3 ms·

My understanding is that people in the middle ages didn't work more than most people do now. In particular because there are stretches of the year (e.g. winter)

My understanding is that people in the middle ages didn't work more than most people do now. In particular because there are stretches of the year (e.g. winter) when a farmer has significantly less work to do.

defrost 3y ago
How good is your understanding of crofting | farming pre the modern age? Is your comment based on, for example, "no crops in winter therefore no work"? Where did middle ages farmers get cloth, rope, fabric, soaps, tool handles, thatch, etc. from? Sure, there were high quality wheels, barrels, buckets, etc from dedicated specialists but with high demand farms had to produce a number of their own workable versions. It's true that one doesn't have to work to excess in order to survive, it's also true that working to live well requires pretty steady work the year round, if not one job then there's always another.
- harimau777 3y ago
  I was looking at things like this: https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_...
  - defrost 3y ago
    Oddly, both can be true: Before capitalism, most people did not work very long hours at all. The tempo of life was slow, even leisurely; the pace of work relaxed. Our ancestors may not have been rich, but they had an abundance of leisure. ( from your link ) Pre capitalist rural life was relaxed, relatively easy going, and steady constant work through the seasons. Not an eighty hour grind at machines doing the same repitative labour, but a paced life always pottering away at something, interspersed with occasional grinds of ploughing, seeding, harvest, birthing, etc (relatively short burst but long hours of activity) I can attest to this from my father (still alive, born 1935 to a farming for survival family), grandfather and various other old people I've spoken to growing up. It's a different type of life, not rushed but steady. To be fair, I'm Australian and we've had the eight hour day codified in law and set as the benchmark for a minimum wage (pay for (5 or 6) eight hour days must clothe, feed, and house a family) since Federation (birth of the seperate nation) under the Harvester Agreement.

defrost 3y ago

How good is your understanding of crofting | farming pre the modern age? Is your comment based on, for example, "no crops in winter therefore no work"? Where did middle ages farmers get cloth, rope, fabric, soaps, tool handles, thatch, etc. from? Sure, there were high quality wheels, barrels, buckets, etc from dedicated specialists but with high demand farms had to produce a number of their own workable versions. It's true that one doesn't have to work to excess in order to survive, it's also true that working to live well requires pretty steady work the year round, if not one job then there's always another.

harimau777 3y ago
I was looking at things like this: https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_workweek.html https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_...
- defrost 3y ago
  Oddly, both can be true: Before capitalism, most people did not work very long hours at all. The tempo of life was slow, even leisurely; the pace of work relaxed. Our ancestors may not have been rich, but they had an abundance of leisure. ( from your link ) Pre capitalist rural life was relaxed, relatively easy going, and steady constant work through the seasons. Not an eighty hour grind at machines doing the same repitative labour, but a paced life always pottering away at something, interspersed with occasional grinds of ploughing, seeding, harvest, birthing, etc (relatively short burst but long hours of activity) I can attest to this from my father (still alive, born 1935 to a farming for survival family), grandfather and various other old people I've spoken to growing up. It's a different type of life, not rushed but steady. To be fair, I'm Australian and we've had the eight hour day codified in law and set as the benchmark for a minimum wage (pay for (5 or 6) eight hour days must clothe, feed, and house a family) since Federation (birth of the seperate nation) under the Harvester Agreement.