法律身份、人口比例和收入水平——论中世纪西欧工匠的几个问题

The Legal Identity,the Proportion of Population and the Wage Level:Some Points on Medieval Western European Artisans

中世纪的西欧工匠是一个非常重要的劳动者群体。他们包括自由人和不自由人，后者在中世纪较早摆脱了奴役，成为半自由人和自由人；他们的人口比例不断上升，中世纪中晚期城乡工匠大约占到总人口的10％-20％，平均在15％左右，构成非农业人口的主体；他们主要以工业生产为生，随着中世纪中期和晚期工业品价格和工资从缓慢增长到快速上升，工匠收入的购买力也相应经历了从下降到提高的过程，15世纪时工匠的生活水平得到明显改善。

Medieval western European artisans were a very important labor group,including free men and unfree men.The latter was off bond service early in the Middle Ages and became half-free men and free men.Their proportion of population gradually increased.Urban and rural artisans occupied about 10 to 20 percent of the population in the mid and late Middle Ages,and the average was about 15 percent,which constituted the main body of non-agricultural population.They largely made a living by industrial production.The price of industrial goods and wages experienced the process from slow increasing to rapid rise during the high and late Middle Ages,so the purchasing power of artisans also experienced from low to high.Thus living standard of artisans in the 15th century was obviously improved.