1. The Growth of Towns and Cities
The Revival of Trade

2. Trade Grows and Towns Grow
Europe is safer and the population is growing.
As people feel safer, they begin to travel and bring back goods from Africa and Asia.
Trade routes become busy again and trade grows.

3. Trade Grows and Towns Grow
Goods were traded in local markets but then they develop into fairs.
Traders gathered at rivers and along highways.
As trade grows, towns and cities grow.
Freedom and a better life drew more serfs to cities.

4. Life in Towns and Cities
By 1300, many cities developed. Paris was one of the largest cities in the world.
The economy of a city was based on the exchange of money for goods and services.
A new social class develops, the middle class, made up of merchants, traders, and craftworkers.

5. The Guilds
Merchants, traders, and crafts workers joined together to form a guild.
These associations included all people who practiced a certain job or craft.
Guilds protected the members.

6. The Guilds
Guilds set the prices for goods so that no one member could charge more or less than any other member.
Guilds set standards for the quality of the goods. You knew that something from a guild was good quality.
Guild members paid dues that helped members in need and supported members who had died.

7. The Steps to Join a Guild
Between 8 – 14, a boy who wanted to learn a craft became an apprentice, or an unpaid worker being trained in a craft.
He lived with the tradesman's family for about 7 years learning the craft.
Then he became a journeyman, or a paid worker. In time, if his work met their standards, he could join a guild.

8. The Downside of the City
Overcrowding leads to diseases. The lack of sanitation and overcrowded conditions led to diseases like the Black Death.