The growth of cities in different regions of Western Europe took place at different rates. First of all - in the 9th century. - cities as centers of crafts and trade appeared in Italy (Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Florence, Bari, Naples, Amalfi); in the X century. - in the south of France (Marseille, Arles, Narbonne, Montpellier, Toulouse, etc.). In these areas, which already knew a developed class society (the Roman Empire), earlier than in others, the growth of productive forces based on the development of feudal relations led to the separation of handicrafts from agriculture, as well as to an exacerbation of the class struggle in the countryside and mass escapes of serfs.
One of the factors that contributed to the early emergence and growth of Italian and southern French cities were the trade relations of Italy and southern France with Byzantium and the more developed countries of the East at that time. Finally, a certain role was played here by the preservation of the remains of numerous Roman cities and fortresses, where fugitive peasants could more easily find shelter, protection, traditional markets, and rudiments of Roman municipal law than in uninhabited places. In the X-XI centuries. cities began to arise in northern France, in the Netherlands, in England and in Germany - along the Rhine and along the upper Danube. The Flanders cities - Bruges, Ypres, Ghent, Lille, Douai, Arras, and others - were famous for the production of fine cloth, which they supplied to many European countries. In these areas, only a few cities arose on the sites of the old (Roman) ones, most were founded anew.
Later - in the XII-XIII centuries - feudal cities began to grow on the northern outskirts and in the inner regions of Zarein Germany, in: the Scandinavian countries, as well as in Ireland, Hungary and the Danube principalities, that is, where the development of feudal relations took place more slowly. Here all the cities were new formations, growing, as a rule, from "market places" and "ports".
The network of cities in Western and Central Europe was uneven. It reached particular density in Northern and Central Italy, as well as in Flanders and Brabant. But in other countries and regions, the number of cities, including small towns, was such that a peasant could get to any of them within one day.
With all the differences in place, time and specific conditions for the emergence of a particular city, it was always the result of an economic process common to the whole of medieval Europe - the social division of labor between handicrafts and agriculture and the development on this basis of commodity production and exchange.
This process was lengthy and was not completed within the framework of the feudal social formation. However, in the X-XIII centuries. it proceeded especially intensively and led to an important qualitative shift in the development of feudal society.
The rise and growth of medieval cities The cities had a significant impact on the economy of medieval society, played a very important role in its socio-political and spiritual life. The 11th century - the time when cities, like all the main structures of feudalism, were mainly formed in most countries of Western Europe - is a chronological boundary between the early Middle Ages (V-XI centuries) and the period of the most complete development of the feudal system (XI-XV centuries. ), medieval civilization as a whole.
Urban life in the early Middle Ages. The first centuries of the Middle Ages in Western Europe were characterized by the almost complete domination of natural economy, when the basic means of subsistence are obtained in the economic unit itself, by the forces of its members and from its resources. The peasants, constituting the overwhelming mass of the population, produced agricultural products and handicrafts, tools and clothing for their own needs and for paying duties to the feudal lord.
The ownership of the tools of labor by the worker himself, the combination of rural labor with handicrafts, are characteristic features of a subsistence economy. Only a few specialist artisans then lived in a few urban settlements, as well as in the estates of large feudal lords (usually as courtyards). A small number of rural artisans (blacksmiths, potters, tanners) and tradesmen (salt-makers, coal burners, hunters), along with crafts and trades, were also engaged in agriculture.
