The peasants of Ottobeuren, 1487-1726 : a rural society in early modern Europe
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Bibliographic Information
The peasants of Ottobeuren, 1487-1726 : a rural society in early modern Europe
（Past and present publications）
Cambridge University Press, 2004
- : hbk
- : pbk
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Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The Peasants of Ottobeuren offers an interesting perspective on one of the enduring problems of early modern European history: the possibilities for economic growth and social change in rural society. Based on the voluminous records of the Swabian Benedictine monastery of Ottobeuren, this study underscores the limitations of the traditional narrative of a sixteenth-century boom which foundered on the productive rigidities of the peasant economy and then degenerated into social crisis in the seventeenth century. Population growth did strain resources at Ottobeuren, but the peasantry continued to produce substantial agricultural surplus. More importantly, peasants reacted to demographic pressure by deepening their involvement in land and credit markets, and more widely and aggressively marketing the fruits of their labour. Marriage and inheritance underwent a similar process of commercialization which made heavy demands on the peasantry, but which maintained a degree of social stability through the devastations of war, plague and famine.
Table of Contents
- List of figures
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Note on weights, measures and currencies
- Introduction
- 1. Right and might (c.1480-c.1560)
- 2. The discrete society (c.1480-c.1560)
- 3. A crisis of numbers? (c.1560-c.1630)
- 4. Integrity and the market (c.1560-c.1630)
- 5. Living on borrowed time (c.1560-c.1630)
- 6. To empty and to refill (c.1630-c.1720)
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index of places
- General index.
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