Medieval serfs richer than today's poor
Source: Agencies |
December 7, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
EVIDENCE has come to light that being a serf in the Middle Ages may not have been such a grim existence as it was previously thought.
Medieval England was not only far more prosperous than previously believed, it also actually boasted an average income that would be more than double the average per capita income of the world's poorest nations today, according to new research.
Living standards in medieval England were far above the "bare bones subsistence" experience of people in many of today's poor countries, a study says.
"The majority of the British population in medieval times could afford to consume what we call a 'respectability basket' of consumer goods that allowed for occasional luxuries," said University of Warwick economist Professor Stephen Broadberry, who led the research.
"By the late Middle Ages, the English people were in a position to afford a varied diet including meat, dairy produce and ale, as well as the less highly processed grain products that comprised the bulk of the bare bones subsistence diet," he added.
He said a figure of US$400 annually (as expressed in 1990 international dollars) is commonly used as a measure of bare bones subsistence and was believed to be the average income in England in the Middle Ages.
But the researchers found that English per capita incomes in the late Middle Ages were around US$1,000.
That compares with today's estimates of Zaire at US$249, Burundi US$479 and Niger US$514.
Medieval England was not only far more prosperous than previously believed, it also actually boasted an average income that would be more than double the average per capita income of the world's poorest nations today, according to new research.
Living standards in medieval England were far above the "bare bones subsistence" experience of people in many of today's poor countries, a study says.
"The majority of the British population in medieval times could afford to consume what we call a 'respectability basket' of consumer goods that allowed for occasional luxuries," said University of Warwick economist Professor Stephen Broadberry, who led the research.
"By the late Middle Ages, the English people were in a position to afford a varied diet including meat, dairy produce and ale, as well as the less highly processed grain products that comprised the bulk of the bare bones subsistence diet," he added.
He said a figure of US$400 annually (as expressed in 1990 international dollars) is commonly used as a measure of bare bones subsistence and was believed to be the average income in England in the Middle Ages.
But the researchers found that English per capita incomes in the late Middle Ages were around US$1,000.
That compares with today's estimates of Zaire at US$249, Burundi US$479 and Niger US$514.
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