What professions would a medieval village with a population of 100 need?c D HW89AmSs NnEe1p Z 50ia 234Bb TCPd l MIimeumw X g
Let's say I have a small village with 100 people of which everyone is able to work, what kind of professions do these people need?
Background to the society: they are as smart as medieval people, with an almighty god ruling them through a strict religious code.
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4$\\begingroup$ Why does it matter that they have an almighty god and a strict religious code? $\\endgroup$ – Morris The Cat 17 hours ago
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1$\\begingroup$ Do they have access to trade or are they completely isolated? $\\endgroup$ – James♦ 17 hours ago
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3$\\begingroup$ What tech level, modern humans and early hunter gatherers are "as smart as medieval people", what level of technology do they have. $\\endgroup$ – John 17 hours ago
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13$\\begingroup$ So it's a village with about 200 people? Because about half of a Medieval village will be children (many of whom can be useful but they won't have professions) or people unable to work because they're heavily pregnant/nursing, very elderly, injured, disabled, or ill. If all 100 can work at a profession then it's not a village, it's a work camp. $\\endgroup$ – Cyn 10 hours ago
9 Answers
Farmer, farmer, and farmer
Assuming it is independent and not a satellite settlement (a satellite community is far far more likely) there is only one job, farmer. there is not enough people to support specialized labor. Maybe, maybe they have a blacksmith, although a hundred is is a pretty small number to support a full time blacksmith so more than likely they are part time, the rest of their tie will be spent either farming or herding (and farming to feed them)
100 people is not a village, its not a town, it only qualifies as a hamlet because there is no word for something smaller. It is basically band living, everyone knows everyone else intimately, moral control is communal because everyone knows everyone else and can shun an offender. You are looking at less than 20 homes in the entire settlement.
With very small communities there just is not enough surplus food production to support specialized labor. different people will have different talents (Bob is a better tanner and John is a better potter) but everyone does every job but their first job is still to feed themselves. the closest thing to specialization you will have is side projects, Dave may keep bees while Harry keeps extra chickens but in both cases these are small side projects, the majority of their time is spent farming. Everyone farms, everyone makes pottery, everyone is a carpenter, everyone is a brewer, everyone makes candles and clothing. Some jobs will be collective, several guys may get together to make a kiln or raise a barn but it is a community project.
If they are a satellite community their job is to harvest whatever resource the satellite community is built around, mining, lumberjacking, building a castle, ect. food is likely imported at some lords expense. Then you will have service jobs and administrator, a whorehouse, a brewer, and a church. Their will not be as many families in such a community and more single men.
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6$\\begingroup$ Assuming they have iron tools, which is not a given. and many communities had part time blacksmiths, there just was not enough demand to support a full time one. I see how that is not clear, I will fix it. $\\endgroup$ – John 17 hours ago
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2$\\begingroup$ perhaps a wizard ... $\\endgroup$ – Hagen von Eitzen 16 hours ago
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3$\\begingroup$ Since everyone loves a pedant: I believe the word "thorp" refers to a handful of houses in the country, but unhelpfully the various dictionaries I've found online simply list it as "a small village". $\\endgroup$ – Joel Harmon 10 hours ago
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3$\\begingroup$ Nice answer, but some of the professions seem too specialized for "everyone": everyone makes pottery, everyone makes candles, and may require specific hardware. I would count on some division of work based on a) gender roles (women weaving, por example) b) some specific individuals or families may provide some more specialized goods (even if it is not a full fledged business and they are still farmers) and some goods obtained by trade. $\\endgroup$ – SJuan76 4 hours ago
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2$\\begingroup$ @Separatrix A blacksmith will be necessary, but might not live there. At that size, it makes more sense for the Blacksmith / Priest / Healer / Tailor / Cobbler to either be in another village nearby, or to live in this village but service the nearby villages who don't have one (but do have one of the others!) More important might be an Innkeeper, for anyone travelling through to rest a night (or somewhere for the traders to stay!), and provide a communal space to gather and drink in the evenings. They would also likely have a small garden or brewery to maintain when not serving customer $\\endgroup$ – Chronocidal 4 hours ago
Unlike the main answers, we actually do see a few specialized professions even in small villages. This is true both for the middle ages and for contemporary indigenous people.
