doctrine.
1215 – Magna Carta
A charter agreed to by King John of England and his rebellious barons, the document would come to be seen as the beginning of legal limits on the power of monarchs.
1216 – Dominican Order
The Dominican order is founded by St. Dominic of Spain and is authorized by Innocent III. Its purpose is to convert Muslims and Jews and to put an end to heresy. The Dominicans eventually become the main administrators of inquisitorial trials.
1265 – Thomas Aquinas begins his Summa Theologiae
This Dominican friar does not complete this massive work before his death in 1274, but the text has become one of the most important works on theology.
The Lords Appellant were a group of nobles in the reign of King Richard II, who, in 1388, sought to impeach some five of the King's favourites in order to restrain what was seen as tyrannical and capricious rule. The word appellant simply means '[one who is] appealing [in a legal sense]'. It is the older (Norman) French form of the present participle of the verb appeler, the equivalent of the English 'to appeal'. The group was called the Lords Appellant because its members invoked a procedure under law to start prosecution of the king's unpopular favourites known as 'an appeal': the favourites were charged in a document called an appeal of treason, a device borrowed from civil law which led to some procedural complications.
The Lords Appellant were a group of nobles in the reign of King Richard II, who, in 1388, sought to impeach some five of the King's favourites in order to restrain what was seen as tyrannical and capricious rule. The word appellant simply means '[one who is] appealing [in a legal sense]'. It is the older (Norman) French form of the present participle of the verb appeler, the equivalent of the English 'to appeal'. The group was called the Lords Appellant because its members invoked a procedure under law to start prosecution of the king's unpopular favourites known as 'an appeal': the favourites were charged in a document called an appeal of treason, a device borrowed from civil law which led to some procedural complications.
The first known construction cranes were invented by the Ancient Greeks and were powered by men or beasts of burden, such as donkeys. These cranes were used for the construction of tall buildings. Larger cranes were later developed, employing the use of human treadwheels, permitting the lifting of heavier weights. In the High Middle Ages, harbour cranes were introduced to load and unload ships and assist with their construction – some were built into stone towers for extra strength and stability. The earliest cranes were constructed from wood, but cast iron, iron and steel took over with the coming of the Industrial Revolution.
During the High Middle Ages, the treadwheel crane was reintroduced on a large scale after the technology had fallen into disuse in western Europe with the demise of the Western Roman Empire. The earliest reference to a treadwheel (magna rota) reappears in archival literature in France about 1225, followed by an illuminated depiction in a manuscript of probably also French origin dating to 1240. In navigation, the earliest uses of harbor cranes are documented for Utrecht in 1244, Antwerp in 1263, Brugge in 1288 and Hamburg in 1291, while in England the treadwheel is not recorded before 1331.
Generally, vertical transport could be done more safely and inexpensively by cranes than by customary methods. Typical areas of application were harbors, mines, and, in particular, building sites where the treadwheel crane played a pivotal role in the construction of the lofty Gothic cathedrals. Nevertheless, both archival and pictorial sources of the time suggest that newly introduced machines like treadwheels or wheelbarrows did not completely replace more labor-intensive methods like ladders, hods and handbarrows. Rather, old and new machinery continued to coexist on medieval construction sites and harbors.
Apart from treadwheels, medieval depictions also show cranes to be powered manually by windlasses with radiating spokes, cranks and by the 15th century also by windlasses shaped like a ship's wheel. To smooth out irregularities of impulse and get over 'dead-spots' in the lifting process flywheels are known to be in use as early as 1123.
The exact process by which the treadwheel crane was reintroduced is not recorded, although its return to construction sites has undoubtedly to be viewed in close connection with the simultaneous rise of Gothic architecture. The reappearance of the treadwheel crane may have resulted from a technological development of the windlass from which the treadwheel structurally and mechanically evolved. Alternatively, the medieval treadwheel may represent a deliberate reinvention of its Roman counterpart drawn from Vitruvius' De architectura which was available in many monastic libraries. Its reintroduction may have been inspired, as well, by the observation of the labor-saving qualities of the waterwheel with which early treadwheels shared many structural similarities.
Structure and placement
The medieval treadwheel was a large wooden wheel turning around a central shaft with a treadway wide enough for two workers walking side by side. While the earlier 'compass-arm' wheel had spokes directly driven into the central shaft, the more advanced 'clasp-arm' type featured arms arranged as chords to the wheel rim, giving the possibility of using a thinner shaft and providing thus a greater mechanical advantage.
Contrary to a popularly held belief, cranes on medieval building sites were neither placed on the extremely lightweight scaffolding used at the time nor on the thin walls of the Gothic churches which were incapable of supporting the weight of both hoisting machine and load. Rather, cranes were placed in the initial stages of construction on the ground, often within the building. When a new floor was completed, and massive tie beams of the roof connected the walls, the crane was dismantled and reassembled on the roof beams from where it was moved from bay to bay during construction of the vaults. Thus, the crane 'grew' and 'wandered' with the building with the result that today all extant construction cranes in England are found in church towers above the vaulting and below the roof, where they remained after building construction for bringing material for repairs aloft.
Less frequently, medieval illuminations also show cranes mounted on the outside of walls with the stand of the machine secured to putlogs.
For many centuries, power was supplied by the physical exertion of men or animals, although hoists in watermills and windmills could be driven by the harnessed natural power. The first 'mechanical' power was provided by steam engines, the earliest steam crane being introduced in the 18th or 19th century, with many remaining in use well into the late 20th century[citation needed]. Modern cranes usually use internal combustion engines or electric motors and hydraulic systems to provide a much greater lifting capability than was previously possible, although manual cranes are still utilized where the provision of power would be uneconomic.
As of the 9th century to the end of the 13th century, the medieval European economy underwent unprecedented productivity growth. The period has been referred to as the most significant agricultural expansion since the Neolithic revolution . In his path-breaking book, “Medieval Technology and Social Change”, Lynn White, Jr. argues that the most important element in the “agricultural revolution” was the invention and widespread adoption of the heavy plough.
The earliest plough, commonly known as the ard or scratch-plough, was suitable for the soils and climate of the Mediterranean; it was, however, unsuitable for the heavy soils found in most of northern Europe, which “offer much more resistance to a plough than does light, dry earth”. The consequence was that north European settlement before the middle ages was limited to lighter soils, where the ard could be applied. The heavy plough and its attendant advantages may have been crucial in changing this. More specifically, heavy ploughs have three function parts that set them apart from primitive ards. The first part is an asymmetric ploughshare, which cuts the soil horizontally. The second part is a coulter, which cuts the soil vertically. The third part is a mouldboard, which turns the cut sods aside to create a deep furrow (Mokyr 1990; Richerson 2001). The mouldboard is the part of the heavy plough from which its principal advantages on heavy clay soils derive. The first advantage is that it turns the soil, which allows for both better weed control on heavy soil in damp climates and incorporation into the soil of crop residues, green manure, animal manure or other substances. The second advantage is that mouldboard ploughing produced high-backed ridges, which contributed to more efficient drainage of heavy clay soils. The ridges also allowed for better harvests in both wet and dry seasons. In the wettest season there would still be crops on the crest, and in the driest seasons there would still grow crops in the furrow. The third advantage is that the heavy plough handles the soil with such violence that cross-ploughing is not needed, thus freeing up labor time. Hence by allowing for better field drainage, access the most fertile soils, and saving of peasant labor time, the heavy plough stimulated food production and, as a consequence, “population growth, specialization of function, urbanization, and the growth of leisure”. http://www.medievalists.net/2013/06/the-heavy-plough-and-the-agricultural-revolution-in-medieval-europe/
Lens Making in the 1600s - Corning Museum of Glass
Three centuries ago, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek made hundreds of simple microscopes. He experimented with at least three methods to make their tiny lenses but kept his techniques secret. Based on scholarly research, this video made by The Corning Museum of Glass demonstrates how van Leeuwenhoek might have made his lenses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SJY0foypAo https://www.cmog.org/collection/exhibitions/microscopes
Developed in the 13th century, the earliest spectacles were produced by glaziers in Venice, Italy, but the identity of the inventor is unknown. Lenses in these first eyeglasses were made from quartz or rock crystal and produced by gold craftsmen. The first spectacles had quartz lenses because optical glass had not been developed. The lenses were set into bone, metal or even leather mountings, often shaped like two small magnifying glasses with handles riveted together typically in an inverted V shape that could be balanced on the bridge of the nose.
