5.3. Classical Middle Ages (XI-XV centuries)

At the second stage of the development of feudalism, the process of formation of feudal relations is completed, and all structures of feudal society reach their fullest bloom.

The creation of centralized states. Public administration. At this time, centralized power was consolidated in most Western European countries, national states began to form and strengthen (England, France, Germany), etc. Major feudal lords increasingly depend on the king. However, the power of the king is still not truly absolute. The era of estate-representative monarchies is coming. It was during this period that the practical implementation of the principle of separation of powers began and the first parliaments emerged - estate-representative bodies, significantly limiting the power of the king. Earlier in all, such a parliament-Cortes appeared in Spain (end of XII - beginning of XII centuries). In 1265, Parliament appears in England. In the XIV century. Parliaments have already been established in most countries of Western Europe. At first, the work of the parliaments was not regulated at all, neither the dates of the meetings nor the order of their holding were defined - the king decided all that depending on the specific situation. However, even then, the most important and constant issue that was considered by the parliamentarians was taxes.

Parliaments could act as a deliberative, and as a legislative, and as a judicial body. Gradually, legislative functions are assigned to the parliament and a certain opposition between the parliament and the king is planned. So, the king could not impose additional taxes without the approval of the parliament, although formally the king was much higher than the parliament, and it was the king who convened and dissolved the parliament and offered questions for discussion.

Parliaments were not the only political innovations of the classical Middle Ages. Another important component of social life became political parties, which first began to form in the XIII century. in Italy, and then (in the XIV century.) in France. Political parties rigidly opposed each other, but the reason for their confrontation then were more psychological reasons than economic ones.

Almost all the countries of Western Europe during this period went through the horrors of bloody strife and war. An example would be the War of Scarlet and White Rose in England in the XV century. As a result of this war, England lost a quarter of its population.

Peasant uprisings. The classic Middle Ages is also the time of peasant uprisings, unrest and riots. An example is the uprising led by Wat Tyler and John Ball in England in 1381.

The uprising began as a mass protest of the peasants against the new threefold increased universal tax. The rebels demanded that the king not only reduce taxes, but also replace all in-kind duties with low cash payments, eliminate the personal dependence of the peasants and allow free trade throughout England. King Richard II (1367-1400) was forced to meet with the leaders of the peasants and agree to their demands. However, some peasants (especially poor peasants prevailed among them) were not satisfied with such results and put forward new conditions, in particular, to take land from bishops, monasteries and other rich landowners and divide it among peasants, to abolish all estates and class privileges. These requirements were already completely unacceptable for the ruling strata, as well as for the majority of English society, for then the property was already considered sacred and inviolable. The rebels were called robbers, the uprising brutally suppressed.

However, in the next century, in the 15th century, many of the slogans of this uprising were put into real life: for example, almost all the peasants really became personally personal and were transferred to cash payments, and their duties were not as heavy as before.

Economy. Agriculture. The main branch of the economy of Western European countries in the period of the classical Middle Ages, as before, was agriculture. The main characteristics of the development of the agrarian sphere as a whole was the process of the rapid development of new lands, in history known as the process of internal colonization. It contributed not only to the quantitative growth of the economy, but also to serious qualitative progress, since the duties imposed on the peasants in the new lands were mainly of monetary, and not natural, nature. The process of replacing in-kind payments with monetary ones, known in the scientific literature as rent switching, contributed to the growth of economic independence and enterprise of the peasants, and an increase in the productivity of their labor. Oilseed and industrial crops are being expanded, and butter and wine making are developing.

The grain yield reaches the level of self-4 and self-5. The growth of peasant activity and the expansion of peasant farming led to a reduction in the feudal economy, which in the new conditions turned out to be less profitable.

Progress in agriculture also contributed to the liberation of the peasants from personal dependence. This decision was made by the city, near which the peasants lived and with whom they were connected socially and economically, or by their feudal lord, on whose land they lived. The rights of peasants to land plots were strengthened. They were increasingly free to transfer the land by inheritance, bequeath and mortgage it, lease, donate and sell. Thus, the land market is gradually forming and becoming ever wider . Commodity-money relations are developing.