Most importantly, there would be a priest. Even small villages have a shaman, witch doctor, priest or other religious figurehead.
According to some historical research, productivity in agriculture being low in the middle ages, about 70% of the people needed to work in food production. That gives your 100 people village about 30 people who do not have to be full-time farmers. Most of those people will be small children, but I would estimate that your village can afford a dozen or so people who have food production as a hobby at most (say, the priest also has bees).
The other thing we know from historical research is that peasants in the middle ages were highly self-sufficient. They knew how to make their own clothes, how to deliver babies, apply whatever counted as medicine and how to build a shack. They would slaughter animals by themselves and barter with their neighbours instead of looking for a supermarket.
You would look to the professions that are highly specialized and can't be done "as an aside".
Making shoes is one such thing. They are very useful to have and good shoes are much more difficult to make than clothes or rope or pottery.
Furniture is another thing. Basic carpentry will be something most people can do, but making a proper table and benches or chairs, as well as specialized items that require proper craftsmanship, such as parts of a mill, would require a proper carpenter.
Your village might be too small for its own blacksmith, but this would be another profession you could find, because of the investment in tools, furnace, etc. that is needed, it is unlikely that everyone does a bit of smithing.
There might be a village sherrif or major or both combined - someone to enforce rules, but you're on the edge there. The community probably functions well without and doesn't need one, but it isn't too far from a size where such a position would appear.
Then there are specialists like a herbalist/apothecary or a teacher that at this size may or may not exist and may or may not be a part-time position of someone who also has a (smaller) farm.
Finally, there are a few farming-related professions that your village might have, such as a miller. Again, like the blacksmith the reason for this isn't that the job is so special, but that one mill or smithy shared by the village is better than everyone having their own.
If it is variety you are after, don't forget that "food production" is an entirely field by itself. Some people grow crops, some have a vegetable garden, some have an orchard of fruit trees. There is also hunting, trapping and fishing. There are different kinds of animals to keep, shear, slaughter and make into meat and leather. Even the 70+ people in your village who are food producers are unlikely to all be doing the exact same things.
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$\\begingroup$ Keep in mind that about 20% of the production would go to taxes (some 10% to the local lord, another 10% or so to the church). So that only leaves ten out of a hundred people who can do stuff other than procure food. But then you account for children (who eat less, but are also less productive), the sick and the elderly... It's not accidental that starvation wasn't exactly unheard of back in the day. $\\endgroup$ – Luaan 59 mins ago
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1$\\begingroup$ Re carpentry, something which still exists in some small rural communities in the UK is a local undertaker/funeral director, making their own wooden coffins, and also doing general carpentry and joinery - and sometimes other minor building repairs, house painting, and interior decorating as well. If your village has a "strict religious code" it needs all the practical skills necessary to perform the religious rites, not just a priest/shaman. $\\endgroup$ – alephzero 45 mins ago
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$\\begingroup$ a Priest (who will likely also have some sheep/livestock), a <insert doctor-like term> (who will also do agriculture), a Blacksmith (on Tues- and Wednesdays, but mostly a farmer) $\\endgroup$ – Hobbamok 1 min ago
I agree with John that such a small village would probably consist of farmers, farmers, and farmers.
Except if the people are Humans or similar they were have two genders with somewhat different roles and a ranges of ages.
So probably the jobs would be farm husband, farm wife, farm hand, farm wife's assistant, farmer's little boy, farmer's little girl, old farm woman, and old farm man, which makes eight jobs in all.
Most of the farm hands and farm wife's assistants would be working for their parents, but some might be working for other families, presumably for room and board.
Presumably the farm husbands, farm wives, farm hands, & farm wives' assistants, would be numerous enough to do almost all of the work, with some assistance, "assistance", meddling, and advice from the other groups.
With that small of a group most would be farmers. Some of them might have a sideline like being a blacksmith in addition to being a farmer. Every family would be able to do some craft work like spinning thread or wool, sewing, carpentry, Leather work including tanning, and so on.
The population would probably have to reach a few thousand to allow things like full time blacksmiths, furniture makers, doctors, brewers, bakers, and so on.
