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Slavery is a strong word. But consider serfdom in Middle Ages. When some historian looked at it they found that on average a serf of a French baron say 700 yea
by _0w8t 5y ago
Slavery is a strong word. But consider serfdom in Middle Ages.
When some historian looked at it they found that on average a serf of a French baron say 700 years ago worked less than 40 hours per week on average. Perhaps even less than 30. And there was no commute. David Graeber in his «Dawn of everything» discussed that.
- UncleMeat 5y ago“Some historian” is a bad citation. I’m very good friends with a medievalist professor. Something they said to me recently was interesting. Today, most medievalists don’t really like the term “feudalism” and instead see serfdom as an extension of Roman slave systems. Not chattel slavery, but definitely not a mutually agreed upon and beneficial economic relationship. I’m not so sure that “serfs didn’t actually work all that much” is aligned with current consensus.
- ddalex 5y agoBut under serfdom peasants were not allowed to move. Workers are free to move to better opportunities as they see fit - that's a big difference.
- rufus_foreman 5y ago>> David Graeber in his «Dawn of everything» discussed that David Graeber is the one who wrote this: "Apple Computers is a famous example: it was founded by (mostly Republican) computer engineers who broke from IBM in Silicon Valley in the 1980s, forming little democratic circles of twenty to forty people with their laptops in each other’s garages" And I'm guessing his knowledge of what happened 700 years ago is going to be much less accurate than his knowledge of times he lived through.