The Commercial Revolution

More cash, banking,and lending services

available

More money availablefor building businesses

Merchants’ wealthand power expand

IncreasedTrade

More workersneeded

Serfs move to town; workers paid for labor

Merchants’ taxesincrease the king’spower and wealth

OPEN

SKILLBUILDER: Interpreting Graphics1. Drawing Conclusions How did increased trade increase the power of the king?2. Making Inferences Why would workers now have to be paid?

Merchants looked for new markets and opportunities to make a profit. Merchants first had to purchase goods from distant places. To do so they had to borrow money, but the Church forbade Christians from lending money at interest, a sin calledusury. Over time, the Church relaxed its rule on usury and Christians entered the banking business. Banking became an important business, especially in Italy.

Society Changes The changes brought about by the Commercial Revolution were slow, yet they had a major effect on the lives of Europeans. As you can see in the diagram shown above, increased trade brought many changes to aspects of society. Two of the most important changes involved what people did to earn a living and where they lived. As towns attracted workers, the towns grew into cities. Life in the cities was different from life in the sleepy villages or on manors. A spirit of free enterprise reigned.

Urban Life FlourishesScholars estimate that between 1000 and 1150, the population of western Europe rose from around 30 million to about 42 million. Towns grew and flourished. Compared to great cities like Constantinople, European towns were unsophisti-cated and tiny. Europe’s largest city, Paris, probably had no more than 60,000 peo-ple by the year 1200. A typical town in medieval Europe had only about 1,500 to2,500 people. Even so, these small communities became a powerful force for change in Europe.

Trade and Towns Grow Together By the later Middle Ages, trade was the very lifeblood of the new towns, which sprung up at ports and crossroads, on hilltops, and along rivers. As trade grew, towns all over Europe swelled with people. The excitement and bustle of towns drew many people. But there were some drawbacks to living in a medieval town. Streets were narrow, filled with animals and their waste. With no sewers, most people dumped household and human waste into the

Drawing Conclusions

Why were changes in financial services necessary to expand trade?

B. Answer Merchants needed credit, cash, and loans to expand their operations and make a profit.

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GUIDED READING Changes in Medieval Society

Section 2

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A. Elaboración de conclusiones Al leer esta sección, escribe notas en el cuadropara explicar los resultados de cada cambio o tendencia en la sociedad medieval.

B. Reconocimiento de hechos y detalles Al reverso de esta hoja, explica breve-mente cómo cada uno de los siguientes contribuyó a la vida intelectual, durante la Edad Media: Dante Alighieri, Geoffrey Chaucer y Tomás de Aquino.

1. El clima se calentó en Europa desde elaño 800 hasta 1200.

2. Los agricultores comenzaron a usar unnuevo tipo de arnés que se colocabasobre el pecho del caballo.

3. Mediante el uso del sistema de trescampos, se comenzaron a cultivar cose-chas en dos tercios de las tierras cadaaño, en vez de usar sólo la mitad.

4. La Iglesia prohibió a los cristianosprestar dinero con intereses.

5. Con el comercio y los nuevos métodosagrícolas, la población de Europa occi-dental aumentó, de unos 30 millones a42 millones, entre el año 1000 y 1150.

6. Con el abandono de los señoríos paramudarse a las ciudades, se desafió elsistema tradicional de la sociedad feudalen el que todos tenían un lugar fijo.

7. Los escritores comenzaron a escribiren lenguaje vernáculo.

8. El crecimiento del comercio y de lasciudades despertó mayor interés por el conocimiento.

9. Los académicos cristianos de Europaconsultaron las bibliotecas musul-manas en España, y los académicosjudíos tradujeron las copias árabes de escritos griegos y latinos.

In-Depth Resources in Spanish

History from Visuals

Interpreting the GraphicHave students examine the graphic, which shows the effects of increased trade during the Commercial Revolution. Ask them to identify the three sectors of society that are represented. (workers, bankers, merchants)

SkIllbuIlder Answers1. drawing Conclusions More trade

increased merchants’ wealth, some of which was paid to the king in the form of taxes.

2. Making Inferences Serfs were unpaid because they were supported by their feudal lords. Workers who left the manor would need to earn an income to survive.

urban life Flourishes

Critical Thinking• Inwhatwaysweretownssuchan

important force for change? (Possible Answer: They drew large numbers of people, making changes in the social order necessary.)

