THE medieval europe has undergone profound changes. new cities emerged from the eleventh century, starting the commercial development established in the relations between West and East provided by the Crusades.
The new cities appeared, most of the time, close to the lands of some lord. These lands were called landlord. Like urban renaissance, several activities were developed in the cities, moving the local economy - one of these activities was the craftsmanship. From then on, the production process was organized and machines emerged to meet market demand.
The craft activity that stood out initially was textile production, that is, the production of wool and silk fabrics, mainly. All production was organized by calls craft corporations. In these corporations there were people of the same profession, of the same religiosity and who maintained a relationship of mutual protection.
The trade corporations were administered and controlled by a master craftsman, responsible for the production and maintenance of the same standard (norms and rules) in all artisan workshops. Employees or workers in the workshops were called
newsboys and generally lived in the master's house. In the workshops there were also the apprentices, young people who wanted to pursue a profession related to crafts.The organization of craft workshops in corporations had as its main objective a political and economic, in order to face the merchants, who started to live in the cities with the strictly interest commercial. Merchants became rich and powerful men – many were the forerunners of banking activities.
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Merchants boosted commercial activities from the 11th century onwards, moving from city to city, trading their goods. In the 12th century, merchants started to organize fairs (important commercial places). The main fairs of the 12th century were Champagne and Brie, which were in the territories of present-day France.
Commercial and banking activities and fairs led to rapid urban development; thus, a security structure was created that guaranteed the execution of commercial business.
Some of the main features of medieval cities were the walls, towers and gates that provided greater security for residents and merchants. Most cities did not have 20,000 inhabitants – the largest city in the western world was Paris, which had a population that did not exceed 100,000 inhabitants.
With the accentuation of commercial activities, cities, from the 11th century, had an enormous growth, which greatly transformed their features, expanding them to spaces beyond the walls – growth coming from fairs and commercial activities carried out by merchants on the edges of the roads.
From the expansion of cities beyond the walls, new walls were created, with which new cities were outlined, in addition to those that already existed. The burgos (cities with walls) developed economically and expanded in size. From the boroughs emerged the bourgeois (the new social class, called bourgeoisie), important traders who were fundamental to the development of the capitalist mentality.
Leandro Carvalho
Master in History
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
OAK, Leandro. "Emergence of the bourgeoisie"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/surgimento-burguesia.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
