Life In The Middle Ages

1. Life in the middle ages was so much different, as incomes were poor, and malnourishment and disease were common. People produced the bulk of their own food, clothing, furniture and tools. Most of the people lived and worked in their countries since it was dangerous to travel. Also the transportation was poor and dangerous, the roads were rocky and it was a small path rather than a road. So most of the people life started and ended in their village. Many people lived on farms, growing enough food for their own use and selling the surplus. Farming was impoverished since no technological inventions or farming tools were invented. Often a lot of people made a living by manufacturing goods in their own homes, women spun wool and flax into thread
Before mechanization and factories, cottage industry took place in people’s homes. Merchants called entrepreneurs provided raw materials such as wool or cotton to workers in their cottages on farm or villages. Families spun fibre into yarn on spinning wheels and other families wove them into cloths for a fixed price that merchants have set. So after then merchant will return and collect the finished products. Some of the advantages for the cottagers was that the cottage industry was beneficial to peasant farmers because they cud work home while bringing in additional income. Cottagers had some independence and set their own place of work. They could also work for several merchants at the same time. Some advantages for the merchants were that the price of the labour was so cheap so they don’t have to spend much money on that. They only hired as many workers as they needed. Some of the wealthy merchants owned the spinning and weaving equipment’s and even the cottages for the workers. Merchants also had disadvantages. They had difficulty regulating standards of workmanships and maintaining schedules for completing work. Merchant also cannot trust their workers because sometimes they sold some for their own profit. The workers for merchants were sometimes not available because the demand for cloth increased. Cottagers also had disadvantages families of cottagers worked alone and could not unite with each other workers to put pressure and were unable to negotiate for better wages. They also had to work very long hours to complete all the spinning and