Hi everyone, just a quick correction and clarification to a question that has been raised a couple of times: “Couldn’t you just sell your cat for more/less?” The answer is yes, although this is my fault for misunderstanding the rigidity of the values presented. Their value is based on the price of compensation, and does not HAVE to be their buy/sell price, although several laws are tied to their buying and selling value, not just with cats, but with several animals (i.e. the qualities they need to be of full value, the refund entitled if they are deficient etc), you absolutely could buy/sell for more/less. So due to my own misunderstanding, the chapter about the value of the animals needs to be clarified that it is based on their stated value of compensation. And the final chapter needs another assumption, alongside the generous assumptions that the laws reflected local differences, and that you could buy and sell infinite geese and cats, we will assume that their legal value represents the general price you could expect, which in my opinion is a fair assumption for the nature of that chapter! Sorry for the mistake, and thank you to the kind and knowledgeable commenter who corrected me! Thanks for understanding.
@@c.powell8472 I’d read a portion of the Welsh laws ages ago, and actually misremembered a bit: I thought there was a tax where you had to give 1 kitten per litter to the king. No idea where I got that from lol
Daffyd probably had the most wicked scars in the kingdom without ever seeing a battlefield.. I cannot imagine trying to hold down a practically feral barn cat lmao
@@davidbrennan660 imagine, it's just a never ending loop of weird calculation methods for the people who are injured in the process of holding the cat down for the fine. "ohhh he ripped daffyds eye out... now we need Artur to come hold down the cat to calculate a new fine"
They particularly enjoy defying gravity. Or, deploying the laws of gravity to get attention. My cat can always find some object to knock off a table or shelf in the early mornings. The thud wakes me and he knows he will be fed then. Clever little moggy.
Tried to sell my cat in Gwent and was forced to give back a goose and a half when the seller saw it wailing at the moon one night. Absolutely absurd. Dull Gwent has gone too far, all these regulations are destroying the cat industry. At least I can try to make some of my money back by selling all my worthless milk to the Saxons.
The "worthless milk" thing sounds very much like they made a law that applied to animals that provide milk and some enterprising Welshman saw a loophole and milked their cat, dog, and/or horse to claim its benefit.
Perhaps refunds on animals that 'provide milk' were limited, because the new owner was assumed to have extracted value during their ownership before the refund. Then somebody tried to claim this clause applied to a mammal not typically kept for its milk, and that passage was added to the law?
The situation is not as far fetched as it sounds. If you were a cat breeder, and you found a kitten abandoned or otherwise distressed, your nursing cat may accept the additional kitten. Given this, raising a kitten to a cat increases its value, in a dispute someone may claim the nursing mother cat was more valuable. This law appears to clarify that it is not.
I am not sure what they had against horse milk though, the Mongolians loved that stuff and even turned it into alcohol. Cat and dog milk sounds a lot less appetizing but if you can milk cows and goats, why not horses?
I may be American, but I recently started living and working on a rural piece of undeveloped farmland, and the owner said he had a terrible vole and mouse problem and to bring my cat. My one cat was nowhere near sufficient for the magnitude of voles entrenched in this 80 acre plot of near-wilderness, which I was expected to farm somehow. …I’ve since adopted four additional cats and am expanding the cat “barn” (a well-modified shed) for more. It is literally impossible to keep seedlings in fields growing or grain stores untainted without an army of cats doing passive pest control. Impossible. I tried everything short of using chemical pesticides (it’s an organic farm, not an option), it was like throwing chili powder and garlic at a tidal wave of rodents. Humanity would have starved without cats. They are _every_ bit as important to humanity’s historic survival as dogs were, but never get any credit. So here I am, an actual farmer, saying that we need cats to keep our food growing, and to keep us from catching things like the bubonic plague, which was spread by rats.
Diplomat first visiting a Welsh kings court. Unimpressed by the relative lack of wealth compared to the English and french courts. Huge muscled, heavily scarred man walks through the room. "Is that the the kings champion? Or executioner?" The diplomat asks. With a chuckle a courtier responds: "Nay, that's the cat holder-downer".
A couple of years ago, I was sitting on the couch, my (now departed) cat snoozing next to me. And I heard a little sound, as of something eating. And I looked round to see a mouse eating food out of my cat's bowl... She'd have been worthless in medieval Wales, but she was priceless to me.
