RE: The Current Evolution of Ancient Religious Institutions
November 19, 2023 at 11:21 pm
(This post was last modified: November 19, 2023 at 11:33 pm by Anomalocaris.)
There is no question disparity in education protects privilege, encourages abuse, and kills social mobility. So it is hard to argue those who sought to restrict education didn;t have what we might consider malice or self service, conscious or subconscious, as at least part of their motivation.
However, that does not mean in the absent of such malice, the medieval society would in general have seen benefit from wider education, and seen it quickly enough so it would seem broadening education is a sound policy worth the cost. I suspect broadening of education would bring different amount of benefit in the Middle Ages depending on the society. For primarily agrarian peasant society, high levels of literacy probably would bring little easily discernible benefit, and in the short term probably impoverish the society by removing parts of labor force from production to educate them at a time when child labor was critical to overall agrarian productivity. On the other head, for society which dependent heavily on being the middleman in maritime commerce, high level of literacy would probably bring more easily discernible benefit.
It’s probably not a coincidence that the only European societies to achieve significant overall levels of literacy outside aristocracy and clergy before the Industrial Revolution were those of the Italian maritime republics, followed by England and Holland. All of these depended very heavily on maritime commerce. All other European societies depended more on agrarian peasantry for production and wealth. None of the other European societies began to attain significant literacy rates outside aristocracy and clergy until after the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in their respective societies.
Come to think of it, which pre-industrial, primarily agrarian peasant society around the world ever attained significant literacy rates outside aristocracy, clergy and a small segment of scholar/tradesmen/administrators?
However, that does not mean in the absent of such malice, the medieval society would in general have seen benefit from wider education, and seen it quickly enough so it would seem broadening education is a sound policy worth the cost. I suspect broadening of education would bring different amount of benefit in the Middle Ages depending on the society. For primarily agrarian peasant society, high levels of literacy probably would bring little easily discernible benefit, and in the short term probably impoverish the society by removing parts of labor force from production to educate them at a time when child labor was critical to overall agrarian productivity. On the other head, for society which dependent heavily on being the middleman in maritime commerce, high level of literacy would probably bring more easily discernible benefit.
It’s probably not a coincidence that the only European societies to achieve significant overall levels of literacy outside aristocracy and clergy before the Industrial Revolution were those of the Italian maritime republics, followed by England and Holland. All of these depended very heavily on maritime commerce. All other European societies depended more on agrarian peasantry for production and wealth. None of the other European societies began to attain significant literacy rates outside aristocracy and clergy until after the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in their respective societies.
Come to think of it, which pre-industrial, primarily agrarian peasant society around the world ever attained significant literacy rates outside aristocracy, clergy and a small segment of scholar/tradesmen/administrators?
