Serfs and New Technology
Serfdom, the practice of linking the farmer to the land he worked and preventing any social or geographical mobility, was not invented in the Medieval period. It was a far more ancient practice, having left a written record in the earliest known documents. Nor is it an obsolete practice, for serfdom still exists in some parts of the world.
When the Roman empire fell in the 5th century, many of the people working the land were, for all intents and purposes, already serfs. Over a century before the empire was crushed under waves of German invaders, the emperors had legalized serfdom in an attempt to control inflation, migration and the food supply Since the 2nd century BC, Roman land ownership had become increasingly concentrated in a smaller number of families. For the next two centuries, the Romans took several million of their conquered enemies as slaves and most of these slaves ended up working on farms. After three major slave rebellions in sixty years, and generations of surly behavior, the Romans hit apon the concept of gradually freeing slaves who rendered good service. This encouraged the slaves, but reduced their number. Slaves were less enthusiastic about having children than free people and after the 1st century AD, there were far fewer slaves available by conquest. The emperors tried to outlaw the freeing of slaves, but they could only slow down a practice that had caught on among the upper classes (who often freed all their slaves in their wills).
The freed slaves needed work, and most of the work available was agricultural. There was hardly any land that wasn't already owned by some rich fellow, so the most common arrangement was for the ex-slaves to become day laborers or tenant farmers (or both.) These farmers worked on land that had at its center the villa of the wealthy owner. The man in charge was rarely the owner, who owned so many estates that he might not ever visit all of them and usually lived in Rome or some other large city. The villa turned into a small town containing things like flour mills, markets, and often smiths, potters, weavers, or other artisans. In effect, each estate became self-sufficient and rather similar to the Medieval manor. In the 3rd and 4th centuries the empire granted more priviliges and responsibilities to these estates. The landlords were now responsible for enforcing the laws and running the law courts, as well as recruiting, training and equipping troops for the provincial governor. Taxes were raised, and these came out of the tenant farmers, many of whom began to leave the estates looking for a better deal elsewhere. To stem this trend, the emperor decreed that each son must follow his father's profession. This meant that if your father was a tenant farmer, you had to be one also (unless you joined the army, an increasingly unhealthy career with all these Germans moving about.)
Thus by the 4th century, some five centuries before the Medieval period began, serfdom and feudalism already existed in much of Europe.
To further confound the conventional wisdom on serfdom, the serfs finally began to get their freedom during the Medieval period.. This came about because of new technology, changing climate and the Black Death.
New plows, the horse collar. and crop rotation methods introduced between 600 and 800 AD vastly increased the amount of food. As a result, population exploded, as the chart below shows.
Population, Roman Gaul (slightly larger than modern France)
Year Population
(AD) (millions)
1 5.5
200 6.5
600 4.5
1000 6.5
1300 16.0
1400 11.6
1500 15.8
1600 18.3
1700 22.0
1800 28.8
1900 41.0
1994 55.0
The key elements in this unprecedented population explosion (something the Romans were never able to accomplish) were;
All of these changes tended to speed the liberation fo serfs. This was accomplished in several ways,
More production led to more wealth and many serfs were able to purchase their freedom.
If a young serf thought that he could not buy his freedom, he could run away
As new lands opened for cultivation, many serfs left , legally or illegally, to colonize the new regions.
The church was always on the lookout for bright young lads to join monastaries.
Before too long, the remaining farmers realized that they could demand better terms from their feudal overlords. Some nobles struck deals, but most initially refused. The result was a series of rebellions and much unrest during the latter half of the 14th century. Gradually, the nobles gave in. They had little choice. Unhappy serfs could simply move to another nobles depopulated estates There, they would find the local lord more than happy to have them and willing to arrange quite generous terms to accommodate the newcomers. Thus, going into the 15th century, the number of serfs declined further from the 30 percent level it stood at a century earier. Moreover, all commoners who worked the land found that they had access to more land, better land and better terms from the nobles who owned it. An increasing number of commoners owned their own land and many built up sufficient amounts of porperty to enter the nobility (or "gentry") themselves. Population growth took off once more and the farmers situation did not turn sour again until the 17th century, when it once more became as crowded as it was just before the Black Death.