Part 96 (1/2)

Like the old Roman guilds, those of the Middle Ages had their charitable and religious aspects. Each guild raised large benefit funds for the relief of members or their widows and orphans. Each guild had its private altar in the cathedral, or often its own chapel, where ma.s.ses were said for the repose of the souls of deceased members, and where on the day of its patron saint religious services were held. The guild was also a social organization, with frequent meetings for a feast in its hall or in some inn. The guilds in some cities entertained the people with an annual play or procession. [13] It is clear that the members of a medieval craft guild had common interests and shared a common life.

DISSOLUTION OF CRAFT GUILDS As the craft guilds prospered and increased in wealth, they tended to become exclusive organizations. Members.h.i.+p fees were raised so high that few could afford to pay them, while the number of apprentices that a master might take was strictly limited. It also became increasingly difficult for journeymen to rise to the station of masters; they often remained wage-earners for life. The ma.s.s of workmen could no longer partic.i.p.ate in the benefits of the guild system. In the eighteenth century most of the guilds lost their monopoly of industry, and in the nineteenth century they gave way to trade unions.

195. TRADE AND COMMERCE

MARKETS

Nearly every town of any consequence had a weekly or semiweekly market, which was held in the market place or in the churchyard. Marketing often occurred on Sunday, in spite of many laws against this desecration of the day. Outsiders who brought cattle and farm produce for sale in the market were required to pay tolls, either to the town authorities or sometimes to a neighboring n.o.bleman. These market dues still survive in the ”octroi”

collected at the gates of some European cities.

”JUST PRICE”

People in the Middle Ages did not believe in unrestricted compet.i.tion. It was thought wrong for anyone to purchase goods outside of the regular market (”forestalling”) or to purchase them in larger quant.i.ties than necessary (”engrossing”). A man ought not to charge for a thing more than it was worth, or to buy a thing cheap and sell it dear. The idea prevailed that goods should be sold at their ”just price” which was not determined by supply and demand but by an estimate of the cost of the materials and the labor that went into their manufacture. Laws were often pa.s.sed fixing this ”just price,” but it was as difficult then as now to prevent the ”cornering of the market” by shrewd and unscrupulous traders.

FAIRS

Besides markets at frequent intervals, many towns held fairs once or twice a year. The fairs often lasted for a month or more. They were especially necessary in medieval Europe, because merchants did not keep large quant.i.ties or many kinds of goods on their shelves, nor could intending purchasers afford to travel far in search of what they wanted. The more important English fairs included those at Stourbridge near Cambridge, Winchester, St. Ives, and Boston. On the Continent fairs were numerous and in some places, such as Leipzig in Germany and Nijni-Novgorod in Russia, they are still kept up.

FAIRS AND COMMERCE

A fair gave opportunity for the sale of commodities brought from the most distant regions. Stourbridge Fair, for instance, attracted Venetians and Genoese with silk, pepper, and spices of the East, Flemings with fine cloths and linens, Spaniards with iron and wine, Norwegians with tar and pitch from their forests, and Baltic merchants with furs, amber, and salted fish. The fairs, by fostering commerce, helped to make the various European peoples better acquainted with one another.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, TRADE ROUTES BETWEEN NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN EUROPE IN THE 13TH AND 14TH CENTURIES]

DECLINE OF COMMERCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES

Commerce in western Europe had almost disappeared as a result of the Germanic invasions and the establishment of feudalism. What little commercial intercourse there was encountered many obstacles. A merchant who went by land from country to country might expect to find bad roads, few bridges, and poor inns. Goods were transported on pack-horses instead of in wagons. Highway robbery was so common that travelers always carried arms and often united in bands for better protection. The feudal lords, often themselves not much more than highwaymen, demanded tolls at every bridge and ford and on every road. If the merchant proceeded by water, he must face, in addition to the ordinary hazards of wind and wave, the danger from the ill-lighted coasts and from attacks by pirates. No wonder commerce languished in the early Middle Ages and for a long time lay chiefly in the hands of Byzantines [14] and Arabs. [15]

COMMERCIAL REVIVAL AFTER THE CRUSADES

Even during the dark centuries that followed the end of the Roman Empire, some trade with the Orient had been carried on by the cities of Italy and southern France. The crusades, which brought East and West face to face, greatly increased this trade. The Mediterranean lands first felt the stimulating effects of intercourse with the Orient, but before long the commercial revival extended to the rest of Europe.

ASIATIC TRADE ROUTES

Before the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope the spices, drugs, incense, carpets, tapestries, porcelains, and gems of India, China, and the East Indies reached the West by three main routes. All had been used in ancient times. [16] The central and most important route led up the Persian Gulf and Tigris River to Bagdad, from which city goods went by caravan to Antioch or Damascus. The southern route reached Cairo and Alexandria by way of the Red Sea and the Nile. By taking advantage of the monsoons, a merchant s.h.i.+p could make the voyage from India to Egypt in about three months. The northern route, entirely overland, led to ports on the Black Sea and thence to Constantinople. It traversed high mountain pa.s.ses and long stretches of desert, and could profitably be used only for the transport of valuable articles small in bulk. The conquests of the Ottoman Turks greatly interfered with the use of this route by Christians after the middle of the fifteenth century.

EUROPEAN TRADE ROUTES

Oriental goods, upon reaching the Mediterranean, could be transported by water to northern Europe. Every year the Venetians sent a fleet loaded with eastern products to Bruges in Flanders, a city which was the most important depot of trade with Germany, England, and Scandinavia. Bruges also formed the terminus of the main overland route leading from Venice over the Alps and down the Rhine. But as the map indicates, many other commercial highways linked the Mediterranean with the North Sea and the Baltic.

COMMERCIAL RELATIONS

It is important to note that until late in the Middle Ages trade existed, not between nations, but between cities. A merchant of London was almost as much a foreigner in any other English city as he would have been in Bruges, Paris, or Cologne. Consequently, each city needed to make commercial treaties with its neighbors, stipulating what were the privileges and obligations of its merchants, wherever they went. It was not until the kings grew strong in western Europe that merchants could rely on the central government, rather than on local authorities, for protection.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, MEDIEVAL TRADE ROUTES Land Routes Water Routes Marco Polo's Route]

196. MONEY AND BANKING

SMALL SCALE OF BUSINESS ENTERPRISE