1st Edition

Life & Work In Medieval Europe

By P, Boissonnade Copyright 2003

    First Published in 2005, This is an attempt to construct an ordered synthesis of the evolution of labour in Christian Europe during the Middle Ages. Its aim is not only to analyse the variations in the legal status of persons and of lands, but above all to set the working classes in the historical framework in which they lived, to trace the reciprocal action of political and social institutions, of exchange, of industrial and agricultural production, of the colonisation of the soil, of the distribution of landed and movable wealth, upon those economic transformations which brought about the appearance of new forms of labour and which gave to the masses a place in society which they had never hitherto occupied.

    BOOK I: LABOUR IN CHRISTIAN EUROPE DURING THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES. THE INVASIONS; THE WORK OF DESTRUCTION AND ATIEMPTS AT RECONSTRUCTION, FIFTH TO TENTH CENTURIES CHAPTER I. ROMAN EUROPE AND BARBARIAN EUROPE IN THE EARLY DARK AGES. THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ORGANIZATION OF THE INVADERS II. THE INVASIONS AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BARBARIAN KINGDOMS IN CHRISTIAN EUROPE. RUIN OF THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC REGIME OF ROME (FIFTH To SEVENTH CENTURIES) III. THE EAST ROMAN EMPIRE AND THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RECONSTRUCTION OF EASTERN EUROPE FROM THE FIFTH TO THE TENTH CENTURIES, COLONISATION AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION. THE DIVISION OF PROPERTY AND RURAL CLASSES IN EASTERN EUROPE IV. INDUSTRIAL AND COMMKRCIAL HEGEMONY OF THE EASTERN EMPIRE DURING THE EARI.Y MIDDLE AGES V. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF BYZANTINE CIVILISATION IN EAST AND WEST VI. THE WORK OF CHURCH AND STATE IN THE REORGANISATION OF LABOUR AND IN THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESTORATION OF WESTERN CHRISTENDOM DURING THE DARK AGES VII. THE AGRARIAN ECONOMY OF WESTERN CHRISTENDOM. THE FIRST ATTEMPT AT COLONISATION, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND REPOPULATION FROM THE SEVENTH TO THE TENTH CENTURIES VIII. EVOLUTION OF THE REGIME OF PROPERTY IN THE WEST FROM THE SEVENTH TO THE TENTH CENTURIES: THE DECLINE OF THE OLD FORMS OF LAND OWNERSHIP. THE PROGRESS OF THE GREAT DOMAINS. THE ATTACK ON SMALL PROPERTIES AND THE CLASS OF FREEMEN IX. DEPENDENT RURAL CLASSES IN THE WEST, THEIR ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ORGANISATION AND THEIR GENERAL CONDITION (SEVENTH TO TENTH CENTURIES) X. INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION AND EXCHANGE IN THE WEST DURING THE LAST CENTURIES OF THE DARK AGES. PARTIAL RENAISSANCE OF AN URBAN ECONOMY BOOK II: THE RESTORATION, EMANCIPATION, ACHIEVEMENTS AND APOGEE OF LABOUR IN CHRISTIAN EUROPE FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE TENTH TO THE MIDDLE OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY I. THE FEUDAL REGIME IN THE WEST; THE RULING CLASSES AND THE OWNERSHIP OF THE SOIL II. ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL ORGANISATION OF THE RURAL DISTRICTS OF THE WEST DURING THE EARLY FEUDAL PERIOD III. PART PLAYED BY CHURCH AND STATE IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE REGIME OF PRODUCTION - IV. THE APPEARANCE OF A MONEY ECONOMY AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF WESTERN COMMERCE FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE TENTH TO THE MIDDLE OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY V. THE RENAISSANCE OF INDUSTRY IN WESTERN CHRISTENDOM DURING THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD VI. EMANCIPATION OF THE COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CLASSES, THEIR PART IN THE URBAN RENAISSANCE OF THE ELEVENTH TO THE FOURTEENTH CENTURIES IN THE WEST VII. ORGANISATION AND CONDITION OF THE COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CLASSES IN THE WEST FROM THE ELEVENTH TO THE FOURTEENTH CENTURIES VIII. THE ADVANCE OF COLONISATION AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND THE PROGRESS OF RURAL POPULATION IN THE WEST FROM THE ELEVENTH TO THE FOURTEENTH CENTURIES IX. CHANGES IN THE VALUE AND DISTRIBUTION OF LANDED PROPERTY AND EMANCIPATION OF THE RURAL CLASSES IN THE WEST FROM THE ELEVENTH TO THE FOURTEENTH CENTURIES X. ORGANISATION AND CONDITION OF THE RURAL CLASSES IN THE WEST FROM THE TWELFTH TO THE FOURTEENTH CENTURIES - XI. END OF THE ECONOMIC SUPREMACY OF BYZANTIUM IN THE EAST. THE REGIME OF LABOUR AND ITS EVOLUTION IN THE SLAV, MAGYAR, ROMANIAN AND SCANDINAVIAN STATES (ELEVENTH TO FOURTEENTH CENTURIES) BOOK III : THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES, BIRTH OF CAPITALISM AND A NATIONAL ECONOMY. THE CENTURY OF REVOLUTIONS (1840-1458) I. THE POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND DEMOGRAPHICAL DISTURBANCES AT THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE BIRTH OF A NATIONAL ECONOMY (1840-1458) - II. TRANSFORMATION AND PROGRESS OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY IN EUROPE AT THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES III. CHANGES IN THE ORGANISATION OF THE COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL CLASSES; THE URBAN REVOLUTIONS AND PROGRESS OF THE TOWNS AT THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES IV. THE VICISSITUDES OF COLONIZATION AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION. CHANGES IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF LANDED PROPERTY AND IN THE CONDITION OF THE RURAL CLASSES AT THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES; THE PEASANT REVOLTS

    Biography

    P. Boissonnade