SC - Re: Meats/spices in MA

[Bonne of Traquair]

><<<<<  One thing I find interesting in this discussion is that the idea of 
>the
>prosperous peasant seems to be being ignored. Over and over again, the
>economic history texts mention the idea that, depending on the laws,
>peasants worked hard to have enough grain, etc. to sell after paying their
>rent, taxes or tithe. Such might not have a lot of spending cash, but the
>assumption that the Grocer's guilds and the itinerant chapment catered
>only to merchants and the aristocracy seems to be an illogical leap.   
> >>>>>>>
>
>I am certain that merchants sold to whoever could afford their wares.  
>(Prosperous peasant seems a little oxymoronic, though, on the surface).  I 
>cannot speculate
>whether a peasant farmer who sold extra barley bought Indian Spices or 
>Venetian
>silks in England.



So long as we are making assumptions on what the poorest folk did with cash 
when they had it, it seems to me that a 'proseperous peasant' would be 
inclined to buy a bit more land or animals, to purchase some practical item 
like tools, shoes or cloth, to add or improve their buildings, to pay a 
debt, dower a daughter or benefit a son, or give to the church.  Certainly 
if near enough a town to be able to buy spice they could by some small 
amount some year or another. There is always the possibility that the 
someone among the poorest class of people aquired spice for their own use in 
some way, but that doesn't mean that, as a rule, peasants had spices.

(In the context of medieval time, I define spices as 'imported and 
expensive' and herbs as 'anyone could grow or gather them'. What part of 
plant is not as important as availablitiy.)

I think the difference in opinion comes from this:  At what point does  a 
dirt grubbing peasant with nothing but a few strips of field and a hut cross 
the line to small landowner?  Not nobility or even gentry, but part of the 
beginnings of the middle class, along with merchants and craftsmen. This 
class of person likely did buy spice for special occaisions and/or regular 
use in meager quantity compared to their betters.  But the ability to do 
this on a regular basis, the expectation that they will continue to have the 
ability, means they are no longer a part of the lower class.


Bonne


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