Pilgrim Reindeer in Pisa, 1348 a free multimedia novel by Thomas A. DuBois, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Click here to return to Tom's homepage

Back to chapter Cultural information for this chapter

You can leave a comment or ask a question by emailing me at this address: bavlos.journey@gmail.com I will try to answer promptly and will post any pertinent questions and answers on this page. You can also write directly to Bavlos at: bavlos.johtti@gmail.com, or join his Facebook page. Click here to return to novel homepage

 Part II. The Hansa Lands and France. 26. Woad [October 28, 1347]

In this chapter, I continue to explore the issues of wage earning and its effects on society and culture. Bávlos comes from a subsistence economy and has little understanding of the workings of market forces or the monetary exchange of goods. The Hanseatic lands of North-Central Europe were already deeply shaped by capitalist practices, as Bávlos is quickly learning. Woad is an object case in some of the dangers that cash crop agriculture can present. Alas, sometimes what is good for profits is not good for the environment. Luckily, we have come to understand this fact today and always put considerations of the environment first... Would that it were so...we are not so different from the people of the fourteenth century as we sometimes imagine.