Akuyaku Reijou Tensei Oji-san - Vol. 3 Ch. 17 - Let's Work at The Duke House

[BayuAH]

At first I wonder why they need hire 300 people for just a single house, even there are teachers too. Turn out they also teach the young servants and maids there. That is really a small town itself.

 

[AnotherDuck]

with a lot of labour dedicated to it

Labour was far cheaper back then than it is now. Storage of milk was a bigger problem, so a lot of various milk products were developed to increase the life span of it.

It wasn't rare, but it was uncommon enough that it wasn't likely to be seen except by the upper classes.

"Wasn't likely to be seen" means it's very rare. And it wasn't the case at all. It depends a lot on what time period you're talking about, and what area, but it was mainly produced by the people taking care of the cows, so it was most certainly seen by everyone. And eaten. For them, it might've been a luxury, but for the nobility? Not nearly as much.

 

[BusWindow]

I wonder if the original Grace can still see what's happening with her body and maybe she'll change once she gets her body back.

 

[Amariithynar]

Labour was far cheaper back then than it is now. Storage of milk was a bigger problem, so a lot of various milk products were developed to increase the life span of it.


"Wasn't likely to be seen" means it's very rare. And it wasn't the case at all. It depends a lot on what time period you're talking about, and what area, but it was mainly produced by the people taking care of the cows, so it was most certainly seen by everyone. And eaten. For them, it might've been a luxury, but for the nobility? Not nearly as much.

"Upper classes" is not just the nobility; there's entire swathes of the common folk included there, that fit within the more well-to-do bracket of society, eg. merchants or bakers. If I meant just nobility, I'd have said nobility.

Again, milk wasn't usually processed into other forms by common peasants, but instead consumed as-is; they didn't have enough cows or goats producing enough milk for them to have the excess needed to be very concerned with cheese production. As for butter, it being a very labour-intensive process was actually a big deal, because you had to exhaust several people's worth of labour over a fairly long period of constant work to get butter; time and effort that would be better spent in other forms of labour, eg. hunting or fishing or gathering seasonal fruits and plants. As I said in the part you seem to have ignored,

shepherds of large flocks would be the only other people with plenty of cheese, and it'd mostly be soft cheeses made and consumed within just a few days, if not daily.

shepherds, aka the people taking care of the herds of cows, would be the ones primarily having cheese aside from the upper classes, and it would primarily be the loose curds in whey form of quick cheese (which is why it's commonly known in English as "cottage cheese") rather than anything more substantial; it took cheese presses to condense curds to form cheese, and a safe place to store said cheese over a long period of time as it set and matured, and shepherds did not usually have access to such. Most peasant families would have heavy cream, instead, as the process was much simpler; the milk fat separates and condenses on the top of milk left to sit.

 

[MontDilanus1343]

I don't buy the tickle-down economic theory purveyed here. There's a reason elitist monarchies lead to significant stagnation in cultural and economic development.

I'm not saying "Capitalism, ho!" or anything of the sort. But the way people have been indoctrinated to portray by-blood class systems as a good thing rubs me the wrong way.

Every feudalistic society has ended in bloodshed and revolution. Either colonial, or domestically.

 

[AnotherDuck]

If I meant just nobility, I'd have said nobility.

You differentiating nobility from upper classes is a non-argument, since I was talking about the lower classes, which is neither.

As for butter, it being a very labour-intensive process was actually a big deal, because you had to exhaust several people's worth of labour over a fairly long period of constant work to get butter; time and effort that would be better spent in other forms of labour, eg. hunting or fishing or gathering seasonal fruits and plants. As I said in the part you seem to have ignored,

I ignore that because it's patently false. I've made butter myself. It takes work, but it doesn't take that much work.

 

[Kaiser92]

I don't buy the tickle-down economic theory purveyed here. There's a reason elitist monarchies lead to significant stagnation in cultural and economic development.

I'm not saying "Capitalism, ho!" or anything of the sort. But the way people have been indoctrinated to portray by-blood class systems as a good thing rubs me the wrong way.

Every feudalistic society has ended in bloodshed and revolution. Either colonial, or domestically.

It's material condition. The ruling class has the incentive to invent complicated and interconnected reason for their hold on power, mask their extraction of wealth as good and why the lower class's duty is to serve them. It's 'tradition', 'honor', 'chivalry', 'noblesse oblige', 'god's will', 'mandate of heaven' etc... And it's also the estate servant who has the incentive to deceive themselves that serving the ruling class is good, for it make them better than the other lower class people.

