1. Economic Expansion & Change Lesson 8
Middle Ages
Economic Expansion & Change
Lesson 8

2. Agenda
Goals - Students will be able to describe the initial emergence of a modern economy
Tasks
Please Do Now: Take out notebooks
Power Point on second half of section 8.4
Computer Lab: review first draft
Homework
Unit Project due next class
Materials:
Power Point
Do Now – 10 minutes
Power Point – 15 minutes
Lab – 40 minutes
Vocabulary:
Charter
Capital
Usury
Guild
Apprentice

3. Trade Routes
Last class we learned that between Europe experienced global warming. What were the results of this?
What does this map tell you about trade in Europe between ?
Increase in stability (less wars) + Population growth = More Trade
As population and stability increased, people began to meet near navigable rivers to conduct trade fairs.
Peasants traded animals and farm goods
Nobles traded luxury items like silk, fine wool, swords, and sugar
Trade centers became the first cities with between 10,000 and 100,000 people – largest since Rome.

4. Economic Changes Capital, money for investments Tenant Farmers
Banks
Partnerships
Insurance
Bill of Exchange (check)
Tenant Farmers
Merchant/Artisan Middle Class
As more goods became available, manorialism and a barter economy no longer worked.
Lords needed money to buy luxuries, weapons, etc.
Peasants sold farm products and fulfilled their obligations to lords by paying with money (or rent,) not labor or grain. By 1300 most had become tenant farmers; money undermined serfdom.
From where did these new ideas about banking, bills of exchange, capital, and insurance come?
Check = sakk
Merchants/artisans included some independent women. This class was despised by Nobles & Clergy
Why might they have despised them? – losing control. Made usury a sin for Christians.

5. Commercial Revolution
Charters - Written document set out rights and privileges of the town
Guilds – Associations
Craft guilds required apprenticeship, or training, from young age
Cities (urbanization)
Merchants would, in exchange for setting up a Charter, pay the lord a large fee.
Granted townspeople right to choose leaders & control affairs
Serf clause: “Town air makes free.”
Peasants/serfs began to escape to new urban areas (cities) and as a result, anyone who lived in the town for a year and a day was free – Peasants no longer bound to the land
Merchant Guilds
Passed laws
Levied taxes
Made public works decisions
Became quite powerful
Craft Guilds
Based on occupation
Limited membership to reduce competition
Enforced quality control
Regulated hours of labor and pricing
Provided social services
Lives of women changed
Inherited fathers’ workshops
Became apprentices and possibly, guild masters
Dominated silk and woolen guilds
Protecting each guild’s own economic interests sometimes lead to conflict and even riots.
After many years living and assisting masters for only room & board, few apprentices became guild masters themselves, but remained journeymen or salaried workers who worked for low wages.
Cities: Surrounded by high walls; crowded; dark; dirty; noisy; centers of cultural sharing
New goods, ideas, and technology circulated within and across towns as trade grew. Economic revival would bring Europe back into a global sphere and out of their “Dark Ages.”

6. Homework Presentations next class (lesson 9) Resume Cover Letter
10 typed questions
Presentation