Spectacles became common after Guttenburg’s invention of the printing press in the mid-1500’s. Printing with movable type meant even common people could afford books and marked the beginning of widespread need to correct vision with eyeglasses. https://sdmcphail.com/2016/06/15/eyeglasses-an-invention-made-necessary-by-books/ .
First sawmill for shipbuilding
In 1328, some historical sources show that a sawmill was developed to form lumber to build ships. A blade is pulled back and forth using a reciprocating saw and water wheel system. https://www.thoughtco.com/middle-ages-timeline-1992478 .
Early Grain Mills
The source of power with the greatest potential to do useful work: water power. Interestingly, in the ancient world, water power was used almost exclusively for one activity: milling grain. At that time, cereal grains—primarily wheat and barley—provided 70 to 75 percent of the calories in the average person’s diet. Before grain can be consumed, however, it must be processed into flour by cracking open its outer husk, or chaff, and then grinding the inner portion into a fine powder. Throughout much of human history, grinding grain was an arduous, tedious, and time-consuming aspect of everyday life. It was a human activity that was ripe for technological improvement.
Milling Grain with Water Power | The Great Courses Plus
First sawmill for shipbuilding
In 1328, some historical sources show that a sawmill was developed to form lumber to build ships. A blade is pulled back and forth using a reciprocating saw and water wheel system. https://www.thoughtco.com/middle-ages-timeline-1992478
After the Renaissance of the 12th century, medieval Europe saw a radical change in the rate of new inventions, innovations in the ways of managing traditional means of production, and economic growth. The period saw major technological advances, including the adoption of gunpowder, the invention of vertical windmills, spectacles, mechanical clocks, and greatly improved water mills, building techniques (Gothic architecture, medieval castles), and agriculture in general (three-field crop rotation).
The development of water mills from their ancient origins was impressive, and extended from agriculture to sawmills both for timber and stone. By the time of the Domesday Book, most large villages had turnable mills, around 6,500 in England alone. Water-power was also widely used in mining for raising ore from shafts, crushing ore, and even powering bellows.
European technical advancements from the 12th to 14th centuries were either built on long-established techniques in medieval Europe, originating from Roman and Byzantine antecedents, or adapted from cross-cultural exchanges through trading networks with the Islamic world, China, and India. Often, the revolutionary aspect lay not in the act of invention itself, but in its technological refinement and application to political and economic power. Though gunpowder along with other weapons had been started by Chinese, it was the Europeans who developed and perfected its military potential, precipitating European expansion and eventual imperialism in the Modern Era.
Also significant in this respect were advances in maritime technology. Advances in shipbuilding included the multi-masted ships with lateen sails, the sternpost-mounted rudder and the skeleton-first hull construction. Along with new navigational techniques such as the dry compass, the Jacob's staff and the astrolabe, these allowed economic and military control of the seas adjacent to Europe and enabled the global navigational achievements of the dawning Age of Exploration. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_sandglass
Why does the West use Arabic Numerals? - HiMa > .
● 976. The first Arabic numerals in Europe appeared in the Codex Vigilanus in the year 976.
● 1202. Fibonacci, an Italian mathematician who had studied in Béjaïa (Bougie), Algeria, promoted the Arabic numeral system in Europe with his book Liber Abaci, which was published in 1202.
● 1482. The system did not come into wide use in Europe, however, until the invention of printing. (See, for example, the 1482 Ptolemaeus map of the world printed by Lienhart Holle in Ulm, and other examples in the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Germany.)
● 1549. These are correct format and sequence of the "modern numbers" in titlepage of the Libro Intitulado Arithmetica Practica by Juan de Yciar, the Basque calligrapher and mathematician, Zaragoza 1549.
In 825 Al-Khwārizmī wrote a treatise in Arabic, On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals, which survives only as the 12th-century Latin translation, Algoritmi de numero Indorum. Algoritmi, the translator's rendition of the author's name, gave rise to the word algorithm.
The first mentions of the numerals in the West are found in the Codex Vigilanus of 976.
From the 980s, Gerbert of Aurillac (later, Pope Sylvester II) used his position to spread knowledge of the numerals in Europe. Gerbert studied in Barcelona in his youth. He was known to have requested mathematical treatises concerning the astrolabe from Lupitus of Barcelona after he had returned to France.
Leonardo Fibonacci (Leonardo of Pisa), a mathematician born in the Republic of Pisa who had studied in Béjaïa (Bougie), Algeria, promoted the Indian numeral system in Europe with his 1202 book Liber Abaci:
""When my father, who had been appointed by his country as public notary in the customs at Bugia acting for the Pisan merchants going there, was in charge, he summoned me to him while I was still a child, and having an eye to usefulness and future convenience, desired me to stay there and receive instruction in the school of accounting. There, when I had been introduced to the art of the Indians' nine symbols through remarkable teaching, knowledge of the art very soon pleased me above all else and I came to understand it.""
The numerals are arranged with their lowest value digit to the right, with higher value positions added to the left. This arrangement was adopted identically into the numerals as used in Europe. Languages written in the Latin alphabet run from left-to-right, unlike languages written in the Arabic alphabet. Hence, from the point of view of the reader, numerals in Western texts are written with the highest power of the base first whereas numerals in Arabic texts are written with the lowest power of the base first.
The reason the digits are more commonly known as "Arabic numerals" in Europe and the Americas is that they were introduced to Europe in the 10th century by Arabic-speakers of North Africa, who were then using the digits from Libya to Morocco. Arabs, on the other hand, call the system "Hindu numerals", referring to their origin in India. This is not to be confused with what the Arabs call the "Hindi numerals", namely the Eastern Arabic numerals (٠ - ١ - ٢ - ٣ -٤ - ٥ - ٦ - ٧ - ٨ - ٩) used in the Middle East, or any of the numerals currently used in Indian languages (e.g. Devanagari: ०.१.२.३.४.५.६.७.८.९).
The European acceptance of the numerals was accelerated by the invention of the printing press, and they became widely known during the 15th century. Early evidence of their use in Britain includes: an equal hour horary quadrant from 1396, in England, a 1445 inscription on the tower of Heathfield Church, Sussex; a 1448 inscription on a wooden lych-gate of Bray Church, Berkshire; and a 1487 inscription on the belfry door at Piddletrenthide church, Dorset; and in Scotland a 1470 inscription on the tomb of the first Earl of Huntly in Elgin Cathedral. (See G.F. Hill, The Development of Arabic Numerals in Europe for more examples.) In central Europe, the King of Hungary Ladislaus the Posthumous, started the use of Arabic numerals, which appear for the first time in a royal document of 1456. By the mid-16th century, they were in common use in most of Europe. Roman numerals remained in use mostly for the notation of Anno Domini years, and for numbers on clockfaces.
