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Paper Abstract: Overview of history & culture of era; role of mercantile activities. Paper Introduction: The popular image of the Middle Ages in Europe that most of us have inherited is one filled with the dark corridors of monasteries or possibly of peasants dropping dead in their fields of the Black Death. But the Middle Ages in Europe were not a period of inactivity between the vitality of the Roman Empire and the vitality of the Renaissance. Art and poetry was created, glorious buildings were erected, crops were planted and brought in, children born, books written and everywhere – as has always been the case throughout all of human history and across every continent – trade went on. People bartered and bought, making themselves small fortunes and losing them, just staying ahead of the bailiffs or having a good year, always looking for a partner with whom to trade or sell something of lesser need for something of gr Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. During the period of time that this paper focuses on, Europetransformed itself from a collection of localities, from a thousand farmsand villages into a world the size of the entire continent. 28). London: Thames and Hudson.Cantor, N. The dramatic changes in trade and mercantile patterns setinto motion in the Middle Ages can be understood in comparing this type ofa world with our own (Hunt and Murray, 1999, p. All of these political developments would have implications fortrade, as political barriers would in many cases result in tariffs andother economic barriers. But such craftspeople were becoming increasingly anachronistic. (1994). The term "Middle Ages" has for centuries implied a suspension of timeand, especially, a suspension of progress - a period of culturalstagnation, once referred to as the Dark Ages, between the glory ofclassical antiquity and the rebirth of that glory in the beginnings of themodern world. New educational institutions, such as cathedral and monasticschools, prospered, and the first universities were established. During the 13th century the cultural, literary, liturgical, politicaland economic achievements of the 12th were codified and synthesized. Markets had become complex enough that a significant amount ofdivision of labor had begun to be required, the same division of labor (andof resources) that would produce modern-day capitalism (Favier, 1998, p.243). The MiddleAges is generally considered to be the period in Europe dating from thecollapse of the Roman Empire in the West, around the 5th century, to the15th century. 87). Inspinning and weaving and dyeing cloth, for example, and someone had to befound to coordinate the work of each artisan. 189). Throughout the cultural sphere an unprecedented intellectual fermentdeveloped. (1999). This view is less commonly held now than it was 5 years ago,and the burgeoning state of the merchant class (who were laying thefoundations for modern capitalism and the marketplace as we understand ittoday) were one of the primary reasons that the era cannot be looked uponas a stagnant one (Gies and Gies, 1995, p. The resulting violence and dislocation causedlands to be withdrawn from cultivation, population to decline, and themonasteries again became outposts of civilization. And then there would be people needed tosell the merchandise when it arrived at its final port - someone who couldtalk up one merchants good cotton twill over another very similar lookingtwill in the next market stall. Theera of migrations had come to a close, and Europe experienced thecontinuity and dynamic growth of a settled population. It did becomefundamentally less important in part because of the culmination of aprocess begun during the Roman Empire in which peasants became bound to theland and dependent on landlords for protection and the rudimentaryadministration of justice. Money is most useful when trading withpartners that one does not know, are a long distance away, and with whomone does not do business over a long period of time. All such connectionsimpeded any tendency toward political consolidation and tended to ensurethat all trade was very local indeed, which meant that trade was generallycarried on in terms of barter. It is hard to fathom what it would be like tolive in a world in which everything that one used come from materials drawnfrom within walking distance of where you were born and was made by peoplethat one knew. Town life, and withit regular and large-scale trade and commerce, was revived. Higgett, trans.) (1998). These ties, which traded land for military and other services,may have been rooted in the old Roman patron-client relationship or in theGermanic comitatus, the group of fighting companions. The interlacing nature of the European economy (in what could almostpass as a dress rehearsal for the common market of today's EuropeanCommunity) was due in largest measure to the achievements of Italianmerchant-bankers whose activities penetrated France, England, the LowCountries, and North Africa, as well as the old imperial lands of Germany.They helped to create currencies that were relatively stable and acceptedbeyond the lands where they had been minted, and also provided financialinstruments similar to modern letters of credit that could be far moresafely carried by merchants than gold (Favier, 1998, p. 4). None of theseconditions was commonplace (Bautier, 1971, p. A history of business in Medieval Europe, 12 -155 . The benefits were reaped by those who knew how to free capital from its sterile inactivity and who could coordinate their activities in a fruitful balance of talent and responsibility (Favier, 1998, p. The society andculture of the High Middle Ages were complex, dynamic, and innovative.People began to look beyond their local horizon and to desire goods as wellas ideas from beyond their own place. 