The Town of Irvine is very old. So old nobody has been able to unearth its beginnings. It is older than Christianity.
The street I mentioned in the pervious post, " Glasgow Vennel" It was a very short street and the gateway into and out of the town.
In mediaeval times, the town was patrolled by a night watchman after the gate was closed.
Only people who lived in the town were Freemen and entitled to make a living in the town.
A person who could hide and live in the town for a certain period could become a Freeman.
King James, not sure which one, made Irvine a Royal burgh. That entitled them to have a school named the Royal Academy. It was intended to educate and have the right to set up their own assizes.
The King would not then have to include Irvine on his rounds of court decisions.
People living outside the burgs were not Freemen. They were owned by The Lairds. The Clan Chieftains.
Serfs owned nothing. They farmed small crofts and delivered 75 precent of harvest to the Laird. Sons were required to serve in the Laird's army when he decided to go out and fight his neighbour or had to defend his turf .
It was called the feudal system. Not much different to slavery.
Except that they could not be bought or sold. Kind of like the Spartans and helots.
I believe in Canada's beginnings, records exist of "indentured servants." That's
when a parent sold a child to an employer for a period of labour, unpaid to the child.
Also slightly similar to slavery when tribal chiefs sold young people of the tribe into slavery for life.
Not unlike children of poverty sent to Canada by the British government to solve the poverty problem in the U.K. during the industrial revolution.
Somewhat similar to countries that still have child labour and no laws to protect them.
I have known survivors of the U.K. scheme to fight poverty. It's not that long ago,
I think it may well have a link to Spartans.
And helots ,who were required to surrender everything they worked for to support the elite and friends of the elite.
Of course, I have no academic credentials.
No body of research to support the connection.
Only an abiding passion for understanding the human condition. How we got here from there.
Where we go from here?
With a Blog
Monday, 16 June 2014
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17 comments:
Doubt we will ever return to serfhood, but the markets and world events paint a rather complex picture.
Lord Simcoe was so impressed with his stint here that he named places after his wife's dogs. I guess we should be grateful that they were fairly inoffensive names .
John Graves Simcoe was never a lord. The only Lord Simcoe was a Toronto hotel.
I am rather fond of Utopia, Ontario
Thank you 16:43
I was thinking of my kids' old text book & got that wrong.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair....."
Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities
History seems to repeat itself.
Evelyn please publish this comment.I have known David Heard for about 20 years.The letter in the Auroran was cheap and ignorant.David does have a legitimate challenge.Did the Chair of the market get someone to sign her letter?
Fontana resigns - press conference thurs.
9:03
No biggy. He’ll be retiring with a nice pension from working for the Liberals as a cabinet minister since the 80’s. There won’t be any jail time. It’s amazing that that he’s losing his job over $1700 and the provincial Libs get squat for the $Billions that were stolen.
He thinks if he resigns & is no longer in office, that will impact on his sentencing. And it might. But what can he say at a press conference ?
" It was just a bookkeeping error " or
" The Devil made me do it " ?
Green Sky is not a Good Thing
If the sky looks scuzzy green today , do not stop to take a picture of it
Take cover
My goodness. There seems to be a real problem for councillors to make decisions tonight. Could it possibly be because we are in an election period & the Hydro fund is seen as the answer to every conundrum ? The Chamber of Commerce even took a year off for their meetings because of lack of enthusiasm amongst its members. They can work around the ice time.
a correction to an earlier comment:
the Chamber cancelled their Awards & annual big mtg. due to lack of interest. Not all their mtgs.
@1145
Welcome to democracy
Control the media and you can get away with squandering billions
Dogs over children tisk tisk
Excuse me please. Why was 83 George Street on the Agenda ?
19:24. Unfortunately, so true.
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