{192.} Acquiring Raw Material from Flora and Fauna

CHAPTERS

Having to provide the necessary raw material for food, clothing and house building, peasant economy was forced to be self sufficient through the centuries. Consequently it produced scarcely more than what it was able to use up. The feudal system also encouraged this tendency, for as feudal duties increased along with increases in production, it was not in the interest of the peasantry to increase the yield of the land with new methods, or to incorporate larger territories. This is why feudalism became the obstacle to increased production.

Although this held true for the entire peasant economy, still, specialization began early, partly within settlements, partly–because of natural resources, special knowledge and traditions–varying by villages and by regions. Within the settlements, specialists worked in certain occupations, such as, from the Middle Ages on, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, coopers, etc. Similarly, the processing of skin and of wool largely became the task of artisans. Village artisans were not separated socially sharply from the peasantry, but usually participated in cultivating the land, carrying out their trade primarily during the break between agricultural tasks (cf. pp. 91–95).

Certain natural resources also advanced specialization. For example, salt was transported from faraway areas, just as merchants hauled the half-finished or finished products of well-known iron producing and processing centres that had developed during the early Middle Ages, to faraway lands, where they sold or bartered these. The population of areas where wood was plentiful carved agricultural tools, carts, and furniture. They hauled lime and charcoal from the mountain regions to the Great Plain. Dishes, plates and pitchers from the pottery centres were carried to great distances by cart. All this meant not only exchanging and proliferating certain merchandise, but it also assured a permanent contact between parts of the country and, in some cases, between different ethnic groups living far away from each other.

The many-phased acquisition of raw material was strongly connected with the form of the settlement, shaping the exterior and interior order of the yard and agricultural buildings. Among the natural, economic, and social determinants, traditions and ethnic characteristics rated a significant place. The picture created by all these factors changes so much that it is very difficult to survey in its entirety. Consequently, it is possible only to point out certain of its characteristics.