The English Peasants' Concept Of Wealth In The Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages of England,the entire society was covered in the religious atmosphere. People paid attention to the aristocrats and the clergymen on the upper formation.But in fact,the peasants working on the feudal territories were the main body in the Medieval society.This article abandons the mystical religion color,and elaborates synthetically on the Medieval English peasants'concept of wealth from three aspects including the concepts of property,commerce and labor by the mundane judgment.The dissertation is mainly divided into three sections.Part One:The medieval English peasants'concept of property is elaborated on two aspects: consciousness on private property and concept of inherit.Under the feudal lordship,the peasants, especially the serfs theoretically only might hold the tenements,and couldn't possess actually. Ne vertheless,English peasants have the very strong consciousness on private property.They obtained the right of handling the lands freely while enjoyed the droit of lands.That was not far from the substantive property rights. On the aspect of inherit, there were many instances that children went away,sought a better opportunity and nobody inherited the estates in the countr -yside of England.Moreover, some parents diverted their tenements before death to other peo -ple,but not their own children. The basic reason is that English peasants did not take the conti -nuation of family seriously on the question of property.Part Two:The medieval English peasants'concept of commerce is elaborated on three ang -lesxonsciousness on exchange of commerce,concept of the transformation to non-agricultural occupation and concept the peasants followed in the commercial activities. Their consciousnes -s on exchange of commerce awakened following the development and the prosperity of comer -ce. They readjusted crop structure and industrial structure continually on the demand of marke -ts. At the same time, English peasants'concept of expense changed, became the main impellin -g force in the circulation process of commodity.A large quantities of peasants became the han -dicraftsmen or the wage workers under the premise of retaining small lots. They were not inte -rested in amassing the pieces of land,but transferred into the broad handicrafts and laborer mar -kets. Consciousness on explicit value and dual concept of commodity price were concepts the English peasants followed in the commercial activities.Part Three:The English peasants'concept is elaborated on three aspects: consciousness on explicit right and duty, concept of democracy and concept of collective.In their thoughts,the rig -hts they enjoyed corresponded with the duty they took on,and they were stipulated explicitly in the convention books.If the lords violated the convention,the peasants would protest or reject to working. The democracy in English villages was handed down from the primitive customs. Their rights of democracy were limited by the serfdom under the system of feudalism, so they couldn't display their rights completely.However,the peasants were always guarding it unremi -ttingly.English peasants'concept of collective was embodied mainly in the aspects of union cultivation,revolting against the lords'abuse of authority collectively and relieving the weak. The concept of collective then had already been attached to the bright color of individualism. However, This kind of simple collectivism still maintained the community's survival and multi -plication.Epilogue:Unique place of English peasants' wealthy concept is summarized in several dif -ferent angles,such as concept of inherit, consciousness on rights and duties, concepts of values and contract spirit.