Late Years of the Middle Ages

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 greater. This paper looks at the state of trade patterns and the role of merchants in Europe during the years between 1000 and 1400 a.d.

Before looking more particularly at the role of mercantile activities within Europe during this period, a brief overview of the history and culture of the times is needed to provide needed background. The Middle Ages is generally considered to be the period in Europe dating from the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, around the 5th century, to the 15th century. However, the fixing of dates for the beginning and end of the Middle Ages is arbitrary; at neither time was there any sharp break in the cultural development of the

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eople began to look beyond their local horizon and to desire goods as well as ideas from beyond their own place. This promoted trade, which was in turn promoted by growing small businesses that provided the wealth needed both to establish distant trading routes and alliances and money needed to buy these goods once they came into one's town (Favier, 1998, p. 87). Throughout the cultural sphere an unprecedented intellectual ferment developed. New educational institutions, such as cathedral and monastic schools, prospered, and the first universities were established. Advanced degrees in medicine, law, and theology were offered, and in each field inquiry was intense. The medical writings of antiquity, many of which had been preserved only by Arab scholars, were recovered and translated. This growth in knowledge, while not directly related to trade, fueled people's interests in acquiring not only knowledge about distant places, but the desire for goods from foreign lands as well (Favier, 1998, p. 38). During the 13th century the cultural, literary, liturgical, political and economic achievements of the 12th were codified and synthesized. Europe became more of a unified entity (even as individual kingdoms themselves became stronger)
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Approximate Word count = 2412
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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