Statistics for Medieval Times

Referring to the topic posted on population of Medieval Times,

1. Does anyone know what % were serfs, % trades/crafts aristocracy, %royalty
2. Rich-Poor divide?
3. Did the average serf leave from hand to mouth, or did he manage savings of any kind?

Originally posted by fastspawn Referring to the topic posted on population of Medieval Times, 1. Does anyone know what % were serfs, % trades/crafts aristocracy, %royalty

Take for granted that around 90% (maybe more) were peasants and for much of the period they were mostly slaves, though their condition tended to improve slightly along the Middle Ages.

Burgueoises (merchants and craftsmen) were a minority and they lived basically in towns and cities, which were very small then. Some tradesmen were nomadic salesmen while others were relatively rich international traders.

Priests and monks/nuns probably were the second largest sector of the population.

Aristocrats were a very small group and most of them were low aristocracy (gentry, knights). Royalty obviously weren't even a sector just a handful by definition.

Some regions like the Basque Country had a majority of free peasantry, later assimilated to gentry. But mainstream Europe was mostly a slave plantation slowly evolving to a greater share of coloni (semi-free peasants) and true free peasants in some regions.

2. Rich-Poor divide?

Most were miserable or very poor. Aristocrats were the rich ones and they were very few. Middle classes were alsmost non-existent.

3. Did the average serf leave from hand to mouth, or did he manage savings of any kind?

The term serf is confusing: in Caroligian times it meant slave (servus), while what we usually call serf nowadays was called colonus. The diference between the two classes was mostly insignificant. Some domestic slaves managed to climb up the social ladder by means of gaining the trust of their master and even Charlemagne used some of these in his administration to break up the monopoly of power of aristocracy (they were called menestrales).

The average pesant lived from hand to mouth. Savings were virtually unthinkable and there was no much room to use such savings (if existent) as in a free market economy. Guess that some free peasants could manage to prosper but in a very limited way and rather the tendency was initially the opposite: free peasants were transformed into coloni or even slaves by force or indebtment.

In any case one has to consider that the Middle Ages is a long period that lasts a whole milennium and that the situation evolved over time and locally. After the Black Death there were some major changes that allowed greater general prosperity, though the recovery was very slow. Lack of manpower forced then aristocrats to give better conditions to peasants, also in some frontier regions such as the German eastern marks or the forntier of Spanish kingdoms excellent conditions were given to attract settlers.