John Langdon

Storage in Medieval England: The Evidence from Purveyance Accounts, 1295–1349

As a contribution to the long-running debate concerning the extent and motivation of medieval storage, this article uses purveyance accounts to examine such facilities in England prior to the Black Death. Three hundred and fifteen cases of predominantly urban storage were recorded for 97 communities for the products of agriculture purchased by the purveyors, mostly threshed grains. When these 315 cases were analysed using an Excel database, it was found that, in contrast to the often magnificent barns on monastic and other lordly estates, this storage was much smaller and informal, often indistinguishable, it seems, from the domestic storage for families themselves. As modest as it was, however, it likely played an important role in the increasing commercialization of medieval England, even perhaps to the extent of making society at the time more susceptible to subsistence crises.

Coming of Age and the Family in Medieval England

This article examines coming of age in medieval England through a very broad-based, multiauthored approach not normally found in the social sciences. Among other things, it examines what equated to legal ages for inheriting land and for criminal responsibility; the age-specific activities of young people, especially as revealed through proofs of ages; the spiritual framework of coming of age, particularly through the perspective of confirmation; and the introduction of young people to work in a practical sense and how this was probably bolstered morally through such things as fairy tales. The article also draws on comparative material from the Industrial Revolution. Preeminently, the article demonstrates the exciting potential for further work on how children became adults in medieval society.

Road Transport Before the Railways: Russell's London Flying Waggons. By Dorian Gerhold. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Pp. xvii, 316.

consolidation occurring in the metals industries. Harrisburgs industrialization peaked in the 1 890s, and the city turned to other sectors of the economy for growth in the twentieth century. Focusing on a small city enables one to study both the process of industrialization and its impact on the community. After exploring the rise of industry between the 1 850s and the 1 880s, Eggert uses social history methods to examine changes among elites, industrial and craft workers, ethnic minorities, labor relations, and politics. Although his description of statistical information becomes tedious at times, the author shows that industrialization presented a softer face in Harrisburg than in the major industrial cities. The new factories did not create a mass of resentful wage-earners. Economic expansion created many opportunities inside and outside the mills, attracting more native-born than immigrant workers. Property ownership increased among all groups, especially immigrants. Craft workers adopted a variety of strategies for survival, including becoming factory artisans. Eggert argues that they were not simply a displaced class from an earlier, golden republican era, and sharp class lines familiar in harsher industrial environments did not form in Harrisburg. Working conditions were difficult in the factories, and workers did protest their situation. Owners avoided conflict, however, by not importing strikebreakers or using local government to confront labor. Although the local elite remained firmly in control, they did not rupture the community along its social divisions by adopting iron-fisted tactics. Despite his richly detailed picture of Harrisburg, Eggert argues that recognition of the many faces of industrial capitalism does not negate the potential for generalization. Comparing Harrisburg with Albany, Trenton, Wilmington, and Reading, however, he searches with only limited success for patterns of change among smaller industrial centers. Neither city size nor the general notion of a secondary stage of manufacturing provides him with a satisfactory basis for selecting places for comparative study. This task requires more complex analysis of industrial characteristics. Nonetheless, Eggerts study of Harrisburgs experience demonstrates the value of a more finely textured interpretation of industrial development and social change across urban America.