The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, 950-1350Professor Robert Lopez provides an incisive analysis of the economic structure of the Middle Ages. He makes use of modern economic concepts to explain how an underdeveloped economic system gave birth to the commercial revolution through which Europe succeeded in developing itself. The book goes far beyond the familiar picture of medieval European society, with its magnificent cathedrals and imposing castles, to concentrate instead on the walled cities and open countryside, for it was here that the revolution was born. Deftly and concisely, Professor Lopez traces the history of this remarkable economic upheaval which saw the rise of merchants and craftsmen and the decline of agricultural dependence by the society. |
Contents
ROMAN AND BARBARIAN PRECEDENTS | 1 |
ROMAN AGRICULTURE | 3 |
ROMAN COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY | 6 |
CRAFTS AND CREDIT | 8 |
THE COLLAPSE OF THE EMPIRE AND THE LONG DOWNWARD TREND | 10 |
AGRICULTURE IN THE BARBARIAN AGE | 13 |
THE TRADES IN THE BARBARIAN AGE | 18 |
CATHOLIC EUROPE AND HER NEIGHBORS | 22 |
THE UNEVEN DIFFUSION OF COMMERCIALIZATION | 85 |
PATTERNS AND OBJECTS OF TRADE | 91 |
THE MEDITERRANEAN SCENE | 97 |
DEPOSIT BANKING AND FINANCE AS AN OFFSHOOT OF TRADE | 103 |
THE EXPLOSION OF ITALIAN TRADE | 106 |
THE NORTHERN MEDITERRANEAN | 113 |
IN A LOWER KEY | 119 |
BETWEEN CRAFTS AND INDUSTRY | 123 |
THE GROWTH OF SELFCENTERED AGRICULTURE | 27 |
PATTERNS OF AGRICULTURAL EXPANSION | 30 |
CHANGES IN THE DIETS AND THE CROPS | 36 |
ANIMALS AND TOOLS | 41 |
COMMUNITIES AND INDIVIDUALS | 48 |
THE TAKEOFF OF THE COMMERCIAL REVOLUTION | 56 |
THE JEWS | 60 |
THE ITALIANS | 63 |
COINS AND CREDIT | 70 |
CONTRACTS | 73 |
TRANSPORTATION | 79 |
CRAFT GUILDS | 125 |
THE RISE OF THE WOOLLEN CRAFTS | 130 |
GUILD BALANCE AND PREINDUSTRIAL RISE IN OTHER FIELDS | 138 |
THE RESPONSE OF THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY | 148 |
THE COMMERCIAL COMPONENTS OF AGRICULTURAL GROWTH | 154 |
THE DARK SIDE OF THE PICTURE | 162 |
THE REVOLUTION COMES TO A HALT | 164 |
| 169 | |
| 176 | |
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agrarian agricultural Amalfi artisans barbarian age became Byzantine Byzantine Empire Byzantium capital Carolingian cash Catholic Europe cereals cities coins Commercial Revolution consumption contracts craft guilds craftsmen crops cultivated culture demographic early fourteenth early Middle Ages economic growth Economic History England entrepreneurs estates expansion exported farmers feudal Flanders Florence fourteenth century France Genoa Genoese German Greco-Roman Iberian peninsula increase Industrial Revolution investment Islamic Italian Italy Jews king labor land landowners large number larger late later less living lord Lübeck manor manorial medieval Mediterranean merchants Muslim nomic northern peasants period Phocaea plough political population production profits progress regions role Roman Empire Rome Scandinavian seaports serfs share ships slaves social soil southern tenth century territory textile thirteenth century tion towns trade transportation turn twelfth century urban usury Venetian Venice village water mill western wool Zaccaria