Today, Roman numerals are still used for enumeration of lists (as an alternative to alphabetical enumeration), for sequential volumes, to differentiate monarchs or family members with the same first names, and (in lower case) to number pages in prefatory material in books.
Tudor monastery - Fish & fish farming - salmon, pike, carp
The fish industry was a vital element of the medieval European economy, and fueled lots of movement around the continent. However how did they get onto the trestle tables and trenchers?
Most medieval industries aren’t fully documented, however there is a surprisingly high volume of material relating to medieval fishing, fish collection, fish trading, and fish farming. Simple devices like fish hooks and spears were used by individuals, but fish harvesting happened on a commercial scale too. “Fisheries” and “kiddles” were used to gather large amounts of fish intended for sale or trade. Fisheries were usually made of semi-permanent fish traps, while kiddles used nets. Bede’s 8th century text mentions Bishop Winfrid of Colchester using eel nets during a food shortage:
“[he]…found so much misery from hunger, he taught the people to get food by fishing. For, although there was plenty of fish in the seas and rivers, the people had no idea about fishing, and caught only eels. So the Bishop’s men got together eel nets from all sides, and threw them into the sea. By God’s help they caught three hundred fish, of all different kinds.”
To my knowledge, no medieval nets have survived in large enough sections to be positively identified. It’s difficult to say what materials were used to make nets, however it may have been hemp, horsehair, or flax. Women and men were both involved in the creation of nets and used small netting needles, a special tool for creating the knots and patterns in net-making. You can get your own reproduction netting needle if you want to have a go!
However it wasn’t all net in the Middle Ages. In streams, rivers, and coastal areas with moving water, fishing weirs or traps made of hazel and willow rods were commonly used. These traps left behind posts and other refuse, such as in Essex and Bradwell-on-Sea. These locations reflect thousands of square feet of complex patterns designed to funnel fish and eels into basket-woven boxes and nets. The Essex tidewater sites, known as the Blackwater sites, show evidence of fish traps from the 7th century. More evidence exists throughout the medieval period for fishing in this area. The Domesday books documented fisheries in this area too: three at Mersea, two at Bradwell, one at Osea and one at Tollesbury.
Extensive data collection at seven sites in 2006-2008 through aerial surveys and fieldwork reveals large enclosures in either a V or L shape, placed on gently sloping coastline or on river estuaries. Relatively long sections survive, some up to 1600 meters long! With this high level of preservation, archaeologists can form a comprehensive image of the efficacy of medieval fish traps like these. Four of the seven are now included on England’s Schedule of Ancient Monuments.
Of course many medieval people were not associated with commercial fishing operations and only collected fish for their own household using a rod, line, or small net. A boy’s grave in Balnakeil near Durness in Sutherland offers a glimpse of this type of fishing. The boy was buried between 850-900 a.d., and his grave included adult weapons with the other objects. While many of the objects were highly corroded, x-rays and comparative studies allowed a reconstruction of a pumice stone, pair of iron shears, iron needles and a wooden needle divider bound with thread, and an iron fishhook and thread.
People still enjoy going out and casting their line, but in the later Middle Ages the fishing industry moved into increasingly deeper waters. Researchers from Cambridge, York, and the Max Planck Institute identified a shift in the type of fish consumed around 1000 a.d. Locally caught freshwater fish were on the decline while ocean fish were swimming upstream in the medieval food chain.
The development of ocean fishing escalated in the late 1500’s when ships began to use nets to gather larger quantities of fish. Larger ships which crossed greater distances more quickly developed in the Age of Exploration meant that fish made it to market more efficiently, affecting the economic dynamics around local fish industries. The shift to a different economy and the use of new technology marked a new age and new tastes.
Disrupting spawning beds
Salmon largely disappeared from our waters due to the construction of water mills, ecologists [from university in Netherlands] conclude. The construction of water mills caused the destruction of the gravel beds in streams, making them unsuitable for salmon to spawn. Whereas it was previously thought that water contamination was the most likely explanation, archival research demonstrates that salmon stocks had already dwindled prior to the invention of the steam engine. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160720094432.htm
It would be very hard to say at some point in time, that all fish have spawned.
Spawning time might vary from season to season due to variations in natural environment and in healthy populations it stretches over considerable amount of time (you could look on this as some sort of natures safety element).
It is best to take a walk now and then by your stream and you will notice spawning holes (reeds) on the ground. It was described in literature that brown trouts actually start digging them weeks before actual spawning. But that would be a reliable method to determine spawning time in your river/stream.
Brown trouts will attack lures through the whole winter so i doubt that there would be any serious non-feeding time after spawning. Although it is closed season, we do catch them while hucho fishing. In fact I have the feeling they are even more aggressive at that time.
In previous years, up to and including 2009, I've observed trout migrating from the main river (Wye) in September and October, as we would expect.
Yes they have stopped spawning. Brownies spawn on day length, hence why they spawn in December.
Quite right - rainbows and salmon too! Some fish farmers trick the fish into spawning early or late by keeping them in controlled light environments. By keeping the day length longer during the autumn you can delay spawning time until after 'normal' fish have spawned. That way you can produce more eggs and fry and not have all the tank space used up at the same time.
We used to select broodstock from the very earliest fish to spawn and the very latest fish to spawn and by doing it year after year we increased the spawning period by several weeks at each end of the season. This was another way of producing more fry from the same number of available tanks.
Trout eggs are usually shipped when they reach the “eyed” stage, which is more than halfway through the incubation period.
Incubation time is temperature dependent. At 55 °F, rainbow trout eggs will hatch approximately 3 weeks after fertilization, or within 4 to 7 days after being received as “eyed” eggs. At 45 °F, the eggs will hatch approximately 7 weeks after fertilization.
Egg incubation
All types of egg incubators should be covered to protect developing embryos from direct light. However, if the eggs are more than 3 days from hatching, dead eggs should be removed regularly to limit fungal infections. Removing dead eggs is more effective than chemical treatment at controlling fungus, but can be very time consuming.
Handling sac fry
Hatching rate depends on water temperature, but usually will be completed within 2 to 4 days after commencing. Empty shells should not be allowed to accumulate in the incubating units. If the eggs are incubated separately from the rearing troughs, the sac fry should be transferred into troughs shortly after hatching is complete. Up to 30,000 fry can be stocked into a standard fry trough 10 feet long and 18 inches wide. The water flow rate should be 8 to 10 gallons per minute for most facilities. Keep the water level in the trough fairly shallow (3 to 4 inches) and the flow reduced until fry “swim up,” approximately 2 weeks after hatching at 55 oF. Any dead fry, egg shells or deformed fish should be removed regularly.
When about 50 percent of fry “swim up,” begin feeding with a small amount of starter mash on the surface three to four times daily. Continue until most fish are actively feeding. Feed every 15 minutes if possible, but not less than hourly at this stage. A large kitchen strainer makes an excellent tool for distributing the starter feeds throughout the tank. Automatic feeders are certainly more convenient than feeding by hand, but many are not well suited to distributing the smallest feed sizes.
Feed approximately 10 percent of the fish weight per day for 2 to 3 weeks, or until fry are about 1 inch long (approximately 1,000 per pound); then feed according to a published feeding chart. Fry feed should be formulated to contain approximately 50 percent protein and 12 to 15 percent fat. Excess feed and fish waste must be removed from the troughs at least daily. Small paintbrushes or feathers work well for cleaning the rearing troughs.
