Beyond the flock: Sheep farming, wool sales and social differentiation in a late medieval peasant society: the Campine area in the Low Countries

Abstract

In the existing literature late medieval sheep keeping has been perceived as a landlord and tenant-farmer strategy, aimed at international export markets. In this article we want to show that there was another side to those activities. Up until the early modern period, some regions – such as the Campine district in the Low Countries – managed to maintain viable peasant sheep-breeding enterprises. Two things were vital for the survival of peasant sheep breeding in the Campine. First of all the specific social structure and power structure of the region, allowing the peasants to keep control over their common lands and use them for their own (commercial) strategies. And secondly, there were lively local and regional markets, where demand for lower quality textiles was and remained strong.