The Middle Ages by Morris Bishop

Author:Morris Bishop [Bishop, Morris]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: History/Medieval
ISBN: 9781612309071
Publisher: New Word City
Published: 2015-09-24T06:00:00+00:00

The manorial system, widespread in the West from Charlemagne’s time onward, was not at first favorable to the development of agriculture and commerce. Manors tended to be self-sufficient; the economy was closed. Men lived in their small world, in constant fear of the strange world beyond, from which came only evil. The best they could hope for was to endure, and they endured.

In the eleventh and following centuries, things took a turn for the better. Life became more stable; population increased; new lands were brought under cultivation and old lands rendered more productive. New agricultural techniques were introduced. The power of legumes to nourish and revive exhausted soils was recognized, and the science of manuring developed - marl and ashes being employed in combination with animal manures. The quality of herds was improved by selection and crossbreeding. Flowing water was put to work, operating gristmills and providing power for forges. Windmills whirled on plains and uplands, and men even attempted, with some success, to construct tidal mills.

Wasteland, forest, scrub, and marsh were subdued by the plow. The English, French, and German countryside assumed the appearance it more or less has today. In the Po Valley, the Alpine waters were tamed with the construction of impressive embankments, dams, reservoirs, and canals. Spain restored its ancient Roman irrigation systems. In the Low Countries, the sea had stolen a large share of the best land in the years between 1000 and 1200 to create the Zuider Zee. In one of the most momentous engineering feats of history, princes, monks, burghers, and peasants joined to build the Golden Wall, extending from Flanders to Frisia, its great stones shipped to the Lowlands from Scandinavia and Germany. Dikes were built, and the polders behind them were purified with the aid of hand pumps and drainage canals. The work lasted for centuries; by the time it was over, land comprising half of the modern Netherlands and some share of Belgium had risen from the sea.

Trade revived, though it had never entirely disappeared, even in the darkest days. Venice built up a considerable seaborne commerce, supplying Constantinople with wheat, timber, salt, and wines, and bringing back Eastern luxuries. Constantinople also received furs, honey, wax, amber, hunting hawks, and slaves, from the far north, transported along the Russian rivers and across the Black Sea. Scandinavia sent its fish, timber, and furs to the West as well as to the East; Scandinavian products traveled by sea to Flanders, where they were exchanged for manufactured cloth. The difficulties of trade were great: Journeys were costly and dangerous, currency was scarce and unreliable, and systems of distribution were undeveloped. But the profits could also be great, and brave men gambled that fortune or a kindly saint would bring them reward instead of disaster. The Continent wanted English tin and wool; England wanted German silver, Flemish cloth, and Italian luxury goods; everyone in the north wanted wine, a prestige drink with triple the alcoholic content of ale and beer. (The church stimulated trade

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