1. Livsmedelsförsörjning och näringsstandard på Västerås slott 1517-1520: Ett nyupptäckt dokument i danska Rigsarkivet.
- Author
-
Retsö, Dag
- Abstract
This article is an analysis of a recently discovered register book in the Danish National Archives (Rigsarkivet) containing continuous weekly data on the production and consumption of a range of foodstuffs at the Västerås castle in Sweden between 1517 and 1520, covering a total of 171 weeks. The data are analyzed in terms of consumption per capita in weight and calories and total values, as well as real values in silver for each foodstuff category. The result shows that the daily caloric intake per capita amounted to 3 753, which is a quite high figure and quite typical for the late Middle Ages, with a great emphasis on bread and a reasonably high proportion of meat and dairy products (butter). These figures fit quite well into the picture of a relatively high late medieval caloric intake, which research has identified in Europe in the wake of the demographic crisis of the Black Death in the 1300s, particularly for Sweden. Still, the consumption pattern at Västerås exhibits the beginning of a declining role for malt-rich beer and meat and butter, thus representing a comparably less expensive food budget. In this, it foreshadows the late i6th-century pattern, signaling the approaching end of the effects of the post-plague era and the relatively high nutritional standard of living having prevailed since the mid-yoos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018