4 ms·
Life as a peasant was fine until it was not. If a flood or drought wiped out your crops, you were completely screwed. You might be able to get by with rationing
by Aunche 4y ago
Life as a peasant was fine until it was not. If a flood or drought wiped out your crops, you were completely screwed. You might be able to get by with rationing or foraging, but you'd have to start over the next year weaker and demoralized. As populations grew, it becoming increasingly riskier to live off the land, which is why they moved to the cities where they can earn money that you can save in the case of an emergency.
You live in an age of excess, where you can always fall back on the welfare of others, so you can't imagine working 12 hour days in shitty conditions, but this is not the case for people who moved from hundreds, if not thousands of miles away to work in a factory. For them, an extra hour of work is an extra hour of security. The fact that billions of people made this move is evidence that rural life was that bad. Dismissing these incredibly thoughtful decisions as the result of capitalist propaganda completely dismisses their agency.
- Spooky23 4y agoThey didn’t necessarily choose anything. As the feudal system broke down, those peasants were released from the land. (ie kicked out)
- Aunche 4y agoNot true. The wealthy were more than happy to employ peasants. Even as late as 1800, hundreds of years after the feudal system, 78% of Europeans were peasants. https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/peasants https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-...
- Spooky23 4y agoSure, but much fewer than in earlier times. There’s a reason the British liked to ship people off to America, Australia, etc. I’d suggesting googling the term “enclosure”, specifically with regard to England. Similar issues and conflicts happened in other places. The progression/transformation was not quick, cheap or without significant conflict.
- Aunche 4y ago> I’d suggesting googling the term “enclosure”, specifically with regard to England Yes. I've heard this argument before. That doesn't change my argument though. Without industrialization, peasant life would be just not bad, if not worse because more people would be completing for the same resources.
- janef0421 4y agoThat population movement occurred during the early modern period through the Industrial Revolution, after the medieval period.