Siphons also can be used if care is taken to avoid the fish. After the fry have been actively feeding for 2 weeks, sample count the fish every week and adjust the feeding rate and feed size accordingly. Adjust the fish densities in the troughs as necessary to prevent overcrowding. In the standard fry tank described previously, fish are typically kept below 1 pound of fish per cubic foot of water volume. Monitoring dissolved oxygen levels will help determine when fry density should be reduced. Ideally, the dissolved oxygen level should not be lower than 6 ppm. The fry will be ready to move into larger tanks in the hatchery when they grow to 1 inch in length. In areas where Yersinia ruckeri, the causative agent of enteric redmouth disease (ERM), has been detected, the fish should be vaccinated 2 weeks before moving them to a production facility. The recommended minimum size for immersion vaccination of trout against ERM is 4.5 grams, or approximately 100 fish per pound.
All trout return to the rivers and streams to spawn. Timing will depend on latitude (day length), but here on the Tay it takes place in November/December. The trout seek out gravel beds (stones about the size of a pea are best) with good water flows over it to bring in oxygen and to carry away silt. The hen fish cuts a trench (redd) into the gravel with her tail fin. Once dug she is joined in the hole by the male. Hundreds of eggs and milt are squirted into the base of the redd simultaneously. Thus fertilised the eggs absorb water and sink. They are quickly covered up by the female. Inevitably eggs miss the redd and drift downstream. Fish including other trout will eat them, but some will find their way into other cracks and crevices where they may well develop.
For more information on the brown trout, visit:
• BBC Wildlife Finder:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/species/Brown_trout
• Fishbase species account, available at:
http://www.fishbase.org
Inhabits well-oxygenated streams and rivers (4).
This fish feeds on invertebrates, insect larvae, aerial insects, and molluscs, as well as the occasional fish and frog (3). Spawning occurs between January and March, when females are accompanied by a number of males. The eggs, which are fertilised externally, are covered with gravel by the female. For the first days after hatching, the young fish (fry) derive their nutrients from their large yolk sacs; they then feed on small arthropods, such as insect larvae (2). The maximum-recorded life span of a brown trout is 5 years (3).
The brown trout is found throughout Europe; those that live in rivers which empty into the North Sea and the Baltic Sea belong to the subspecies Salmo trutta fario, those that live in rivers that empty into the Black Sea are of the subspecies Salmo trutta labrax, and those in rivers emptying into the Mediterranean belong to the subspecies S. t. macrostigma (2). The brown trout (Salmo trutta fario) is found throughout the British Isles (4).
The brown trout is a beautiful fish, similar in general shape to the salmon; the back is dark, the sides pale, and both are flecked with variable reddish spots that have pale borders (4). The belly is a creamy yellowish-white. Juveniles and immature adults can be distinguished as they have bluish-grey spots, and adult males have a strongly curved lower jaw (2).
Larvae: stage in an animal's lifecycle after it hatches from the egg. Larvae are typically very different in appearance to adults; they are able to feed and move around but usually are unable to reproduce.
References
1. National Biodiversity Network Species Dictionary (Jan 2003):http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nbn/
2. Cihar, J. (1991)A field guide in colour to freshwater fish. Silverdale Books, Leicester.
3. Fishbase species account (Jan 2003):http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?genusname=Salmo&speciesname=trutta%20fario
4. Buczacki, S. (2002) Fauna Britannica. Hamlyn, London.
http://www.arkive.org/
About
The brown trout (Salmo trutta morpha fario and S. trutta morpha lacustris) and the sea trout (S. trutta morpha trutta) are fish of the same species.
They are distinguished chiefly by the fact that the brown trout is largely a freshwater fish, while the sea trout shows anadromous reproduction, migrating to the oceans for much of its life and returning to freshwater only to spawn. Sea trout in the UK and Ireland have many regional names including sewin (Wales), finnock (Scotland), peal (West Country), mort (North West England) and white trout (Ireland).
The specific epithet trutta derives from the Latin trutta, meaning, literally, "trout".
The lacustrine morph of brown trout is most usually potamodromous, migrating from lakes into rivers or streams to spawn, although there is some evidence of stocks that spawn on wind-swept shorelines of lakes. S. trutta morpha fario form stream-resident populations, typically in alpine streams but sometimes in larger rivers. There is evidence that anadromous and non-anadromous morphs coexisting in the same river can be genetically identical. In common usage, the name "brown trout" is often applied indiscriminately to the various morphs.
Semelparous organisms reproduce only once in their lives and then die. The most well known ones are Pacific salmon that perish after spawning. Other examples are squid, mayflies and plants which die after setting seed (annuals). The adult diverts resources into producing huge amounts of offspring to ensure sufficient numbers reach maturity without any parental care. This is why bears largely ignore dead salmon after they've spawned - all the salmon's fat has gone into producing sperm and eggs and little nutrional value is left.
Common Law - persistence of Anglo-Saxon law under Anglo-Normans
Documents & Laws
~1150 - Gratian’s Decretum
In the mid-12th century the scholar Gratian completed his Decretum, which was a compilation of canon law. Legal scholar Harold J. Berman has called it “the first comprehensive and systematic legal treatise in the history of the West, and perhaps in the history of mankind.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decretum_Gratiani
1166 - The Assize of Clarendon
Created by King Henry II in 1166, this law enhanced the power of royal courts over ecclesiastical courts in judging various serious crimes including murder and robbery. The concept of juries was first established with the Assize of Clarendon, “providing the blueprint fro one of the most significant procedural components of criminal law.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assize_of_Clarendon
1215 - Magna Carta
While the famous document from 1215 was soon voided by the Pope, and ignored by the King and Barons just after it was issued, Magna Carta has long since inspired and moulded legal thinking. According to legal journalist James Podgers, “that King John agreed to sign a document affirming the principle that no one, not even a monarch, is above the law was historic.” Legal scholar A.E. Dick Howard notes that the document had “enormous significance in the development of one of our most precious ideals: rule of law, a government of laws and not of men.”
1215 - Canon 18 of Fourth Lateran Council spelled end for Trial by Ordeal
Charter of the Forests, 1217, Henry I [1225]
1258 - Provisions of Oxford were constitutional reforms developed in 1258 to resolve a dispute beween the English barons and King Henry III. They asserted the right of the barons to representation in the king's government and, like the earlier Magna Carta, demonstrated the ability of the barons to press their concerns in opposition to the monarchy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisions_of_Oxford
1275 - Statute of the Jewry: Edward I of England outlawed the practice of usury
1290 - The Edict of Expulsion was a royal decree issued by King Edward I of England on 18 July 1290, expelling all Jews from the Kingdom of England.
1275, 1285, 1290 - The Statutes of Westminster
The cornerstones for Edward I’s reputation as one of the most important monarchs in England’s legal history were the the Statutes of Westminster. The first set of laws were issued in 1275, followed by other sets in 1285 and 1290.
