REVIVAL OF TRADE & TOWNSBy: Dannah Mena Tharsha ThasanPeriod 7

What role did agriculture play in Medieval Life?

An Agricultural Revolution

It began in the countryside, were peasants produced new farming technologies that made their field more productive

This resulted in an agricultural revolution that transformed Europe

Agricultural Advances

By the 800’s, peasants were using advanced tools and techniques to work the fields

Peasants had gone from using wooden plows to more advanced plows

In order to have land plowed faster, horses were used instead of oxen

Production and Population Grow Lords who wanted to boost the incomes

of their land had peasants clear forests, drain swamps, and reclaim wasteland

With all this land available, peasants introduced a new way of agriculture

New Way of Agriculture

Peasants introduced three-field system for rotating crops One field with grain Second field with legumes, such as peas

and beans Third field left unplanted

The Revival of Trade and Travel In the 1100’s, foreign invasions and

feudal warfare declined Crusaders bought luxury goods back

from Europe from the Middle East

Trade Routes Expand

Enterprising traders formed merchant companies that traveled in armed caravans

Along these routes, merchants exchanged local goods for those from remote markets in the Middle East and farther east into Asia

Trade Routes Expand Cont.

In Constantinople, merchants bought: Chinese silks Byzantine gold

jewelry Asian spices

These goods were later shipped over sea to Venice where other traders bought the goods and sent them to England and lands along the Baltic Sea

Trade Routes Expand Cont.

In the 1200’s, German towns along the Baltic Sea formed the Hanseatic League

Hanseatic League: an association to protect their trading interests, which dominated trade in Northern Europe for more than 150 years

The league took action against robbers and pirates, built townhouses, and trained ships’ pilots

The Growth of Towns and Cities Slowly, centers of trade and handicraft

became the first medieval cities Europe had not seen big towns since the

Roman times Richest cities emerged in northern Italy

and Flanders

The Growth of Towns and Cities Cont. To protect their interests, merchants

asked the local lord, or the king himself for a charter

Charter: written document set out the rights and privileges of the town

In return, merchants paid the lords large sums of money

As Europe’s population grew, manors became overcrowded

A Commercial Revolution

As trade revived, the use of money increased

In time, the need for capitals, or money for investment, provoked the growth of banking houses

Merchants also extended credit to one another

The Beginnings of Modern Business Groups of merchants joined together in

partnerships (merchants who joined together to finance a large scale venture that would have been to costly for any individual trader)

This practice made capital more easily available

Later merchants developed a system of insurance to help reduce business risks

For a small fee, an underwriter insured the merchant’s shipment

The Beginnings of Modern Business Cont.

Europeans followed some practices from the Muslim with whom they traded

These traders had established methods of using credit rather then cash in their business

European versions included letters of credit and bills of exchange

Society Begins to Change

These business practices were part of a commercial revolution that changed the medieval economy

By the 1300’s, most peasants in Western Europe were either tenant farmers or hired laborers

Society Begins to Change Cont. During the Middle Ages, the Church

excluded Christians to lend money at interest

Because of this, many Jews who were barred became moneylenders

Although moneylenders played a huge role in the growing medieval economy, their success led to the resentment and a rise in anti-Jewish prejudice

DBQ Questions

It helped make the High Middle Ages possible and had long been in preparation; 4 factors prepared ground for it:  the end of the wave of raids that swept Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries; the clearing and cultivation of new land and the spread of the three-field rotation system; technological innovations like the heavy plow and the horse collar.

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How did agriculture help in the revival of trade & towns?

DBQ Questions

What did the Hanseatic League protect?

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Works Cited

Ellis, Elisabth Gaynor. World History. Boston Massachusetts: Pearson Education Inc.,, 2009. Print.

Hanseatic League. Pearson Education, 2000. Web. 22 Feb. 2009. <http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/

history/A0822651.html>. "Medieval Towns and Cities." The Revival of

Trade and Towns. Scholastic Inc., 2010. Web. 22 Feb.

2010. <http://expertspace.grolier.com/>.