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1. ConceptThe village community (roughly, municipality) was the juristic person representing the interests of the village in dealings with neighboring communities, landowners (Manorialism), and the state. Village communities first emerged in England, northern France, and Flanders in the 12th century, before being transferred east of the Elbe in the process of eastward colonization [14. 35–38]. During the 13th century, they spread to all European countries.Werner Troßbach2. Original dutiesVillage communities were originally composed of households rather …

1. Development and useBefore the transition to agriculture, large parts of Europe were covered in forest. Only during the Neolithic period did open grassland areas emerge as a result of human activity, initially in places where intensive grazing had thinned woodland (Woodland pasture), later also in river valleys, where persistently soggy ground hampered field cultivation. The use of these areas as meadows in the strict sense, however, that is, for harvesting grass for winter fodder, seems only to …

1. DefinitionThe term “Peasants’ War” or “Peasants’ Revolt” is used to denote a number of early modern events and phenomena. The repurposing of a planned crusade against the Turks as an uprising against the nobility in 1514 has entered history as the “Hungarian Peasants’ Revolt.” In the German-speaking world, revolts in Upper Austria (1626) and Bavaria (1705/6) are called peasants’ wars (German  Bauernkrieg) [19. 39 f.]. These were uprisings of territorial patriotism directed against an occupying power - as was the 1809 revolt in the Tirol. During the …

1. Cattle 1.1. IntroductionAnimal husbandry is the economic use of animals and animal products. In this sense, animal husbandry was an integral element of agricultural operations throughout early modern Europe. Cattle were the most important agricultural livestock because of the wide range of uses to which they could be put as draft animals (Harness), sources of milk, meat, and leather, and producers of valuable manure, and scarcely a single farm outside subtropical and tropical zones did not keep them.…

Tillage serves to improve nutrient supply, weed control, and seedbed preparation (Sowing). Turning over the top soil brings previously unused nutrients into the rooting zone of crop plants while at the same time forcing weed seeds and plants into deeper soil layers. The structure of the soil must be finely crumbled enough (“mellow”) to enable the passage of water and nutrients into the seeds. In gardens, hand tools were used (Agricultural implements), but in the early modern period tillage was generally mechanized; plows and harrows pulled by teams (H…

1. Concept Manuring is the addition of nutrients to the soil. In arable farming, this was done by adding organic and inorganic substances, and by so-called green manuring (Leguminosae). Meadows received nutrients primarily through irrigation.Werner Troßbach 2. Animal feces Farmyard manure was obtained by mixing animal feces with strewing materials, such as straw, leaves, conifer needles, and twigs. It contains all the nutrients required for the cultivation of grain and enriches the soil humus. Degradation of nutrients ca…

1. DefinitionVillages are topographical, social, and economic entities. In historical geography, a village is defined as a rural grouped settlement. It differs from an estate settlement by a criterion of economic history, namely the existence within it of an assortment of households that essentially make their decisions independently of one another. Villages also form a basis for the establishment of institutions, regardless of whether these are tailored to the interests of villagers (Vil…

1. Definition Agriculture is the adaptation of plant and animal populations to human needs, entailing not just the alteration of natural conditions, but – and to a far greater extent than in hunting and foraging - the manipulation of the qualities of the stock (see Plant breeding and Animal breeding) (see below, 5.5.). In arable farming, the aim of producing food was from the early Middle Ages no longer primarily achieved by the exploitation of unexhausted soil, but by sophisticated forms of nutri…

1. Town vs. countryWhile the term  agrarian society – often conceived as a stage of development – characterizes a society as a whole (Society [community]), it makes sense to speak of a rural society only when alternative lifestyles and forms of production are available to a substantial group of people. In the territory north of the Alps, this was the case after urban centers began to appear in the high Middle ages. Town and “country” can be distinguished by legal criteria until the agrarian reforms of …

The canonical basis for collecting ecclesiastical tithes (a payment in kind; as a rule, a tenth of an agricultural product) had already been established in the 6th and 7th centuries. By the 12th century at the latest, this levy was a standard part of the canon of peasant services throughout Europe. As the “great tithe,” it was imposed on grain and wine; as the “small tithe,” it included the so-called blood tithe, imposed on animal husbandry, and the so-called green tithe, imposed on garden products and other field crops [9. 14]. The great tithe was mandatory throughout Euro…

