Medieval Europe: Economic change Flashcards
1
Q
What is a slave
A
- Slavery cited in germanic law codes with 774 articles in Bavarian law
- Lex Salica prices the servus at 35 sous, ess than a bull and the same as an ox and a cow
- union between servus and ancilla not official and referred to as contuberina which was also used for animals
2
Q
Pre feudal system
A
- ninth century king alfred of England allowed slaves their own commerce on “four wednesdays a year”
- texts of St Paul show that slavery is legitimised
3
Q
Historiography on slavery and serfdom
A
- Marxist historians such as Parrain see the ending of slavery to do with the forces of production
- Dockés gives a social explanation on slavery, arguing that the slaves rose up themselves
- Bloch argues discontinuity between slavery and serfodm
- Verriest argues continuity between slavery and serfdom
- Duby takes synthesis position on continuity vs discontinuity debate
- Fossier encellulement
4
Q
Feudalism
A
- 10th-12th centuries the power of the overlord increased
- After 750 we see new estate structures as Demesne farming
- Seigneurie banale developed in West Francia and Italy
5
Q
Agricultural surpluses
A
-After 1180 more farmers producing goods with a view towards sale
6
Q
Intensification and expansion of agriculture
A
- Draining of land in Flanders and Artois
- 3000 new towns founded in German lands in the 13th century
7
Q
Technological and agricultural innovation
A
- By the year 1000 the heavy wheeled plough can be found as far as Poland
- three fields system
8
Q
Increase in Volume of trade
A
- St Gothard Pass
- Ghent, Bruges, Lille etc. were centres of proto-capitalist expansion
- English wool –> Flemish cloth —> Florentine merchants
- Virtually all large-scale transactions by 1300 used cash
- In England, total volume of coinage in circulation went from less than £125,000 in 1180 to £1,100,000 in 1311
9
Q
Urbanisation
A
- Paris population over 250,000 by 1328.
- Florence, Milan, Genoa, Venice all populations over 100,000 by 1300
- Arte di Calimala one of the most important Florentine guilds
- commercial revolution
10
Q
Rise of merchants, banking and urban elite
A
-Florentine merchants interlinked with wool
11
Q
14th century famine
A
- 10-15% of north population dies leading to malthusian model
- famine between 1315-1322
