Early European History Part 96

Like the old Roman guilds, those of the Middle Ages had their charitable and religious aspects. Each guild raised large benefit funds for the relief of members or their widows and orphans. Each guild had its private altar in the cathedral, or often its own chapel, where ma.s.ses were said for the repose of the souls of deceased members, and where on the day of its patron saint religious services were held. The guild was also a social organization, with frequent meetings for a feast in its hall or in some inn. The guilds in some cities entertained the people with an annual play or procession. [13] It is clear that the members of a medieval craft guild had common interests and shared a common life.

DISSOLUTION OF CRAFT GUILDS As the craft guilds prospered and increased in wealth, they tended to become exclusive organizations. Membership fees were raised so high that few could afford to pay them, while the number of apprentices that a master might take was strictly limited. It also became increasingly difficult for journeymen to rise to the station of masters; they often remained wage-earners for life. The ma.s.s of workmen could no longer partic.i.p.ate in the benefits of the guild system. In the eighteenth century most of the guilds lost their monopoly of industry, and in the nineteenth century they gave way to trade unions.

195. TRADE AND COMMERCE

MARKETS

Nearly every town of any consequence had a weekly or semiweekly market, which was held in the market place or in the churchyard. Marketing often occurred on Sunday, in spite of many laws against this desecration of the day. Outsiders who brought cattle and farm produce for sale in the market were required to pay tolls, either to the town authorities or sometimes to a neighboring n.o.bleman. These market dues still survive in the "octroi"

collected at the gates of some European cities.

"JUST PRICE"

People in the Middle Ages did not believe in unrestricted compet.i.tion. It was thought wrong for anyone to purchase goods outside of the regular market ("forestalling") or to purchase them in larger quant.i.ties than necessary ("engrossing"). A man ought not to charge for a thing more than it was worth, or to buy a thing cheap and sell it dear. The idea prevailed that goods should be sold at their "just price" which was not determined by supply and demand but by an estimate of the cost of the materials and the labor that went into their manufacture. Laws were often pa.s.sed fixing this "just price," but it was as difficult then as now to prevent the "cornering of the market" by shrewd and unscrupulous traders.

FAIRS

Besides markets at frequent intervals, many towns held fairs once or twice a year. The fairs often lasted for a month or more. They were especially necessary in medieval Europe, because merchants did not keep large quant.i.ties or many kinds of goods on their shelves, nor could intending purchasers afford to travel far in search of what they wanted. The more important English fairs included those at Stourbridge near Cambridge, Winchester, St. Ives, and Boston. On the Continent fairs were numerous and in some places, such as Leipzig in Germany and Nijni-Novgorod in Russia, they are still kept up.

FAIRS AND COMMERCE

A fair gave opportunity for the sale of commodities brought from the most distant regions. Stourbridge Fair, for instance, attracted Venetians and Genoese with silk, pepper, and spices of the East, Flemings with fine cloths and linens, Spaniards with iron and wine, Norwegians with tar and pitch from their forests, and Baltic merchants with furs, amber, and salted fish. The fairs, by fostering commerce, helped to make the various European peoples better acquainted with one another.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, TRADE ROUTES BETWEEN NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN EUROPE IN THE 13TH AND 14TH CENTURIES]

DECLINE OF COMMERCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Commerce in western Europe had almost disappeared as a result of the Germanic invasions and the establishment of feudalism. What little commercial intercourse there was encountered many obstacles. A merchant who went by land from country to country might expect to find bad roads, few bridges, and poor inns. Goods were transported on pack-horses instead of in wagons. Highway robbery was so common that travelers always carried arms and often united in bands for better protection. The feudal lords, often themselves not much more than highwaymen, demanded tolls at every bridge and ford and on every road. If the merchant proceeded by water, he must face, in addition to the ordinary hazards of wind and wave, the danger from the ill-lighted coasts and from attacks by pirates. No wonder commerce languished in the early Middle Ages and for a long time lay chiefly in the hands of Byzantines [14] and Arabs. [15]

COMMERCIAL REVIVAL AFTER THE CRUSADES

Even during the dark centuries that followed the end of the Roman Empire, some trade with the Orient had been carried on by the cities of Italy and southern France. The crusades, which brought East and West face to face, greatly increased this trade. The Mediterranean lands first felt the stimulating effects of intercourse with the Orient, but before long the commercial revival extended to the rest of Europe.

