A Liberal
Dose
June 8, 2023
Troy D.
Smith
“Dispossessing
the Poor- Part 1, How It Started”
I hope everyone had as good a holiday weekend as I did last
week. Unfortunately, between travel and family time, I was unable to get a
column written. I have been doing a lot of thinking and reading, though, about
my most recent topic: the big shots against the little guy. I laid most of this
(at least for the last century) on the Republicans, while admitting Democrats
have also played a role. What I’d like to do now is a multi-part historical
deep-dive into what got us here. I’m going to be mentioning thinkers from
previous centuries, such as Adam Smith (generally considered one of the fathers
of capitalism) and Karl Marx. I will be critiquing and disagreeing with both of
them. While I don’t think most people understand capitalism or communism as
well as they think they do, I think it is fair to say that communism puts the
working class at the mercy of the state, and capitalism puts the working class
at the mercy of the market. In other words, going to extremes at either left or
right puts workers in a bad spot. My personal opinion is somewhere in the
middle, but we’ll get to that later. First, some basics about English society
BEFORE any English colonies were established in the Americas.
Actually, before even that, I should cite my sources. In
addition to the two 18th & 19th century thinkers
mentioned above, there is John Locke in the 17th century and E.P
Thompson and Marcus Rediker in the 20th/21st. There is
the classic 1968 article “The Tragedy of the Commons” by Garret Hardin (and
countless others arguing against his ideas), and, more recently, the work of
Allan Greer. I particularly recommend two recent books: “Ramp Hollow: The
Ordeal of Appalachia” by Steven Stoll, and “White Trash” by Nancy Isenberg.
With that out of the way, let’s go back in time. From William
the Conqueror’s Norman Conquest of England in 1066 until the 16th
century, England -like most of Europe (and Japan, for that matter) -existed
under the system called feudalism. This term does not mean, by the way, people
having feuds. It means that, technically, the monarch owned all the land. The
monarch had nobles, to whom he/she granted “tenure”, or control, of certain
lands (hence Earl or Duke is a “landed title”.) Under the nobles were the
knights, each of whom was granted tenure to certain lands held by the noble to
whom they swore allegiance. Under the knights came the peasants, who were
allowed to build villages and work the land -giving a portion to the local
knight, who gave a portion to his noble liege, who gave a portion to the
monarch, to whom it all technically belonged. Each level in this society had
certain obligations: they had to be loyal to the level above them, and provide
for the level below them.
Simple farmer villages divided up the land and the work.
Only a portion of each region was farmed- the rest was forests and open fields,
for the use of everyone in the village. These were called “the commons.” So a
peasant would put in long hours farming, and would supplement his family’s diet
by hunting or fishing in the commons. Without access to the commons, peasants
would not be able to subsist, as so much of their crop went to those above
them.
This system fell apart in Europe due to the Plague. So many
people died -including farmers- that peasants had leverage to ask for more, as
there was a labor shortage. The nobles had other ideas. The discovery of the
“New World” had opened up trade across the board. English wool was especially
prized in Europe, and could thus be turned into money. Throughout Europe, this
situation led to new ideas about money, how to use land… and the proper status
of peasants.
To be continued.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
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