like fiefs, spending most of their time in battle to secure a stronghold here, a city
there. Meanwhile, Western rulers were becoming less regional in focus, encroaching
on Byzantine territory and (as we shall see) attacking the Islamic world as well.
The Quickening of the European Economy
Behind the new European expansion was a new economy. Draining marshes, felling
trees, building dikes: this was the backbreaking work that brought new land into
cultivation. With their heavy, horse-drawn plows, peasants were able to reap greater
harvests; using the three-field system, they raised more varieties of crops. Great
landowners, the same “oppressors” against whom the Peace of God fulminated (see
p. 134), could also be efficient economic organizers. They set up mills to grind grain,
forced their tenants to use them, and then charged a fee for the service. It was in
their interest that the peasants produce as much grain as possible. Some landlords
gave peasants special privileges to settle on especially inhospitable land: the bishop of
Hamburg was generous to those who came from Holland to work soil that was
“uncultivated, marshy, and useless.”^1
As the countryside became more productive, people became healthier, their
fertility increased, and there were more mouths to feed. Even so, surprising surpluses
made possible the growth of old and the development of new urban centers. Within a
generation or two, city dwellers, intensely conscious of their common goals,
elaborated new instruments of commerce, self-regulating organizations, and forms of
self-government.
TOWNS AND CITIES
Around castles and monasteries in the countryside or at the walls of crumbling
ancient towns, merchants came with their wares and artisans set up shop. At Bruges
(today in Belgium; for all the places mentioned in this section, see Map 5.3), it was
the local lord’s castle that served as a magnet. As one late medieval chronicler put it,
To satisfy the needs of the people in the castle at Bruges, first merchants
with luxury articles began to surge around the gate; then the wine-sellers
came; finally the inn-keepers arrived to feed and lodge the people who
had business with the prince.... So many houses were built that soon a
great city was created.^2