@@tosehoed123 Because cats hunt instinctively, and show every indication of enjoying it. My cats still kill any mice that find their way into our place, and one of them has the amusing habit of leaving the little rodenty corpses right next to his (half full) dish.
Alternative ideas for time-traveling cat enthusiasts: - found the Welsh Cat Merchants Guild - become the Welsh Ea-Nasir of cat merchants - attempt to sell cat milk as something else that isn't legally worthless, such as snakes milk - door-to-door direct sales cat MLM
“The Welsh lore grows deeper” he says as he’s 3 weeks into discovering that King Cadwallon I’s horse was fabricated by Geoffrey of Monmouth and then later propagated by 19th century British historians
It's also a very long Welsh tabloid story headline, not quite as snappy as "Freddie Starr ate my hamster". "Masnachwr cathod Dyfed canoloesol yn yfed llaeth cath i'ch twyllo allan o'ch ad-daliad amdano yn udo wrth y lleuad"
Catching mice was really important back in this age. Surviving outside the harvest season relied heavily on keeping your food preserved, and the cool thing about grain is that it preserves essentially forever so long as it's dry and has no pests in it. Keeping it in a storehouse will keep it dry, but basically nothing will keep the vermin out except cats. Rats can chew through most anything given enough time, and they will smell your grains before they even see them.
@@soaringvulture Ahem... excuse me, that would be Goddess. Bastet,whom originally was Sekhmet, a goddess of war. Her claws got pulled, and she became Bastet.✌️😸
@@DrMFoster7 they don’t even have to smell the grains, I had a friend on a farm who had some mice chew through a cupboard wall that only contained soap!
I do not have particular interest in Welsh history, but I got this video suggested by RU-vid and decided to watch it because of a funny thumbnail. Whole video is edited as the funniest shitpost, but it also has high educational value. I enjoyed every second of it. Thank you and have a nice day.
"... being able to have kittens, but also not to eat them; a quality that I think more people should seek in their potential partners." *me, secretly a male preying mantis* wow that's rude it's not like I have choice or anything
Your dream partner doesn't eat the eggs which would be the kitten equivalent, so you're complaining about nothing. For a given value of the word, you're safe to go after your girl.
It's actually just something called arbitage in finance, good large-scale example is the reselling of Western luxury goods in the post-Soviet states after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
That's how trading worked in history and still does today. You buy low in one region where a good is cheap and common and sell high in another where that good is expensive and rare.
@@goldenhorde6944Another example of arbitrage is in sports betting. Say one bookie gives you 1:1 odds for team A vs B, you bet $10k on B. Another bookie gives you 2:1 odds for A so you bet $7k. Now if team A wins you net $10k - $7k = $3k. If team B wins you net -$10k + $14k = $4k.
I love cats but feral cats in the wild are devastating for the local ecosystems They hunt local wildlife to death, and have caused at least 63 species of birds and reptiles to become extinct Theyre the 2nd leading cause of death for birds after habitat loss @wolfetteplays8894
@@wolfetteplays8894 mostly local birds and rodents. Wildlife is nice to have on occasion. The cats agree, but they’re using a different definition of „having“ wildlife.
@@wolfetteplays8894been in an area that arguably had a stray cats issue ... none of them were taken care of, each with the must ruddy pelts out there (even the fed ones), and I've seen kittens not only live off of a trash dump (getting only a momentary interaction with the female dog living on the site), but also this one tiny cat (kitten) no taller than the curbside when sitting, starved, alone, and probably dying within the next week or two. Was incredibly hard to make peace with not being able to adopt especially that one. Also touching any of them would want you to disinfect your hands before you touch _anything_ else (and there weren't exactly few of them). Idk, to me that starts going into "problem" territory
I like to imagine they were part of an elaborate inter-kingdom conspiracy where all the Rhyngyll would secretly plot to wage a Forever War so that the supply of cats was kept high
this is the greatest masterpiece that has been produced, thank you cambrian chronicles. and you're welcome for the statue and the name. i'll give you a discount down to 3 geese on your next purchase of one of my cats
Medieval Wales greatly undervalued the three legged farm cat, which could not catch a thing, but was able to teach our young cat to catch rats very efficiently, amazing to watch circa 1975, and amazing to watch your video deal with such a serious subject. 🐱🐈
now I'm imagining a medieval legal clerk bracing themselves, heaving a big sigh, and then soldiering on with the explanation of the "worthless milk" clause
Only if you can obtain land and then convince the King to give you a royal title. In the medieval era, one of the prerequisites for practicing law was to be landed, and then receive (or already have) the title of Esquire. That's why, to this day, attorneys append "Esquire" to their name.
