Western Civilization

to the fairs of Champagne and

exchanged them for the cloth and

swords of northern Italy and the

silks, sugar, and spices of the East

(see the box on p. 208).

As trade increased, both gold

and silver came to be in demand

at fairs and trading markets of

all kinds. Slowly, a money econ-

omy began to emerge. New trad-

ing companies as well as banking

firms were set up to manage the

exchange and sale of goods. New

techniques, including double-

entry bookkeeping, commercial

contracts, and insurance, also

appeared to facilitate the expan-

sion of businesses. All of these

new practices were part of a commercial revolution

based on the growth ofcommercial capitalism,an

economic system in which commerce and industry are

controlled by private owners who invest in trade and

goods in order to make profits.

The Growth of Cities

The revival of trade led to a revival of cities. Merchants

needed places where they could live and build ware-

houses to store their goods. Towns had greatly declined

in the early Middle Ages, especially in Europe north of

the Alps. Old Roman cities continued to exist but had

dwindled in size and population. With the revival of

trade, merchants began to settle in these old cities, fol-

lowed by craftworkers or artisans, people who had

developed skills on manors or elsewhere and now per-

ceived the opportunity to ply their trade producing

objects that could be sold by the merchants. In the

course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the old

Roman cities came alive with new residents.

FOUNDING OF NEW CITIES AND TOWNS Beginning in the

late tenth century, many new cities and towns were

founded, particularly in northern Europe. Usually, a

group of merchants established a settlement near some

fortified stronghold, such as a castle or monastery. The

Englishboroughorburghand the GermanBurg,stillevi-

dent in the names of many cities such as Edinburgh and

Hamburg, originally meant a fortress or walled enclosure.

Castles were particularly favored because they were usu-

ally located along major routes of transportation or at

the intersection of two important trade routes; the lords

of the castle also offered protec-

tion. As the settlement prospered

andexpandedoutward,newwalls

were built to protect it.

Most towns were closely tied

to their surrounding territories

because they were dependent on

the countryside for their food

supplies. In addition, they were

often part of the territory belong-

ing to a lord and were subject to

his jurisdiction. Although lords

wanted to treat towns and towns-

people as they would their vassals

and serfs, cities had totally differ-

ent needs and a different per-

spective. Townspeople needed

mobility to trade. Consequently,

the merchants and artisans of these boroughs and

burghs, who came to be called burghers orbourgeoisie,

constituted a revolutionary group who needed their own

unique laws to meet their requirements. Since the

townspeople were profiting from the growth of trade

and sale of their products, they were willing to pay for

the right to make their own laws and govern themselves.

In many instances, lords and kings saw the potential for

vast new sources of revenues and were willing to grant

(or sell) to the townspeople the liberties they were be-

ginning to demand.

By 1100, burghers were obtaining charters of liber-

ties from their territorial lords that granted them the

privileges they wanted, including the right to bequeath

goods and sell property, freedom from any military

obligation to the lord, written urban law that guaran-

teed them their freedom, and the right to become a

free person after residing a year and a day in the town.

The last provision made it possible for a runaway serf

who could avoid capture to become a free person in a

city. Almost all new urban communities gained these

elementary liberties, but some towns went further and

obtained the right to govern themselves by choosing

their own officials and administering their own courts

of law.

CITY GOVERNMENTS Over time, medieval cities devel-

oped their own governments for running the affairs of

the community. Citizens (males who had been born in

the city or who had lived there for some time) elected

members of a city council that ran the affairs of

the city and also served as judges and magistrates. The

electoral process was carefully engineered to ensure

Paris

Bruges

Ghent

Hamburg

Lübeck

Edinburgh

London

Bergen

North

Sea

ENGLAND

NORWAY SWEDEN

0 150 300 Miles

0 300 600Kilometers

Trade routes

Flanders as a Trade Center

The New World of Trade and Cities 207

Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.

`ˆÌi`Ê܈̅Ê̅iÊ`i“œÊÛiÀȜ˜ÊœvÊ

˜vˆÝÊ*ÀœÊ*Ê

`ˆÌœÀÊ

/œÊÀi“œÛiÊ̅ˆÃʘœÌˆVi]ÊۈÈÌ\Ê