Renaissance Cities, Trade, and the Rise of Modern Society
Causes of Renaissance Cities
Agricultural Development
Improvements introduced in the field since the eleventh century increased food production. Not everyone living in the country could produce their own food, and the population increased.
Population Growth
This increase is largely due to agricultural improvements. Those without sufficient land tried to go to cities to earn their livings in other professions, allowing for increased yields and agricultural existence of descendants.
Development of Trade
Cities were the places where weekly markets were held and where traders and artisans established themselves. Many were attracted by the freedom cities offered, not being under the power of any feudal lord.
Why Trade Grew in the Fifteenth Century
Cities became centers of commercial exchange. Besides weekly markets, periodic fairs were held, attended by traders from distant places. Many fairs were established and protected by the king, who wanted to charge a tax on merchants. New trade techniques were used.
Craftsmen
Artisans who had the same job grouped together in guilds on the same street. Guilds were associations of the same profession that helped each other and monitored their common interests. Each guild had a fund to help members with difficulties and passed a statute regulating the profession.
Statutes regulated wages, labor standards, public holidays, work materials, techniques, and product manufacturing. They also fixed sale prices and limited the number of teachers who could practice in a city if not part of the corresponding guild. These rules avoided competition and guaranteed the quality of products.
Within each guild, there were three categories of artisans: masters, officers, and apprentices. Masters were the only ones who could own and run a workshop controlled by the guild, making them influential within the community. Eventually, the title passed from parents to children.
Apprentices were young children whose fathers paid the master to teach them the craft. They lived in the master’s house and received no pay. Officers were journeymen who had learned the craft and earned a wage. They could become masters and eventually make a great painting considered the guild’s masterpiece.
Merchants
The demand for manufactured and luxury goods, the growth of cities, and the activities of artisans made merchants among the most active and wealthiest retailers. They negotiated with all kinds of goods, outlined prices and the value of coins, and made loans to other traders, artisans, nobles, and kings.
Commercial activity involved a lot of gold and silver coins. Kings, nobles, and cities minted their own currency. The variety of coins with different weights led to the emergence of the money changer or banker.
Causes and Consequences of the Crisis in the Fifteenth Century
Poor Harvests
No new tillage fields and yields dropped. Years of drought and flooding caused major famines, especially affecting the poorest, causing malnutrition, weakness, and death.
Black Death
In 1348, a ship carrying infected rats and fleas arrived in Genoa.
War
For example, the Hundred Years’ War between France and England over the French throne.
Consequences: Demographic Crisis and Social Conflicts
Discoveries
Conquest of new territories, political control, spread of Christianity, use of the compass and astrolabe, existence of stronger vessels, and the realization that the Earth was round. The main reason was economic: control of the eastern Mediterranean by the Turks. Castile and Portugal sought new routes to reach the East Indies and control the trade of gold, spices, and luxury goods.
Consequences
The Portuguese and Spanish monarchies benefited the most, building great empires from which they extracted large amounts of gold and silver.
How Society is Divided in the Modern Era
Differences between privileged and non-privileged classes were felt, especially due to the existence of privileges. Some non-privileged individuals who had acquired a lot of money could even buy noble titles from the king.
Manufacturing
Large workshops were built as royal property to sell manufactured goods domestically and to other countries in exchange for precious metals. In some countries, manufactures were privately owned, generating large fortunes. Corrective measures were implemented to support manufacturing.
Monarchy
A system where all authority is concentrated in the king.
Features:
- Bureaucracy: Officials who administered justice, collected taxes, minted currency, and controlled the city and economy on behalf of the king.
- Standing Army: Professional soldiers trained for service, not belonging to a noble.
- Diplomacy: Ambassadors representing the monarchy’s interests in foreign courts, facilitating partnerships and international treaties.