Liverpool is a city on the River Mersey, on the coast next to the Irish Sea. On the other side of the river Mersey is the Wirral. In 1846 the Albert Dock was opened and in 1988, turned into a shopping centre.
The city is the birthplace of the famous rock group The Beatles and the musical style Merseybeat. It has several art galleries, museums and theatres. The Tate Liverpool is a gallery of modern art, the Walker Art Gallery displays classical art. Museums include the World Museum, the Maritime Museum and the Museum of Liverpool. There are two cathedrals, Liverpool Cathedral which is known as Anglican and Metropolitan Cathedral which is Catholic. There are two famous football clubs, Liverpool F.C. and Everton F.C. It has several parks including Sefton Park and Stanley Park.
Liverpool Airport opened in 1930, it was later renamed Liverpool John Lennon Airport. It has three tunnels under the River Mersey, one for trains and two (Queensway and Kingsway) for cars travelling to and from Wirral.
It has a local train network called Merseyrail and the station Liverpool Lime Street provides train travel to and from the rest of the United Kingdom. Until the 1950s it also had Liverpool Overhead Railway and Liverpool Corporation Tramways. Liverpool is connected to the West Coast Main Line railway connecting London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Motorways running into Liverpool include the M62 from Manchester, the M58 and the M53 from Wirral. The inner ring road is Queens Drive and the outer ring road is the M57.
Liverpool Cruise Terminal opened in 2007 and provides travel to Europe. Regular ferries services operate to Wirral and the Isle of Man. River cruises operate down the Manchester Ship Canal and the Leeds Liverpool Canal also connects into Liverpool.
Liverpool has several universities;
There has been a lot of development work which is part of a regeneration plan for Liverpool. It is because Liverpool was the Capital of Culture for 2008.
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Serfdom
Serfdom is a legal and economic system.
A serf is a worker who has to stay in a lords area. Serfs were the lowest social class of the feudal society. Serfs were different from slaves. Serfs could have property. In most serfdoms, serfs were legally part of the land, and if the land was sold, they were sold with it.
Serfdom is the forced labour of serfs, on the fields of the land owners. Serfs got protection and the right to work on the leased fields. Serfs worked in fields, and other agricultural-related works, like forestry, transportation (both land and river-based), work in craft and even in manufacturing.
Serfdom came from agricultural slavery of the Roman Empire and spread through Europe around the 10th century. Most people lived in serfdoms during the Middle Ages of Europe.
In England, serfdom lasted up to the 1600s, in France until 1789. In most other European countries serfdom lasted until the early 19th century.
All land was owned by landowners - nobility, Church and monarchs. A serf is any peasant who has to do manual labor for someone else in order to get to keep his land. While most serfs were farmers, some serfs were craftsmen - like the village blacksmith, miller or innkeeper.
The serfs had a feudal contract, just like a baron or a knight. A serf's feudal contract was that he would live on and work a piece of land held by his Lord. The serf would get protection in return.
During that time, people said that a serf "worked for all", a knight or baron "fought for all" and a churchman "prayed for all." Everyone had his place and all was right with God's world. The serf did not have as good a position as the knights or barons, but was better than slavery. Serfs had some rights in the feudal contract.
A manorial Lord could not sell his serfs like Romans sold slaves. If his Lord sold some land, the serf of that land went with it to serve the new Lord. A serf could not leave his lands without permission. A serf could not sell his lands.
A free man usually became a serf because he owed a large debt. He would make an agreement with the Lord of the land. The Lord would keep him safe, give money for his debt, and give him land to work on, and he would do work for the Lord. All his children would become serfs.
The usual serf "paid" his fees and taxes by working for the lord 5 or 6 days a week. At different times in the year he would do different things. A serf could plough his lord's fields, harvest crops, dig ditches, or repair fences. The rest of his time he could take care of his own fields, crops and animals.
The big problem for a serf was that he had to do the work for the Lord before he could do his own work. When his Lord’s crops needed to be harvested, his needed to be harvested, too. The Lord would give them very good food when they worked for him.
The serfs also had to pay taxes and fees. The Lord decided how much taxes they would pay from how much land the serf had, usually 1/3 of their value. They had to pay fees when they got married, had a baby, or there was a war. Money was not very common then, so usually they paid by giving food instead of money.
There were strange tests to decide if something was good enough to be given for taxes. A chicken, for example, had to be able to jump over a fence. That showed that the chicken was young and healthy.
A serf had some freedom. A serf could get and keep property and money. Some serfs had more money and property than their free neighbours. A serf could sometimes buy his freedom.
Serfs could grow what they wanted on their lands. Sometimes their taxes had to be paid in wheat, which is difficult to grow. They could take the wheat they did not give for taxes to the market. Mostly they were subsistence farming, eating what they grew. Their heirs usually got an inheritance.
The lord could not make the serfs leave his land unless he had good reasons. The lord was supposed to protect them from criminals or other lords, and he was supposed to give them charity during famines.
The rules for serfdom were different at different times and places. In some places, serfdom changed into different types of taxation.
In different places and times, serfs had to work different amounts. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 13th century it was 2 – 3 days a year. In the 14th century, serfs had to work one day per week. They had to work 4 days per week in the 17th century. They had to work 6 days per week in the 18th century.
Sometimes, serfs were soldiers during war. They could get freedom or even ennoblement for bravery in war. In other cases, serfs could also purchase their freedom, be manumitted by their enlightened or generous owners, or flee to towns or newly settled land where few questions were asked. Laws varied from country to country: in England a serf who made his way to a chartered town and evaded recapture for a year and a day obtained his freedom.
In many cases, serfs had to get permission from their lord to marry someone who was not a serf for that lord.
Sometimes a serf had to pay money because of something he had done. This is called a fine. A serf had to pay a fine when he inherited money or property. He had to pay a fine if he became a priest or monk. A serf had to pay a fine if his children went to the city instead of staying and being a serf. Serfs had to give their best animal to their lord when they died, so that their children would get to stay on the land.
Serfs had to pay to use the lord’s grain mill and bread oven. They had to pay to use the lord’s carts to carry their produce. The serfs were very angry about that. Many peasants had to pay a fine because they used their own grain mill. The miller charged a fee called (multure), which was usually 1/24 of the total grain milled. The serfs often thought the millers were not honest. Many lords made the serfs use the lord's oven to bake their daily bread.