07-21-2006, 03:41 PM
I very much agree with Volker's comments about the article cited by eleatic guest. Most medieval historical writing about any subject tends to concentrate on the happenings in England, France, Italy, and Germany, and the Low Countries, unless the subject is very specifically geographic (i.e. Iberia, Ireland, Scandinavia, Hungary). The author wrote in English, so it is not surprising his analysis of the English language sources is detailed. I would suspect his command of Spanish or Magyar language sources (for example) might not be so good. (nota bene he refers to the Italian "kingdom" ??) The list of inventions is impressive, but it is the culture of their use that makes the social differences, not the intellectual credit for their invention.
In regards to population, cities did not sustain large populations until modern times - cities absorbed rural population. The relatively unhealthful urban conditions did not make for large breeding excesses of people; instead cities grew (to a considerable degree) by attracting people from the hinterland. Rural depopulation can be driven by economics, without massive plagues. The American Great Plains states are being depopulated, purely for economic reasons as the small farmers go under, the eastern seaboard used to be densely sprinkled with small towns and farms, but the farms disappeared over a century ago and large swaths of second growth forest can be seen in New England; and such a thing seems to have happened in Roman Italy as slave-powered latifundia spread across the countryside. Of course, the Empire did see centuries of warring armies roaming the countryside, either barbarians or competing would-be emperors - and armies are great spreaders of disease and economic wastage.
In regards to population, cities did not sustain large populations until modern times - cities absorbed rural population. The relatively unhealthful urban conditions did not make for large breeding excesses of people; instead cities grew (to a considerable degree) by attracting people from the hinterland. Rural depopulation can be driven by economics, without massive plagues. The American Great Plains states are being depopulated, purely for economic reasons as the small farmers go under, the eastern seaboard used to be densely sprinkled with small towns and farms, but the farms disappeared over a century ago and large swaths of second growth forest can be seen in New England; and such a thing seems to have happened in Roman Italy as slave-powered latifundia spread across the countryside. Of course, the Empire did see centuries of warring armies roaming the countryside, either barbarians or competing would-be emperors - and armies are great spreaders of disease and economic wastage.
Felix Wang