1 9). (H. By the year 1 5 Europe stood on the verge of an unprecedented period of development. New York: Holmes and Meier.Gies, F. Merchants who feared attack on the roadsthat would cost them either their money or their goods would not trade. These feelings would lay the foundation thatwould result in centuries-long struggles for supremacy between church andstate. 96). Business was increasingly becoming a jointeffort of not just a handful or even dozens of people but of entirenations. Thisgrowth in knowledge, while not directly related to trade, fueled people'sinterests in acquiring not only knowledge about distant places, but thedesire for goods from foreign lands as well (Favier, 1998, p. Europebecame more of a unified entity (even as individual kingdoms themselvesbecame stronger) tied together by two primary institutions. 211). The Church, seeking to guarantee the safety of pilgrims andCrusaders also sought to make travel safer (Hunt and Murray, 1999, p. The High Middle Ages in Europe were also marked by an increasingdistinction between different functions within trade enterprises. Yet, more precisely, by the end of the fifthcentury the culmination of several long-term trends, including a severeeconomic dislocation and the invasions and settlement of Germanic peopleswithin the borders of the Western Empire, had changed the face of Europe(Hunt and Murray, 1999, p. Cambridge: Cambridge University. Gies. Cathedral, forge and water wheel. (C. By the end of the 13th century, the secular state was justbeginning to emerge, although this emergence was often no more than anincipient national feeling. This paper looks at the state of tradepatterns and the role of merchants in Europe during the years between 1 and 14 a.d. Theyhad not place and no role "in the money markets of Bruges or in trade withEgypt" (Favier, 1998, p. Europelifted its face to the one church, and when obeisance had been paid to Godwent out and worked in a united economy (Bautier, 1971, p. ReferencesBautier, R-H. The rise of nationalism meant that thecontinent would often be politically stable, but it would also mean therise of protectionist economic policies that had been nearly entirelyabsent during the high Middle Ages (Gies and Gies, 1995, p. 36). 38). 111). The end of the High Middle Ages was marked by the achievement ofinstitutional unity and intellectual synthesis, a unity that would begin tofail in the late Middle Ages, which were characterized by conflict anddissolution. This paper, however, focuses on thelater years of the Middle Ages, an era about which historians are generallyin agreement (Cantor, 1994, p. The High Middle Ages were not only a time of great mercantileactivity, but they were also the birthplace of modern capitalism, the timein which capital itself became the governing force of trade and theimportance of a particular skill or a particular product lessened. Artand poetry was created, glorious buildings were erected, crops were plantedand brought in, children born, books written and everywhere - as has alwaysbeen the case throughout all of human history and across every continent -trade went on. These were themonarchical church had become the great European institution and thepractice of trade and commerce across large expanses of Europe and acrosswhat were becoming something similar to the modern national border. Certainly there were substantial differences between the capitalismthat was emerging in 14 from the capitalism of today (the primarydifference being the role of industrialization in today's capitalisteconomies). The medical writings of antiquity, many of which hadbeen preserved only by Arab scholars, were recovered and translated. The early Middle Ages drew to a close in the 1 th century with newmigrations and invasions, including the coming of the Vikings from thenorth and the less-well known invasions of Magyars from the Asian steppes.There was as well a weakening of all forces of European unity and expansion(including some weakening of the Roman Catholic Church, which had been theonly truly consolidating, trans-European social institution in early MiddleAges) (Cantor, 1994, p. By the year 14 , towns and cities, continuing to grow in size andprosperity, began to strive for political self-control, and the urbanconflict became internal as well, as various classes and interests vied forcontrol. Karolyi, trans.) (1971). However, the fixing of dates for the beginning and end of theMiddle Ages is arbitrary; at neither time was there any sharp break in thecultural development of the continent. Murray. 