Beyond the Market: Transactions, Property and Social Networks in Monastic Galicia, 1200-1300 (Medieval Mediterranean)

This volume deals with the social implications of land transactions, especially with the role of personal and institutional networks in a precapitalist society. The four authors discuss different aspects of the relationship between three monasteries (two Cistercians, Montederramo and Oseira, and one Benedictine nunnery, Ramiranes) and the peasant communities around them in thirteenth-Century Galicia. They use a Data Base to register 2500 'foros', the typical Galician land contract and more than 8000 people and their goods. The thesis of the authors is that monasteries did not exert their authority upon powerless peasants, but constraint by preexisting networks of local people. Most of the peasants involved in the transactions turned out to be members of 'middle groups' like knights, squires or upper peasants. The book is especially important for all those interested in social perspectives as a means to understand the medieval economy. Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Table of Contents 8 Foreword 10 List of Contributors 14 Introduction: Transactions, Social Relations, and Monasticism in the Rural Medieval World 16 I The Logic of Exchange: Redistribution and Reciprocity 18 II The Dynamics of Society: Power and Social Relations 25 III Methods: Microhistory and Computerized Analysis 32 IV The Articles 38 Vassals And Allies In Conflict: Relations Between Santa María De Montederramo And Local Galician Society in the Thirteenth Century 40 Introduction: Personal Relationships and the Circulation of Goods 42 I Social Agents 51 II The Processes 94 III Conclusions 115 Monasticism, Lineage, and Community: Collective Organizations in Medieval Galician Society (San Pedro De Ramiranes, 1200–1300) 122 Introduction: The Social and Economic Dynamics of Class Organization 124 I The End of the Civil Wars and the Introduction of Monastic Feudalism to Galicia 127 II ‘Patrimonialism’ and Feudalism: the Social and Economic Foundations of Organizations in Pre-Industrial Societies 135 III The Community of Nuns and the Definition of Inheritance within the Local Nobility 145 IV The Clerical Chapter and the Gender-Based Division of Labour and Power 155 V Knights, Landowners, and the Individualization of Property Rights within the Monastery 163 VI Conclusions: Long-Term Class Organization and Social Differentiation 178 Monastic Strategy and Local Relations: The Social Influence of the Monastery of Oseira in the Thirteenth Century 186 Introduction: Cistercian Organization and Local Power 188 I The Social World of Local Milites 191 II Monastic Strategy and Local Relations 196 III Conclusions 254 Social Mobility And The Personal Networks of ‘Low-Intermediate Social Groups’: Relations Between Communities of Peasants and Foreros and the Monastery of Oseira in the Thirteenth Century 260 Introduction 262 I Peasant Communities and their Relations with Oseira 263 II Foreros and the Monastery’s Personal Networks 305 Bibliography 334 Maps 340 The Medieval Mediterranean Peoples, Economies and Cultures, 400–1500 346