● Statute of Westminster 1275, often called the Statute of Westminster I, codified existing law in England in 51 chapters
● Statute of Westminster 1285, often called the Statute of Westminster II, contained the clause De donis conditionalibus
● Quia Emptores of 1290, often called the Statute of Westminster III, prevented tenants from alienating their lands to others by subinfeudation
● Statute of Westminster 1327, first mentioned the military post of Conductor
● Statute of Westminster 1472, mostly noted for requiring ships coming to an English port to bring a tax in bowstaves
● Statute of Westminster 1931, established legislative equality for the self-governing dominions of the British Empire with the United Kingdom
Lex mercatoria
1303 - Edward I - Carta Mercatoria
As trade continued to increase in medieval Europe, merchants were coming up with informal customs and practices that would serve as their own law. “These rules,” Roffer explains, “collectively the lex mercatoria, or merchant law – became the governing doctrine for resolving commercial disputes in merchant courts that arose along major trading routes.” Many scholars view it as one of the precursors to the concept of international law. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex_mercatoria
~1398 The Star Chamber
Emerging in the second half of the 14th century, it was created by the King’s Council to allow for regular citizens to seek justice against even the most powerful men of the real. Gradually the seven men who sat in the court began to wield important power, including the ability to create new laws. “For example,” Roffer writes, “it made crimes of libel, perjury, and conspiracy. However appropriate or necessary such laws were, the process inhibited political dissent and criminalized the expression of certain opinions.” The Court of the Star Chamber would continue to operate until 1640. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Chamber
1431 - Trial of Joan of Arc
Perhaps the most well-known trial of the Middle Ages, it took place in 1431 after Joan was captured and imprisoned by the English and their allies. In order to discredit the teenager, who had led French forces to a series of military victories just months earlier, she was put on trial for heresy.
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Court of Augmentations, also called Augmentation Court or simply The Augmentation, was established during the reign of King Henry VIII of England along with three lesser courts (those of General Surveyors, First Fruit and Tenths, and Wards and Liveries) following the dissolution of the monasteries. Its primary function was to gain better control over the land and finances formerly held by the Roman Catholic Church in the kingdom. It was incorporated into the Exchequer in 1554 as the augmentation office. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_of_Augmentations . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Dissolution_of_the_Monasteries .
1215 – Magna Carta
A charter agreed to by King John of England and his rebellious barons, the document would come to be seen as the beginning of legal limits on the power of monarchs.
1315-17 – Great Famine
A series of crop failures and bad weather that struck large parts of Europe.
1337 – Beginning of the Hundred Years’ War
The Kings of England and France begin a war – fought off and on – that would last until 1453.
1347-51 – Black Death
One of the largest pandemics in human history, it crossed through Eurasia and killed as many as 200 million people.
1378 – Western Schism begins
A split within the Catholic churches that would see two or three men claiming to be Pope at the same time.
1350 is the year following the great outbreak of bubonic plague, the huge price variance is in part illustrative of the shortage of labor for the harvesting of food grains and the dwindling of reserves. The year 1348 already saw a terrible harvest, and in November the plague hit London and spread explosively to virtually all quarters of England. In nearly all cases the higher price for foodstuffs and labor in this year is from records of prices in the winter of 1350-1351.
JOB TITLES
Bailiff of Husbandry - The "Manager" of a manor's farms
Cooper - A barrel maker
Pargetter - A plasterer, especially of chimney flues, in medieval times using a mortar composed of lime, hair, dung, and earth.
Mass/Weight
1 Petra = a variable weight between 8 and 20 pounds
1 Great Pound = 1 Clove = 1 Nail (wool measure) 7 Pounds
1 Stone = 2 Clove = 14 pounds = ½ Tod
1 Sack = 2 Pisa = 26 Stone = 52 Clove
14th century coins -- first three Edwards & Richard II
14th Coins -- first three Edwards & Richard II
English Money
From the 8th century the Anglo-Saxons made silver pennies. A pound weight of silver was melted to make 240 pennies. There were 240 pennies in a pound until 1971. However in the 8th century a penny was a large sum of money (4 or 5 pence would buy a sheep). Most people continued to barter for everyday goods.
Around 1300 AD, a laborer in England could expect two earn about 2 pounds sterling in a year, or about 672 g of silver (approximately 2.1 g of silver per day, given the different workweek of medieval times). Likewise, we know a thatcher in 1261 could look to earn about 2 pennies a day or 2.8 g of silver. Thatchers’ pay increased to about 3 pence (approximately 4.2 g of silver) in 1341, 4 pence in 1381, and 6 pence in 1481. Along the way, a city “craftsman” could look to earn about 4 pence a day in the 1350s.
So what would those wages buy? In the early 14th century, wine cost between 3 pence and 10 pence per gallon in England, and two dozen eggs could be had for 1 pent. Some time later, an axe cost about 5 pence in mid-15th century England, while wheat cost approximately 0.2 g of silver per liter (not much different than the per-liter price in ancient Greece). http://commodityhq.com/education/a-brief-2000-year-history-of-silver-prices/
Copper/bronze coinage was not minted regularly during the medieval period, as government mints focused on silver and gold coinage. Given that the large majority of the population was too poor to frequently conduct business with gold coins or large amounts of silver, the absence of copper coinage perpetuated trade through barter and credit.
The Byzantine empire was arguably the most active minter of low-value copper coinage, with the bronze folles amounting to 1:288 of the gold nomisma. Soldiers of the Byzantine empire were paid one gold nomisma per year of service. It was arguably the great emphasis on trade in the Byzantine empire that led to the significant production of bronze/copper coinage.
In the late 1500s, England did start minting a copper farthing under King James I, and the German and Italian states periodically produced copper coinage as well. However, copper’s most common use in European coinage was in debasing silver coinage – with Henry VIII famously swapping out as much of two-thirds of the silver content of coins with copper. As Europe moved into the 1700s, bronze coinage became more common, with most major governments producing them. http://commodityhq.com/education/a-brief-2000-year-history-of-copper-prices/
Minting
The Middle Ages
Up until the 1660s, English coins were struck between a pair of hand-held dies. The pile, or lower die, had a spiked end to enable it to be driven firmly into a block of wood; a blank was placed on top of the pile and above it was held the trussel or upper die. The trussel then received blows from a hammer, causing the blank to be impressed with the obverse and reverse designs.
Dies were produced on average at the rate of two trussels to one pile, for the trussel by sustaining the direct blows of the hammer was subjected to greater wear and tear. It was therefore the custom for the trussel to bear the reverse design, since this was simpler and more easy to replace than the royal portrait which by now normally appeared on the obverse. Yet even the portrait may not have been that difficult to reproduce, being constructed by small chisel-like punches showing crescents, pellets, wedges and bars.
Written accounts of the minting process from this time are few and far between but a document of 1606 lists out a 16-stage process:
melting and casting the ingots,
annealing, or heat treating, the ingots to soften them,
hammering the ingots,
another annealing,
cutting the ingots into blanks,
annealing the blanks,
hammering the blanks thinner,
another annealing,
another hammering of the blanks,
another annealing,
another hammering of the blanks,
rolling and
hammering the edges to make the blanks rounder,
another annealing,
blanching to clean the blanks
and then finally coining. http://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/history/making-money/making-money-in-the-past/the-middle-ages/index.html
In order to be accepted outside the territory where it was issued, a coin had to satisfy a number of conditions relating to its weight, alloy and value, and had to be familiar to many. From the end of the 12th century, the English sterling penny amply fulfilled these conditions; throughout north-western Europe it enjoyed a reputation as a strong and reliable currency, in contrast to the silver pennies of the continent, which had gradually lost much of their value. https://www.nbbmuseum.be/en/2009/12/sterling.htm
[edited] Hammered English gold coins are so captivating in their designs, which invariably include intricate symbolism and Latin abbreviations of Biblical quotations favored by the respective monarchs, that many collectors focus too much on the coin designs, without understanding the historical motivations behind the coinages.
