Agriculture in the Late Medieval Cheb Region

The medieval peasantry is a great and extremely attractive unknown for historians, as it holds the key to understanding the later economic growth or, on the contrary, the striking stagnation of some European regions. In rough outlines and only in a torso we know the social structures and institutions of the medieval peasantry, but we know almost nothing about the actual internal dynamics and demographic aspects. The present monograph responds to this educational challenge and uses previously unnoticed and unique European written sources that have been preserved for the Cheb city state. They provide a remarkably detailed view of social mobility, migration and the mode of social reproduction of the late medieval peasantry, including new insights into the phenomenon of mass desertification of rural settlements in this period.