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LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
Medieval Cultures: Economy and Labor.
Submitted to Professor Matthew Bixler
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of
HIEU 201-B08
History of Western Civilization 1
by
Jaidon Cromartie
February, 2022
Within the middle ages, agriculture was considered to be a ginormous part of the economy and
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allowed for people to establish living and sometimes wealth. During the middle ages, agriculture
described things such as the growing of crops, the farming implementation, the growth or start of using
technology, and even agricultural society and economy of Europe. These instances start from the fall of
the Western Roman Empire in 476, and continue into the fifteen hundreds. Throughout these time periods,
Carolingian Europe and the High Middle Ages, things rose and fell like many things in society do. Many
of today’s newer technologies, and agricultural advancements have made agriculture substantiated, and
have shown themselves to be more adequate than they were in those time periods.
First, we will discuss Carolingian Europe and their period of agriculture. In the reading of the
Carolingian Europe period of agriculture, it was stated many times, in multiple ways, that agriculture was
extremely dependent upon and respected. It substantiated many families, and well over half of the
population in the “country” life depended upon it, as well as those who lived well off, or were considered
to live in city, or big towns. Henry L. Misbach states in his journal article titled, “The Balanced Economic
Growth of Carolingian Europe: Suggestions for a New Interpretation”1 that the the Carolingian
agriculture period “Has been characterized by the advent of feudalism, a return to a closed or house
economy, and economic retrogression.” It was also stated in the reading that, in the Carolingian Europe
period of agriculture, “Charlemagne also worried about this and wrote capitularies forbidding anyone
from taking advantage of bad harvests to hoard grain or to buy up land at below-market prices because of
hardship. In 794, Charlemagne set maximum prices for grain and then found that he had to follow this
with standardized measures for grain since each region and sometimes each farm had a different
measure.” These state that the Carolingian period of agriculture was based upon the start, and started
evolving.
1 Misbach, Henry L. “The Balanced Economic Growth of Carolingian Europe: Suggestions for a New Interpretation.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 3, no. 2 (1972): 261–73.
https://doi.org/10.2307/202330.
Now, it’s very important to mention the evolution from the Carolingian period, and move on into
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the Medieval Europe2 period of agriculture where things really began to evolve. Around these times, is
where things started to pick up from the imbalance, the destruction, and depletion of agriculture from
previous time periods. Things started to evolve and people began to populate more around many areas, as
well as immigration becoming more fluent and noticed. This portion of the reading allows you to see the
hierarchy of this time period and where each stood within the agricultural growth, people like merchants,
artisans, apprentices, etc. This is the period of agriculture where they decided to appoint and make people
servants. The article states, “In addition to the skilled labor represented by journeymen and apprentices, a
town drew on a pool of unskilled workers employed as day laborers and servants. This class constituted a
majority of the population in a medieval town, and in an age when labor was cheap and plentiful, such
people led a hand-to-mouth existence, with minimal employment security and little surplus income to
make provision against unemployment, disability, or old age. Some would be household servants and
chambermaids assigned such tasks as waiting on the family, cooking the food, and maintaining the home.
Others would be hired hands in shops.” In this time of agriculture, they also took it upon themselves to
give charity to many of those who needed it.
Being that we’ve broken down both of these time periods of agriculture, what they were
described as, and their differences, we’ll discuss the previous statement based on evolution. Many of
today’s newer technologies, and agricultural advancements have made agriculture substantiated, and have
shown themselves to be more adequate than they were in those time periods. Throughout the time periods,
the development of agriculture has grown further to being much more efficient. Agriculture changed the
way that people lived, ate, etc., and allowed many to make livelihoods from it. But in the earlier times,
things were not as possible and available. 2https://dailylife2-abc-clio-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/Topics/Display/1425940?
sid=1426030&webSiteCode=SLN_DLTH_AC&cid=96&subId=1425940&useConcept=False&token=87D8DA41DA5EEABADF5597A3867FF95A&casError=False
Many forms of technology had yet to exist and the agricultural aspect of the economy was in a constant
uphill, downhill battle. In “Urban and Rural Life in Carolingian Europe,”3 it also stated, “During a good
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year, there was enough to survive. During a bad year, there was starvation, or a family ate its seed corn
(planting seed) and then had nothing the following year. Two bad harvests in a row were devastating. Any
weather changes might bring about a bad harvest. Too little or too much rain, too late or too early a freeze,
and especially a storm with wind or hail just before harvesting could make for a poor harvest.” This also
goes to show that the technology as well as the resources were underdeveloped.
Throughout the readings, I’ve concluded that the daily work and work in Medieval Europe was a
start to growth for agriculture as well as the economy. It stated in “Urban & Rural Life in Medieval
Europe,” that the economy and agricultural growth basically started to uphold itself more once more
people started to become involved with it, and labor changed/evolved. There were many changes that
occurred over the years, making the development/growth of economic agriculture move further. Over
time, things have grown, evolved, and been developed in ways that have grown these aspects. McKinsey
and Company states, “Advances in machinery have expanded the scale, speed, and productivity of farm
equipment, leading to more efficient cultivation of more land. Seed, irrigation, and fertilizers also have
vastly improved, helping farmers increase yields. Now, agriculture is in the early days of yet another
revolution, at the heart of which lie data and connectivity. Artificial intelligence, analytics, connected
sensors, and other emerging technologies could further increase yields, improve the efficiency of water
and other inputs, and build sustainability and resilience across crop cultivation and animal husbandry.”
This shows that there have been immense amounts of growth in these times, whereas in the Carolingian
or Medieval periods were not as evolved and the daily work and life in these times were not always
adequate. Times have proven that development and things have changed in the occurrence of agriculture.
3https://dailylife2-abc-clio-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/Topics/Display/1732867?
sid=1732870&webSiteCode=SLN_DLTH_AC&webSiteCode=SLN_DLTH_AC&cid=96&subId=1732867&useConcept=False&token=0E44C2C77973C6AC6A0B520C27E9E966&token=F41
F6ACAD37602759A6CDF063204CFE3&casError=False&casError=False
Bibliography
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Urban & Rural Life in Carolingian Europe: Butt, John J. "Urban & Rural Life in Carolingian Europe:
Urban & Rural Life." In Daily Life through History, ABC-CLIO, 2022. Accessed February 28,
2022. https://dailylife2-abc-clio-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/Topics/Display/1732867?cid=96.
Urban & Rural Life in Medieval Europe: Salisbury, Joyce E. "Urban & Rural Life in Medieval
Europe: Urban & Rural Life." In Daily Life through History, ABC-CLIO, 2022. Accessed February
28, 2022. https://dailylife2-abc-clio-com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/Topics/Display/1425940?cid=96.
Misbach, Henry L. “The Balanced Economic Growth of Carolingian Europe: Suggestions for a
New Interpretation.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 3, no. 2 (1972): 261–73.
https://doi.org/10.2307/202330.
Agriculture’s Connected Future: How Technology Can Yield New Growth:
https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/agriculture/our-insights/agricultures-connected-future-how-
technology-can-yield-new-growth#:~:text=The%20agriculture%20industry%20has
%20radically,improved%2C%20helping%20farmers%20increase%20yields.