The exchange of products was insignificant, it was based primarily on the geographical division of labor: differences in natural conditions and the level of development of individual localities and regions. They traded mainly in goods mined in a few places, but important in the economy: iron, tin, copper, salt, etc., as well as luxury goods that were not then produced in Western Europe and imported from the East: silk fabrics, expensive jewelry and weapons , spices, etc.
https://all-andorra.com/morella/
https://all-andorra.com/culla/
https://all-andorra.com/guadalest/
https://all-andorra.com/murcia-city/
https://all-andorra.com/orihuela/
https://all-andorra.com/san-pedro-del-pinatar/
https://all-andorra.com/santiago-de-la-ribera/
https://all-andorra.com/los-alcazares/
https://all-andorra.com/la-manga-del-mar-menor/
https://all-andorra.com/mazarron/
https://all-andorra.com/mula/
https://all-andorra.com/cehegin/
https://all-andorra.com/cartagena/
https://all-andorra.com/caravaca-de-la-cruz/
https://all-andorra.com/moratalla/
https://all-andorra.com/lorca/
https://all-andorra.com/calabardina/
https://all-andorra.com/aguilas/
https://all-andorra.com/san-juan-de-los-terreros/
https://all-andorra.com/villaricos/
https://all-andorra.com/vera/
https://all-andorra.com/garrucha/
https://all-andorra.com/mojacar/
https://all-andorra.com/pampaneira/
https://all-andorra.com/bubion/
https://all-andorra.com/capileira/
https://all-andorra.com/lanjaron/
https://all-andorra.com/granada/
https://all-andorra.com/alcala-la-real/
https://all-andorra.com/zuheros/
https://all-andorra.com/cordoba/
https://all-andorra.com/lucena/
https://all-andorra.com/iznajar/
https://all-andorra.com/roquetas-de-mar/
https://all-andorra.com/almeria/
https://all-andorra.com/espejo-city/
https://all-andorra.com/nijar/
https://all-andorra.com/lucainena-de-las-torres/
https://all-andorra.com/guadix/
https://all-andorra.com/malaga/
https://all-andorra.com/rincon-de-la-victoria/
https://all-andorra.com/torre-del-mar/
https://all-andorra.com/jaen/
https://all-andorra.com/banos-de-la-encina/
https://all-andorra.com/linares/
https://all-andorra.com/ubeda/
https://all-andorra.com/baeza/
https://all-andorra.com/motril/
https://all-andorra.com/salobrena/
https://all-andorra.com/velilla-taramay/
https://all-andorra.com/almunecar/
https://all-andorra.com/nerja/
https://all-andorra.com/frigiliana/
https://all-andorra.com/torrox/
https://all-andorra.com/el-morche/
https://all-andorra.com/estepona/
https://all-andorra.com/marbella/
https://all-andorra.com/la-cala-de-mijas/
https://all-andorra.com/fuengirola/
https://all-andorra.com/benalmadena/
https://all-andorra.com/torremolinos/
https://all-andorra.com/la-linea-de-la-concepcion/
https://all-andorra.com/algeciras/
https://all-andorra.com/san-roque/
https://all-andorra.com/el-puerto-de-la-duquesa/
https://all-andorra.com/casares/
https://all-andorra.com/ronda/
https://all-andorra.com/benadalid/
https://all-andorra.com/genalguacil/
https://all-andorra.com/sanlucar-de-barrameda/
https://all-andorra.com/chipiona/
https://all-andorra.com/rota/
https://all-andorra.com/el-puerto-de-santa-maria/
https://all-andorra.com/jerez-de-la-frontera/
https://all-andorra.com/cadiz/
https://all-andorra.com/tarifa/
https://all-andorra.com/vejer-de-la-frontera/
https://all-andorra.com/conil-de-la-frontera/
https://all-andorra.com/chiclana-de-la-frontera/
https://all-andorra.com/utrera/
https://all-andorra.com/seville/
https://all-andorra.com/carmona/
https://all-andorra.com/lebrija/
https://all-andorra.com/huelva/
https://all-andorra.com/ayamonte/
The main role in this trade was played by itinerant, most often foreign merchants (Greeks, Syrians, Arabs, Jews, etc.). Manufacturing of products specially designed for sale, i.e. commodity production in most of Western Europe was almost not developed. The old Roman cities fell into decay, the economy was agrarianized, and in the barbarian territories cities were just emerging, trade was primitive.
No tags have been pushed to this repository yet.