What were the most common jobs in a late medieval city? In this piece, we’ll look at the case of fifteenth-century Montpellier, a city located in the south of France.
Established in the late tenth century, Montpellier had become, three hundred years later, one of the main urban centres of southern France. Before the Black Death, more than 30,000 people called the city home. Montpellier was famous for its university that taught medicine and the trade goods that came with access to the Mediterranean, a dozen kilometres away. Detailed information on its population comes from a series of tax records spanning c. 1380–1480 that yield the names of nearly 10,000 householders, and the occupation of approximately 6,500 of them. So, who were the most numerous urban workers?
To answer this question, I’ve looked at tax records dated 1435–1446 in which a little under 2,200 households are listed. The profession of the head-householder is known in two-thirds of the cases. A handful of women who helmed their own households also declared a profession to the city’s authorities. Dozens and dozens of occupations existed at once in the city, a result of the great fragmentation of chains of production in the Middle Ages. The five most common jobs were farming, carpentry, butchery, shoemaking, and Church-related work.
1. Farming
Carrot farming in the Tacuinum sanitatis
Peasants made up 25% of the workers whose occupation was known in 1435–1446, and 16.5% of all the taxpayers. In Toulouse and Avignon, in the fifteenth century, peasants made up 17% of the testators with a known occupation. Unsurprisingly, peasants were more numerous in the suburbs than in the walled city. Most of the fields were located outside of the city’s walls, even if medieval urban centres did count a large number of gardens, orchards, and small vegetable beds. Urban peasants, called “ploughmen” in the Montpellier fiscal sources, tilled, sowed, and harvested the fields. Others raised cattle, pigs, and chickens. Some laboured in their orchards and vegetable beds.
Although numerous, the Montpellier agriculturalists could not produce enough food to supply the entire city. Rather, grain, meat, and other foodstuffs had to be imported from the city’s backcountry and overseas commercial partners. Imports of grain were essential to sustain urban populations. At times of food shortages, such as during the great famine of the early fourteenth century, death tolls in urban centres were staggering. In Montpellier, the chronicle asserts that people resorted to eating grass to survive.
2. Carpentry
Carpenters in a 14th century copy of Tacuina sanitatis
Carpenters, called “fustiers” in the local vernacular, formed an ill-defined professional group. “Carpenters” could build houses, make furniture, or chop and sell firewood. The “fustiers” only made up 6% of the taxpayers whose occupation was known in 1435–46 (81 individuals, including a woman). But the art of “fusterie” was essential to medieval communities. The workers built housing and furniture and provided heat to all households. Carpenters were frequently hired by the city’s government to undertake construction work on public buildings.
In Montpellier, the carpenters tended to live close to the city’s ditches. The reason is that trees imported from the nearby woods were stored and drenched in the ditches before their processing. Cutting down the timber into workable pieces was undertaken by specialized workers, called “ressaires” in the local vernacular, a term that could be translated as “pitsawyers.” Few “ressaires” appear in fiscal documents, suggesting that the carpenters could have done the job themselves, or that pitsawyers identified themselves as carpenters.
3. Butchery
A medieval manuscript image of a man and a woman slaughtering a pig
Medieval people who were Christians refrained from eating meat during Lent and fast days (in total nearly 150 days a year). But still, they ate large quantities of meat the rest of the year. In the south of France, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, people ate on average 26 kilograms of meat per year, or a ration of 120 grams on the days they were allowed to. In modern France, people eat on average 160 grams of meat daily—not far from the medieval rates.
The Montpellier butchers made up 4% of the 1435–46 taxpayers whose occupation was known. During that period, some sixty butchers laboured at once in the city, for a population of fewer than 20,000 people—approximately one butcher for every 300 inhabitants. In Toulouse, in the early fourteenth century, the ratio was one butcher for 225 people.
Butchers usually specialized in one specific type of animal: pork, mutton, or beef. Among the Montpellier butchers whose specialization is known, 55% sold mutton meat, 35% sold beef, and 10% sold pork. The animals’ offals were processed by workers known as “tripiers,” who would prepare and cook the offals to make, for instance, pies or sausage. Poultry was sold by a different type of worker, called “poulterers.” Few appeared in local documents, suggesting that most people kept chickens in their backyards for eggs and white meat.
4. Shoemaking
Detail of Shoemakers from the Altarpiece of St. Mark by Arnau Bassa – Image by Ramon Manent/ Wikimedia Commons
The Montpellier cobblers, who made and repaired shoes, were quite numerous, making up 4% of the workers paying taxes in 1435–46. They were organized in different guilds, based on the street in which they kept their shops. In 1360, nine cobblers’ guilds were attested in documents, all situated within the city’s walls. After the devastation caused by the Black Death and the subsequent plague epidemics, the number of cobblers’ guilds declined. In 1444, only five shoemakers’ guilds are mentioned in the Montpellier sources. Cobblers worked with leather, which was processed in the northern neighbourhoods of the city. Tannery was a highly polluting industry.
