The Idler

Country Diary 80

IN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN, not much is happening apart from nasturtiums. There are nasturtiums everywhere: yellow, red and orange. Such a fantastic flower. Very easy to grow, nice to look at and delicious to eat. The pods can be pickled in jam jars for a caper substitute. And at a time when there is little happening in the garden, they give a mass of joyous colour. They are also good for the bees, and I‘ve seen a few little buzzers flying in and out of the flowers. (more…)

Medieval Economic Systems Are Starting To Look Like A Good Idea, says Tom Hodgkinson

IF THERE’S ONE element of my book How To Be Free that the scoffers really rounded on, it was the positive light I threw on various medieval institutions and approaches to life. To see anything good in the Middle Ages contradicts our neophyte conditioning. But the medievals really did have some excellent ideas. Community rather than individuality was at the heart of the medieval approach to things. For example, Florence and the city states called themselves communes, and governed themselves with a revolving panel of guild master craftsmen.

Well, the medieval approach to economics is particularly interesting given what is happening in the financial world right now, because it specifically banned usury, that is, the lending of money at interest. Usury was reserved for the lowest of the low. It was not the done thing. The medieval society had taken to heart Biblical injunctions against usury and also the example of Jesus turning over the tables of the money-changers.

(more…)