Need? At a minimum, and assuming this is not a village featured in the medieval version of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, this small population village needs farms raising a suitably broad range of foodstuffs for the populace to have a healthy diet via battering.
Many villages of this size might support itinerant peddlers and tradesman providing many of the other services useful for the village -- rag and bone man collecting rags, bones, and bits of scrap metal (they might double as tinkers too), traveling blacksmith fixing and making tools, traveling Ferrier if the residents have horses for working their land, tinkers to repair metal pots and pans.
Then maybe a cooper to make barrels for storing food for winter and transportation to markets for sale, and wheelwrights, and carpenters.
You forgot the major rule-enforcer, the village priest. It might not be exactly commercial in nature but it's certainly a profession and is one of the few people the slight excess food production will go toward supporting.
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3$\\begingroup$ And as the village is small enough and so probably not exactly rich, the priest will also likely have at least a garden for vegetables, a few chicken, etc. to complement his meager income. $\\endgroup$ – vsz 7 hours ago
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2$\\begingroup$ And he’ll probably also act as a healer, messenger, history-keeper, manager etc. $\\endgroup$ – Michael 4 hours ago
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1$\\begingroup$ Well, a single priest could still service multiple villages; and in smaller villages, the priest would have multiple jobs to do, including food production. There are definitely times and regions where priests were pretty much a leisure class, but it's not a given. $\\endgroup$ – Luaan 56 mins ago
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$\\begingroup$ Modern priests service multiple small villages, but they have the advantage of modern transportation. You can't lead religious services in two villages on the same day, if travelling from one to the other is a five-hour walk or horse-ride. Remember these people may never travel more than 15 or 20 miles from their birthplace in their whole life. $\\endgroup$ – alephzero 41 mins ago
Butcher, baker, candlestickmaker, doctor, teacher, miller, hoo.. oh wait, you said fictitious god overseeing all of them. So a Preacher. Most are farmers, some are hunters. All folks could have multiple roles. And a blacksmith for making/fixing tools.
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$\\begingroup$ a community that small is not supporting specialized labor. $\\endgroup$ – John 17 hours ago
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1$\\begingroup$ @John, very wrong. What you've failed to consider is in medieval times most land workers were serfs of land lords. They owed a certain amount of labor to their lord's household which often included specialized labors such as all of those CrossRoads mentioned (except perhaps doctor). A manor that supported only 100 serfs would have been relatively small, implying it would likely be in close proximity to other manors and their villages. So the potential local market for goods from specialized labor would be even greater and a welcome increase to the lord's tax base. $\\endgroup$ – dhinson919 10 hours ago
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$\\begingroup$ @dhinson919 Specialised labours yes. But not full-time specialised labourers. You're not going to have a butcher who's only income is butchering; a baker who's only income is baking, or a doctor, who's only income is healing people. You have people with specialised knowledge, but they're still spending most of their time doing the same things the others do - procuring food. And being serfs meant that they had that much less income to support specialised professions (all else equal). $\\endgroup$ – Luaan 52 mins ago
They've already answered above saying that food would be their priority and that their professions would depend on whether the community is a satellite settlement or not, but also keep into account how many adults you have.
Babies can't work, and children can only lend a hand with less physically-demanding tasks such as fetching water; herding geese, sheep, or goats; gathering fruit, nuts, or firewood; walking and watering horses; fishing; tending a vegetable or herb garden; making or mending clothes; churning butter; brewing beer; and helping with the cooking.
Teens can help with more difficult tasks, such as goading the ox in the fields while an adult handles the plough, and they might babysit. But this all depends on the settlement's population pyramid. If you say there are 100 able-bodied and -minded adults, then your population is probably actually larger than 100 because there are both young and old people that you aren't taking into the equation.
If you've got 100 people total, counting babies and children and teens and young adults and adults and elderly people, then your workforce will probably be halved at the very least, assuming the population pyramid is a healthy one (a larger number of younger people than older people).
Assuming they don't have other villages, I would expect you'd have someone fulfilling these roles:
- Tool Makers. In most cases, this might be the blacksmith, but you could also have someone chipping stone, carving wood, or whatever the local materials are available. The number of tool-makers is pretty dependent on demand. If there is a low one, they are probably wearing more than one hat. If there is a high demand, then they could specialize (e.g., not be farming as their primary job).
