Agriculture Technologies in the Middle Ages

Agricultural Innovations

The Middle ages were quite fruitful in inventing a number of discoveries that include the invention of the wheels, the invention of the plow, the harnessing the power of animals to pull wagons and plows and make their use for transportation, using the power of wind for sailboats, and the invention of writing and calendar (Ashcroft et al., 1989). These innovations collectively transformed the conditions of life for societies in the middle ages. These innovations had great effect in increasing the wealth of the population and developing complex social organizations. Although all of the innovations mentioned above were important, the plow was considered as the greatest potential for transforming social and cultural change (Duerr et al., 1985). It made the use of the permanent cultivation possible in a greater variety of soils, and thereby led to the widespread replacement of horticulture by agriculture. It also facilitated the harnessing of animal energy that showed the way to increased the productivity. The use of plow agriculture spread by diffusion throughout the world.

Simple Agrarian Societies included several innovations, and the plow had the greatest potential for social and cultural change (Eckholm, 2000). The other innovations included the mechanics of controlling weeds and maintaining the fertility of the soil, facilitating the harnessing of animal energy, and leading to a large economic surplus and new and more complex forms of social organization. These innovations created market expansion, and offered the growth opportunities for merchants, or middlemen, who generated new needs and desires that stimulated economic activity and led to change of the cultural values (Kristeva, 1980). A major catalyst for innovation and change is the contact of one culture with another. In world history this contact has often been accompanied by extreme violence. But the desire to combat this violence has made certain military and technological adaptations and innovations a matter of survival.

Money was absent in the first simple agrarian societies. But there existed standardized media of exchange, such as barley. These exchanges were critical making each of the household sufficient in the use of different kinds of agricultural products. Later, the exchanges were done with metal coins. However, these media became too unwieldy so the use of currency became common. The growth of economic systems had enormous implications for societal development. Money has always facilitated the movement, the exchange, and ultimately the production of goods and services of every kind.

Compared with simpler societies, advanced agrarian societies enjoyed a very productive technology (Lewis-Williams, 1980). Over the centuries quite a number of important innovations were made that include: the catapult, crossbow, gunpowder, horseshoes, stirrups, wood-turning lathe, auger, screw, wheelbarrow, rotary fan for ventilation, clock, spinning wheel, porcelain, printing, iron casting, magnet, water-powered mills, windmills, and the working steam engine, fly shuttle, spinning jenny, spinning machine, and various other power-driven tools (Feder and Slade, 1986). All of these innovations had dramatic impact on the agriculture- including tilling, watering, and transportation. The initial effect of the shift from horticulture to agriculture was an increase in food production. Societies that adopted the plow were able to produce more food in a given territory than those that relied on the hoe and digging stick (Fabian, 1985). This increase in productivity could be used either to expand the economic surplus or expand population, with both usually occurring (Feder and Slade, 1984). On of the single most important consequence of the greater economic surplus was further growth of the state and of the power of the governing class that controlled it.

The North-Eurasian nomadic tribes, although not a high culture like Greece, China, India, Iran and the Semitic peoples, acted as a catalyst in the development of peasant villages to city-states by exposing them to outside influences. Chief among these was their skill in struggle as horse-riders as well as from the chariot whose leading role from the east to the west has been affirmed.

The other causes of the diffusion of the innovation resulted through separate identifiable cultures were separate, independent entities, each with their own traditions, language, and belief systems and that they were strong enough to maintain their own identity in spite of trade relations with other high cultures, borrowing only those elements which they felt were essential to furthering their own technological and scientific knowledge while remaining immune to linguistic and religious influences though tolerating those communities which practiced different religions and spoke different languages within their regional states (Said, 1986). One of the most profound shifts that accompanied the development of cultures was the development of a system of writing. The administration of a city-state depended on writing down words and numbers which first started with keeping track of the bookings of goods for trade. But even the history of writing from the early Linear-B script to today's European system of writing is marked by deep discontinuities, where the alphabet often had to be reinvented. A significant step forward was the invention of a notation system for the vowels. The history of writing, in turn, influenced and was influenced by the way language was understood and spoken among the agricultural societies and that was responsible for the diffusion of agricultural technologies around the world (Taylor, 1986).

All of this proves one thing is that the dramatic transformation in the diffusion took place solely from technology. Even the most assertive believer would have a hard time explaining the social transformations of the Middle Ages, since these diffusions were spread around the world, without having the facilities of media and communication. The main communication medium was only oral culture. But it is the social transformations that had permanent effect in the social structures and wealth earning capabilities of the societies.