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Common Jobs in a Medieval City

medievalists.net

181–190 of 193 posts

Re: Common Jobs in a Medieval City

#181
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely a blacksmith in almost every city, but probably fewer blacksmiths per city than the other jobs. Metal tools are built to last, and are expensive, so it was probably often a low volume high cost kind of business where production could be covered by a minimal number of smiths.

They must have been quite prolific then. There's a reason Smith is the most common surname in the English speaking world.

Note that when surnames came into existence, they were intended to distinguish their bearers from other people in the local area with the same first name. There's no point being called John English if you live in England and everyone else in your village whose name is John is also English, which is why the surnames English and England (and variants like Inglis) are more common in Scotland than in England.

Similarly, Smith is a common surname because smiths, while relatively common, were rare enough that a given community was unlikely to have two with the same first name. There were almost certainly more shepherds than smiths in England when surnames started becoming heritable, but the surname Shepherd is less common.

Re: Common Jobs in a Medieval City

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's much easier to make clothes at home than shoes. I could probably cobble together an odd looking shirt given some time and instructions without needing to buy special tools, but leather shoes are an entirely different thing.

On a related note, this article reminded me of something one of my professors had to say about William Shakespeare. There's a long tradition of conspiracy theorizing around Shakespeare, that he didn't actually write his own plays, that they were instead written by Francis Bacon or Queen Elizabeth or something ridiculous. These arguments usually start from his background: how could the son of a common glovemaker have…

This gets particularly amusing when the conspiracy theorists start saying that Shakespeare's plays must have been written by Marlowe.

They were born only a couple of months apart and had the same sort of background- the sons of skilled craftsmen working with leather (Marlowe's father was a shoemaker) who attended their local grammar school.

Both schools still exist- King's School Canterbury is a much more prestigious institution than King Edward VI School Stratford these days, but I'm not sure how much of a difference there is then.

The course of their lives diverged in their late teens- while Marlowe obtained a scholarship to study at Cambridge, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway in some haste as she was pregnant with his daughter...

Re: Common Jobs in a Medieval City

#183

It surprises me that all 10 jobs still exist, while there are several more recent occupations that no longer exist (albeit they were not that common): Milkmen, Elevator operator, Switchboard Operator, Ice Cutter, Bowling Pin Setter, Film projectionist, Lamplighter, Leech collector, Alchemist, Bematist, Redsmith, Daguerreotypist, Town crier

Town crier job advert in the U.K. from 6 years ago https://www.crediton.gov.uk/Portals/0/Downloads/job-vacancie... Projectionist https://careers.atg.co.uk/opportunities/job-search/job-detai... Milkman quite common round here https://shonesmilkandnews.co.uk Switchboard operator https://www.jobs.nhs.uk/xi/direct_apply/?vac_ref=916883814 Fairly sure elevator operators in Blackpool tower exist and ride in the car with yo…

From your link I ended up in the nationwide Ancient and Honourable Guild of Town Criers http://www.ahgtc.org.uk/

Re: Common Jobs in a Medieval City

#184
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big solar flare would do it. Probably not worth worrying about though, not much we could do about it.

Solar flare would be awesome for coders. Some huge percentage of enterprise applications no longer have source code (they're just binaries with the code lost to the ages). All those binaries destroyed with the disks and insufficient disaster recovery would have to be rewritten!

I doubt if many enterprises would survive this level of catastrophe.

Re: Common Jobs in a Medieval City

#187

I'm surprised blacksmiths didn't cut to the top 10. Almost everyone would need some kind of metal tool(s) to do their job in medieval time.

Same, also surprised there how highly butcher ranks with baker not even in the to 10. I had the impression that meat was a luxury in Medieval times

And who KNOWS where candlestick maker ranks!

Re: Common Jobs in a Medieval City

#188
post #32

6th to 10th place are interesting: 6 – Tailors 7 – Notaries 8 – Barbers 9 – Retailers 10 – Stonemasons More notaries than barbers, retailers and stonemasons!

You've got to take into account that this is 15th C, after the first big wave of bubonic plague, which sent labor prices from "basically free" to "greater than the GDP of the entire continent". Whole new worlds of financial innovation were needed in this period, and not everyone was buying it. I suspect that this tax record itself was a relatively new project at the time, undertaken in part to control spiraling costs in a world without labor.

Re: Common Jobs in a Medieval City

#189

It surprises me that all 10 jobs still exist, while there are several more recent occupations that no longer exist (albeit they were not that common): Milkmen, Elevator operator, Switchboard Operator, Ice Cutter, Bowling Pin Setter, Film projectionist, Lamplighter, Leech collector, Alchemist, Bematist, Redsmith, Daguerreotypist, Town crier

Elevator ladies still exists here in Taiwan and Japan.

Re: Common Jobs in a Medieval City

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Learning to write is difficult. You need paper and pen, and free time, and some reference, and probably a teacher

Paper is easy to make from bark. Charcoal pencils are easy to find (or make) in rhe common fire. Parents can teach their children.

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