ASIATIC TRADE ROUTES

Before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope the spices, drugs, incense, carpets, tapestries, porcelains, and gems of India, China, and the East Indies reached the West by three main routes. All had been used in ancient times. [16] The central and most important route led up the Persian Gulf and Tigris River to Bagdad, from which city goods went by caravan to Antioch or Damascus. The southern route reached Cairo and Alexandria by way of the Red Sea and the Nile. By taking advantage of the monsoons, a merchant ship could make the voyage from India to Egypt in about three months. The northern route, entirely overland, led to ports on the Black Sea and thence to Constantinople. It traversed high mountain pa.s.ses and long stretches of desert, and could profitably be used only for the transport of valuable articles small in bulk. The conquests of the Ottoman Turks greatly interfered with the use of this route by Christians after the middle of the fifteenth century.

EUROPEAN TRADE ROUTES

Oriental goods, upon reaching the Mediterranean, could be transported by water to northern Europe. Every year the Venetians sent a fleet loaded with eastern products to Bruges in Flanders, a city which was the most important depot of trade with Germany, England, and Scandinavia. Bruges also formed the terminus of the main overland route leading from Venice over the Alps and down the Rhine. But as the map indicates, many other commercial highways linked the Mediterranean with the North Sea and the Baltic.

COMMERCIAL RELATIONS

It is important to note that until late in the Middle Ages trade existed, not between nations, but between cities. A merchant of London was almost as much a foreigner in any other English city as he would have been in Bruges, Paris, or Cologne. Consequently, each city needed to make commercial treaties with its neighbors, stipulating what were the privileges and obligations of its merchants, wherever they went. It was not until the kings grew strong in western Europe that merchants could rely on the central government, rather than on local authorities, for protection.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, MEDIEVAL TRADE ROUTES Land Routes Water Routes Marco Polo's Route]

196. MONEY AND BANKING

SMALL SCALE OF BUSINESS ENTERPRISE

We have seen that business in the Middle Ages was chiefly of a retail character and was conducted in markets and fairs. The artisan who manufactured the goods he sold and the peddler who carried his goods about from place to place were the leading types of medieval traders. Little wholesale business existed, and the merchant prince who owned warehouses and large stocks of goods was an exceptional figure.

LACK OF MONEY

One reason for the small scale of business enterprise is found in the inadequate supply of money. From the beginning of the Christian era to the twelfth century there seems to have been a steady decrease in the amount of specie in circulation, partly because so much moved to the Orient in payment for luxuries, and partly because the few mines in western Europe went out of use during the period of the invasions. The scarcity of money, as has been shown, [17] helped directly to build up the feudal system, since salaries, wages, and rents could be paid only in personal services or in produce. The money supply increased during the latter part of the Middle Ages, but it did not become sufficient for the needs of business till the discovery of the New World enabled the Spaniards to tap the wealth of the silver mines in Mexico and Peru. [18]

FAULTS OF MEDIEVAL CURRENCY

Medieval currency was not only small in amount but also faulty in character. Many great n.o.bles enjoyed the privilege of keeping a mint and issuing coins. Since this feudal money pa.s.sed at its full value only in the locality where it was minted, a merchant had to be constantly changing his money, as he went from one fief to another, and always at a loss.

Kings and n.o.bles for their own profit would often debase the currency by putting silver into the gold coins and copper into the silver coins. Every debas.e.m.e.nt, as it left the coins with less pure metal, lowered their purchasing power and so raised prices unexpectedly. Even in countries like England, where debas.e.m.e.nt was exceptional, much counterfeit money circulated, to the constant impediment of trade.

"USURY" LAWS

The prejudice against "usury," as any lending of money at interest was called, made another hindrance to business enterprise. It seemed wrong for a person to receive interest, since he lost nothing by the loan of his money. Numerous Church laws condemned the receipt of interest as unchristian. If, however, the lender could show that he had suffered any loss, or had been prevented from making any gain, through not having his money, he might charge something for its use. In time people began to distinguish between interest moderate in amount and an excessive charge for the use of money. The latter alone was henceforth prohibited as usurious. Most modern states still have usury laws which fix the legal rate of interest.

