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Book No. – 48 (History)
Book Name – Western Civilisation: Their History and Their Culture (Edward Mcnall)
What’s Inside the Chapter? (After Subscription)
1. ECONOMIC DEPRESSION AND THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW EQUILIBRIUM
2. SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DISLOCATION
3. TRIALS FOR THE CHURCH AND HUNGER FOR THE DIVINE
4. POLITICAL CRISIS AND RECOVERY
5. THE FORMATION OF THE EMPIRE OF RUSSIA
6. THOUGHT, LITERATURE, AND ART
7. ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY
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LANGUAGE
The Later Middle Ages (1300-1500)
Chapter – 12
Table of Contents
- The High Middle Ages were considered “times of feasts,” but the late Middle Ages became “times of famine.”
- From around 1300 to the mid-fifteenth century, calamities struck western Europe with severe and persistent hardship.
- Famine was widespread due to soil exhaustion, colder weather, and torrential rainfalls, which impeded agriculture.
- The Black Death was the most terrible natural disaster, causing massive mortality throughout western Europe.
- Incessant warfare added further hardship, with soldiers and freebooters bringing violence and destruction.
- Common people suffered the most, being vulnerable to rape, stabbing, looting, and burning by soldiers.
- After an army passed through, regions were often left in ruins, with putrefying corpses and desolation.
- In some areas, wolves roamed the countryside and entered the outskirts of cities due to the devastation.
- The serene Virgin symbolized the High Middle Ages, while the grinning death’s-head symbolized the late Middle Ages.
- Despite adversity, Europeans displayed perseverance and did not fall into apathy.
- There was no collapse of civilization like the fall of the Roman Empire, but instead a transition period.
- The late Middle Ages resulted in preserving and building upon the strongest aspects of Europe’s earlier legacy.
ECONOMIC DEPRESSION AND THE EMERGENCE OF A NEW EQUILIBRIUM
- Around 1300, the agricultural expansion of the High Middle Ages reached its limits.
- Agricultural yields and areas under cultivation began to decline, leading to a decline in the European economy.
- The Black Death in 1347 worsened the depression by completely disrupting daily life.
- Recurrences of the plague and continued warfare kept the economy depressed until the fifteenth century.
- Between 1350 and 1450, Europeans adjusted to new economic circumstances, leading to a steady recovery post-1450.
- By around 1450, after the tapering off of disease and warfare, Europe saw an economic recovery.
- Agricultural expansion was limited by natural constraints such as the amount of land that could be cleared.
- Marginal lands cleared in the High Middle Ages were insufficient for sustainable farming.
- After 1300, weather deteriorated, becoming colder and wetter, curtailing viticulture and cereal farming.
- The colder climate shortened the growing season in northern regions like England and parts of Scandinavia, leading to abandoned agricultural settlements.
- Increased rainfall caused devastating floods, ruining crops and leading to prolonged famine.
- From 1315 to 1317, famine resulted from crop failures and poor harvests.
- Peasants ate seed grain, cats, dogs, and rats due to hunger.
- In 1316, a tenth of the population in some Flemish cities died.
- Terrible floods in Italy (Florence and Amalfi) in 1333 and 1343 added to the devastation.
- Europe remained overpopulated until the mid-fourteenth century despite famines and wars.
- Population growth outstripped the food supply, causing grain prices to soar and widespread hunger.
- The Black Death (1347-1350) devastated Europe with bubonic and pneumonic plague.
- The plague had hideous clinical effects: enormous swellings, black spots, diarrhea, and death within 3-5 days.
- Pneumonic plague caused coughing blood and death within 3 days.
- Many people died overnight, and ships with dead crews floated aimlessly on seas.
- Demographic effects of the plague were catastrophic: examples include Toulouse’s population dropping from 10,000 (1335) to 8,000 (1430).
- Eastern Normandy’s population fell by 30% between 1347 and 1357, and again by 30% before 1380.
- A 60% population depletion occurred in the rural area around Pistoia (1340-1404).
- Famine, war, and plague reduced Western Europe’s population by at least half, possibly two-thirds between 1300 and 1450.
- After the plague, survivors faced hardships: fleeing from jobs and seeking isolation.
- Town-dwellers fled to the countryside, and country-dwellers fled from each other.
- Even the Pope retreated, allowing no one to enter his palace.
- Harvests rotted, manufacturing was disrupted, and conveyance systems collapsed due to a labor shortage.
- The plague exacerbated Europe’s economic crisis by increasing scarcity and rising prices.
- After 1400, new demographic realities began to turn prices around and alter basic economic patterns.
- Prices of staple foodstuffs declined due to increased production and fewer people to feed.
- While recurrent plague and natural disasters caused fluctuations, overall prices of basic commodities in the fifteenth century went down or remained stable.
- Agricultural specialization emerged as cereals became cheaper, allowing people to spend more on luxuries like dairy products, meat, and wine.
- Farmers shifted from cereal production to specialized crops like livestock for milk, grapes for wine, or malt for beer, especially in poorer soil or climates.
- Regional economies developed: England focused on sheep-raising and beer production, France on wine, and Sweden traded butter for German grain.
- The long-distance trade of basic commodities created a new commercial equilibrium.
- The Black Death also increased the importance of towns and cities.
- Urban manufacturers were more flexible than landlords, adjusting production to meet demand.
- Urban entrepreneurs bounced back from disaster quickly and attracted rural labor with higher wages, shifting the population balance slightly toward cities.
- Northern Germany and northern Italy profited most from the new circumstances.
- In Germany, cities like Lübeck and Bremen formed the Hanseatic League to control long-distance trade in the Baltic and North Seas.
- The League’s fleets transported German grain to Scandinavia and brought back dairy products, fish, and furs.
- Northern Italian cities, especially Venice and Genoa, profited from spice trade and luxury goods imports.
- Cities like Florence, Venice, and Milan prospered by manufacturing silks, linens, fine cloths, and weapons for warring states.
- Some cities, especially in Flanders, became economically depressed, but overall urban centers benefitted from new economic conditions and specialization.
- The shift in economic conditions stimulated the development of business, accounting, and banking techniques.
- Sharp price fluctuations encouraged the creation of partnerships and insurance contracts to minimize risks, particularly in shipping.
- Double-entry bookkeeping was first used in Italy in the mid-fourteenth century and spread north, improving error detection and financial oversight.
- Large-scale banking became common by the thirteenth century, and economic crises led banks to adopt branch-banking techniques, notably by the Medici.
- The Medici bank (1397-1494) organized branches in London, Bruges, Avignon, and several Italian cities, with each branch acting as a separate partnership.
- Italian banks developed advanced credit techniques, including “book transfers”, precursors to modern checks.
- The fourteenth century saw the combined effects of nature and human actions in shaping economic history.
- Population excess led to natural controls such as bad weather and disease, particularly devastating when people were already suffering.
- Despite cruel natural interventions, the result by 1450 was a higher standard of living for a smaller population.
- By 1450, people reorganized their economic life, ensuring it was on a sounder footing.
- While the European product was smaller than in 1300, per capita output and income had risen, setting the stage for future economic growth.