In order to account for the growth of towns in Europe during this period it will first be necessary to define what constitutes a town as a distinct entity from the surrounding countryside, it will also be necessary to detail some of the sociological and pecuniary changes which enabled towns to grow and finally detail some of the strength and advantages of towns which made their growth very difficult, if not impossible, to resist.
There are three main criteria in defining a town as an entity different from the surrounding countryside. These are the requirement for a distinct group of people co-habiting in a specific place, the creation and use of laws and charters relating to the group and finally, political independence from the local overlord or ruler.
The first criterion is used to differentiate towns from the outlying villages and homesteads in that, whilst these were groups of people in a specific place the numbers and diversity of occupations would not have enabled them to survive on their own. A small group of houses clustered together, or a larger habitation including certain trades and services (for example blacksmiths and bakers) would have been able to service some of the needs of the local population but not all. Many of these smaller habitations were under direct control of local lord or baron and quite often served as locations where his vassals and surfs would have lived.
In the second case the size and growing complexity of the town as an entity lead to the creation and adoption of legal systems local to the towns and used specifically for everyday governance with these legal systems being separate from those governing the locality or the wider legal systems of king or ruler or even that of the church. It was incumbent of the town populations to abide by these laws, which covered such things as customs, trade, work and taxation and the town's requirements for defence, maintenance and upkeep.
In the third case, taking into account that the towns were becoming self-sustaining and largely self-regulating; there was a movement away from control by the local lord even if he continued to own the actual land on which the towns were situated. This culminated in many of the towns creating charters of rights whereby the very entity of the town was codified and its responsibility to the local overlord defined. There are many reasons for this however to a certain extent this is dictated by two primary factors. Firstly, there was a definite benefit to the local lord in allowing the growth of a town if only as a location where he could sell the produce of his own demesne. Secondly, the growing power of the rising towns was a useful addition in helping him to protect his own lands. The situation was mutually beneficial to both townsfolk and the putative landlord.
Although this goes some way towards defining a town as an entity, it does not explain directly the phenomena as it occurred during the period of 1100-1350AD when this growth period happened. To look at this it will be necessary to address some of the prevailing sociological and pecuniary changes during the period.
Major sociological changes began to take place including the reduction of the effect of feudal over-lordship across Europe, the rise of movement of the under classes and a change of the churches influence, specifically noted in the rise of the orders of brothers minor, and acts of nature such as the Bubonic plague and extended periods of famine and plenty caused by climactic changes.
It should be said that towns were not actually invented, per se, during this period as there were a few surviving from the Roman Empire although these were mainly maintained through church influence, for example certain bishopric courts had requirements from local resources. However, during the period 1180-1270 there was a massive growth of towns all across Europe. This was caused mainly by population growth, the increase in the use of money as specie and better transportation facilities. In fact, these three are closely interrelated.
Population growth during the period meant that settlements grew in size and this led to larger areas being required for cultivation and deforestation to meet the requirements of the settlements. But the population growth also provided the increased resources to produce food and other products this needed and better transportation enabled these products to be carried further distances. The increase in human resources was greater than that required just to sustain the population. The climactic changes of the period also provided warmer drier weather which assisted in creating environments where additional food could be produced.
Increase in using of money for transactions on goods and produce changed the way trade was undertaken by replacing systems previously used including such things as barter. This method of exchanging goods for specie reduced costs of exchange and enabled more efficient methods of conducting business. This initially caused a problem in that there was a shortage of gold and silver required to produce coin although from the late 12th century onwards the discovery of new sources of metal ores in Germany, Tuscany and the Tyrol effectively addressed this issue.
Further to this, the increased use of credit, developed by Italian merchants and widely copied, created a completely new trading environment requiring administration by such as lawyers, accountants and scholars. In all of these cases these �tradesmen� not producing goods in their own right but being a necessary part of the trading process and, in fact, creating a situation where business could take place without either party ever having to actually owned the goods that were being traded.
This situation of trade could only occur if the transport was there to enable the goods to be moved from the place of production to the place of consumption and this required an increase in human resource to enable this transport to happen. The facts that there was a rise in trade of luxury products shows that the methodologies starting to be employed were not merely of survival but also indicative of the rise of the middle class of merchants.
Increases in building of roads and bridges during the period, for example the St Gothard Pass over the Alps in 1230AD, shows a rise in long distance transportation of goods and increased use of waterborne transport including shipping, both inshore and offshore, indicates that transport was becoming safer and cheaper. This can be shown in terms of the shipping revolution including new types of ships, bulk carriers and great galleys being used on sea routes for the first time.
That the local landowners allowed the growth of the townships was for both physical and political reasons. Physical in that the towns had their own armed forces which could be used by the overlord should he require and although the power inherent in townships was a concern to local overlords; the growth of the towns was a very volatile period; towns could also be valuable allies providing resources such as men and money. Political in that the overlord had the ability to keep a check on the towns by working with them instead of against them; for example the Capetian king's power base in the town of Paris during the period. Though there are instances of towns acting in allegiance against the local king or ruler, the Lombard league against Milan and Barbarossa from 1160-1176AD or the Battle of Courtrai in 1302 when a Flemish bourgeois army defeated the French towns were generally to the advantage of the local ruler.
The most opportune cause for growth of towns between these dates is in locations where there was weak local control over the area, for example southern France and northern Italy, and especially where the local ruler is in conflict with something other than the governments of his demesne, land under direct control of the emperor's jurisdiction, for example, which whilst he was not in attendance, would create a power vacuum with no one local lord having overall ruling control. In these instances, the tendency was towards customary law instead of statute law, as dictated by the emperor, and while there was adherence to this customary law, at least the rule of law was being upheld.
In conclusion, to account for the growth of towns during this period the combination of population relocation and growth because of social economic and environmental factors and changes in the structure of society with the breakdown of the feudal system caused a fundamental shift in the order of society. This started a process creating a new environment where larger numbers of people could coexist under their own control and governance and enabled new legal, trade and transport systems to develop. The growth of the towns was a product of this and once started the advantages that this growth provided and the difficulty once the phenomenon had commenced of further control or even direction of the trend made it almost impossible to resist. The growth of towns became a self-perpetuating phenomenon.
Bibliography
| A History of the Medieval Church (590-1500) | Margaret Deanesly |
| The Thirteenth Century 1216-1307 | Sir Marice Powicke |
| Life and work of the people of England | Dorothy Hartley & Margaret Elliot |
| Medieval Economy and Society | M.M. Postan |
| Growth of the Medieval City | David Nicholas |
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© David Debono March 2002
david.debono@histrenact.co.uk