The Revival of Urban Life

Beginning of the early Middle Ages

y Decline of the urban population.

y Long-distance trade related to luxury goods (slaves).

Italy:
y Urban tradition continued .

y Intermediary between East (wealthier and more

advanced) and West (poor and backward).

Cities growth:
y y -

Began in port cities and then expanded to others. Consequences: Increase of agricultural productivity. Growth of population. Emigration to urban centers created jobs in commerce and industry .
o

E.g.: Lombardy, Florence and Tuscany

- Manorial system began to disappear intensive crops. - Intensive influence between town and country. - The new agricultural entrepreneurs were urban people.
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Birth of urban governments:

- In Northern Italy merchants + urban aristocrats

(engaged in trade or who lent money) = voluntary associations (which became urban governments called communes) in order to:
o Attend to municipal affairs. o Protect their common interests . o Settle disputes without recourse to feudal courts .

- Communes negotiated/fought with feudal lords for

freedom.
o E.g.:

Milan (1035)

Rest of Europe:
- Later and less intense urban development took place.

- Didn t get the same degree of autonomy and

independence.

Low Countries (especially Flanders and Brabant):

- Was the only area that could be compared with

Northern Italy.
- Similarities:
o Largest urban population. o Greatest densities in Europe. o Most advanced and intensive agriculture. o Most important commercial and industrial centers.
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Commercial currents and Techniques

Trade between Italy and East:

- Was the most profitable and prestigious trade. - At the beginning it was used by Eastern merchants to

bring luxury goods to Western courts.

-

Then Italy took charge of the route and used it to bring the same goods as before and others like alum and cotton. wares, furs and glass.
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- In the opposite direction (west east): wool, linen, metal

Meanwhile:
- Venetians obtained favors and privileges for Byzantine Empire because they help them in the battle against the Turks. - Genoa and Pisa after driving out the Muslims from Corsica and Sardinia, sacked Northern Africa and extracted specially favorable terms for their own ships and merchants. - Italian cities intensified their penetration of the Levant during the Crusades, established colonies and treated with Arabs and Turks. -

Commerce with China began to be important since 13th century.

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The other extreme of the Mediterranean trade:

- Included spices and other luxury products from the East,

but the most important product was Sicilian grain.

- Italy ports dominated this trade but they shared it with

Catalan, Castilian, Provenal and Muslims.

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Northern seas:
- Frisians Scandinavian great German trading cities

(Hansa).

y Specialization in production became a market feature of

the medieval economy.

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Fairs of Champagne (since century):

merchants.

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- The most important meeting place in Europe for - They took place in a different city every year (Provins

Troyes Lagny Bar-sur-Aube).

- The commerce techniques and practices developed in

these towns ( letters of fair and other credit instruments) influenced more than the fairs.
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Kinds of trade:
- In the simplest circumstances, merchants worked for

their own account.

- Commenda. - Vera Societ / True company.

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y Banking and credit were intimately related to medieval

commerce.
y Another reason for the widespread dependence on

credit was the multiplicity of and confusion of coinage. E.g.: Florin (1252).

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Industrial Technology and the Origins of Mechanical Power

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Manufacturing industry
-

important sector of the medieval economy (although inferior to agriculture). Grew in importance along the centuries.
1. Manufacture of cloth (wool and linen). 2. Building trades.

- Most important industries:

- Some areas began to specialize in it ( Flanders, Belgium

and Northern Italy).

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Patterns of organization:
- More skilled workers were organized in guilds. - Merchants (who dominated the industry) were also

organized in guilds.
- Less skilled workers were not organized in guilds, they

worked directly for the merchants.

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Labor productivity:
- Increased enormously as a result of:
1. Pedal loom. 2. Spinning wheel. 3. Water-powered fulling mill.

- As a result of this, the costs of production and the

boredom of labor decreased.

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Metallurgical industry:
- More economic importance for development. - Notable progress in later Middle Ages. - Iron ( its growth was progressive). - Improvements in technology ( hydraulic energy, blast

furnace).
- Miners and primary metal workers organized in free

communities of artisans and they helped technological change.

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Other industries:
- Tanning and leather working increased significantly. - Woodworking and pottery much larger place than earlier

times.

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Invents:
- Medieval men looked for novelty:
o Astrolabe and compass. o Printing from movable type. o Soapmaking.

- Medieval men searched for new and more efficient

techniques of production:
o Mills and millwork

clocks

- Now nature forces could be used for our necessities.

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Mill in Volendam(Low Countries)

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One of the first clocks(1330)

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Astrolabe

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Crisis of Medieval Economy

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Decrease of population:
- Black Death (1348) it was not the origin of the crisis. - War ( civil and international). - Crop failures and famine. - Precariousness of the food supply and inadequacy of

sanity facilities.
- Climatic deterioration. - Overpopulation for the resources and technology

available.
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Problems with land:

- No new land available pastures converted to arable

decrease in cattle fewer proteins in the diet and less manure for fertilizer crop yields declined even as more land was brought into cultivation.
- Problems with manorial economy.

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Field in the expansion period of medieval economy:

- Tendency of some landlords to change labor services for money

rents (salaries), they also rented the demesnes to prosperous peasants.

Urban and demographic growth commodities prices

most agricultural

Salaries
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y Landlords began to cultivate their own land with hired

labor, in order to reinforce their falling incomes, that added to the increased burden of taxation collected by kings increased social tensions (rising of Flemish peasants in 1315-1317).

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After Black Death:

Urban population and demand price of foodstuffs salaries wages control imposed by authorities hostility of peasants (revolutions, civil wars ) change in economic conditions peasants freedom from manorial bondage.

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In conclusion:
- Black Death, food price s falling and the salaries increase

gave the peasants a better standard of living in Western Europe.

- Urban life decreased and markets decreased, obliged the

peasants to migrate to other unexplored areas in Eastern Europe. The peasants who didn t leave were brought to a servitude situation.

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y Guilds organizations, reacting to the fall in demand,

tightened their regulations so as to control the supply more effectively (restricted output, enforced working rules ).

y Merchants, seeking to rationalize their operations,

invented or adopted double-entry bookkeeping and other methods of control.

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y Industrialists faced with the rising costs of labor sought

new labor-saving methods of production.

y Regional shifts in production and trade also occurred as a

result of the intensified competition.

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y The fair of Geneva replaced in importance the fair of

Champagne. Antwerp replaced Bruges as the principal place of Italian trade. The German Hansa received a formal organization. The Italian cities maintained their preeminence in trade but lost ground to Northern Europe.

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