 

[DlolFace]

My theory is that Grace is technically kinda locked up and she's conscious of what kenzaburou doing, she shows that she's in a cage because she can't go out because kenzaburou got control of that body. She also sulking perhaps because she knew she's a bad person and reflecting on it, or she sulked because kenzaburou creates a better image of Grace than the actual Grace herself

 

[Smokeball]

I like when reijou stories have light heart story like this. Many reijou manga I read are having quite intense atmosphere. Some even including rape order...it's fucked up.

 

[vangoz]

The character art style is simplistic but very cute. I love it.

 

[jhs_reika]

In middle ages, green cheese was a common food for anyone who has access to milk, as it's a very good way to salvage a soured milk before it turned rancid. At that time milk was easy to turn sour because there wasn't a method to preserve them for a very long time, so a lot of peasants used green cheese in their diet.

Butter is similar to cheese. Nobles in the middle ages considered them as peasant food even though they also eat it occasionaly. But butter was a luxury during the great depression and the world war II.

 

[reu]

it's evolving from a one note gag isekai, to something with a actual story and lore
noice

 

[reu]

Butter is similar to cheese. Nobles in the middle ages considered them as peasant food even though they also eat it occasionaly. But butter was a luxury during the great depression and the world war II.

Until the meiji restoration cows were seen only as live stock and a draft animals in Japan. They have no history of dairy consumption so to them cheese is a luxury product, not something they saw their grandpas make with their own hands.
It's probably because japan as a country isn't suited for pasture. Same reason why meat in general is seen as a luxury product.

 

[Hikineet]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[AnotherDuck]

It's probably because japan as a country isn't suited for pasture. Same reason why meat in general is seen as a luxury product.

They also aren't nearly as lactose tolerant as Europeans, especially the Norse.

Meat has been more or less a luxury depending on time and place. Here in Scandinavia where the population was (and is) low and forests were plentiful, hunting was more prominent. There are also lots of land not suitable for farming but good for grazing (the Ice Age changed the landscape quite a bit), so cattle was more common, relatively speaking.

In denser places with less wilderness like Japan and UK meat naturally becomes more expensive, since you need to prioritize land use much more. Scotland has a lot of land mostly usable for sheep, hence some local specialties involving that.

 

[Saybah]

And the girls deepen their friendship at the sunset.

 

[jhs_reika]

Until the meiji restoration cows were seen only as live stock and a draft animals in Japan. They have no history of dairy consumption so to them cheese is a luxury product, not something they saw their grandpas make with their own hands.
It's probably because japan as a country isn't suited for pasture. Same reason why meat in general is seen as a luxury product.

They also aren't nearly as lactose tolerant as Europeans, especially the Norse.

Meat has been more or less a luxury depending on time and place. Here in Scandinavia where the population was (and is) low and forests were plentiful, hunting was more prominent. There are also lots of land not suitable for farming but good for grazing (the Ice Age changed the landscape quite a bit), so cattle was more common, relatively speaking.

In denser places with less wilderness like Japan and UK meat naturally becomes more expensive, since you need to prioritize land use much more. Scotland has a lot of land mostly usable for sheep, hence some local specialties involving that.

Even though the language was in Japan (because this is a manga), wasn't the game's setting magical version of European middle ages? Which was why the names, the food, and the dress were European-like?

 

[zephyrnepres]

i have learned more from this forum thread on a funny isekai manga about economics and models of government than i have actual history classes

 

[AnotherDuck]

Even though the language was in Japan (because this is a manga), wasn't the game's setting magical version of European middle ages? Which was why the names, the food, and the dress were European-like?

It's closer to Renaissance Europe, with many later influences, but it's through the lens of some Japanese person who probably doesn't know all that much about that time period. For instance, the riding outfit she wears at the beginning of the story is from the 1900's. Someone who's interested in architecture could probably identify the style of her mansion and date that.

 

[Pyoro]

It's closer to Renaissance Europe, with many later influences, but it's through the lens of some Japanese person who probably doesn't know all that much about that time period.

Conveniently the setting is based on a fictional otome game, which of course would not be historically accurate, as these sort of games (and other Japanese fiction) have demonstrated often enough. So the manga is just accurately portraying the fictional source material by being ahistorical / historically inaccurate.

Indeed, the less accurate things are the more realistic it probably is