• Whymightlackofhygienehavebeenmore of a problem in towns and cities than in the country? (Possible Answer: The crowded urban conditions increased smells and health hazards.)

dIFFerentIAtInG InStruCtIon: enGlISH leArnerS

Finding key Ideas 1C, 2E, 3E, 4E, 4GELPS

Class time 25 minutes

taskIdentifyingkeyideas

Purpose To understand changes in medieval society

Instructions Have students work together in small groups to study the graphic on this page and the material in the Guided Reading worksheet in Spanish. Have students answer the following questions.

• Whydidmoretradeleadtobiggertowns?

• Whywouldn’tpeoplespendtheirlivesonfarmswhere they grew or made everything they needed?

Have students fill out the Guided Reading worksheet in Spanish, p. 100, to gain a better understanding of Section 2. Have more proficient English speakers help others with the answers in English. Here is an example:

Farmers could grow food in places that used to be too cold to farm.

Horses could now be used for plowing. They were much faster than oxen, so more fields could be planted.

1. A warmer climate in Europe lasted from about 800 to 1400.

2. Farmers started using a new harness for horses.

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390 Chapter 14

street in front of the house. Most people never bathed, and their houses lacked fresh air, light, and clean water. Because houses were built of wood with thatched roofs, they were a constant fire hazard. Nonetheless, many people chose to move to towns to pursue the economic and social opportunities they offered.

People were no longer content with their old feudal existence on manors or in tiny villages. Even though legally bound to their lord’s manor, many serfs ran away. According to custom, a serf could now become free by living within a town for a year and a day. A saying of the time went, “Town air makes you free.” Many of these run-away serfs, now free people, made better lives for themselves in towns.

Merchant Class Shifts the Social Order The merchants and craftspeople of medi-eval towns did not fit into the traditional medieval social order of noble, clergy, and peasant. At first, towns came under the authority of feudal lords, who used their authority to levy fees, taxes, and rents. As trade expanded, the burghers, or merchant-class town dwellers, resented this interference in their trade and com-merce. They organized themselves and demanded privileges. These included freedom from certain kinds of tolls and the right to govern the town. At times they fought against their landlords and won these rights by force.

The Revival of LearningDuring the Crusades, European contact with Muslims and Byzantines greatly expanded. This contact brought a new interest in learning, especially in the works of Greek philosophers. The Muslim and Byzantine libraries housed copies of these writ-ings. Most had disappeared during the centuries following the fall of Rome and the invasions of western Europe.

The Muslim Connection In the 1100s, Christian scholars from Europe began visiting Muslim libraries in Spain. Few Western scholars knew Greek but most did know Latin. So Jewish scholars living in Spain translated the Arabic versions of works by Aristotle and other Greek writers into Latin. All at once, Europeans acquired a huge new body of knowledge. This included science, philosophy, law, mathe-matics, and other fields. In addition, the Crusaders brought back to Europe superior Muslim technology in ships, navigation, and weapons.

Scholars and the University At the center of the growth of learning stood a new European institution—the university. The word university originally referred to a group of schol-ars meeting wherever they could. People, not buildings, made up the medieval university. Universities arose at Paris and at Bologna, Italy, by the end of the 1100s. Others fol-lowed at the English town of Oxford and at Salerno, Italy. Most students were the sons of burghers or well-to-do arti-sans. For most students, the goal was a job in government or the Church. Earning a bachelor’s degree in theology might take five to seven years in school; becoming a master of the-ology took at least 12 years of study.

New ideas and forms of expression began to flow out of the universities. At a time when serious scholars and writerswere writing in Latin, a few remarkable poets began using a lively vernacular, or the everyday language of their homeland. Some of these writers wrote masterpieces that are still read today. Dante Alighieri wrote The Divine

Muslim ScholarsA number of Islamic scholars had a great influence on European thought. The image above shows Ibn Sina, known in the West as Avicenna. He was a Persian philosopher, astronomer, poet, and physician. His book, The Cure, an interpretation of Aristotle’s philosophy, greatly affected Western thought. This work, translated into Latin, influenced the scholastics.

INTERNET ACTIVITY Go online to create a documentary film script on Muslim scholars.

Recognizing Effects

How did the Crusades contribute to the expansion of trade and learning?

C. Answer The Crusades opened trade routes to the Middle East, and brought Europeans in contact with Muslim and Byzantine learning and libraries.

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LITERATURE SELECTION from The Canterbury Talesby Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, from about 1387, describes a pilgrimage to the shrine ofSt. Thomas Becket. In the long poem, a group of pilgrims tells stories for theirown amusement on their way from London to Canterbury. Many different levelsof 14th-century English society are portrayed. The following excerpt is from theprologue to The Canterbury Tales. How many different pilgrims can you identify?

