The Economics of Owning a Medieval Village

You have just been given a medieval village, and it looks like the easiest fortune in history. Collect the rent, eat well, rest forever. But the real ledger tells a very different story. In this video we walk through the economy of owning a village in medieval England, exactly as the lords lived it. We break down every stream of income, from cash rents and labor duties to the mill, the court fines, the market tolls and the tithe. Then we go through the prices of everyday life, what a loaf of bread, an ox, a horse, a plow and a plot of land actually cost in silver pennies. We compare those prices with real wages, what a day laborer, a mason, a bailiff, a reeve and a village priest could earn in a year, and we show what a full year of running a village really leaves in your pocket. The numbers come from documented manorial accounts and are given as honest historical ranges, so nothing here is invented and nothing here is advice, this is history. If you enjoy clear, sources based stories about how money, land and work actually functioned in the past, this channel is made for you. Tell us in the comments which part surprised you the most, and if you want to see the same treatment for castles, towns or guilds, we read every suggestion.