Bread trenchers was [Sca-cooks] Tableware

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 08:14 AM 3/29/02 -0500, you wrote:

>And in the fourteenth century we have fairly major weather changes
>that are also clearly reflected in costume (in fact, it is believed
>to have been the beginning of a series of "mini-Ice-Ages" from which
>we are only now completely recovering), repeated bad harvests
>followed by a sufficient general weakness of the population as to
>allow the Plague to wipe out a third of Europe. That could be your
>25% expenditure drop right there.

Maybe. But yes- most people don't know that there was about 20 years of
really sucky weather in northwestern Europe in teh early 14th c. It
resulted in teh Great Famine which did not kill as many as teh Black Death
but maybe as many as 10% (and guess where my book on teh matter is?). And
it did seriously weaken the population- which was reaching a critical mass
in expansion and numbers vis-a-vis what the food production technology
could support. There are some who argue that the Plague saved western
Europe from slow decline and eventual cultural destruction. I don't know if
I agree, but I don't know that I disagree.

I do know you don't get decent wheat if it never stops raining.

'Lainie
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It's never the same river once you've stepped into it.