SYSTEMATIC USE OF WATER POWER
Another major cultural contribution made to Western
life by the medieval monastery was its use of water power
for such vital operations as the grinding and crushing of
grain and, perhaps, for fulling. Our analysis of the machinery
used for these purposes on the Plan of St. Gall will
show that they were water-driven.[215]
The system was known,
but for peculiar reasons never widely employed in Rome.
Again, it must have been the need for producing basic
staples in bulk rather than the more modest quantities required
for scattered individual households that prompted
monastic planners to use water power and hydraulic machinery
programmatically and from the very outset. The
economic advantages of these power plants were obvious
to anyone who had eyes to see, which explains fully enough
why the secular lords, in imitation of the examples set by
the large corporate organizations of the monks, reserved
the right of milling for themselves and made it a primary
means of feudal exploitation.