27). Manyskills were required to organize the technical processes carried on by thetens (if not scores) of artisans involved in the work of business. A very brief look at the early Middle Ages is important to understandhow trade would develop in later centuries. The needs of the local market, the nearby feudallord, local taxation customs, the town's currency were no longer thelimitations that they had been during the early Middle Ages. & J. The civilization of the Middle Ages. Thus we see that the development of trade came about just as much through the management of people - by the creation of new organizations of professionals, burghers, or nations - and through the ability of these groups to act in concert, encouraging all those involved, whether actively or passively, to initiate and invest. The economic development of medieval Europe. & J.M. Advanceddegrees in medicine, law, and theology were offered, and in each fieldinquiry was intense. These skills would all be needed by 14 and they were a direct result of the political, cultural and economicrestructurings that had been occurring in Europe for the pat severalcenturies. A certain degree of political stability had toexist in Europe for trade to occur, but beyond that needed measure therecould be too much of a good thing. The Middle Ages span the distance from individuals creating goods andselling them with the help of a banker from a foreign country to a customerin still a third country. Also needed was someone whoknew how to keep cash flowing so that not only would each worker along thechain of production be paid but also that there would be enough money topay for raw materials, to reserve a ship to move the cargo to where itcould most profitably be sold. 88). 4). People bartered and bought, making themselves small fortunesand losing them, just staying ahead of the bailiffs or having a good year,always looking for a partner with whom to trade or sell something of lesserneed for something of greater. Thesafety of travel was therefore of great concern, and became a priority forboth the merchants themselves and for their governments who also profitedfrom the trade. The popular image of the Middle Ages in Europe that most of us haveinherited is one filled with the dark corridors of monasteries or possiblyof peasants dropping dead in their fields of the Black Death. Gold and spices: The rise of commerce in the Middle Ages. New York: Harperperennial.Favier, J. For the next 3 years western Europe remained essentially a primitiveculture, albeit one uniquely superimposed on the complex, elaborate cultureof the Roman Empire, which was never entirely lost or forgotten. This promoted trade, which was inturn promoted by growing small businesses that provided the wealth neededboth to establish distant trading routes and alliances and money needed tobuy these goods once they came into one's town (Favier, 1998, p. 39). The Middle Ages is oftenconveniently said to begin with either the sack of Rome by the Goths underAlaric I in 41 or the deposition in 476 of Romulus Augustulus, the lastRoman emperor in the West. But the seeds were planted and it is hard to imagine, lookingat the world in 14 , that the course of capitalism could have beendisrupted by even the most profound political change. The period that is the focus of this paper - the 11th through the 15centuries - is sometimes called the High Middle Ages. New York: Harperperennial.Hunt, E.S. By 14 therewould remain some of the same kind of craftspeople who had been there in1 , working alone or with a few apprentices in their studios, sellingtheir wares locally even as they bought their raw materials locally. Currenciescould be converted, international trade was sanctioned and protected bystrong rulers, the Church would give its blessing to interest rates, freedfrom feudalistic requirements the nobility could invest more in trade,Crusaders would bring home wonders from the East that others wanted - andthe entire world of Europe would become an agora. The possibility of safe travel was imperative for expanding trade inthe Middle Ages - a fact that it is easy to forget from the relativetranquility of the 21st century. Althoughduring this period the loose confederation of tribes began to coalesce intokingdoms, virtually no machinery of government existed, and political andeconomic development was local in nature - a state that is almostunimaginable to us today. But the Middle Ages in Europe were not a period of inactivity betweenthe vitality of the Roman Empire and the vitality of the Renaissance. (1995). Before looking more particularly at the role of mercantile activitieswithin Europe during this period, a brief overview of the history andculture of the times is needed to provide needed background. Among the warrior aristocracy the most importantsocial bonds were ties of kinship, but feudal connections were alsoemerging. Regular formal commerce during the early Middle Ages ceased almostentirely, although the money economy never entirely vanished. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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