Soru

In her reevaluation of early modern agrarian societies, historian Ellen Wood challenges the long-held assumption that peasant households operated entirely outside commercial logic. Wood demonstrates that while these communities prioritized subsistence over profit maximization, households would systematically husband their surplus yields to build financial reserves against poor harvests and feudal dues. Rather than signaling an early embrace of capitalist accumulation or market speculation, this careful stewardship functioned as a defensive strategy aimed at preserving domestic autonomy. Consequently, the retention of agricultural surpluses served not to generate venture capital, but to mitigate external vulnerabilities without risking land tenure.

In the context of the passage, the word husband most nearly means