Serfdom began to change because barter became less important as money was used more. Lords could make money by renting the land. Many Lords "freed" their serfs when their work was less valuable than money.
Still, the serfs' lives were not seriously changed; they still had to farm their land, take care of their families and pay their taxes. The main difference was that they could be forced off their lands if they did not pay the rent, or if their Lord decided he wanted to use their fields for raising sheep (for example) rather than corn. Even though the serfs were “free”, their life was often harder.
The helots in the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta and the peasants working on government lands in ancient Rome worked like serfs, but they did not use that name. They were called coloni, or "tenant farmers”. When Germanic tribes took over the Roman Empire they took the lands from the wealthy Romans. They became the new lords of the same economic system of serfdom.
The serfdom of medieval times began with the breakup of the Carolingian Empire around the 10th century. This empire had ruled most of western Europe for more than 200 years. It was followed by a long time when there were no strong central governments in most of Europe.
During this time, feudal lords worked to make serfdom the common way for people to live. Serfdom was the system where great landlords could make sure other people worked to feed them and are forced, legally and economically, to keep doing that.
This system gave most of the agricultural labor during the Middle Ages. There was slavery during the Middle Ages, but it was not common. Usually they were only slaves to take care of people’s houses. Parts of Europe, including much of Scandinavia, never used serfdom or other feudal institutions.
In the later Middle Ages serfdom began to go away west of the Rhine even as it grew in Eastern Europe. This was one important cause for the deep differences between the societies and economies of eastern and western Europe.
In Eastern Europe, the rise of powerful monarchs, towns, and an improving economy weakened the manorial system through the 13th and 14th centuries. Serfdom was not common after the Renaissance.
Serfdom in Western Europe mostly ended in the 15th and 16th centuries. This was because of changes in the economy, population, and laws about what lords could make their tenants do in Western European nations. The end of serfdom in England around 1600 conincides approximately with the start of chattel slavery in the English-speaking parts of the Western hemisphere.
At the same time, there were more protests by serfs and peasants, like Wat Tyler’s Rebellion in England in 1381. This put pressure on the nobility and the clergy to change the system and make it better. The new ways of renting the land gave people more freedom.
The Industrial Revolution helped end serfdoms. Farmers wanted to move to towns to make more money than working in the fields. Land owners also put their money into industries that made more money for them. This caused urbanization.
Serfdom reached Eastern European countries later than Western Europe. It became the main way around the 15th century. Before that time, Eastern Europe had fewer people than Western Europe. The lords of Eastern Europe tried to make people want to move there from Western Europe. Serfdom developed in Eastern Europe after the Black Death epidemics. That stopped the people moving to Eastern Europe, and many people who were already there died.
There was still serfdom in Russia until February 19, 1861. In Russian Baltic provinces it ended in the beginning of 19th century (Russian Serfdom Reforms). Russian serfdom was different than in other Eastern European countries, because it was not changed by German law and people coming from Germany. The serfdom and manorialism systems were forced by the crown (Tsar), not the nobility.
Some people say that planned economies, especially those based on Soviet-style Communist economics, such as the Soviet collective farm system, are government-owned serfdom. Friedrich Hayek said that in his book "The Road to Serfdom".
Mikhail Gorbachev grew up in a kolkhoz. They were supposed to be collectives. There were also sovkhoz which were state-owned. The government used a system of internal passports and household registration (such as China's hukou system) to make people stay on their farms. They had to plant crops according to instructions from the central authorities, especially if they were on state-run farms. The state then bought their agricultural produce at low prices and invested heavily in industrialization. Gorbachev said this was much like being a serf.
This kind of serfdom lasted in Russia until 1974 (with a brief break during the Civil War). USSR Government Decree #667 gave peasants identification documents, with an unrestricted right to move within the country. This was the first time in Russian history that had happened. It is possible that a system like this still is happening in rural China.
Refrigerator
A refrigerator is a machine used for keeping things cold. It is sometimes called a fridge or an icebox. It is normally maintained at 4-5 degree Celsius for household use. People put food and drinks in it, to keep those items cold or good (unspoiled) for a longer time. A refrigerator has a heat pump which takes heat away from the air inside the fridge. The heat is moved to the air outside. The heat pump is usually driven by an electric motor.
There are also ice boxes available that do not use electricity because they are filled with ice to provide the colder temperature. The ice can keep things cold until the ice melts. Ice boxes can be taken on camping trips. Sometimes they are called coolers. Refrigerator-sized iceboxes were used before electricity was available.
Most modern refrigerators are available in a variety of colours, although most are white. Smaller versions of the popular refrigerator are also used. They are mainly used in hotels and college dorm rooms.
A freezer is a special type of refrigerator that stores food at freezing temperatures. Inside a freezer, it is normally . Freezers can be found in household refrigerators, as well as in industry and commerce. When stored in a freezer, frozen food can be stored safely for a longer time than storing at room temperatures.
Domestic freezers can be a separate compartment in a refrigerator, or can be a separate appliance. Household refrigerators usually have a separate compartment where the heat pump is used to pump even colder temperatures to the contents. Most household freezers maintain temperatures from . Some freezer-only units can achieve and lower. Most household refrigerators generally do not achieve a temperature lower than , because it is difficult to control the temperature for two different compartments. This is because both compartments shares the same coolant loop.
Domestic freezers normally stand upright, resembling refrigerators. Sometimes a domestic freezer is laid on its back to look like a chest. Many modern upright freezers come with an ice dispenser built into their door. Many commercial freezers stand upright and have glass doors so shoppers can see the contents.
Janis Ian
Janis Ian (born Janis Eddy Fink, April 7, 1951) is an American songwriter, singer, musician, columnist, and science fiction writer. She stated singing folk in the mid-sixties while she was still a teenager. She sang the most in the 1960s and the 1970s, but she's still singing today. In 1975, Ian won a Grammy Award for her song, "At Seventeen".
Ian is openly lesbian and is married to a woman.
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