Prior to the 14th century, gold was rare in England. Almost no earlier English gold coins exist. In the reign of Edward III (1327-77), the next to last Plantagenet King, this all changed. All the silver coinage types continued, with little alteration other than title, as they had been under Edward I and II. A complicated system of privy-marks developed under the first Edward, called “Longshanks” ... he set up numerous mints to issue large amounts of silver coins, and died leaving England a wealthy nation.
Edward III ..... Black Plague. Defying the French, he kept the title “King of France” on his coins, slaughtered them in a naval victory at Sluys in 1340, and expanded England’s horizons into international trade.
This latter development was the reason behind the first sizable gold coinage for the nation. Alliance with the Low Countries (Holland) had military value, but it also meant a new trade of England’s wool for foreign goods and money. Edward III introduced gold coins similar enough to those of Flanders to make trade exchanges equitable.
The first attempt did not last, despite their great beauty of design, because Edward’s new gold was of too high a quality. These were the famed Florins, Leopards and Helms, and it proved profitable in their day to melt them in exchange for more silver than they were worth in England. As a consequence, today they are all great rarities.
The second attempt at an English gold coin proved successful. We call these coins today the Nobles. Their fineness was decreased just a bit, to bring them into almost exactly the same exchange value both in the Low Countries and in England. They met with instant success and were made in large quantities. However, war with France again had an impact on the coins, this time creating a fascinating variety of “types” as the king’s title changed and mint initials were introduced, including a “C” for Calais, the port of France so long claimed as English soil. This time it became so English that an English mint was built there!
It is no coincidence that England’s wool-trade with the Flemish market gained sudden vigor right after the peace treaty of 1343, and the introduction of English gold in 1344.
Fascinating array of types of Nobles seen during this reign. War ended in 1343 with the treaty of Malestroit, but broke out almost immediately again. As would be duplicated almost to the Nth degree in 1415 at Agincourt, the Battle of Crecy of 1346 saw a small army of English decimate a large French force. Victory was short lived, however, as the Black Death plague struck the same year and did not end until 1350, during which very little gold was needed, or made, for commerce.
. . .” and when both Edward the king died in 1377, and his great warrior son The Black Prince died the year before him, England was inherited by a weak, fearful man, Richard II. He continued the Noble coinage but its output was meager, the nation suffered badly from the long war with France, and murderous politics put a sharp end to Richard’s claim to French lands. When the last Plantagenet died a prisoner in Pontefract castle, a new but divided Royal House came to England, that of Lancaster and York, and a new feud would erupt as an internal war.
DENOMINATIONS & WEIGHT STANDARDS
Denomination Metal Value Weight standard (in grains)
1351
Farthing Silver ¼ pence .........4.5
Halfpenny Silver ½ pence ......9
Penny Silver 1 penny ..............18
Half-groat Silver 2 pence........ 36
Groat Silver 4 pence........... 72
Noble Gold 6s. 8d....................128.59
file:///C:/Users/Gillian/Downloads/Introduction%20to%20later%20medieval%20coins.pdf
[Extensive details] The Different Means of Payment in the Medieval and Early-Modern European Economies:
a) means of payment: At the same time, you must realize that coined money was not the sole medium of exchange in medieval Europe, the sole means of effecting payments. You must avoid the common pitfall of supposing that actual coins were used merely because the transaction was recorded in monetary terms in some account book or register. These notations represent merely the 'standard of value' function of money. Actual payment may have occurred by either:
i) barter: the simple exchange of goods for goods, or the exchange of goods for services, especially labour services, computed and recorded in monetary terms. And don't make the common mistake of believing in a mythical 'rise of a money economy' that displaced barter transactions. There was always, from Greco-Roman times, some form of a 'money-economy' utilizing coinage; and conversely, barter transactions continued on into modern times, even in sophisticated economies. Thus the following, still popular, stage theory of economic development, advanced by 19th-century German economic historians (in particular Bruno Hildebrand), deeply influenced by current evolutionary theories, is patently unhistorical:
ii) credit: that is, a written promise to pay at some future date, recorded on paper, sometimes notarized, but often informal. By such credit instruments in this period -- and functioning along side both coin and barter transactions, I mean specifically: lettres de foire or 'fair letters,' by which a merchant purchased goods at one fair and promised to pay at the next; letters obligatory, which are a form of a promissory note or I.O.U.; bills-of-exchange, by which a merchant promised to pay the sum borrowed or to pay for goods received at a later date, in another city, and in different currency; and bank money, what the Italians called moneta di banco, by which deposits were recorded in bank ledgers that permitted transfers from one account to another to effect payments. And finally, by the 16th and 17th centuries, actual cheques (rather than verbal commands) to effect such bank-account transfers, and banknotes. The use of the earlier credit instruments mentioned go back certainly as far as 12th-century Italy, and to the 9th century Islamic world. All related to coins; but many could be used in place of coin.
b) European Money Supply as a means of payment and as a foundation for moneys-of-account was largely though not entirely in the form of silver coinage. During medieval and early modern times, most of Europe operated on essentially silver based monetary systems that were supplemented by gold coinages from about mid 13th century. Much later, in the 18th century, England drifted quite unintentionally onto a gold standard: to a gold-based monetary system supplemented by silver. But that fortunately lies well beyond this course, during which most countries operated conversely on a silver standard. https://www.economics.utoronto.ca/munro5/MONEYLEC.htm
The marketplace
“Ribs of beef and many a pie!” you hear someone call over your shoulder. Turning, you see a young lad walking through the crowd bearing a tray laden with wooden bowls of cooked meats from a local shop.
All around him people are moving, gesturing, talking. So many have come in from the surrounding villages that this town of about 3,000 inhabitants is today thronged with twice as many. Here are men in knee-length brown tunics driving their cattle before them. Here are their wives in long kirtles with wimples around their heads and necks. Those men in short tunics and hoods are valets in a knight’s household. Those in long gowns with high collars and beaver-fur hats are wealthy merchants. Across the marketplace more peasants are leading in their flocks of sheep, or packhorses and carts loaded with crates of chickens.
Crowds are noisy. People are talking so much that chatter could almost be the whole purpose of the market – and in many ways it is. This is the one open public area in the town where people can meet and exchange information. When a company performs a mystery play, it is to the marketplace that they will drag the cart containing their stage, set and costumes. When the town crier rings his bell to address the people of the town, it is in the marketplace that the crowd will gather to hear him. The marketplace is the heart of any town: indeed, the very definition of a town is that it has a market.
What can you buy? Let’s start at the fishmongers’ stalls. You may have heard that many sorts of freshwater and sea fish are eaten in medieval England. Indeed, more than 150 species are consumed by the nobility and churchmen, drawn from their own fishponds as well as the rivers and seas.
But in most markets it is the popular varieties which you see glistening in the wet hay-filled crates. Mackerel, herring, lampreys, cod, eels, Aberdeen fish (cured salmon and herring), and stockfish (salt cod) are the most common varieties. Crabs and lobsters are transported live, in barrels. In season you will see fresh salmon – attracting the hefty price of four or five shillings each. A fresh turbot can cost even more, up to seven shillings.
Next we come to an area set aside for corn: sacks of wheat, barley, oats and rye are piled up, ready for sale to the townsmen. Then the space given over to livestock: goats, sheep, pigs and cows. A corner is devoted to garden produce – apples, pears, vegetables, garlic and herbs – yet the emphasis of a medieval diet is on meat, cheese and cereal crops. In a large town you will find spicerers selling such exotic commodities as pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, liquorice, and many different types of sugar.
These are only for the wealthy. When your average skilled workman earns only two shillings (2s) in a week, he can hardly afford to spend four shillings (4s) on a pound of cloves or 20 pence (20d) on a pound of ginger.
