Page 239 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

The Heavy, Wheeled Plow. The heavy, wheeled plow was an important invention that enabled peasants to turn over the heavy clay soils of northern Europe. This sixteenth-century illustration shows a heavy, wheeled plow pulled by draft horses with collars.
Because the carruca was so heavy, six or eight oxen were needed to pull it, but oxen were slow. Two new inventions for the horse made it possible to plow faster. A new horse collar, which appeared in the tenth century, distributed the weight around the shoulders and chest, rather than along the throat, and could be used to hitch up a series of horses, enabling them to pull the heavy new plow faster and cultivate more land. The use of horseshoes, iron shoes nailed to a horse’s hooves, provided better traction and more protection against the rocky and heavy clay soils of northern Europe.
The use of the heavy, wheeled plow also led to cooperative agricultural villages. Because iron was ex- pensive, the plow had to be purchased by the entire community. Similarly, an individual family could not afford a team of animals, so villagers shared their beasts. Moreover, the plow’s size and weight made it hard to maneuver, so land was cultivated in long strips to minimize the amount of turning that would have to be done.
People in the High Middle Ages also learned to har- ness the power of water and wind to do jobs formerly done by humans or animals. Mills, located along streams and powered by the rushing water, were used to grind grain and produce flour. Dams were built to increase the force of the water. The development of the cam enabled millwrights to mechanize entire indus- tries; waterpower was used in certain phases of cloth production and to run trip-hammers for the working of metals. The Chinese had made use of the cam in operating trip-hammers for hulling rice by the third century C.E. but apparently had not extended its use to other industries.
Europeans also developed windmills to capture the power of the wind. Historians are uncertain whether windmills were imported into Europe (they were invented in Persia) or designed independently by Euro- peans. In either case, by the end of the twelfth century, they were beginning to dot the European landscape. The watermill and windmill were the most important devices for harnessing power before the invention of the steam engine in the eighteenth century, and their spread had revolutionary consequences for increasing the food supply.
THE THREE-FIELD SYSTEM The shift from a two-field to a three-field system of crop rotation also contributed to the increase in agricultural production. In the early Middle Ages, farmers commonly planted one field while allowing another of equal size to lie fallow to regain its fertility. Now estates were divided into three parts. One field was planted in the fall with winter grains such as rye and wheat, while spring grains such as oats and barley and vegetables such as peas, beans, or lentils were planted in the second field. The third was allowed to lie fallow. When fields were thus rotated, only one- third, rather than one-half, of the land lay fallow at any time. The rotation of crops also prevented the soil from being exhausted so quickly, and more crops could now be grown.
By the thirteenth century, the growing demand for agricultural produce in the towns and cities led to higher food prices. This price rise encouraged lords to try to grow more food for profit. One way to do so was to lease their demesne land to their serfs. Labor serv- ices were then transformed into money payments or fixed rents, thereby converting many unfree serfs into free peasants. Although many peasants still remained economically dependent on their lords, they were no longer legally bound to the land. Lords, in turn, became collectors of rents rather than operators of manors
Land and People in the High Middle Ages 201
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Victoria & Albert Museum, London/The Bridgeman Art Library