| Description |
1 online resource (xiii, 271 pages) : illustrations, map |
| Series |
People, markets, goods : economies and societies in history, 2051-7467 ; volume 11 |
|
People, markets, goods ; v. 11. 2051-7467
|
| Contents |
Frontcover -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Note on Terminology -- List of Contributors -- Introduction: Servants in the Economy and Society of Rural Europe -- 1. The Employment of Servants in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Coastal Flanders: A Case Study of Scueringhe Farm near Bruges -- 2. The Institution of Service in Rural Flanders in the Sixteenth Century: A Regional Perspective -- 3. A Different Pattern of Employment: Servants in Rural England c.1500-1660 -- 4. Female Service and the Village Community in South-West England 1550-1650: The Labour Laws Reconsidered -- 5. Life-Cycle Servant and Servant for Life: Work and Prospects in Rural Sweden c.1670-1730 -- 6. Servants in Rural Norway c.1650-1800 -- 7. Rural Servants in Eighteenth-Century Münsterland, North- Western Germany: Households, Families and Servants in the Countryside -- 8. Rural Servants in Eastern France 1700-1872: Change and Continuity Over Two Centuries -- 9. The Servant Institution During the Swedish Agrarian Revolution: The Political Economy of Subservience -- 10. Farm Service and Hiring Practices in Mid-Nineteenth-Century England: The Doncaster Region in the West Riding of Yorkshire -- 11. Dutch Live-In Farm Servants in the Long Nineteenth Century: The Decline of the Life-Cycle Service System for the Rural Lower Class -- 12. Rural Life-Cycle Service: Established Interpretations and New (Surprising) Data -- The Italian Case in Comparative Perspective (Sixteenth to Twentieth Centuries) -- Select Bibliography -- Index |
| Summary |
"This is the first book to survey the experience of servants in rural Europe from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. Live-in servants were a distinctive element of early modern society. They were typically young adults aged between 16 and 24 who lived and worked in other people's households before marriage. Servants tended to be employed for long periods, several months to years at a time, and were paid with food and lodging as well as cash wages. Both women and men worked as servants in large numbers. Unlike domestic servants in towns and wealthy households, rural servants typically worked on farms and were an important element of the agricultural workforce. Historians have viewed service as a distinct life-cycle stage between childhood and marriage. It brought both freedom and servility for young people. It allowed them to leave home and earn a living before marriage, whilst learning a range of agricultural and craft skills which reduced their dependence on their parents and increased their choice in marriage partners. Still, servants had limited rights: they were under the authority of their employer, with a similar legal status to children. In many countries the employment of servants was tightly controlled by law. Servants could demand their wages, and leave when the contract ended, but had to work long hours and had little say in their work tasks during employment. While some servants effectively became family members, trusted and cared for, others were abused physically and sexually by their employers."--Back cover |
| Notes |
"Paperback original." |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 255-267) and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Household employees -- Europe -- Rural conditions -- History
|
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Household employees -- Europe -- Rural conditions
|
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BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Labor.
|
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POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Labor & Industrial Relations.
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HISTORY -- Modern -- 18th Century.
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Ländlicher Raum
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Diener
|
|
Arbeiter
|
|
Knecht
|
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Europe
|
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Europa
|
| Genre/Form |
History
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| Author |
Whittle, Jane
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Economic History Society.
|
| ISBN |
9781787441378 |
|
1787441377 |
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9781787441316 |
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1787441318 |
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