Figure 1.--.

Feudalism was the principal economic system of Medieval Europe. It was, however, more than just an ecomonic system, but a social and political system as well. Within Feudalism the enslaved peasantry gradually evolved from slavery to sefs. The difference was at first limited, but there were important legal differences. Other ecnomic topics considered here are the Silk Road, Crusades, plague, and the Medieval wool trade,

The Silk Road

For nearly two millenia, the Silk Road was a key element in the world econonomy. The history of the famed Silk Road is one of many instances in which clothing and fabrics have played a major role in human history. The story of the silk road is one of military adventures and conquest, adventuresome explorers, religious pilgrims, and great philosophers. While it is silk which is often, naturally enough, most strongly associated with the silk road, the flow of ideas and religion as an almost unintended aspect of the flow of trade may have been one of the most significant impacts. Of course most of the people who traversed the silk road were not great thinkers, but common tradesmen who transported their merchandise at great risk for the substantial profits that could be made. They moved cammal caravans over some of the most hostile terraine on the planet. The ilk road tranversed deserts, mountains and the seemingly endless Central Asian steppe. Some of the great figures of history are associated with the Silk Road, including Alexander the Great, Marco Polo, Genghis Khan, and Tamerlane. Merchandice may have moved over the Silk Road as early as the 5th century BC. The Silk Road is believed to have become an established trade route by the 1st century BC and continued to be important until the 16th century when more reliable sea routes were established as a result of the European voyages of discovery.

Feudalism

Europen feudalism was a decentralized social organization that arose with the collapse of central authority after the fall of the Roman Empire and the breakdown of all social institutions except the Church. Feudalism was the central European social systemgoverning Europe during the medieval era. The caos rought by waves of barbarian invasions throughly destroyed the established order. Gradually Roman institutions were forgotten. Society splintered into large numbers of small, isolated communities. The new institutions which involved in Europe involved a moneyless economy, limited transportation, rstrictive communication facilities, and a complete bsence of effective central government. People turned to local lords to protect them from pilaging neighbors and an even greater thread from war-like raiders such as the Vikings, Magyars, and Saracens. The European response three important ne institutions. Peasants wre organized on manors. Monestaries were organized to support priests and nuns. Social relationships were organized around a new social institition that we now call feudalism.

The Crusades

Christian pilgrims after the Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries had to travel through Islamic lands to venerate the great shrines in Jeruselum and other Biblical sites in the Holy Land. In addition the Ottoman Turks were increasingly encroaching on the Eastern or Byzantine Empire. The Turks apparently preyed upon Christian pilgrims. Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus, perhaps concerned about the plight of the pilgrims, more likely seeking allies against the Turks, wrote to a friend Robert, the Count of Flanders, in 1093. He recounted the alegeded atrocities inflicted on the pilgrims by the Turks. Count Robert forwarded Comnenus' letter to Pope Urban II. Pope Urban like Emperor Comnenus perhaps concerbed about Christian pilgrims, more likely seeing a political opportunity, decided to promote a military crusade to seize the Holy Land from the infidel Turks. European Christians at the time were locked in intractable dynastic wars in England, France, Italy, and other domains, destabilizing large areas of Europe. The Pope sought to redirect the fighting to an infidel adversary. Pope Urban's crusade, the First Crusade, was launched in 1095.

The Plague

Historians blieve the plague that raged through Europe began in China. Chinese sources reported an outbreak of bubonic plague some time in the early 1330s. The outbreak was not as severe as what was to come in Europe, perhaps because the disease was not new to China and there was some natural resistance. Also perhaps personal hygine was superior to that in Europe at the time. Plague infests warm blooded mammals, espeialy rodents like rats. The fleas that infest rats carry the disease to people. Other people become affected in the course of normal social interaction. The disease spreads very rapidly in any given population. Plague causes first a fever and then a painful swelling of the lymph glands. These glans are called buboes and thus the diseas became known as the bubonic plague. The plague also causes red spots on the skin that turn black, giving its other name--the black death. China in the 14th cenury was the richest society in the world and commercial contacts existed with the West. Thus the disease eventually spread west. First to western Asia and Europe. One link was Itlaiam merchants that brought goods from Black Sea ports. Merchant vessels arruved in Sicily in October 1347 wih sailors already dying. The disease was quickly established on the island and spread to Italy and then north with incredible speed. It had reached England by August 1348. Doctors had no concpt of what cused the disease or how to treat it. The disease subsided in Winter beacuse the fleas were dormant in the cold weather. Each Spring when the weather warmed and the fleas became more active, the disease returned. Over 5 years at the peak of the epidemic, the plague killed an estimated 25 million people. The European population was much smaller in the 14th and this represented one-third of the population. Beyond the personal tragedies, the economic and social consequences were enormous. The personal tragecies caused many to question the established order. There were severe labor shortages, severly undermining the economic under pinings of te feudal system. Peasants and workers demanded more money. When land lords resisted, peasant revolts broke out in Belgium, England, France, Germany, and Italy. Others began to question the religious order as well. Where was God when the plague raged? Why did he not answer the prayers of the faithful. More people began asking uestions to themselves. The God-centered mind set of the medieval era began to shift toward the human-centered world of the Renaisance.

The Medieval Wool Trade

The wool trade in Europe as late as the 10th century was still a local craft activity. That industry by the 15th century had developed into a sophisticated industrial prouction and international commenrce by the 15th century. England was the great European producer of raw wool. The Lowlands especilly Flanders was the center for high-quality production of finihed woolen goods. English merchants began exporting wool themselves in the 14th century. Previously foreign traders marketed English wool. As the century progress the trade in raw wool began to give way to the trade in raw wool. Inflation in the 16th century affected wool prices. Inflation was in part a result of all the gold and silver flowing into Europe from the Spanish conquests in America, some of which reached England through privetering. The expansion of the wool trade meant more land was coverted to sheep reaing or inclosed. This displaced large numbers of tennant farmers was forced off the land, producing class of wandering, beggars. The Elizabethan poor laws were specifically created to address this situation. The seemingly economic shift had significant political consequences. Inflation reduced the real income of the monarchy because much of its income was fixed sums. The country gentry, however, greatly benefited from the inclosures as well as from the purchase of the lands obtained by closing the monasteries, much o which was also coverted to sheep rearing. The gentry began to use Parliament to asertively protect its wealth from royal taxation.

The Hanseatiic League

The Hanseatic League was a mercantile association of medieval German cities. It was not a clearly delineated with cities joining and withdrawing from the League and participating to various degrees. The Leagues origins are not well understood. The name of the League app ears to come from the German word Hansa which mean a company or group of merchants merchants trading in foreign countries. The Leafue is strongly associated with the German push eastward in the Baltic and Slavic areas. These were areas populated by peoples without major urban centers. The Germans as he Romans built military and administrative posts which developed into towns and trading centers. Manu important cities in the Baltic today originated with the Teutonic Knights and other Germans pushing easts. The population of these coties was heavily German while the much larger rural popuilation was heavily sergs of Baltic or Slavic origins. Merchant guilds formed in these towns began to form relationships with guilds in other towns. One reason that it was German towns which formed this League was that, unlike other European countries, was not developing a strong centralized state that could protect their unterests. In addition German merchants were involved in the German push east and found themselves in towns surrounded by large non-German populations.

Created: February 9, 2003
Last updated: 4:26 AM 4/29/2006