Erik Thoen

This paper discusses Bas Van Bavel's manors and markets, especially the way Early Medieval property and land exploitation was organized in Southern Low Countries and the way it preconditions further economic development according to Van Bavel's explanatory model

... Research Field, Languages and Literatures. Classification, B3. Publishing Year, 2003. Number of Pages, IV, 107 p. Publisher, Academia Press,. Editor, Erik Thoen [801000354816] - Ghent University Erik.Thoen@UGent.be; Tim Soens [801001340677] - Ghent University. ...

Coastal landscapes show very specific characteristics since the sea and the water of the tidal channels mainly influenced their origins. The upper layers of soil are quite young, most of them are formed in the course of the Holocene period and consist mainly of alternations of clay, ...

To verify the neo-Malthusian Duby/Postan thesis about the so called late medieval crisis, the county of
Flanders is an interesting test-case. The reason is that, at the eve of that period, this county was one of the most
densely populated areas of Europe. So, one could expect pure theoretically that -in the Malthusian thinkingthere
would have been a great tension (‘bottle neck’) between food supply and demand causing important crisis
phenomena and population losses during the ‘crisis’.
It is nevertheless -often too easily- accepted, that these crises phenomena ware relatively light in Flanders. Even
the black dead could not disorder the economy. A plausible and consistent explanation has never been given.
Does this proves that the Malthusian check was, at least partly, overcome due to specific situations,
characteristic for this area? Or does it denies the liability of the Malthusian model itself?
Actually, for a long time one could only speculate about these questions. This paper is based on new research
on the crisis phenomena. It will show that the crisis needs to be explained within the structure of the medieval
rural economy. It will not only show that the crisis was underestimated in parts of Flanders, it especially will
allow us to warn for generalizations and to formulate new explanations which are much more well-founded.
Since, as we will see below, the ‘classical’ crisis phenomena were quite differently felt within the (rather) small
county of Flanders, a regional explanation is necessary. So, it has to be explained why these areas were
different, how they were different and why they reacted differently on economic growth and decline. This will
make necessary a definition of economically socially differently structured areas. Therefore we established a
theoretical framework to define these areas as ‘social agro-systemic’ areas.
(Published as: Thoen (E.) en Soens (T.), "The family or the farm: a Sophie's choice? The late medieval crisis in
Flanders", in: Drendel (J.) (ed.), Crisis in the Later Middle Ages. Beyond the Postan-Duby Paradigm, Turnhout,
Brepols, 2015, pp. 195-224 (The Medieval Countryside 13)

This book deals with land productivity. Agriculture took the largest share of GNP before the mid-nineteenth century and so economic growth must focus on agricultural transformations and measurements of agricultural productivity and its determinants. The 1963 study by B.H. Slicher van Bath on yield ratios across Europe was epoch-making. But more recent studies point to the necessity of placing and analysing land productivity more clearly within agricultural, ecological and socio-economic contexts. This publication reflects the new developments and findings in this field, for the North Sea area from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. The book consists of three sections: the first contains national longterm overviews for each of the North Sea countries; the second part presents several case studies which examine the relationship between land productivity and agro-systems; and the last part consists of general comparative studies.

This paper forms the introduction to the book "Rural societies and environments at risk. Ecology, property rights and social organisation in fragile areas, Middle Ages-twentieth century". It first offers a succinct survey of the environmental risks and the margins of agrarian production in the past and next it focuses on these margins in fragile environments. Rural land use in these environments was endangered either because of too much water as a result of river floods or storm surges of the sea, or because of too little water. In other cases, their mountainous location or poor soils created a kind of inherent vulnerability. Because of the difficult circumstances, these areas allow for a test at the extreme margin, where the relationship between mankind and ecology is most fragile. As argued in this introduction, a major element in better understanding the ways in which rural societies have dealt with the fragility of their environments, and their different degrees of success, is the investigation of the property rights to the land and their exact formulation. Next, it discusses how the formulation of these property rights, and their effects, in their turn, can only be explained when placed in their social context and investigated in the long run. We argue that this should be a main research agenda for the field in the coming years.