Feudalism was the system used only for the upper 10% of the population of Europe. The commoners (that us, folks!) were the economic unit upholding the knights. Manorialism: the economic unit of land was a manor. It's the system used for the other 90% (our ancestors). Manorialism is the system of growing things (and ownership). The manor is the economic unit of land. Commoners lived in the village and walked to the part they were farming. 1/3 of the manor was for the lord–all the food grown on that 1/3 was his (of course, that was the best 1/3). 1/3 of the manor was pastures and woods called the common lands cuz it was used in common with everyone. 1/3 was divided into pieces and distributed among the farmers to grow for themselves. They got about 40 acres per family to live off of for the whole year.
3 Field System was the greatest invention in agriculture of the Middle Ages. The old system was the 2 field system–plant wheat in 1 field and let 1 field go fallow (unplanted). Why? Cuz constant planting in a field sucks out the goodies (i.e. nutrients). Voila! With the 3 field system, you plant 1 field with wheat, 1 with barley and let 1 go fallow. That increased food productivity. Now you may ask, why no the 100 field system? Because of Stockmyer's Universal Law #1: You can only cheat God so much. The 3 field system only worked with good soil (England, France, Germany), not Italy or Spain.
You may think being a common peasant was a cinch. Wrong! There came the Great Manure Crisis of the Middle Ages. Cows were small in that time–similar to large sheep. They didn't get enough food. In the spring, the cows were supposed to have littler cows and eat grass in the summer. People didn't have enough to feed themselves in the winter, let alone the cattle. So they killed most of the cattle in the fall. When the next spring rolled around, there were fewer cows to make manure which means low fertility which means less cattle in the winter which means less manure in the spring, etc., etc. (No, this is not a bunch of bull!) Anyway, the 3 field system helped save the cows.
Society on the manor was very stratified. If the lord was home, he was #1. The lord's official (overseer) was #2. Free farmers (2% of the population) sharecropped the lord's 1/3 of the manor for their living (you didn't think the lord did it, did you?). Everybody else was a Serf. They weren't slaves cuz they couldn't be sold. Serfdom is a hereditary position. You got that way cuz you fed the big tough guys who became nobles who defended you from the Vikings long ago. Serfs were bound to the soil. The lord was supposed to protect his serfs. Therefore, the serfs owed the lord many things: 1. Week Work–work done every week. For 2 or 3 days of the week, the serf must farm the lord's 1/3 of the manor. The other days the serf could farm his own portion. 2. Boon Work–the extra work done during the spring and fall. Serfs must plant and harvest the lord's 1/3 before doing their own. 3. The serfs owe taxes on the serf's crop. In good years, the taxes were raised to keep serfs from becoming fat and sassy (there's nothing worse!). In bad years, the taxes were lowered cuz the lords couldn't afford to kill off their help. 4. The lord owned the only mill, oven and grape press which the serf could rent for only a nominal fee. 5. If the head of the serf family died over the winter, the lord took their best animal as replacement.
Why wasn't there revolution against the lords? Stockmyer's Law of Revolution: 1. People revolt if losing ground in the current system. 2. People revolt if they believe there is a chance of doing better and it's taken away. 3. People don't revolt unless Law #1 or #2 apply. (Who has just 2 laws of anything?) Serfs were under Law #3. They were already on the bottom and not hoping to do better cuz obviously God wanted them that way or he'd have made them better, right? When serfs revolted it was only cuz they were starving (#1). What do you do when your serfs are revolting? (You may say they were always revolting but that is just a coincidence of personality!) For the leaders, a special treat: kill them with torture and hang them til they rot (as a visual aid for other would-be leaders). For those who were just following, cut off ears, nose and 1 eye to indicate your displeasure (justice with mercy–to blind them completely would make them useless).
The pleasures of the day included dancing, brawling, wrestling, minstrels, cock-fighting. As a serf, you had no weapons–you defend yourself with a quarter-stave (long pole used by Little John in all the old Robin Hood movies).
How can we get out of the Middle Ages? City life makes civilization. In the early Middle Ages, everybody made what they needed. The only trade was in salt and iron. Besides, the Roman roads had been used for stones in castles so the roads were no good. Pretty soon the people notice that certain people do certain things really well (blacksmithing, carpentry, etc.) and started going to these specialists–blacksmiths, carpenters, weavers, etc. About 1000 AD, towns start appearing as people go to these specialists. And, thusly, towns rose.
Guilds regulated the production of something. They preserved the knowledge of how to manufacture certain items. The guild regulated the quantity, quality, and price of a particular item. This was to get the guild people through life. Nobody starved, but, then, they didn't get rich either. Everybody survived and the skills of the day were spread. Nobody needed the cut-throat capitalistic system in the Middle Ages.
How does a guild work? Let's learn a craft! How do you learn barrel-making? First, you were apprenticed as a child–you do things like sweeping up, fetching, etc. for the chance to be around a barrel-maker. Then you become a Journeyman–the master pays you to help him with his work. To become a master, you must make a masterpiece (an excellent work–i.e. a wonderful barrel). As a master craftsman, you hire journeymen and apprentices to work for you and keep the extra profit.
Communes were towns not owned by lords. Merchants would get together and buy the charter for the town from the lord. Eventually, towns got so big they got into leagues and threatened kings. Towns were overcrowded and full of plague, robbery, murder (general entertainment). If a serf could escape and live in a town for a year and a day, he was free. So, if you are an escaped serf and somebody looks at you funny like they're going to rat to your master, you kill him thereby raising the murder rate. Toward the end of the Middle Ages, there were trading fairs in the towns where merchants could swap ideas and spread civilization.
Some of the funny customs of the day: We now walk on the right side of a hall. It's a carryover from having your sword on your left side and for the sword to clear the case, you had to move to the right. Tipping a hat came from opening the visor to check a knight.