FW: [Sca-cooks] Paper twists of spice (Was spice storage)

[ysabeau]

I don't think it was a matter of saving up all year. In an 
agriculture economy, they would get the majority of their pay at 
certain points in the year...when the crop was harvested, the 
animals butchered and sold, etc. These are seasonal activities so 
payment is seasonal. When they harvest a crop, they would get paid 
and buy supplies to get through the season until the next harvest. 
I'm sure there was a lot of bartering going on as well - my piglet 
for a bag of flour and a dozen eggs a week for six weeks. I don't 
think it was that there weren't towns and cities, I just think 
that transportation was an issue (the time to get to and from town 
took away from time to work the fields) and they didn't have 
stores for many of the daily necessities. They would be sold at 
weekly or monthly markets and you could only buy what was in 
season. When the wheat crops came in, you would stock up on flour 
because as the seasons turn the backstock of flour would dwindle 
and the prices would go up. Items that couldn't be grown or raised 
locally (like spices) would probably have been purchased from 
traveling vendors who would follow a circuit. They would go 
through the big cities and ports to stock up then hit the circuit.

I don't have any hard research on this, it is just anecdotal from 
what I saw in the small towns of Europe and how my uncle lives 
even now. He is a farmer and he only gets paid when the crops come 
in...that's when they "go to town" and buy school clothes and 
stuff. My aunt is a teacher and provides the steady income but if 
she didn't work, they would only have two or three pay days a 
year. 

Ysabeau


---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Linda Peterson <mirhaxa at morktorn.com>
Reply-To: mirhaxa at morktorn.com, Cooks within the SCA <sca-
cooks at ansteorra.org>
Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 10:26:02 -0600 (MDT)

>Does this paragraph bother anyone else? There were no towns 
before the
>16th century? Poor folk saved up all year in order to purchase in 
bulk?
>That first sentence especially just seems odd to me.
>
>Mirhaxa
>  mirhaxa at morktorn.com
>
>>   "Until the sixteenth century, buying and trading were done 
mainly in
>>   bulk.  There was little need for wrapping or packaging.  
Customers
>>   provided their own containers, such as baskets, jugs, or 
bowls.  But as
>>   towns and cities grew, goods could be purchased in smaller 
quantities
>>   as they were needed, and it was convenient to do shopping more
>>   frequently.  Therefore, items such as grain, beans, buttons, 
and
>>   needles required some kind of wrapping or packaging to 
contain these
>>   smaller quantities.
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