The second half of the email to cahn during historical beta times:
Everything else I thought was cool in these first 60 pages. Typed as fast as I can, hence the telegraph speech. Please forgive mistakes.
Our Period Originally (Middle Ages), servants "domestiques" included everyone in the household, including wives and children. Live-in servants were thus also considered members of the family.
Paternalist arrangements, where servants owed their loyalty and labor to their master, who took care of their material and spiritual needs and gave them money out of the goodness of his heart, for exceptional service or in his will. Wages were thus irregular. Even when a servant was hired for wages, the master would often let payment fall into arrears for many years. Servants didn't like this, obviously, but it went along with the paternalist mindset.
In our period, the early 18th century, servants among the upper classes in France were more status symbols than practical. Lackeys spent a lot of time standing around in livery looking good, protecting their master's status in a variety of ways, not actually doing physical labor. A male servant was a sign of status, so upper classes had male-servant-dominated households, bourgeoisie had female-dominated servants. In fact, bourgeoisie often avoided hiring men, to avoid seeming like they were getting above themselves.
According to a contemporary anecdote, one Parisian miser, who didn't want to pay a servant, purchased some livery and wore it himself while parading in front of the windows, in hopes his neighbors would think he had a lackey.
Lower down the hierarchy, of course, people hired servants because they needed the extra pair of hands: in the inn, on the farm, etc.
Most emphasis in the "how to be a good servant" was *not* on how to keep the place livable. Houses, including noble establishments, in France were notably filthy, messy places. French visitors to England and the Netherlands were astonished by how things were kept clean and comfortable.
In France, nobles emphasized public life over domesticity. Servants were extremely visible, since that was their point. Less manual labor. Little family closeness: arranged marriages, spouses distant, lots of affairs, children raised by servants.
Thus, in French upper class households, lackeys spent a lot of time in the antechamber while their masters were in the chamber proper entertaining guests. The lackeys' main function was to control who got access to the chamber. Obviously, the opportunities for bribery here were rampant. See also: Fredersdorf's main job for Fritz and the reason he was often so resented! See also: foreign ambassadors speculating about his bribery potential.
Servants also in charge of going to the market, buying things, getting a good price, and doing the accounts. In many cases, they take advantage of this to fill their own purses. Kickbacks from merchants, reporting that things cost more than they did, losing this week's money, juggling the books. Embezzlement, basically.
Some masters objected, some just saw it as a perk of the job or a necessary evil. Most had had to look the other way regardless of how they felt. After all, they can't go down to the market and haggle over the price of fish themselves, not if they want to keep their status! The whole point of being rich in this period is to display to everyone that you don't have to do things yourself.
One lovely anecdote about a young man who told his tutor that if the tutor would look the other way from his peccadilloes, he'd give the tutor complete control over the household money, and then the tutor would be set for life. Implication: tutor will line his own pockets. Quid pro quo.
It was not unusual for a trusted servant to have complete control over his master's purse, and to dole out money to his master and tell him when it was getting low. In any case, doing the accounts and generally deciding how to manage money was part of a servant's job. See also: Fredersdorf becoming treasurer!
Things Change Later on, transition to servants as employees, whose labor was a commodity for which they were entitled to pay. Increasing servants among bourgeois households. Increasing dominance of females among servants.
English emphasis on domesticity begins to spread. By the end of the 18th century, more emphasis on hiring servants to make the house more comfortable, marrying for love or at least having a closer relationship with your family after entering an arranged marriage. Bedrooms heated adequately for comfort for the first time!
More emphasis on privacy and intimacy. Instead of an extremely public and ritualized calling system, where you entertain guests in your bed or while dressing, more informal calls, more hiding of affairs, more emphasis on marital fidelity. Standards for manual labor among servants much higher now. Servants have to work all day, because time is money. No more standing around looking good so everyone knows your master is rich. Servants supposed to be more invisible, now kept physically separated. The entire architecture changes so that servants can do as much as possible their jobs without running into their masters. There are now much more servants' quarters and there's a separate staircase "backstairs" for the servants to use. Much less likely to sleep in the same room or adjoining their master's/mistress's room.
