The maintenance of a large retinue was one of the easiest ways available for indicating the possession of surplus wealth. This fact, coupled with the almost absurd over-elaboration of the details of serving, incline me to believe that in the mediæval castle servants were numerous and not overworked.
Riley, “Memorials of London,” p. 48.
Riley, “Memorials of London,” p. 199. There is, unfortunately, no indication of the social standing of this felon, Hugh le Bevere by name. The list of clothes suggests that he was fairly well-to-do, in which case his equipment of cooking and table utensils is certainly meagre. It is curious that pottery is not mentioned; it can hardly be urged that although in use it was too unimportant for a place in the inventory, since room is found for one small canvas bag, value 1d.
Hence the name convertible husbandry.
This is, of course, a very summary statement of changes which it took centuries to bring about. On the one hand, money economy existed in the mediæval town; on the other, subsistence farming continued in England to some extent until within a hundred years ago. Yet it is roughly true that in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries production for the market and not for use markedly and suddenly increased.