- Sales: In other words, shopkeepers and someone to manage those disputes. This could be someone wearing many hats (100 is rather small, so there might not be enough room for specialization) or if a town has a lot of trade among members, then I could see either a general store. If there is enough business, someone who imports/exports goods would set up store otherwise it could be "go down the street to Mel's and buy some sugar".
- Rule Enforcement: Police, guards. Again, it depends on how independent the village is. For a close-knit community, enforcement could be done with mob rule (troublemakers with "great big bushy beards" are dealt with ad-hoc) or there could be more formal enforcement. I was in a village that had a police department only during daylight hours with a voice mail message to call the next city over for night time.
- Moral Enforcement: You said strict religious code. That would suggest you would need at least someone to interpret the dogma. Depending on how strict it is, there may actually be more than a few for supporting that. Again, the more focus you have on something, the higher chance you can have a specialist (priest) verses the mayor who happens to be religious.
A lot of it depends on what the village needs. At the basic levels, you just go to neighbors to ask for things (tools, food). Its when it becomes a significant effort (usually with the number of people involved or the complexities to maintain it) you get specialties (e.g., professions). So, it may be good to look at what they have and what they need.
Take an example: alcohol. Pretty much any farmer can make mead or ferment something. My father's father had a small room in his basement to make honey mead. Occasionally his friends would come over and they would drink it. That's your basic, go visit some friends.
Now, if the religion dictates that all alcohol must be blessed, then you add complexity. Someone has to manage it. For a few people, that might be easy, but soon it becomes a full time job (e.g., a profession) to bless all the spirits.
Enforcing that blessed rule would start as a simple task ("we police ourselves") but as the scope gets bigger, people abuse the system and end up driving orange cars around Hazard County. Then you need someone who spends most of their day not farming but chasing down the Duke Brothers. So, then you need a specialist (profession) to enforce the rules.
If the materials to make spirits are local, that's easy. However if there is some component (hops) that needs to be imported, you have to have someone doing the importing. If that is occasional (traveling merchant), you have someone to flies in, sells stuff, and moves on. However, if there is enough demand, someone is going to get in the role of mainly managing sales. That's your general store at first and then more specialized stores as the exchanges get more prevalent (a hundred people probably wouldn't have enough business to support more than a couple stores).
Same with clothing, woodcraft, stone, etc. It depends on the demand and the support structure. You'd be surprised how much you can get away with a once a week farmer's market. Hell, even once a quarter for things like outfits and furniture. That doesn't need strict professions.
Short answer: depends on what they need. If there is enough demand, someone will make a job of it.
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2$\\begingroup$ There is no store with only 100 people, they have no manufacturing based to support a store, everyone makes everything. the closest they will have to a "store" is a market day where people trade agricultural products or side labor. $\\endgroup$ – John 17 hours ago
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$\\begingroup$ Rule enforcement will be a community effort, there's not nearly enough people to support or warrant a full-time guard. I don't think that should be in the top 4. $\\endgroup$ – Nuclear Wang 17 hours ago
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$\\begingroup$ That's why I said mob or ad-hoc. However, if enforcement is required from an external force (e.g., the strict religious code), there might be a dedicated person. Since I don't know what the code is, that is why I said there might be one. You never know, it might say "any community must have a dedicated enforcement of the One True Way". In that case, you could have a token profession which would justify it. Or, if the only place to get the Blessed Token of Macguffin is outside of the village, there might be a store (which could be someone's living room). Again, unknown external possibilities. $\\endgroup$ – dmoonfire 17 hours ago
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$\\begingroup$ In the past, a village close to my home was pretty much just a few farms and woodworkers that somehow managed to subsist. They could not support their own priest and had to go to a distant faraway village for High Mass. In winter they had to put their deceased into "cold storage" until the weather conditions made it possible to hold a funeral. $\\endgroup$ – MauganRa 1 hour ago
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$\\begingroup$ Police in a mediaeval village? They're a 19th century invention. The county would have a sheriff and maybe a deputy sheriff, who might come through the village occasionally, but they'd live in a major town. See: hue and cry. $\\endgroup$ – Peter Taylor 5 mins ago