Shoemaking could be an even bigger employer in other medieval towns. In the Catalonian town of Manresa, near Barcelona, cobblers were the most numerous workers mentioned in fiscal records. They made up 15% of the local workforce, coming first before the local farmers. It is not surprising to know that Manresa was a centre for shoe production in Catalonia.
5. Church Work
Choir, from Book of Hours, Paris 1450 – c. 14 British Library MS Harley 2971 f. 109v
The category “cleric” encompasses deacons, chaplains and priests, monks and nuns, priors and prioresses, and even the local bishop, who possessed some estates in the city. Clerics made up a little under 4% of the taxpayers with a known profession. In England, the Poll Tax records of 1377 showed that 2% of the households were clerical. But demographer Josiah Russell and historian Michael Postan have postulated that the clerical population was probably twice as large, matching our estimates for Montpellier.
In the Mediterranean city, the clerical population was probably even larger than what fiscal sources suggest. But many clerics were exempted from personal taxation and did not appear in fiscal documents. For instance, Montpellier was the home of dozens of students who had travelled across France and Europe to attend its famous university to learn medicine or law. Students enrolled at medieval universities were considered clerics. But fiscal documents seldom recorded liberal arts, medicine, and law students. If they had been inscribed in tax records, there is no doubt that the estimate of the Montpellier clerical population would have been higher.
More medieval jobs
The tailors of London and their guild, c.1300-1500.
Here are the sixth to tenth most common jobs in late medieval Montpellier, according to the 1435–46 tax records:
This article has looked at the most common jobs based on the sheer number of occurrences of occupational titles. But, due to the great fragmentation of chains of production in the Middle Ages, the distribution of occupational titles does not reflect the size or importance of a given industry. For instance, none of the top-five jobs includes workers of the textile industry, although textile production represented a major source of income for the people of Montpellier. Weavers, shearers, dyers, drapers, even tailors, cotton makers, embroiderers, and needle makers were all part of the industry. In terms of industry size, food production and retail, textile work, construction work, and international trade were the main employment sectors of the late medieval city.
By Lucie Laumonier
What were the most common jobs in a late medieval city? In this piece, we’ll look at the case of fifteenth-century Montpellier, a city located in the south of France.
Established in the late tenth century, Montpellier had become, three hundred years later, one of the main urban centres of southern France. Before the Black Death, more than 30,000 people called the city home. Montpellier was famous for its university that taught medicine and the trade goods that came with access to the Mediterranean, a dozen kilometres away. Detailed information on its population comes from a series of tax records spanning c. 1380–1480 that yield the names of nearly 10,000 householders, and the occupation of approximately 6,500 of them. So, who were the most numerous urban workers?
To answer this question, I’ve looked at tax records dated 1435–1446 in which a little under 2,200 households are listed. The profession of the head-householder is known in two-thirds of the cases. A handful of women who helmed their own households also declared a profession to the city’s authorities. Dozens and dozens of occupations existed at once in the city, a result of the great fragmentation of chains of production in the Middle Ages. The five most common jobs were farming, carpentry, butchery, shoemaking, and Church-related work.
1. Farming
Peasants made up 25% of the workers whose occupation was known in 1435–1446, and 16.5% of all the taxpayers. In Toulouse and Avignon, in the fifteenth century, peasants made up 17% of the testators with a known occupation. Unsurprisingly, peasants were more numerous in the suburbs than in the walled city. Most of the fields were located outside of the city’s walls, even if medieval urban centres did count a large number of gardens, orchards, and small vegetable beds. Urban peasants, called “ploughmen” in the Montpellier fiscal sources, tilled, sowed, and harvested the fields. Others raised cattle, pigs, and chickens. Some laboured in their orchards and vegetable beds.
Although numerous, the Montpellier agriculturalists could not produce enough food to supply the entire city. Rather, grain, meat, and other foodstuffs had to be imported from the city’s backcountry and overseas commercial partners. Imports of grain were essential to sustain urban populations. At times of food shortages, such as during the great famine of the early fourteenth century, death tolls in urban centres were staggering. In Montpellier, the chronicle asserts that people resorted to eating grass to survive.
2. Carpentry
Carpenters, called “fustiers” in the local vernacular, formed an ill-defined professional group. “Carpenters” could build houses, make furniture, or chop and sell firewood. The “fustiers” only made up 6% of the taxpayers whose occupation was known in 1435–46 (81 individuals, including a woman). But the art of “fusterie” was essential to medieval communities. The workers built housing and furniture and provided heat to all households. Carpenters were frequently hired by the city’s government to undertake construction work on public buildings.