The rest of the marketplace performs two functions. Producers come to sell fleeces, sacks of wool, tanned hides, furs, iron, steel and tin for resale further afield. The other function is to sell manufactured commodities to local people: brass and bronze cooking vessels, candlesticks and spurs, pewterware, woollen cloth, silk, linen, canvas, carts, rushes (for hall floors), glass, faggots, coal, nails, horse shoes and planks of wood.
Planks, you ask? Consider the difficulties of transporting a tree trunk to a saw pit, and then getting two men to saw it into planks with only a handsaw between them.
Everyone in medieval society is heavily dependent on each other for such supplies, and the marketplace is where all these interdependencies meet.
Haggling
Essential items such as ale and bread have their prices fixed by law. Yet for almost everything that’s been manufactured you will have to negotiate. Caxton’s 15th-century dialogue book is based on a 14th-century language guide, and gives the following lesson in how to haggle with a cloth vendor:
“Dame, what hold ye the ell (45 inches) of this
cloth? Or what is worth the cloth whole?
In short, so to speak, how much the ell?”
“Sire, reason; ye shall have it good and cheap.”
“Yea, truly, for cattle. Dame, ye must me win.
Take heed what I shall pay.”
“Four shillings for the ell, if it please you.”
“For so much would I have good scarlet.”
“But I have some which is not of the best
which I would not give for seven shillings.”
“But this is no such cloth, of so much money,
that know ye well!”
“Sire, what is it worth?”
“Dame, it were worth to me well three shillings.”
“That is evil-boden.”
“But say certainly how shall I have it without
a part to leave?”
“I shall give it ye at one word: ye shall pay five
shillings, certainly if ye have them for so many
ells, for I will abate nothing.”
And so you open your purse, which hangs from the cords attached to your belt and find five shillings. Except that there is no shilling coin in the late 14th century. The smallest gold coins are the half-noble (3s 4d) and the quarter-noble (1s 8d), so if you have one each of these, you can make up the sum. Alternatively you will have to make it up from the silver coins: groats (4d), half-groats, pennies, halfpence and farthings (¼d).
Regulations
A well-run market is crucial to the standing of a town. Thus it is heavily regulated. The actual policing tends to be undertaken by the town’s bedels or bailiffs, who enforce regulations like “no horses may be left standing in the marketplace on market days” and “every man is to keep the street in front of his tenement clean”. Most towns have between 40 and 70 regulations, and those breaking them are taken to the borough court and fined.
There are reasons to be grateful for the supervision of trade. Short measures are a notorious problem, and turners normally have to swear to make wooden measures of the appropriate size. Clerks in borough courts will tell you of cooking pots being made out of soft metal and coated with brass, and loaves of bread baked with stones in them to make them up to the legally required weight.
Wool is stretched before it is woven, to make it go further (but then it shrinks). Pepper is sold damp, making it swell, weigh more, and rot sooner. Meat is sometimes sold even though it is putrid, wine even though it has turned sour, and bread when it has gone green.
If you are the victim of malpractice, go straight to the authorities. The perpetrator will be pilloried – literally. The pillory is the wooden board which clasps the guilty man’s head and hands, and shamefully exposes him to the insults of the crowd.
A butcher selling bad meat can expect to be dragged through the streets of the town on a hurdle and then placed in the pillory with the rotten meat burnt under him. A vintner caught selling foul wine is dragged to the pillory on a hurdle, forced to drink a draught of the offending liquor, and then set in the pillory where the remainder is poured over his head.
The sweetness of the revenge makes up for the sourness of the wine.
Shopping in the 14th century will often remind you of how much we have in common with our medieval forebears. It will likewise alert you to the huge differences between us. We are not the same as our ancestors. Look at how young they are – the median age is just 21 – and look at the meagre diet of the poor, their rotten teeth as they smile, their resilience in the face of death.
Consider how rough and smelly the streets are, and how small the sheep and cattle are in the marketplace. When a fight breaks out over some stolen goods, and the bedels rush to intervene, you may see how the spirit of the people is so similar to our own and yet how much the process of managing that spirit has changed. For if the stolen goods are of sufficient value, the thieves will be summarily tried and hanged the same day. This is what makes history so interesting – the differences between us across the centuries, as well as the similarities.
At dusk – just before the great gates of the city are closed for the night, and you see everyone leaving the adjacent taverns – you may begin to think that Auden was on to something. To understand ourselves, we must first see society differently – and to remember that history is the study of the living, not the dead.
Facts
Prices in the 1390s*
Ale, ordinary: ¾d–1d per gallon
Wine from Bordeaux: 3d–4d per gallon
Bacon: 15d per side
Chicken: 2d each
Cod, fresh: 20d each
Sugar, loaf of: 18d per lb
Apples: 7d per hundred
Eggs: 33d for 425
A furred gown: 5s 4d
* Prices from the account books of Henry of Lancaster, Earl of Derby.
Wages/salaries in the 1390s
The king’s physician: £40 per year
Officers in the royal household: £20 per year
Mason: £8 per year (6d per day)
Carpenter: 4¼d per day
Thatcher: 4¼d per day
Labourer: 3¼d per day
Valets in a lord’s household: £1 10s per year
Manservant in a yeoman’s household: £1 per year
Maidservant in a yeoman’s household: 10s per year
In old money, there were 12 pence (d) to the shilling (s) and 20 shillings to the pound (£).
Graphs and (dubious?) summary of prices and wages in Medieval England
Summary of findings about Englishmen in Late Middle Ages inferred purely from raw price and wage data.
● Consumer basket based on typical consumption indicate that people probably had better diet than we do today. Not really = too little meat
● Although prices were fluctuating a lot year-over-year, average prices (CPI) remained relatively stable from 1264 to 1499, with little inflation over entire
● period.
● People spent a disproportionately large (by modern standards) amount on alcohol. *Only source of safe drinking water.
● Crop price spike circa 1320 indicates possible drought.
Spending patterns are similar across different locations in Western Europe, meaning markets were fairly efficient.
● Textile prices were growing much faster than other commodities, which also drove prices of sheep. Good times to be a textile merchant.
● Wages were growing faster than CPI, meaning people’s wealth was increasing.
● Wages rose sharply after Black Death due to low labor supply.
● Mason wage was fairly representative of other “middle class” citizens (merchants, clerks, craftsmen, etc). However incomes of noble elite were not even comparable, nor were those of the most unfortunate, indicating severe income inequality.
● After subtracting cost of basic consumer products, housing, and taxes, typical mason would probably have some disposable income to treat himself to some good wine once in a while, buy an old horse, and pay guild fees. He wouldn’t be able to afford a more significant purchase, such as university education, armorer’s toolset, or knight’s equipment. Therefore, moving up a social class by simply working hard was not an option. Most of leftover money was probably saved for exceptional events, such as wedding and funerals.
The loss of life in the Great Famine of 1315–17 shook the English economy severely and population growth ceased; the first outbreak of the Black Death in 1348 then killed around half the English population, with major implications for the post-plague economy. The agricultural sector shrank, with higher wages, lower prices and shrinking profits leading to the final demise of the old demesne system and the advent of the modern farming system of cash rents for lands. The Peasants Revolt of 1381 shook the older feudal order and limited the levels of royal taxation considerably for a century to come. The 15th century saw the growth of the English cloth industry and the establishment of a new class of international English merchant, increasingly based in London and the South-West, prospering at the expense of the older, shrinking economy of the eastern towns. These new trading systems brought about the end of many of the international fairs and the rise of the chartered company. Together with improvements in metalworking and shipbuilding, this represents the end of the medieval economy, and the beginnings of the early modern period in English economics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_England_in_the_Middle_Ages
The putting-out system (cottage industry) is a means of subcontracting work. Historically, it was also known as the workshop system and the domestic system. In putting-out, work is contracted by a central agent to subcontractors who complete the work in off-site facilities, either in their own homes or in workshops with multiple craftsmen.
