Mr. Needle’s Blog Space

Use the following to supplement “Enter the Needle”

http://bneedle.edublogs.org/files/2008/12/post-enter-the-needle-blog-notes.doc

Societal changes

Technology impacts production

allowed peasants to escape their debts and begin to become free farmers

Higher taxes

people had higher “incomes”

eventually this would cause conflict for hundreds of years

plight of the peasant improved during this later part of the middle ages

Banking – letters of credit, partnerships

Banking and moneymaking through trade became more common

First banks were in ITALY, and then Germany, Low Countries       (BeNeLux)

More widespread use of money

Banking and moneymaking through trade became more common

Investors purchase ships to be used for trade (Jacques Coeur)

push to use some sort of currency other than bartering trade

Christian thinkers criticized money and prices and investment

Highly Criticized by the church as this was a corrupting force

Thomas Aquinas felt that all prices should be just (prices should not exceed what was used to create)

Trade

Products

Luxury – Asian imports and Africa

Spices – Meats

VERY EXPENSIVE & IMPORTANT

Small supply, needed to cure

West produced cloth for trade

Timber and grain from N Europe exchanged for metal and cloth from Low Countries and Italy

England traded raw wool for finished cloth

Hanseatic League 13^th – 17^th Century

N German towns

Scandinavia

Trade over the Baltic Sea

primary goods for trade were timber, furs, resin (or tar), flax, honey, wheat and rye from the east to Belgium and England with cloth and increasingly manufactured goods going in the other direction. Metal ore (principally copper and iron) and herring were sent south from Sweden

Investment for profits-risk vs. profit

Higher risk yields higher profits but a greater chance of loss

Hanse cities were safe-havens for trade members

Joint stock companies

Shares the risks and increases power

Best example of investor= Jacques Coeur

Gained monopoly and was able to immensely profit but this ended up hurting him

Weak govt. led to more freedom in trade

Towns lead to middle class (later allies to monarchs)

Merchants developed laws and courts

Merchants were backed by courts and often served on city councils/governments

Guilds:  same trade, “womb to tomb”

Limited membership

Regulated to assure good training and limit wealth

Guilds regulated trade and merchants

Collective investment – regulated profits and losses

Similar to what was already developed in Asia

Ignored improvements

Guarantee quality to ease consumers

Cottage industry

Capitalists provide people with raw materials

Towns grew

Women in Medieval Europe

Christian equality of souls

Mary veneration counterbalanced misogyny

Mary is good BUT Eve is the source of evil

Nunneries

Women were less segregated religiously than in Islam

All in all female status declined

1337-1453:  100 Yrs. War

Crossbow, gunpowder, cannon, castle

Joan of Arc

Food supply down

Plagues

Chivalry and pageantry