Middle ages

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Middle ages

• Taryn Wilson

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Trading activities in the middle ages
Middle Ages Trade Commerce - the Italian
StatesThe conquest of Palestine by the Crusaders
had first opened all the towns and harbours of
this wealthy region to Western traders, and many
of them were able permanently to establish
themselves there, with all sorts of privileges
and exemptions from taxes. The Eastern commerce
furnished the first elements of that trading
activity which showed itself on the borders of
the Mediterranean and the emergence of the
republics of Amalfi, Venice, Genoa, and Pisa
becoming the rich depots of all maritime trade.

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Middle Ages Trade Commerce
Middle Ages Trade Commerce - ProductsThe
Medieval navigators imported spices, groceries,
linen, Egyptian paper, pearls, perfumes, and a
thousand other rare and choice articles. In
exchange they offered precious metals in bars
rather than in coins, and it is probable that at
this period they also exported iron, wines, oil,
and wax. England prospered during the Middle Ages
due to the commerce and trade in the wool which
was brought from England. Middle Ages Trade
Centres
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Middle Ages Trade Centers
Middle Ages Trade CentersMany new products were
introduced to Europe during the Middle Ages which
came from the Eastern lands which the Crusaders
travelled through to reach Jerusalem. Middle Ages
Trade and Commerce changed to include different
products, especially spices, from Cairo and
Alexandria in Egypt, Damascus in Syria, Baghdad
Mosul in Iraq and other great cities which became
important commerce and trading centers because of
their strategic location, astride the trade
routes to India, Persia and the Mediterranean.
The products were then carried across the
Mediterranean to the Italian seaports and then on
to the major towns and cities of Europe.
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Guilds in the middle ages

• During the 1100's CE, merchants, artists,
  bankers, and other professionals grouped
  themselves together in a business association
  called guilds. The bankers belonged to the
  bankers guild. The bakers belonged to the bakers
  guild. And so on. 
• Purpose of the Guilds The purpose of the guilds
  was to keep each member's territory exclusive. If
  you were a baker, your guild promised you a
  certain amount of space before another baker
  could build a shop. As well, if your shop burned
  down, the guild would care for you and your
  family. Guilds also arranged social occasions and
  festivals for its members.
• http//medievaleurope.mrdonn.org/guilds.html

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Guilds in the Middle Ages
Guilds in the Middle Ages were associations or
groups of craftsmen. Each guild focused on a
specific trade such as the candle maker's guild
or the tanner's guild. Why were guilds
important? Guilds in the Middle Ages played an
important role in society. They provided a way
for trade skills to be learned and passed down
from generation to generation. Members of a guild
had the opportunity to rise in society through
hard work. The guild protected members in many
ways. Members were supported by the guild if they
came onto hard times or were sick. They
controlled working conditions and hours of work.
The guild also prevented non-guild members from
selling competitive products. Some guild members
were even exempt from paying high taxes from the
lords and kings.
http//www.ducksters.com/history/middle_ages_guild
s.php
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Guild Positions In each guild in the Middle
Ages there were very well defined positions of
Apprentice, Journeyman, and Master. Apprentices
usually were boys in their teens who signed up
with a master for around 7 years. They would work
hard for the master during this time in exchange
for learning the craft plus food, clothing, and
shelter. Once the apprenticeship was complete,
he became Journeyman. As a Journeyman, he would
still work for a master, but would earn wages for
his work. The highest position of the craft was
the Master. To become a Master, a Journeyman
would need the approval of the guild. He would
have to prove his skill, plus play the politics
needed to get approval. Once a Master, he could
open his own shop and train apprentices.
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Money in the middle ages

• Rise of Trade Fairs At first, trade fairs were
  traveling marketplaces, offering goods for sale
  by many different sellers. A fair would be set up
  for a couple of weeks. Then the sellers would
  move on to another location. 
• Trade fairs grew quickly in both size and
  importance. Goods were pouring in by ship and by
  caravan from Africa, Asia, and other parts of
  Europe. 
• Some traders, from faraway places, arrived
  personally with goods to sell in the growing
  trade fairs. Along with goods, the traveling
  merchants and traders brought their own
  coinage.  

http//medievaleurope.mrdonn.org/banks.html
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Banks

• Banks Traders needed moneychangers who would
  exchange one form of currency for another.
  Moneychangers charged for this service, just as
  bankers did in ancient Greece, and just as banks
  do today. Moneychangers only charged a small
  amount per exchange, but so many exchanges
  happened at the fairs that most bankers became
  quite rich.