Sowing entails the selection, preparation, and planting of seeds. Selection, as a core element of agricultural practice since the Neolithic, contributes to the emergence of domesticated plant breeds (see Plant breeding). In the case of grains, the process was mainly conducted internally to each farming unit, that is, the types cultivated by each were re-sown successively. Some authors of Hausväterliteratur recommended that the “most beautiful” grains should be selected for sowing [2. 38–42], but a Silesian guide of 1590 recommended for buckwheat that the “most…

Letting fields lie fallow was a defining element of agriculture prior to the epochal changes called the agricultural revolution. Generally a year was integrated into the crop rotation in which a fixed proportion of the acreage remained unplanted (half in two-field rotation, a third in three-field rotation, etc.) [2. 13 f.]. The dormant phase enabled soil-biological processes of regeneration and the introduction of nitrogen from the atmosphere (Soil). Plowing up the fallow (cf. German  Felge, “plowed-up fallow land”), carried on in June (also called fallow-month)…

Before the invention of the steam engine and above all the internal-combustion engine, in most European countries transport and tillage were accomplished with horses or oxen as draft animals. In the Mediterranean world, mules could be employed, less frequently donkeys, sometimes teamed with oxen [5. 21]. There were various ways of harnessing the animal traction. In the case of oxen, the withers yoke had been in use since the early Middle Ages, usually in the form of a double yoke. Under such a  yoke, the oxen did not actually pull but pushed, as the German vernacular verb  schieben sug…

Agricultural credit was a common phenomenon in the rural societies of the modern period [3. 339, 343]; [6. 1340]. Short-term payment deferrals took into account the circumstance that the financial resources of peasants were subject to seasonal fluctuations [4. 285]. The sources refer primarily to long-term agricultural credit. National or territorial regulations governed the general system. In the Holy Roman Empire, interest was generally set at around 5% by the 15th century; this percentage was made mandatory in the Empire in the 16th century [1. 6]; [3. 331] and in France i…

1. Methods 1.1. Cutting tools for harvesting grainIn the 18th century, harvest time in Germany began with the so-called rye mowing (mid to late July) and ended around Michaelmas (September 29) with the flax harvest. While flax (Fiber plants) was plucked up by the roots, the various kinds of grain were cut or mowed with a sickle or reaping hook (Cutting tools; see also the procedures for harvesting vegetables, fruit, and wine).In the early modern period, the primary implement used to harvest the summer grains oats and barley was the scythe (see fig. 1) – usuall…

1. IntroductionDyes are soluble materials that, unlike the insoluble, mainly mineral pigments (Painting technique), are suitable for the permanent coloration of textiles. Prior to the development of artificial dyes from derivatives of tar in the late 19th century, only natural, mostly vegetable dyes were known in Europe. Although dyeing was of no real relevance to the basic functions of apparel - protection from moisture and cold - the symbolic and aesthetic role of color was a key one in the con…

Undesirable plants growing on cultivated land are called weeds, though  weed is not a systematic scientific concept. The nature of a weed depends on the particular goals of plant cultivation. Some kinds are economically harmful, while others are disliked for aesthetic reason. Weeds compete with crop plants for light, water, and minerals. Some kinds of weeds overshadow the crop plants with their large leaves and flowers, or wind around their stalks and leaves. The seeds of corncockle ( Agrostemma githago) contain saponins; if the harvested crop was not cleaned sufficien…

1. DefinitionThe phrase church property (Latin bona ecclesiastica) denotes the assets of a church. It includes all rights with monetary value – especially property, usage rights, claims to taxes, other legal claims, and power of disposition over external things. Even in the Catholic Church, the proprietors of church property are not (only) the universal church or the Apostolic See (Papacy) but primarily individual ecclesiastical institutions (e.g. the church province, diocese, monastic order, Landeskir…

1. Definition In the late Middle Ages, urban communities (Town) usually had better developed fiscal systems than the states (Public finances). A few Italian city states developed an advanced and sophisticated tax system relatively early on. The commune of Siena introduced a kind of wealth tax, the  alliramento, between 1168 and 1175. In the 15th and 16th centuries, however, more and more territorial states followed the urban example and started to levy taxes themselves.Taxes are sometimes divided into direct and indirect taxes. The meaning of these terms can vary …

1. Legal aspects 1.1. DefinitionA lease (German Pacht) today is understood to be the contractual transfer of an object or right in exchange for money (cf. Interest [banking]), whereupon the recipient may use or – in contrast to rent and loans for use (commodatum) – enjoy the fruits of the object for a certain time. In contrast to a renter, the lessee is broadly responsible for the maintenance of the object of the lease. Leases based on loan contract, which could in theory be canceled at any time and la…