In Montpellier, the carpenters tended to live close to the city’s ditches. The reason is that trees imported from the nearby woods were stored and drenched in the ditches before their processing. Cutting down the timber into workable pieces was undertaken by specialized workers, called “ressaires” in the local vernacular, a term that could be translated as “pitsawyers.” Few “ressaires” appear in fiscal documents, suggesting that the carpenters could have done the job themselves, or that pitsawyers identified themselves as carpenters.
3. Butchery
Medieval people who were Christians refrained from eating meat during Lent and fast days (in total nearly 150 days a year). But still, they ate large quantities of meat the rest of the year. In the south of France, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, people ate on average 26 kilograms of meat per year, or a ration of 120 grams on the days they were allowed to. In modern France, people eat on average 160 grams of meat daily—not far from the medieval rates.
The Montpellier butchers made up 4% of the 1435–46 taxpayers whose occupation was known. During that period, some sixty butchers laboured at once in the city, for a population of fewer than 20,000 people—approximately one butcher for every 300 inhabitants. In Toulouse, in the early fourteenth century, the ratio was one butcher for 225 people.
Butchers usually specialized in one specific type of animal: pork, mutton, or beef. Among the Montpellier butchers whose specialization is known, 55% sold mutton meat, 35% sold beef, and 10% sold pork. The animals’ offals were processed by workers known as “tripiers,” who would prepare and cook the offals to make, for instance, pies or sausage. Poultry was sold by a different type of worker, called “poulterers.” Few appeared in local documents, suggesting that most people kept chickens in their backyards for eggs and white meat.
4. Shoemaking
The Montpellier cobblers, who made and repaired shoes, were quite numerous, making up 4% of the workers paying taxes in 1435–46. They were organized in different guilds, based on the street in which they kept their shops. In 1360, nine cobblers’ guilds were attested in documents, all situated within the city’s walls. After the devastation caused by the Black Death and the subsequent plague epidemics, the number of cobblers’ guilds declined. In 1444, only five shoemakers’ guilds are mentioned in the Montpellier sources. Cobblers worked with leather, which was processed in the northern neighbourhoods of the city. Tannery was a highly polluting industry.
Shoemaking could be an even bigger employer in other medieval towns. In the Catalonian town of Manresa, near Barcelona, cobblers were the most numerous workers mentioned in fiscal records. They made up 15% of the local workforce, coming first before the local farmers. It is not surprising to know that Manresa was a centre for shoe production in Catalonia.
5. Church Work
The category “cleric” encompasses deacons, chaplains and priests, monks and nuns, priors and prioresses, and even the local bishop, who possessed some estates in the city. Clerics made up a little under 4% of the taxpayers with a known profession. In England, the Poll Tax records of 1377 showed that 2% of the households were clerical. But demographer Josiah Russell and historian Michael Postan have postulated that the clerical population was probably twice as large, matching our estimates for Montpellier.
In the Mediterranean city, the clerical population was probably even larger than what fiscal sources suggest. But many clerics were exempted from personal taxation and did not appear in fiscal documents. For instance, Montpellier was the home of dozens of students who had travelled across France and Europe to attend its famous university to learn medicine or law. Students enrolled at medieval universities were considered clerics. But fiscal documents seldom recorded liberal arts, medicine, and law students. If they had been inscribed in tax records, there is no doubt that the estimate of the Montpellier clerical population would have been higher.
More medieval jobs
Here are the sixth to tenth most common jobs in late medieval Montpellier, according to the 1435–46 tax records:
6. Tailors
7. Notaries
8. Barbers
9. Retailers
10. Stonemasons
This article has looked at the most common jobs based on the sheer number of occurrences of occupational titles. But, due to the great fragmentation of chains of production in the Middle Ages, the distribution of occupational titles does not reflect the size or importance of a given industry. For instance, none of the top-five jobs includes workers of the textile industry, although textile production represented a major source of income for the people of Montpellier. Weavers, shearers, dyers, drapers, even tailors, cotton makers, embroiderers, and needle makers were all part of the industry. In terms of industry size, food production and retail, textile work, construction work, and international trade were the main employment sectors of the late medieval city.
Lucie Laumonier is an Assistant Professor at Concordia University. Click here to view her Academia.edu page.
Click here to read more from Lucie Laumonier
Further Reading:
Jeff Fynn-Paul, Family, Work, and Household in Late Medieval Iberia: A Social History of Manresa at the Time of the Black Death (Routledge, 2017)
Valerie Garver (ed.), A Cultural History of Work in the Medieval Age, (Bloomsbury, 2019)
Kathryn Reyerson, Women’s Networks in Medieval France. Gender and Community in Montpellier, 1300-1350 (Palgrave, 2016)
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