THE JEWS AS MONEY LENDERS

The business of money lending, denied to Christians, fell into the hands of the Jews. In nearly all European countries popular prejudice forbade the Jews to engage in agriculture, while the guild regulations barred them from industry. They turned to trade and finance for a livelihood and became the chief capitalists of medieval times. But the law gave the Jews no protection, and kings and n.o.bles constantly extorted large sums from them. The persecutions of the Jews date from the era of the crusades, when it was as easy to excite fanatical hatred against them as against the Moslems. Edward I drove the Jews from England and Ferdinand and Isabella expelled them from Spain. They are still excluded from the Spanish peninsula, and in Russia and Austria they are not granted all the privileges which Christians enjoy.

ITALIAN BANKING

The Jews were least persecuted in the commercial cities of northern Italy.

Florence, Genoa, and Venice in the thirteenth century were the money centers of Europe. The banking companies in these cities received deposits and then loaned the money to foreign governments and great n.o.bles. It was the Florentine bankers, for instance, who provided the English king, Edward III, with the funds to carry on his wars against France. The Italian banking houses had branches in the princ.i.p.al cities of Europe.

[19] It became possible, therefore, to introduce the use of bills of exchange as a means of balancing debts between countries, without the necessity of sending the actual money. This system of international credit was doubly important at a time when so many risks attended the transportation of the precious metals. Another Florentine invention was bookkeeping by double-entry. [20]

197. ITALIAN CITIES

THE CITY REPUBLICS

The cities of northern Italy owed their prosperity, as we have learned, to the commerce with the Orient. It was this which gave them the means and the strength to keep up a long struggle for freedom against the German emperors.[21] The end of the struggle, at the middle of the thirteenth century, saw all North Italy divided into the dominions of various independent cities. Among them were Milan, Pisa, Florence, Genoa, and Venice.

MILAN

Milan, a city of Roman origin, lay in the fertile valley of the Po, at a point where the trade routes through several Alpine pa.s.ses converged.

Milan early rose to importance, and it still remains the commercial metropolis of Italy. Manufacturing also flourished there. Milanese armor was once celebrated throughout Europe. The city is rich in works of art, the best known being the cathedral, which, after St. Peter's at Rome and the cathedral of Seville, is the largest church in Europe. Though the Milanese were able to throw off the imperial authority, their government fell into the hands of the local n.o.bles, who ruled as despots. Almost all the Italian cities, except Venice, lost their freedom in this manner.

PISA

Pisa, like Milan, was an old Roman city which profited by the disorders of the barbarian invasions to a.s.sert its independence. The situation of Pisa on the Arno River, seven miles from the sea, made it a maritime state, and the Pisan navy gained distinction in warfare against the Moslems in the Mediterranean. The Pisans joined in the First Crusade and showed their valor at the capture of Jerusalem. They profited greatly by the crusading movement and soon possessed banks, warehouses, and trading privileges in every eastern port. But Pisa had bitter rivals in Florence and Genoa, and the conflicts with these two cities finally brought about the destruction of its power.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BAPTISTERY, CATHEDRAL, AND "LEANING TOWER" OF PISA These three buildings in the piazza of Pisa form one of the most interesting architectural groups in Italy. The baptistery, completed in 1278 A.D., is a circular structure, 100 feet in diameter and covered with a high dome. The cathedral was consecrated in 1118 A.D. The finest part of the building is the west front with its four open arcades. The campanile, or bell tower, reaches a height of 179 feet. Owing to the sinking of the foundations, it leans from the perpendicular to a striking extent (now about 161/2 feet).]

FLORENCE

Florence, Pisa's neighbor on the Arno, was renowned for manufactures. The fine wool, silk cloths, golden brocades, jewelry, and metal work of Florence were imported into all European countries. The craft guilds were very strong there, and even the neighboring n.o.bles, who wished to become citizens, had first to enroll themselves in some guild. It was from banking, however, that Florence gained most wealth. In the fifteenth century the city contained eighty great banking houses, in addition to numerous branches outside of Italy. With their commercial spirit the Florentines combined a remarkable taste for art and literature. Their city, whose population never exceeded seventy thousand, gave birth to some of the most ill.u.s.trious poets, prose writers, architects, sculptors, and painters of medieval times. It was the Athens of Italy. [22]