Servant becomes a much less prestigious position. "Service" now defined as housework. Everyone who isn't doing housework is now scrambling to redefine themselves as a professional instead of a servant: tutors, secretaries, musicians, etc. Wives and children no longer classed with servants! (Still subordinate, obv., but different categories of subordination.) Even cooks try to get themselves reclassified as professionals, although their success is limited, especially as the trend shifts from male cooks to female. Cooking itself also becomes less elaborate and thus less of a highly skilled job, as food is less an opportunity for conspicuous consumption than a chance to spend time alone with your family and a few close friends.
Earlier in our period, where servants slept depended on household wealth, their own status, and their master's preferences. If there wasn't room for separate quarters, the servants slept in the same space as their master. Privacy wasn't a thing for most people during this time. If there was a separate wing or floor for servants' quarters, a body servant might still sleep in the room next to their master or mistress, in case they were at night or in the early morning. If there was a separate dormitory, it was mostly a room full of beds and little else. Separated by gender, of course. Servants might get their own bed, which would be a great luxury for someone from a peasant background, or they might have to share beds with each other. Very rare skilled servants in the upper classes sometimes got their own rooms and got to furnish them, sometimes quite nicely.
The switch to separate quarters and increasing physical separation between masters and servants had pros and cons for the servants. Cons: in the olden days, your living conditions were pretty much the same as the masters'. If you were cold, they were cold. Now, separate quarters and increasing emphasis on servants not as members of the family but as housework-performing machines (this term was actually used!), and increasing emphasis on domestic comfort for the middle classes, means the masters' quarters have running water, adequate eating, etc., and the servants' quarters often don't. On the other hand, there's one more barrier between the servants and sexual abuse from the master.
It's also more isolated in the servant's quarters, in your all-day labor-intensive regimented job. In the olden days, you'd spend a lot of time hanging out in public, and in antechambers, interacting with your masters, their guests, the public, and other people's servants. You had a lot of leisure time, which you'd spend at the tavern, at fairs, in the parks, seeing your girlfriend, w/e. Once you're basically not allowed to leave the house or entertain visitors except for half a day every other Sunday or whatever, and the masters don't want to see you except when they ring a bell (this is when servants' bells become a thing: when they're not within eye-catching or shouting distance), your entire social life is the other servants. Which means a small group of people trapped with each other, which means very intense passions, both love affairs and feuds.
Servants - part 2
Everything else I thought was cool in these first 60 pages. Typed as fast as I can, hence the telegraph speech. Please forgive mistakes.
Our Period
Originally (Middle Ages), servants "domestiques" included everyone in the household, including wives and children. Live-in servants were thus also considered members of the family.
Paternalist arrangements, where servants owed their loyalty and labor to their master, who took care of their material and spiritual needs and gave them money out of the goodness of his heart, for exceptional service or in his will. Wages were thus irregular. Even when a servant was hired for wages, the master would often let payment fall into arrears for many years. Servants didn't like this, obviously, but it went along with the paternalist mindset.
In our period, the early 18th century, servants among the upper classes in France were more status symbols than practical. Lackeys spent a lot of time standing around in livery looking good, protecting their master's status in a variety of ways, not actually doing physical labor. A male servant was a sign of status, so upper classes had male-servant-dominated households, bourgeoisie had female-dominated servants. In fact, bourgeoisie often avoided hiring men, to avoid seeming like they were getting above themselves.
According to a contemporary anecdote, one Parisian miser, who didn't want to pay a servant, purchased some livery and wore it himself while parading in front of the windows, in hopes his neighbors would think he had a lackey.
Lower down the hierarchy, of course, people hired servants because they needed the extra pair of hands: in the inn, on the farm, etc.
Most emphasis in the "how to be a good servant" was *not* on how to keep the place livable. Houses, including noble establishments, in France were notably filthy, messy places. French visitors to England and the Netherlands were astonished by how things were kept clean and comfortable.
In France, nobles emphasized public life over domesticity. Servants were extremely visible, since that was their point. Less manual labor. Little family closeness: arranged marriages, spouses distant, lots of affairs, children raised by servants.
Thus, in French upper class households, lackeys spent a lot of time in the antechamber while their masters were in the chamber proper entertaining guests. The lackeys' main function was to control who got access to the chamber. Obviously, the opportunities for bribery here were rampant. See also: Fredersdorf's main job for Fritz and the reason he was often so resented! See also: foreign ambassadors speculating about his bribery potential.
