1. The Social order
HI203

2. What Does the Social Order Tell us About a Society?

3. Social Ordering Social ordering is a construct.
Ways of categorizing society reveal priorities, superstructures, and values.
Social ordering is diachronic.
Changes in the social order reveal underlying and systemic changes.
Early modern Europe sees an epistemic shift in the social order.

4. Hierarchies: National
Medieval Conceptions
Those who fight, those who pray, those who work.
Sorts v. Classes?

5. The Great Chain of Being
Tree of Commonwealth
Body Politic

6. Monarch Apex of the Chain Divinely Ordained
Head of Social and Political Nation

7. Nobility, Noblesse, Nobleza, Szlachta
“Those whom their race and blood or at least their virtues do make noble and known.”
3 Traditional Functions:
War
Land
Jurisdiction
Privileges

8. The Middling Sort Burghers, Citizens and Professionals
Urban
Rural
Burghers, Citizens and Professionals
Wealth based on Trade, Finance, Industry
Office-Holding and State Service
Yeoman and Independent Farmers
Wealth based on land
Secure Title and Surplus

9. The Commonality
“These have no voice nor authority in our commonwealth, and no account is made of these but to be ruled, not to rule others”
-Thomas Smith

10. The Common People Not a homogeneous group
Small farmers, craftsmen, industrial workers, fisherman, miners, servants, agricultural labourers.
Skilled vs. Manual Labour
Urban vs. Rural
Independent vs. Wage Labour

11. Minorities
Non-Christians
Jews
Muslims
Denominational Minorities

12. Personal Hierarchies Family Hierarchies
“A Little Commonwealth”
Occupational and Professional Hierarchies

13. Social Mobility Always a Feature of the Early Modern World
Strategies of Advancement
Marriage
State Service
Investment
Barriers to Advancement

14. Maintaining Hierarchies: Law
Justice or Social Peace
Common Law v. Roman Law Systems
Limits of Policing

15. Signaling Status Style of Address Clothing Consumption Seating
Processions

16. Sumptuary Laws Regulation of Clothing Based on Status
Official Enforcement of Outward Symbols
Colours, fabrics, materials, ornamentation restricted

17. Punishment
Terror and Mercy
Public Spectacle
Types of Punishment

18. The Church
Sexual Morality
Church Courts
Sermons and Homilies

19. Honour and Reputation Male and Female Honour
Sex
Credit
Honesty
Protection and Restoration

20. Popular Punishment
The Enforcement of Communal Norms Outside of Formal Judicial Venues
Public Humiliation as Tool of Enforcement

21. Charivari

22. Centralization and State Growth
Monopoly of Violence
Decline of Noble Power
Growth of Bureaucracy
Legibility and the Reach of the State

23. The Rise of the Middling Sort
Middling sort grow in wealth and power
Urban
Trade, Finance, Industry
Rural
Enclosure, Land Reclamation, Improvement

24. The Growth of Inequality
Growing Gap between Rich and Poor
Population Growth
Growing Number of Landless People
Growth of Wage Labour