Section 2

When April with his sweet showers haspierced the drought of March to the root,

and bathed every vein in such moistureas has power to bring forth the flower;when, also, Zephyrus [Greek god of the wind]

with his sweet breathhas breathed spirit into the tender new shootsin every wood and meadow, and the young sunhas run half his course in the sign of the Ram,and small birds sing melodies andsleep with their eyes open all the night(so Nature pricks them in their hearts):then people long to go on the pilgrimages,and palmers [pilgrims] long to seek strange

shoresand far-off shrines known in various lands,and, especially, from the ends of every shirein England they come to Canterbury,to seek the holy, blissful martyrwho helped them when they were sick.

It befell that one day in that season,as I was in Southwark at the Tabard Inn,ready to go on my pilgrimageto Canterbury with a most devout heart,at night there came into that hostelry [inn]a company of nine-and-twenty people—all sorts of people, who had met by chance;and all of them were pilgrimswho were riding toward Canterbury.The chambers and the stables were spacious,and we were made most comfortable.And shortly, when the sun had gone down,I had spoken with every one of themso that I had soon become one of their group,and made an arrangement to rise earlyto be on our way, as I shall tell you.

But none the less, while I have time and space,before I pass on further in this tale,it seems to me in orderto tell you all abouteach of them, as they seemed to me—

and who they were, and of what rank in life,and also what they wore—and with a knight, then, I will begin.

There was a Knight, a valiant man,who, from the time when he had first begunto venture out, had loved chivalry,truth and honor, liberality and courtesy.He had proved his worth in his lord’s wars,in which he had ridden as far as any man,both in Christendom and in heathen lands,and he had always been honored for his valor.

He was at Alexandria when it was won;many times he had sat at the head of the tablein Prussia, above knights of all nations;he had campaigned in Lithuania, and in Russia,more often than any other Christian man of his

rank;he had also been in Granada at the siegeof Algeciras, and had fought in Benmarin.He had been at Lyas and at Attaliawhen they were won; and he had sailed uponthe Mediterranean with many a noble host.He had been in fifteen mortal battles,and fought for our faith at Tlemcenthree times in tournaments, and always slain his

foe.This same worthy Knight had also beenat one time with the lord of Balat,against another heathen in Turkey:and always he had won the highest honor.Although he was valiant, he was prudent,and bore himself as meekly as a maiden;never in all his life had he beenrude to anyone at all.He was a true, perfect, gentle knight.But to tell you about his array—His horses were good, but he was not gaily

dressed.He wore a fustian [coarse cloth] tunic,much stained by his hauberk [tunic of metal

links];

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In-Depth Resources: Unit 3

The Revival of Learning

Critical Thinking• WhydidChristianscholarstravelto

Muslimlibraries?(to study ancient works of scholarship)

• Whydoyouthinkmoststudentswerefromthemerchantclass?(Their parents were wealthy enough to send their sons to study.)

History in Depth

Muslim ScholarsAvicennabeganpracticingmedicinewhenhewasonly16yearsold.At20,hewasconsideredthemostlearnedmanofhistime.

RubricThedocumentaryscriptshould

• identifyspecificMuslimscholars.• clearlylisttheiraccomplishments.

More About . . .

Medieval UniversitiesBecausemedievaluniversitieshadnobuildings,classesmetinrentedroomsorinthechoirsectionofachurch.Luckystudentswereabletositonabench,butmostsquattedonthestraw-coveredfloorastheytriedtomemorizethemaster’slecture.

connecTionS To LiTeRATURe: on LeveL

Geoffrey chaucerclass Time45minutes

TaskReadingexcerptsfromChaucer’sThe Canterbury Tales

PurposeToappreciatemedievalliterature

instructionsInformstudentsthattheEnglishpoetGeoffreyChaucer(1342–1400)usedapilgrimagetoCanterburyastheframeworkforhiscollectionofstories,The Canterbury Tales.IntheGeneralProloguetothetales,Chaucerdescribesthepilgrims,whorepresentallclassesofEnglishsocietyofthe1300s.Forexample,theplowman,parson,andknightrepresenttheworkers,clergy,andaristocracy.Thephysician,merchant,and

othersrepresentthemiddleclass.Atthebeginningofeachtale,Chaucergivesadetaileddescriptionofthestoryteller’slifeandappearance,offeringinsightanddifferentviewpointsonthemedievalworld.

HavestudentsreadtheexcerptfromtheGeneralPrologueonpages101–103ofIn-DepthResources:Unit3.Askstudentstochooseoneofthecharactersandreadtheprologuetotheirchosencharacter’staleinaliteraturebook.Havethemwriteabriefdescriptionofthecharacter,indicatingwhichaspectoflifeintheMiddleAgesheorsherepresents.Studentsshouldpresenttheirreportstotheclass.

