MIDDLE AGES-REVIVAL

DIVISIONS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

• 500-1000: Early Middle Ages• 1000-1300: High Middle Ages• 1300-1500: Late Middle Ages

WHEN THE WESTERN ROMAN EMPIRE FELL:

• TRADE almost died out. Manors grew or made almost everything they needed.

• TOWNS & CITIES shrank. • LEARNING & LITERACY declined.

1000 – A TURNING POINT!!

• Trade revived• Towns & cities grew• Learning & literacy began to revive.

WHY DID THIS REVIVAL TAKE PLACE?• By 1000, innovations had taken place in agriculture

1) 3 Field System had replaced the 2 Field System

2) Moldboard Plow

3) Horse Collar and Horse Shoes

WHY DID THIS REVIVAL TAKE PLACE?

• Innovations in agriculture led to more food.• More food led to an increase in population• The increase in population and the

Crusades led to a revival of trade• Revival of trade led to a revival of towns

(towns depend on trade)

REVIVAL OF TRADE IN ITALY• Earliest revival or trade was

in the cities of Northern Italy, especially Genoa, Pisa and Venice

• Trade had declined less there.

• Location favored trade. • They served as go-

betweens for traders from Asia and Northern Europe.

• These cities carried Crusaders to Palestine, and carried goods back from Asia.

Revival of Trade in Northern EuropeFlanders

• Located where Belgium & Netherlands are now

• Specialized in making & selling fine woolen cloth

• Largest cities were Bruges & Ghent

Revival of Trade in Northern Europe

• Kiev, in what is now Ukraine, also became a trading center

Revival of Trade in Northern Europe• Hanseatic League

– Association of trading cities of what is now Northern Germany (then it was the HRE).

– This association acted almost like a government: it had an army & navy; it enforced trade rules

– About 100 cities, including Bremen, Hamburg & Lubeck

Revival of Trade

• From Asia, Europeans wanted: Dyes, medicines, silks, spices, cotton & linen, art objects

• Europeans exported: – Baltic countries: fish, fur, timber– Spain: leather, oil, soap;– France: wine– Venice: Glassware– England & Flanders: woolen cloth

TRADE FAIRS• Temporary locations where merchants and

traders met to do business• The best known trade fairs were in

northeastern France, in the area known as Champagne.

• Champagne was on the trade route between Italy and Flanders.

• At different times of year, 4 towns in Champagne held a total of 6 fairs, each lasting about 49 days

• Merchants came from all over Europe

Medieval trade fairs.

Trade fairs became social events, with clowns, jugglers and musicians.

New business practices-Domestic System

• Manufacturing by the Domestic System (also called “Putting out system”.

• Goods were produced in the worker’s houses. Example: • A businessman would buy wool, then take it to a spinner,

then to a weaver, then to a dyer, who each performed a task. Then he collected the cloth and sold it.

Trade Fairs

• At first business was done by barter. • As the fairs grew larger, merchants began

to use money.• However, local rulers issued their own

coins, and money changers exchanged coins from one region for coins of another.

New Business practices: Banking

• The first bankers were simply money changers.

• In the Middle Ages, the Church said money lending for interest, which was called usury, was a sin.

• However, some people began to lend money for interest anyway, and eventually the Church changed the rule.

New Business Practices-Banking

• Banks began to issue a special note called a “bill of exchange”, which was like a check, used in place of money.

• A merchant could deposit his money in one bank, get a bill of exchange, and then travel to another city, present his bill of change and get cash in the amount of his deposit.

New Business Practices: investing

• In the later Middle Ages, businessmen began investing capital.

• Capital is money that is earned, saved, and invested to make a profit.

• Sometimes several investors formed a partnership, in which profits and loses were shared.

• All these new business practices resulted in a “market economy” in which land, labor and capital are controlled by individuals.