Doge
11-09-2005, 21:19
Monasteries were not only places of prayer and book writing, they were also places of early industry.
By the end of the twelfth century, 102 years after they [Cistercians] had begun, there were 530 houses [monasteries] all over Europe, each one of them a medieval factory. Whenever possible, houses were built with the local water-supply running through the centre of the site--to provide water for hygiene, and to power the machines the Cistercians became so adept at using. By the 1300s they had foundries with associated mills for treating ore, fulling mills, corn mills, water-powered workshops where tools were made and wool treated, with forges, oil mills, wine presses (the Cistercians set up the great vineyards of Clos de Vougeot) and all the equipment and administrative organization to run the vast business concerns which many of the abbeys had become....The Cistercians acted as any major corporation might be expected to act. If villages were included in a land grant, they were destroyed and the people resettled elsewhere. The Order opened warehouses and finance offices at the major seaports, to facilitate the export of the commodity for which they had become famous by the thirteenth century: wool.
http://www.csus.edu/indiv/v/vonmeierk/8-02TW.html#anchor310366
By the middle of the12th century the order rode the cutting edge of hydropower and agriculture. A typical Cistercian monastery straddled an artificial stream brought in through a canal. The stream ran through monastery shops, living quarters and refectories, providing power for milling, wood cutting, forging, olive crushing. It also provided running water for cooking, washing and bathing, and finally for sewage disposal.
Cistercian monasteries were, in reality, the best-organized factories the world had ever seen -- versatile and diversified.
http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1311.htm
It is something that is rarely mentioned in the history books.
I am just wondering if its possible to have monasteries increase production (workers) or are they limited to piety/books only? If limited to piety/books only, could there be a new building upgrade in the town. It would be something like "Cistercian Monastery", upgrade of church for Catholic kingdoms: +4 workers, +10 happiness, trade good: wool.
By the end of the twelfth century, 102 years after they [Cistercians] had begun, there were 530 houses [monasteries] all over Europe, each one of them a medieval factory. Whenever possible, houses were built with the local water-supply running through the centre of the site--to provide water for hygiene, and to power the machines the Cistercians became so adept at using. By the 1300s they had foundries with associated mills for treating ore, fulling mills, corn mills, water-powered workshops where tools were made and wool treated, with forges, oil mills, wine presses (the Cistercians set up the great vineyards of Clos de Vougeot) and all the equipment and administrative organization to run the vast business concerns which many of the abbeys had become....The Cistercians acted as any major corporation might be expected to act. If villages were included in a land grant, they were destroyed and the people resettled elsewhere. The Order opened warehouses and finance offices at the major seaports, to facilitate the export of the commodity for which they had become famous by the thirteenth century: wool.
http://www.csus.edu/indiv/v/vonmeierk/8-02TW.html#anchor310366
By the middle of the12th century the order rode the cutting edge of hydropower and agriculture. A typical Cistercian monastery straddled an artificial stream brought in through a canal. The stream ran through monastery shops, living quarters and refectories, providing power for milling, wood cutting, forging, olive crushing. It also provided running water for cooking, washing and bathing, and finally for sewage disposal.
Cistercian monasteries were, in reality, the best-organized factories the world had ever seen -- versatile and diversified.
http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1311.htm
It is something that is rarely mentioned in the history books.
I am just wondering if its possible to have monasteries increase production (workers) or are they limited to piety/books only? If limited to piety/books only, could there be a new building upgrade in the town. It would be something like "Cistercian Monastery", upgrade of church for Catholic kingdoms: +4 workers, +10 happiness, trade good: wool.