Those first 10 seconds is probably the funniest shit I've seen in quite some time. It's probably not quite as funny to someone unfamiliar with your channel, but it's truly like being in history class and having the teacher stare out at the room for a solid 5 seconds before just going "Meow", and starting the lesson.
I like how everyone is mentioning the infinite geese glitch but now when mentions the reverse trip and it's equally valuable infinite half a goat glitch
On a serious note, this video is genuinely some of the greatest content I have seen this year. I wish I could erase it from my mind to re-experience it until I rot. I don't know what makes this video so good, but I can only hope it gets matched or surpassed by future videos on the channel. Wish you success!
Instructions unclear. Acquired infinite cats through work as a Rhingyll but fell in love with each and everyone and therefore became incapable of selling them. Have had to sell all of my meat, butter, flax, corn, and hens just to feed and house all of my cats. Did not profit.
A video about the history of Welsh cat laws ending in a time traveling paradox of which came first, the video or the time traveling cat salesman, not what I was expecting at all! A welcome jaunt, though.
just wanted to say that I think you use interstitial music really well. A lot of youtubers don't really know how to use it without it being obnoxious or distracting. you're a nice change of pace.
Abut the "one third of four ceiniog" thing: my understanding is that in medieval times most people never actually used these coins. They were just units of account, keeping track of debts that would most likely be paid in grain, animals, crafts, etc. So it's not a huge problem to owe someone one and one-third ceiniog.
1:26 specifying that the cat must not eat their kittens is actually a decent rule, as cats do eat their kittens when under stress (nutritional or mental). A cat who eats their kittens may be the sign of a cat who isn't a good hunter. very interesting video! :) I watched it with my cat.
I honestly had a hard time believing they had this many laws specific to cats, so I looked up your source book on Archive, and it's all there!!! Incredible video
I have one cat who would fetch full value in any part of wales-smart, strong, good at catching mice, the whole nine yards. And I have a second cat who is, uh…..trying his best 😂
My cat will literally lay there while mice run around her. Then go mew piteously at her bowl. Because she refuses to eat anything but her special food. And bugs.
Never mind he was clearly a defective cat (He even meowed at the moon after this!) so I tricked someone into selling 4 geese to me for him instead thanks for the advice though!
Important historical discovery: in medieval Wales, the Cat Distribution System was not yet operational. 🙀 Also, if we'll be two washing machines, I'm sure there will be a cat watching our wash cycles with great fascination.
@@CambrianChronicles There's nothing like a smll furry being rocking up to your home and deciding it now lives there. 😀Which makes me wonder: does Welsh folklore have anything like the Cait Sidhe in Ireland?
@@e.h.buchmann23 Welshman here: yes, we have the Cath Palug, which is just the Cait Sìth but in Welsh. Like how the "cat sí" is the Cat Sìth but in Irish. When people say "Irish" mythology, they really mean Celtic mythology, and we're as much Celts as the Scots and Irish are.
This may be the single greatest video in the entirety of the internet (probably not, but maybe!)! It has combined three of the topics I’m most interested in: U.K. history, cats, and time travel. I have actually liked, subscribed, and do indeed intend to share it with everyone I know, and possibly some I don’t. If they don’t get as giddy over it as I am, I will know they’re not worthy of my acquaintance. I may soon be a lonely person, but at least I’ll have this video. Meow, y’all, meow eternally.
The last time I was this early the Roman legions were just arriving. Great video. One of the best I've ever seen on yputibe and I was here in year one. The comments section alone is going to be a treasure trove for years to come. Thank you 🎉
i love this topic idea so much, you should totally do more obscure topics such as this. Really enjoyed it and your transitions are iconic and make me laugh and I just need so so much more of the silliness and education.
Of all the Jon Bois-ology of this channel, this is the Jon Bois-est. Fantastic editing and style, utterly bizarre and obscure yet universally interesting subject matter? This absolutely RULES.