It was used in the English and American textile industries, in shoemaking, lock-making trades, and making parts for small firearms from the Industrial Revolution until the mid-19th century.
The domestic system was suited to pre-urban times because workers did not have to travel from home to work, which was quite impracticable due to the state of roads and footpaths, and members of the household spent many hours in farm or household tasks.
A cottage industry is a small-scale industry, where the creation of products and services is home-based, rather than factory-based. While products and services created by cottage industries are often unique and distinctive, given the fact that they are usually not mass-produced, producers in this sector often face numerous disadvantages when trying to compete with much larger factory-based companies.
A cottage industry is an industry—primarily manufacturing—which includes many producers, working from their homes, typically part time. The term originally referred to home workers who were engaged in a task such as sewing, lace-making, wall hangings, or household manufacturing. Some industries which are usually operated from large, centralized factories were cottage industries before the Industrial Revolution. Business operators would travel around the world, buying raw materials, delivering them to people who would work on them, and then collecting the finished goods to sell, or typically to ship to another market. One of the factors which allowed the Industrial Revolution to take place in Western Europe was the presence of these business people who had the ability to expand the scale of their operations. Cottage industries were very common in the time when a large proportion of the population was engaged in agriculture, because the farmers (and their families) often had both the time and the desire to earn additional income during the part of the year (winter) when there was little work to do farming or selling produce by the farm's roadside. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putting-out_system
By late Roman times, domestic wool was already being used to produce textiles (“cloth”) in the Low Countries. The marshes along the coast, which had not yet been enclosed by dikes, provided grazing for large flocks of sheep which yielded sufficient wool to satisfy domestic demand. In the 12th century a fundamental change occurred. Production was transferred from the countryside to the fast-growing cities (Ypres, Ghent, Bruges, and later also Brussels and Antwerp), and weavers began using English wool as their raw material instead of home-produced wool. The result was a high quality, luxury product intended for export. Sheep reared on the type of grass produced by the very damp English pastureland with its poor soil yielded a particularly fine and springy woollen fleece. For that reason, demand for English wool was virtually inelastic: neither home-produced wool nor the wool occasionally imported from Spain offered a real alternative.
English wool was now being imported into the Low Countries in unprecedented quantities, in sacks or as fleeces still attached to the skin. Flemish and Brabant merchants and weavers were very active in this trade. They went to England in person, to the grounds of the sometimes remote Cistercian abbeys where the sheep were predominantly reared. On the local wool markets they often paid in advance for future deliveries, so that they also already had a stake in the actual production of the wool. Flemish vessels shipped the wool from London and other ports such as Great Yarmouth, King’s Lynn, Dover, Sandwich and Boston.
The Southern Netherlands merchants needed English coins to buy their wool; they became good customers of the English coin workshops, where they exchanged the lightweight pennies from the Netherlands or bars of silver for English sterling. Thus, the accounting records of the London Mint list the names of merchants from Ypres and Brussels, side by side with the names of English customers. On their return from England, they did not always take their surplus English money for melting down into local pennies again, but sometimes preferred to set the foreign currency aside ready for their next trip. It is therefore not surprising that the 13th century coin treasure discovered in 1908 during the demolition of a cellar wall in the house at no. 32 Rue d’assaut in Brussels contained no less than 80,927 English sterling coins.
Gradually, the rulers and merchants on the Continent came to realise that they could make considerable savings by minting sterling coins themselves in their own country, rather than buying them from English coin workshops. From around 1270, coins worth one or two sterling pennies were therefore minted in the Low Countries, alongside the ordinary lightweight pennies. The sterling copies had the same weight and alloy as the foreign originals. The images on the face of the coins varied greatly: some depicted a crowned head, just like the English coins, while others displayed a totally distinctive image. In contrast, the reverse of virtually all the coins depicted the cross with three bullets between the arms, copied from the English model. From about the mid 14th century, owing to the rising demand for high value currency, the sterling penny became less important, giving way to the silver groat – worth three sterlings – and gold coins.
Mining did not make up a large part of the English medieval economy, but the 12th and 13th centuries saw an increased demand for metals in England, thanks to the considerable population growth and building construction, including the great cathedrals and churches. Four metals were mined commercially in England during the period: iron, tin, lead and silver using a variety of refining techniques. Coal was also mined from the 13th century onwards.
Iron mining occurred in several locations including the main English centre in the Forest of Dean, as well as in Durham and the Weald. Some iron to meet English demand was also imported from the continent, especially by the late 13th century. By end of the 12th century, the older method of acquiring iron ore through strip mining was being supplemented by more advanced techniques, including tunnels, trenches and bell-pits. Iron ore was usually locally processed at a bloomery and by the 14th century the first water-powered iron forge in England was built at Chingley. As a result of the diminishing woodlands and consequent increases in the cost of both wood and charcoal, demand for coal increased in the 12th century and began to be commercially produced from bell-pits and strip mining.
A silver boom occurred in England after the discovery of silver near Carlisle in 1133. Huge quantities of silver were produced from a semicircle of mines reaching across Cumberland, Durham and Northumberland - up to three to four tonnes of silver were mined each year, more than ten times the previous annual production across the whole of Europe. The result was a local economic boom and a major uplift to 12th century royal finances. Tin mining was centred in Cornwall and Devon, exploiting alluvial deposits and governed by the special Stannary Courts and Parliaments - tin formed a valuable export good, initially to Germany and then later in the 14th century to the Low Countries. Lead was usually mined as a by-product of mining for silver, with mines in Yorkshire, Durham and the north, as well as in Devon. Economically fragile, the lead mines usually survived as a result of being subsidised by silver production.
England's economy was fundamentally agricultural throughout the period, but the mining of iron, tin, lead and silver, and later coal, played an important part within the English medieval economy.
The Black Death epidemic first arrived in England in 1348, re-occurring in waves during 1360-2, 1368-9, 1375 and more sporadically thereafter. The most immediate economic impact of this disaster was the widespread loss of life, between around 27% mortality amongst the upper classes, to 40-70% amongst the peasantry. Despite the very high loss of life, few settlements were abandoned during the epidemic itself, but many were badly affected or nearly eliminated altogether. The medieval authorities did their best to respond in an organised fashion, but the economic disruption was immense. Building work ceased and many mining operations paused. In the short term, efforts were taken by the authorities to control wages and enforce pre-epidemic working conditions. Coming on top of the previous years of famine, however, the longer term economic implications were profound. In contrast to the previous centuries of rapid growth, the English population would not begin to recover for over a century, despite the many positive reasons for a resurgence. The crisis would affect English mining for the remainder of the medieval period.
Medieval technology
After the Renaissance of the 12th century, medieval Europe saw a radical change in the rate of new inventions, innovations in the ways of managing traditional means of production, and economic growth. The period saw major technological advances, including the adoption of gunpowder, the invention of vertical windmills, spectacles, mechanical clocks, and greatly improved water mills, building techniques (Gothic architecture, medieval castles), and agriculture in general (three-field crop rotation). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_technology https://plus.google.com/103755316640704343614/posts/ZDDAWBU6Snj
