1. ECONOMIC RECOVERY AGRICULTURE - Technical changes in agriculture productivity:
improved
- Three-year crop rotation (only a third of agricultural land was left fallow each year) - Mouldboard plough (arado de veredera).
- Improved agriculture made more food available to the population. - People became healthier when they ate regularly. - As a consequence, the population increased in Europe.
1. ECONOMIC RECOVERY CRAFTS -
Craft products were made in workshops. The craftsmen formed guilds, which were associations that grouped together all the people who worked in the same field (shoe makers, carpenters‌)
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The guilds: - They regulated prices and working practices in a particular field. - They were associations for mutual assistance, that provided help if a craftsman fell ill. There were different categories of crafsman:
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- Master craftsmen: - they owned the workshops and the tools. - They ran the guilds. - Journeymen: - They worked for the master craftsman in exchange for a salary. - Apprentices: - They learnt their skills in return for food and accommodation
1. ECONOMIC RECOVERY THE GROWTH OF TRADE -
Trade increased greatly in the 12 th century.
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Types of trade:
1. Local commercial activity: -
Products were exchanged between the inhabitants of a city amd the people who lived in the surrounding area.
2. Long- distance trade: - This was risky and someimes dangerous so merchants organised into associations. - One of the most famous was the Hanseatic League in the Baltic. - There were two great centres of commercial activity: 1. The mediterranean: -
There were trade routes from Spain and Italy to the Muslim and Byzantine ports. There were imortant cities: Milan, Venice, Genoa.
2. The Atlantic and the Baltic: - Trade routes linked Portugal and the Cantabrian coast with cities in north-west Europe (Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp) - Trade fairs, (Example: the fair at Champagne in France) were attended by merchants from the great trading cities.
- To finance their journeys the merchants sometimes granted credit, and bills of exchange were used instead of money. (These activity later developed into banking)