"Odd that they would destroy crops that they depended on," the vendor of the schoolbook with this picture remarked." But nobles' goal was not to destroy indispensable production ... |
- Nobles' hunts on peasants' fields
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 - "Count Geoffroys' great pleasure is hunting. In chasing wild animals he destroys harvests."
Long-distance trade began when elites exchanged luxuries (gold, an elephant...). But such exchanges meant that the need to supply merchants and pack animals developed and that small, peasant-supplied markets sprang up. So long as peasants dispersed this new income (through feasts, dowries, paying fines...) nothing changed. But should they accumulate and reinvest it, a new class would eventually defy the lords.
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Nobles had no wish to eliminate the producers that made the luxuries possible, but they did need to contain their growth. As one lord put it, "We will keep them (the new producers) in their little corner."
The point was to maintain the status quo. Destroying some marketable production by trampling during hunts was a way to do that.
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- Nobles raids on each others' lands (that is, on lands each others' peasants farmed)
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 - "Count Geoffroy's main occupation is war. He often fights against neighboring lords."
These ritualized campaigns, which were really back-and-forth raids between neighbors, did not, usually, injure men on horseback. But they did destroy more of the potentially dangerous production. As well, since peasants fled to their lords' strongholds, the latter could claim that in exchange for work, they offered protection.
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Yet another reason for these wars: horses, armor, elaborate weapons etc. were costly. Acquiring them siphoned off nobles' wealth, encouraging them to stay "in their place" too.
So built-in brakes put limits on violence, as decoding the museum's works shows.
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- Peaceful ways of neutralizing potentially dangerous wealth ...
were widespread too. Vikings' burning of dead men's wealth is one example. Another: the French expression "faire le grand baron" (act like a great lord), when someone ostentatiously distributes largesse. Yet another: the obligation for African immigrants, on their return from work in Europe, to spend part of their savings on gifts to their extended families...
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Ethnologists have studied the voluntary destruction of riches for a full century. But historians are rarely aware of the phenomenon, although it would throw light on many kinds of change. We can discuss it.
(Catherine Aubin's doctorate is in the history of black pre-colonial Africa).
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Credits: The pictures come from a 1930's schoolbook, which we bring..
