The natural growth of the European population in the medieval period, and the continued trend of town centralization, let to the appearance of a new tradesman class. As the population recovered after the decimation of the Black Death and various violent conflicts around the year 1000, villages made use of the time of relative peace to begin their transformation into towns. Villagers who used the slow winter months to make extra goods to trade and sell from their homes moved that small trade to the weekly markets that grew larger as the townships expanded. The marketplace provided both a place to gather socially and the basis for the trade that later became such an integral part of medieval life. However, the still-small towns generated only limited revenue, and traders began to travel between towns to accumulate wealth and expand their inventories. Despite the risk of robberies or accidents, tradesmen established familiar routes across areas that would develop into well-worn, practically official trade roads.
Towns supported markets and fairs because of the revenue they generated. Officials and nobles regulated and secured market areas, and this additional protection allowed trading to develop even more steadily. As the residents of towns stabilized their funds and began to have disposable incomes, demand for luxury goods from the ports of Italy and the East increased. The traveling tradesmen shifted their resources to this new, more lucrative business, using new technologies in navigation to familiarize themselves with the intricacies of commerce. Traffic increased, and more and more people became familiar with things like contracts, accounting, and credit.
With trade occupying a growing niche in the formerly rigid class system of the medieval period, the balance of power shifted. Wealthy tradesmen began to pay "charter fees", fixed annual sums to the lord or king that guaranteed independence for their town. Autonomy thus gained, the tradesmen began to take roles as the 'patrons' of the towns, using their wealth to sponsor artists, architects, and students in magnificent cathedrals and universities. For example, the stained-glass at the Chartres Cathedral has forty-two windows depicting different trades, leading some experts to believe that it was in large part paid for by these tradesmen. Others believe that the Church wished to demonstrate its connections to the trade culture of the surrounding villages, since many of the professions depicted are low-income or subsistence-based, limiting their ability to donate the vastly expensive glass and coloring. Whichever may be the case, the Chartres windows illustrate beautifully the rising influence of the emerging tradesman class.
- Team Dragon (Clair, Yee-Lum, Laurel, Jodi, Alex)
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