3

In medieval society corresponding to approximately year 1200 in Holy Roman Empire, how much agricultural land would there be on average per person? What would be typical composition of the land? (Divided into crop fields, orchards, pastures for farm animals, fallow land, forests, etc.)

I tried estimate as population / country area, but such result includes mountains, lakes, forests and unused land, while I am interested specifically in the cultivated land area, and its breakdown into fields / pastures / orchards and other categories. The answer does not need to be completely precise, good estimate is OK.

Related question.

Irigi
  • 4,586
  • 1
  • 20
  • 47
  • 1
    Overlapping question, not quite a duplicate, but close. https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/61970/land-requirement-for-island-city – Cyn Aug 10 '19 at 19:46
  • It seems that we have three questions here, can you [edit] to focus on one? – Escaped dental patient. Aug 10 '19 at 20:39
  • 2
    Those "meadows" are called pastures. You need about 1 ha per person (this includes people not engaged in agriculture, such as tradesmen, servants, professionals, clergy, soldiers etc.) Do not forget that you also need forests for timber (timber was by far the most common construction material) and firewood (wood was basically 99% of the fuel used in Europe at that time). Agricultural land would be divided half and half between pastures and growing crops. Fallow land is one third of the land used for crops. About 75% of the people worked in agriculture full time from 8 or 9 years of age. Etc. – AlexP Aug 10 '19 at 21:34
  • Different areas had different population densities. Eastern Europe had much lower crop yields than Western Europe. The differences in crop yields increased dramatically from the high middle ages into modern times, as Western Europe invested in technologies that allowed more efficient farming and more efficient trade of foodstuffs. These technologies included drainage, irrigation, selective breeding, fertilizers, wagons, horses, ships, metallurgy, less-oppressive tax collection methods, and eventually steam engines, railroads, and hybrid seeds. – Jasper Aug 11 '19 at 00:21
  • 1
    Thank you for the comments. I narrowed the region to Germany and I narrowed my question to asking about the amount of the land and its composition. I can split it into two questions if you think it is better (land per person + composition of land), but to me it seems the second is just direct extension of the first one. – Irigi Aug 11 '19 at 06:24
  • 1
    There are two ways to come to an answer for this question. The first is to understand how much land one person needs. This requires much knowledge that might be difficult to attain. The second way is to assume that human population was mostly close to the carrying capacity for the state of their technology. All you need then is an estimate of the population of 11th century Germany (approx. 12 million) and to divide the area (Holy Roman Empire 900,000 sqkm) by the population which gives you about 0.075 sqkm per person, which is 75 ha (including agricultural land, forests, mountains, lakes, etc) –  Aug 11 '19 at 11:02
  • In my comment, I took "Germany" to mean the Holy Roman Empire, as Germany did not exist back then. The "population of 11th century Germany" is that of the Holy Roman Empire at that time. Estimates differ between scholars, so you will have to do some research to decide on what you think is the best number. // Including mountains and lakes in the area requirement makes sense, as these provide resources (fish, pelts, salt, iron ore, etc.) that are needed in 11th century society just as much as the grain grown on the fields. –  Aug 11 '19 at 11:05
  • In the 13th centuries the Germanies (note the plural) denoted a geographical area which only partially overlaps modern Germany; and land use in Bavaria was not very similar with land use in Saxony. – AlexP Aug 11 '19 at 11:07
  • Also, it might be helpful for us in providing a useful answer to you if you explained what you need the number for. Do you want to know how many people could have lived in medieval Germany? Then avoid the calculation and just use the actual number. –  Aug 11 '19 at 11:07
  • @AlexP What is "the Germanies"? I'm German and have never heard that term. –  Aug 11 '19 at 11:09
  • 2
    @B.L.E.: That's what some English sources call the German-speaking lands during the last part of the MIddle Ages up to the early modern period; the intent being to reflect the emergence of a proto-national feeling in parts of the Sacrum Imperium Romanum Nationis Germanicae. For example, in Wikipedia: The Holy Roman Emperor had been often called "Emperor of all the Germanies"; contemporary news accounts frequently referred to "The Germanies". – AlexP Aug 11 '19 at 11:18
  • @B.L.E.: To answer why I want the answer: I am simply trying to understand medieval agriculture in numbers for general worldbuilding in fantasy settings. I wrote Germany (H.R.E. - good point) not to have too broad question, but I assume the answer would not differ that much for England or France. Once I know the composition of agricultural land, I can estimate how much land of what composition would there be as part of villages around towns to support them, how much grain there would be in granaries to survive winter, etc. – Irigi Aug 12 '19 at 20:46
  • @B.L.E.: I tried estimate population / area, as you write, but such result includes mountains, lakes, forrests and unused land, while I am interested in the cultivated land area. And ideally I would like to know the breakdown of the cultivated area into fields / pastures / orchards, etc. Not necessarilly historically accurate, good estimate is OK. – Irigi Aug 12 '19 at 20:52
  • @Irigi As I said, in these general terms that's a really complicated calculation, and no scholar today knows all the variables. It is easy to forget certain resources that people used, such as the salt used to cure the meat, which requires salt mines that you need to add on to the area necessary to keep a medieval person alive. The forests provided timber and pasture for pigs (they were kept in forests, eating the acorns), and so on. So if you only think of fields, orchards, and pastures, your people wouldn't have pigs, timber, wood coal, and so on. You really need all the land to sustain them –  Aug 12 '19 at 20:56
  • @B.L.E.: I understand that the answer is not very easy to find / calculate. This is also why I ask the question. Specifically so on the Worldbuilding and not History, because I am more interested in plausible estimate than having accurate historical sources. The pastures, orchards and fields are just an example, I was hoping the answer would also tell me what are the relevant categories to consider for the medieval agriculture. :-) – Irigi Aug 12 '19 at 21:08
  • 1
    @Irigi Read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_the_Middle_Ages#Farmers'_holdings –  Aug 12 '19 at 21:18
  • Historical research hasn't lead us to a great deal of certainty on the subject. I'd suggest theat this forum is a better one for asking "what is possible" rather than "what was" during this historical period. The [history.se] site may be your best bet. Being said, you should read their terms before posting. (From review) – Escaped dental patient. Aug 18 '19 at 03:34

0 Answers0