How Did The Peasants Improve The Economy During The High Middle Ages

When speaking about society in history, high priests and nobles along with the rising middle class come to mind rather than the peasants at the bottom of the social structure. Peasants have always had the most difficult lives, especially during the Middle Ages in Europe. Peasant men, women, and even children, starting at age 14, continued hard labor day in and day out. A peasant man, William Langland, wrote a poem about his life and one of the lines states, “and have no coin but their craft the cothe and keep them” (The Medieval Reader). This peasant was speaking about how he and his family were forced to pay in labor and had no money to help them eat food and put clothes on their backs. Peasants worked for everything they owned, knowing it
With a significant amount of trade arriving in Europe and extreme growth in population during the Middle Ages, resources were abundant enough to be sold by peasants, since merchants were overwhelmingly occupied. Although peasants did not work in trading centers, they sold goods on the streets, making money profit. With this money, they could pay their lords in cash rather than in labor, making much easier and liveable lifestyles than before. Peasants were most affected by the commercial revolution. During the commercial revolution, most peasants became tenant farmers, who paid their lords in the medieval currency (Ellis & Esler 235). Although peasants were still ruled by lords, they did not have to perform labor to their lord’s wishes, only to sustain their own loves as long as they kept up with their