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Teacher’s Edition 391

Changes in Medieval Society

CRITICAL THINKING & WRITING6. RECOGNIZING EFFECTS What was the effect

of the development of towns on the feudal system?

7. ANALYZING MOTIVES Why would writers choose to produce works in the vernacular instead of in Latin?

8. FORMULATING GENERALIZATIONS Based on your knowledge of free enterprise, write a generalization noting how economic freedom improved life during the Commercial Revolution.

9. WRITING ACTIVITY ECONOMICS Write a brief news article on the value of letters of credit and how they have changed commercial trade activities.

USING YOUR NOTES2. How did medieval society

change between 1000 and 1500?

MAIN IDEAS 3. How did guilds influence

business practices in medieval towns?

4. How were Muslim scholars linked to the revival of learning in Europe?

5. In what ways did burghers expand their freedom from landlords?

TERMS & NAMES 1. For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

CONNECT TO TODAY WRITING AN INVESTIGATIVE REPORT

Contact a local bank and find out what services are available to its commercial clients. Write a brief report on the banking services. Identify which services seem to have had their beginnings in the late medieval period and which ones are modern.

• three-field system • guild • Commercial Revolution • burgher • vernacular • Thomas Aquinas • scholastics

� Thomas Aquinas’s writings focused on questions of faith versus reason and logic.

Comedy (1308–1314) in Italian. Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales (about 1386–1400) in English. Christine de Pisan wrote The Book of The City of Ladies (1405) in French. Since most people couldn’t read or understand Latin, these works written in the vernacular brought literature to many people.

Aquinas and Medieval Philosophy Christian scholars were excited by the ideas of Greek philosophers. They wondered if a Christian scholar could use Aristotle’s logical approach to truth and still keep faith with the Bible.

In the mid-1200s, the scholar Thomas Aquinas (uh•KWY•nuhs) argued that the most basic religious truths could be proved by logical argument. Between 1267 and 1273, Aquinas wrote the Summa Theologicae.Aquinas’s great work, influenced by Aristotle, combined ancient Greek thought with the Christian thought of his time. Aquinas and his fellow scholars who met at the great universi-ties were known as schoolmen, or scholastics.The scholastics used their knowledge of Aristotle to debate many issues of their time. Their teachings—particularly those of Aquinas—influenced many people in Western Europe. The political changes that took place in countries such as France and England at this time showed this influence.

SECTION ASSESSMENT2

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10_STXESE321908_031402.indd 392 11/12/13 11:32 AM1. three-field system, p. 387; guild, p. 388; Commercial Revolution, p. 389; burgher, p. 391; vernacular, p. 391; Thomas Aquinas, p. 392; scholastics, p. 392

Answers

2. sample Answer: Food supply increases, guilds alter production, trade expands, banking and business practices change, universities are created. Possible Answers: European society became less isolated, towns and population grew, interest in learning revived.

3. controlled trade goods, set standards for quality, set working conditions and wages, trained workers

4. They had preserved and translated ancient Greek writings, which became the basis of new scholarship in Europe.

5. by organizing and demanding privileges such as freedom from some tolls and the right to govern the town

6. They undermined it by offering former serfs economic and social opportunities, which helped them gain freedom from their lords.

7. to reach many more people8. Possible Answers: Economic freedom

improved life by providing more economic opportunities for people. Economic freedom improved life by encouraging trade, which provided a greater variety of goods.

9. rubric News articles should be based on standard journalistic questions and clearly identify the advantages of letters of credit.

ConneCt to today rubric Investigative reports should list all services available to com-mercial clients and identify the origin of each as medieval or modern.

More About . . .

Thomas AquinasThomas Aquinas, the foremost Roman Catholic philosopher, was known during his life as the “angelic doctor.” He was declared a saint by Pope John XXII in 1323, a doctor of the Church in 1567, and patron of Roman Catholic schools in 1880.

Thomas accepted the existence of God on faith, but believed it was subject to logical proof. He taught that governments, as well as the individuals they served, were morally responsible for acting in accordance with divine law.

assesssecTion 2 AssessMenTHave students work in small groups to discuss and answer the questions.

Formal Assessment•SectionQuiz,p.217

ReteaChAsk five volunteers to each choose a subhead of this section. They should then review their material and present summaries for the entire class, indicating how the information in each individual subhead is related to the others.

In-Depth Resources: Unit 3•ReteachingActivity,p.108

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