Residential care for the medieval pensioner was relatively cheap. This is the conclusion of a lively and instructive research article from Jaco Zuijderduijn in the latest issue of TSEG (vol. 12 number 3).
In the late Middle Ages, the elderly acquired lifelong lodging and care in hospitals and monasteries by purchasing a contract.
Most customers paid in kind, by handing over real estate and financial instruments to the institution, or promising to do manual labour. Customers spent the equivalent of 250-400 day's wages of a skilled labourer: late-medieval retirement was relatively inexpensive and this brought corrodies witin reach of the middling groups.
This research result is discussed in terms of the decline of family ties in the late Middle Ages. The rise of retirement homes was a reaction to changing social structures in the Low Countries.
(Jaco Zuijderduijn, 'Pap en brood tijdens de oude dag. Gepensioneerden in Amsterdam aan het eide van de middeleeuwen'(in Dutch).
Other research articles in this new TSEG:
- Bas de Roo, The Trouble with Tariffs. Customs policies and the shaky balance between colonial and private interests in the Congo (1886-1914)
- Jelten Baguet, Politics and Commercec: a close marriage? The case of the Ostend Company
Debate: Varieties of Capitalism: the Dutch case
TSEG is a quarterly magazine published on behalf of IISH and NEHA by Amsterdam University Press. The website is hosted by IISH.