告别糊口经济——中世纪欧洲食品供求关系研究

Parting from the Subsistence Economy:Study on the Relationship Between Food Supply and Demand in Medieval Europe

告别糊口经济意味着解决了温饱问题。欧洲何时告别糊口经济?说法各异,值得进一步辨析。现有研究表明,欧洲各国从糊口到温饱的转变时间不同。许多因素影响了这一转变过程的早晚快慢,但主要因素还是食品的供求关系。中世纪欧洲农业进步总的来说是缓慢的,难以承受人口快速增长的巨大压力。较早开始低出生率的国家摆脱了人口与资源的周期性循环,在中世纪农业缓慢增长的条件下率先改善了生活水平;而那些农业发展相对迟缓和人口增长较快的国家,则延续传统的人口-资源模式,生活水平缺乏根本变化。

Parting from the subsistence economy means achieving sufficiency in food and clothing.There are different opinions with regard to when Europe parted from the subsistence economy,which is worth further analysis and study.The current research shows the transformation time from subsistence economy to sufficient economy varies in different European countries.Many factors affect the time and speed of this changing process,but the main factor is the relationship between food supply and demand.Generally speaking,the development of agricultural productivity in medieval Europe was slow and it was hard to bear the severe pressure of rapid increase in population.The countries which started to have low birthrate gradually got rid of the periodic conflict between population and resources.They took the lead in improving their living standard under the condition of slow agricultural growth in the Middle Ages,while the countries where the agricultural development was relatively slow and the population growth was relatively fast kept the traditional population-resource pattern and witnessed no fundamental change in their living standard.