Chapter 8 Lesson 3 Notes: Economic Expansion and Change During the High Middle Ages

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Chapter 8 Lesson 3 Notes Economic Expansion and
Change During the High Middle Ages
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NEW TECHNOLOGY

• Iron plows

instead of wooden plows

• New harness for horses rather than oxen

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• Windmills used to grind grain into flour

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• Three-field system for growing crops instead of
  two-field system, allowing one field to always
  lay fallow (unplanted) for one year to restore
  fertility to soil

• More, better food production
• increased population

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REVIVAL OF TRADE

• New trade routes using armed caravans on land and
  sea, esp. to / from

• Constantinople, the Middle East, and farther
  eastern Asia

Constantinople, the Middle East, and farther
eastern Asia
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• Trade fairs to buy and sell goods and services

• New towns are formed with their own charters (a
  signed legal document granting freedom to
  townspeople from the lord or king)

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BANKING

• Investment capital provided by banking houses
• Joint-stock ventures among partners
• Insurance available for merchant shipments
• Bills of exchange provided for long distance
• trading

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• Christians forbidden by Church to charge usury
  (interest) on loans so
• Jews became moneylenders, often causing
  anti-Semitism

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ROLE OF GUILDS IN MEDIEVAL TOWNS

• Associations of merchants dominated town
• life
• Associations of craft artisans to counter
• merchant guilds

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• Steps to becoming a guild member apprentice
  (trainee) at age 7

journeyman (salaried worker) by age 14 becomes
master when guild accepts his masterpiece
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SOCIAL LIFE

• Feudalism undermined when serfs became tenant
  farmers
• Development of a middle class (merchants,
  traders, artisans later to include doctors and
  lawyers)
• Status of women improved as they entered business
  world
• Cultural diffusion caused a great European
  transformation by sharing ideas, cultures, and
  technology through trade