Servants also in charge of going to the market, buying things, getting a good price, and doing the accounts. In many cases, they take advantage of this to fill their own purses. Kickbacks from merchants, reporting that things cost more than they did, losing this week's money, juggling the books. Embezzlement, basically.
Some masters objected, some just saw it as a perk of the job or a necessary evil. Most had had to look the other way regardless of how they felt. After all, they can't go down to the market and haggle over the price of fish themselves, not if they want to keep their status! The whole point of being rich in this period is to display to everyone that you don't have to do things yourself.
One lovely anecdote about a young man who told his tutor that if the tutor would look the other way from his peccadilloes, he'd give the tutor complete control over the household money, and then the tutor would be set for life. Implication: tutor will line his own pockets. Quid pro quo.
It was not unusual for a trusted servant to have complete control over his master's purse, and to dole out money to his master and tell him when it was getting low. In any case, doing the accounts and generally deciding how to manage money was part of a servant's job. See also: Fredersdorf becoming treasurer!
Things Change
Later on, transition to servants as employees, whose labor was a commodity for which they were entitled to pay. Increasing servants among bourgeois households. Increasing dominance of females among servants.
English emphasis on domesticity begins to spread. By the end of the 18th century, more emphasis on hiring servants to make the house more comfortable, marrying for love or at least having a closer relationship with your family after entering an arranged marriage. Bedrooms heated adequately for comfort for the first time!
More emphasis on privacy and intimacy. Instead of an extremely public and ritualized calling system, where you entertain guests in your bed or while dressing, more informal calls, more hiding of affairs, more emphasis on marital fidelity. Standards for manual labor among servants much higher now. Servants have to work all day, because time is money. No more standing around looking good so everyone knows your master is rich. Servants supposed to be more invisible, now kept physically separated. The entire architecture changes so that servants can do as much as possible their jobs without running into their masters. There are now much more servants' quarters and there's a separate staircase "backstairs" for the servants to use. Much less likely to sleep in the same room or adjoining their master's/mistress's room.
Servant becomes a much less prestigious position. "Service" now defined as housework. Everyone who isn't doing housework is now scrambling to redefine themselves as a professional instead of a servant: tutors, secretaries, musicians, etc. Wives and children no longer classed with servants! (Still subordinate, obv., but different categories of subordination.) Even cooks try to get themselves reclassified as professionals, although their success is limited, especially as the trend shifts from male cooks to female. Cooking itself also becomes less elaborate and thus less of a highly skilled job, as food is less an opportunity for conspicuous consumption than a chance to spend time alone with your family and a few close friends.
Earlier in our period, where servants slept depended on household wealth, their own status, and their master's preferences. If there wasn't room for separate quarters, the servants slept in the same space as their master. Privacy wasn't a thing for most people during this time. If there was a separate wing or floor for servants' quarters, a body servant might still sleep in the room next to their master or mistress, in case they were at night or in the early morning. If there was a separate dormitory, it was mostly a room full of beds and little else. Separated by gender, of course. Servants might get their own bed, which would be a great luxury for someone from a peasant background, or they might have to share beds with each other. Very rare skilled servants in the upper classes sometimes got their own rooms and got to furnish them, sometimes quite nicely.
The switch to separate quarters and increasing physical separation between masters and servants had pros and cons for the servants. Cons: in the olden days, your living conditions were pretty much the same as the masters'. If you were cold, they were cold. Now, separate quarters and increasing emphasis on servants not as members of the family but as housework-performing machines (this term was actually used!), and increasing emphasis on domestic comfort for the middle classes, means the masters' quarters have running water, adequate eating, etc., and the servants' quarters often don't. On the other hand, there's one more barrier between the servants and sexual abuse from the master.
It's also more isolated in the servant's quarters, in your all-day labor-intensive regimented job. In the olden days, you'd spend a lot of time hanging out in public, and in antechambers, interacting with your masters, their guests, the public, and other people's servants. You had a lot of leisure time, which you'd spend at the tavern, at fairs, in the parks, seeing your girlfriend, w/e. Once you're basically not allowed to leave the house or entertain visitors except for half a day every other Sunday or whatever, and the masters don't want to see you except when they ring a bell (this is when servants' bells become a thing: when they're not within eye-catching or shouting distance), your entire social life is the other servants. Which means a small group of people trapped with each other, which means very intense passions, both love affairs and feuds.