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The Medieval Economy: Trade and Commerce
A plain overview of how goods, money and markets worked in medieval Europe, from manors and village markets to towns, fairs, guilds and long-distance trade.
Power and Work
Economy and Commerce
Trade, guilds, money and the movement of news and goods.
The Medieval Economy: A Study of Trade and Commerce
Who the medieval merchants were, how weekly markets and great fairs worked, and what made some towns into lasting centers of buying and selling.
The Medieval Economy: A System of Bartering and Trade
How medieval villagers used barter, payment in kind, labor and credit alongside scarce coins, and why cash use varied so much by place and period.
The Medieval Economy: A System of Trade and Commerce
How medieval long-distance trade worked: luxury goods, bulk cargoes, ports, trading leagues and the merchants who moved goods over land and sea.
The Medieval System of Communication: Letters and Messengers
How news traveled in the Middle Ages through letters, couriers, heralds and merchants, who wrote and carried messages, and why delivery was slow and uncertain.
The Medieval System of Economy: Trade and Commerce
How medieval lending, credit, weights and measures worked, and why church teaching on usury and just price shaped how merchants made a profit.
The Medieval System of Guild Membership
How a young person became a master in a medieval guild: apprenticeship, the journeyman years, the masterpiece, fees and the duties membership carried.
The Medieval Trade Network: Commerce and Exchange
A map in words of the main medieval land and sea trade routes joining northern Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia, and the goods that traveled along them.
The Rise of the Hanseatic League: A Medieval Trading Empire
What the Hanseatic League really was: a loose association of north German and Baltic merchants and towns, its trading posts, its goods and its decline.
The Rise of the Merchant Class in Medieval Europe
The routes, fairs and cargoes that carried medieval merchants across Europe, and how their stopping places grew into trading towns.
The Rise of the Merchant Class: A New Economic Power in Medieval Europe
How successful medieval merchants turned trading profits into influence in town government, and why their rise caused friction with landed nobles.
The Role of the Guilds in Medieval Society
Medieval guilds were religious and social fraternities as well as trade regulators, offering welfare, ceremonies, feasts and a share in town government.
Related topics
More in power and work
Feudalism and Knighthood How feudal ties and the knightly code organized medieval rule. Farming and Trade Fields, guilds, markets and the hardship of famine. Heraldry and Coats of Arms Shields, symbols and the heralds who kept track of them. Knights and Warfare The knightly code, honor and how medieval battles were fought. Kingship and Law How kings ruled and how law and justice worked. Battles and Campaigns Famous battles and what they changed. Tournaments and Chivalry Mock battles, jousts, knightly orders and the ideals behind them. Sieges and Weapons How castles and towns were attacked and defended, and the arms used. Kings and Rulers Profiles of medieval monarchs and nobles and the politics around them. Norman and Angevin Kings Rulers from William the Conqueror to the Angevin kings. Late Medieval Monarchs English and French kings of the later Middle Ages. Magna Carta The charter of 1215, its clauses and its legacy. Chivalry and Honor The ideals of knightly conduct, honor and loyalty, and how they changed. Feudal Society and Estates Feudalism, the manor and the three estates of medieval society. Justice, Trials and Punishments How medieval courts judged crimes, from ordeals and duels to fines and executions. Manor, Serfdom and Tithes The rural system of manors, unfree peasants and church dues. Peasants Revolts Rural risings and what they demanded, with the real dates and places. Ireland, Scotland and Wales Medieval life and politics on the Celtic fringe of Britain and Ireland. Crafts and Workshops The trades that made cloth, metal, bread and books in medieval towns.