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Money

• Money Barter was no longer an accepted form of
  payment. Merchants wanted money for their goods.
  The nobles wanted the luxury goods they sold. But
  the nobles did not have a lot of cash to use to
  buy them. Nobles had always used the manorial
  system, a barter system, to gain the goods they
  needed. 
• To raise money, the nobles began to sell their
  crops for cash. They used the money they made to
  buy luxury goods. Many ordered more luxury goods
  than they had cash to purchase. To get more cash,
  some nobles borrowed money from the new banks,
  offering their land as guarantee of payment. 
• It never occurred to these nobles that they
  actually had to pay the banks back. The banks
  were owned and operated, for the most part, by
  peasants. It came as a huge shock to the nobles
  that their king was going to make them pay back
  their loans or lose their lands. 
• Although the nobles were shocked, and many did
  lose their land, the king was thrilled with the
  new money system. It allowed him a way to easily
  tax the noble lords, the craftsmen, the traders -
  both local and foreign - and the moneychangers. 

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Medieval Banks

• Medieval Banks
• Rise of Trade Fairs At first, trade fairs were
  traveling marketplaces, offering goods for sale
  by many different sellers. A fair would be set up
  for a couple of weeks. Then the sellers would
  move on to another location. 
• Trade fairs grew quickly in both size and
  importance. Goods were pouring in by ship and by
  caravan from Africa, Asia, and other parts of
  Europe. 
• Some traders, from faraway places, arrived
  personally with goods to sell in the growing
  trade fairs. Along with goods, the traveling
  merchants and traders brought their own
  coinage.  
• http//medievaleurope.mrdonn.org/banks.html

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banks

• Banks Traders needed moneychangers who would
  exchange one form of currency for another.
  Moneychangers charged for this service, just as
  bankers did in ancient Greece, and just as banks
  do today. Moneychangers only charged a small
  amount per exchange, but so many exchanges
  happened at the fairs that most bankers became
  quite rich. 

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money

• Money Barter was no longer an accepted form of
  payment. Merchants wanted money for their goods.
  The nobles wanted the luxury goods they sold. But
  the nobles did not have a lot of cash to use to
  buy them. Nobles had always used the manorial
  system, a barter system, to gain the goods they
  needed. 
• To raise money, the nobles began to sell their
  crops for cash. They used the money they made to
  buy luxury goods. Many ordered more luxury goods
  than they had cash to purchase. To get more cash,
  some nobles borrowed money from the new banks,
  offering their land as guarantee of payment. 

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Money (cont.)

• It never occurred to these nobles that they
  actually had to pay the banks back. The banks
  were owned and operated, for the most part, by
  peasants. It came as a huge shock to the nobles
  that their king was going to make them pay back
  their loans or lose their lands. 
• Although the nobles were shocked, and many did
  lose their land, the king was thrilled with the
  new money system. It allowed him a way to easily
  tax the noble lords, the craftsmen, the traders -
  both local and foreign - and the moneychangers. 

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Modes of travel in the middle ages

• Transportation in the Medieval World was slow,
  uncomfortable, and usually dangerous. A
  two-wheeled cart was often the mode of
  transportation. The Romans had developed
  efficient methods of sea transport for horses,
  which were improved by the Arabic nations in the
  Early Middle Ages these transports became common
  in Europe from the 10th century.Small boats
  (often referred to as tarides) could be powered
  by oar (or sometimes by sail), and were able to
  be loaded and unloaded directly on a beach, using
  doors as loading ramps these could carry up to
  20 horses. Later boats were larger, capable of
  carrying over 1500 men, but could not land men or
  animals directly. The merchant roundship was
  often adapted for warfare, and in the 13th
  century, two- and three-deck ships could carry
  100 horses (or 600 men). However, the need for
  fodder and water probably restricted the number
  of horses that could be carried in the 14th
  century, ships transporting horses between
  Scotland and Ireland never carried more than
  thirty-two. Adapting a ship for horse
  transportation required the installation of
  wooden stalls or hurdles, probably with
  supporting canvas slings.

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Horse transportion

• Records of cavalry transportation abound
  throughout the period, reflecting the changes in
  warfare. For example, the Scandinavians had
  adapted the horse-transport technology by the
  12th century as part of their move away from the
  traditional Viking infantry. The first
  illustration displaying such horse-transport in
  western Europe can be found in the Bayeux
  Tapestry's depiction of the Norman conquest of
  England. This particular military venture
  required the transfer of over 2000 horses from
  Normandy.

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Horse transportion (cont.)

• The development and building of horse transports
  for use in war meant it remained easy to transfer
  horses for breeding and purchase during
  peacetime. After William of Normandy's successful
  conquest of England, he continued to bring horses
  across from Normandy for breeding purposes,
  improving the bloodstock of the English horses.
  By this time, the Normans had already been
  transporting horses around the Mediterranean, and
  in 1174 an Italo-Norman force attacked Alexandria
  with 1500 horses transported on thirty-six
  tarides. By the time of the Hundred Years War,
  the English government banned the export of
  horses in times of crisis.

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The End
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