Medieval cities

Medieval cities. The most important characteristic of this period was the growth of cities and urban crafts. In the classical Middle Ages, old cities quickly grow and new cities appear - near castles, fortresses, monasteries, bridges, and ferries across rivers. Cities with a population of 4-6 thousand inhabitants were considered medium. There were very large cities, such as Paris, Milan, Florence, where 80 thousand people lived. Life in the medieval city was difficult and dangerous - frequent epidemics claimed the lives of more than half of the townspeople, as happened, for example, during the “black death” - the plague epidemic in the middle of the 13th century. Fires were frequent. However, they were still striving to the cities, because, as the saying “the city air made the dependent person free” testified, for this it was necessary to live in the city one year and one day.

Cities arose on the lands of the king or major feudal lords and were profitable for them, bringing income in the form of taxes on handicrafts and commerce.

At the beginning of this period, most cities were dependent on their lords. Citizens fought for independence, i.e. for becoming a free city. The authorities of independent cities were elective and had the right to collect taxes, pay the treasury, manage the city finances at their discretion, have their own court, minted their coins and even declare war and make peace. The means of the struggle of the urban population for their rights were urban uprisings — communal revolutions , as well as the redemption of their rights from the seigneur. Only the richest cities, such as London and Paris, could afford such a ransom. However, many other Western European cities were also rich enough to get independence for money. So, in the XIII century. About half of all cities in England gained independence in tax collection - 200 cities.

The wealth of cities was based on the wealth of their citizens. Among the richest were usurers and money changers. They determined the quality and usefulness of the coin, and this was extremely important in the context of the corruption of the coin which was constantly practiced by mercantilist governments; made an exchange of money and transfer them from one city to another; they took to save free capital and provided loans.

At the beginning of the classical Middle Ages, banking was most actively developed in Northern Italy. There, as indeed, throughout Europe, this activity was mainly concentrated in the hands of the Jews, since Christianity officially forbade believers to engage in usury. The activity of moneylenders and money changers could be extremely profitable, but sometimes (if the major feudal lords and kings refused to return large loans) they became bankrupt.

Medieval craft. An important ever-increasing layer of the urban population were artisans. From VII-XIII centuries. in connection with the increase in the purchasing power of the population, the growth in consumer demand, there is an increase in urban crafts. From work to order artisans go to work on the market. Craft becomes a respected occupation, bringing a good income. People of building specialties — bricklayers, carpenters, and plasterers — enjoyed special esteem. The most talented people, with a high level of professional training, were engaged in architecture at that time. Specialization of crafts was deepened during this period, the range of products expanded, craft technology was improved, remaining, as before, hand-made. Complicated and becoming more efficient technologies in metallurgy, in the manufacture of carded fabrics, and in Europe they begin to wear woolen clothes instead of fur and flax. In the XII century. in Europe were made mechanical watches, in the XIII century. - large clock tower, in the XV century. - pocket watch. Hour production becomes the school where the engineering of precision engineering was developed, which played a significant role in the development of the productive forces of Western society.

Artisans united in workshops, which protected their members from competition from "wild" artisans. In the cities, there could be dozens and hundreds of workshops of various economic orientations - after all, the specialization of production took place not inside the workshop, but between the workshops. So, in Paris there were more than 350 workshops. The most important security of the workshops was also a certain regulation of production in order to prevent overproduction, to maintain prices at a sufficiently high level; the shop authorities, taking into account the volume of the potential market, determined the quantity of products manufactured.

Throughout this period, the guilds fought with the leaders of the city for access to management. The city leaders, called patricians, united representatives of the land aristocracy, wealthy merchants, and usurers. Often, the actions of influential artisans were successful, and they were incorporated into the city authorities.

The craft organization of craft production had obvious disadvantages and advantages, one of which was a well-established apprenticeship system. The official training period in different workshops ranged from 2 to 14 years, it was assumed that during this time the artisan must go from a student and an apprentice to a master.

The shops developed strict requirements for the material from which the goods were made, for tools, production technology. All this ensured stability of work and guaranteed excellent product quality. The fact that an apprentice, who wanted to get the title of master, was obliged to perform graduation work, which was called a “masterpiece” (the modern meaning of the word speaks for itself), testifies to the high level of medieval Western European craft.

The workshops also created conditions for the transfer of accumulated experience, ensuring the continuity of handicraft generations. In addition, artisans participated in the formation of a united Europe: apprentices in the learning process could roam in different countries; masters, if they were recruited in the city more than required, easily moved to new places.

On the other hand, by the end of the classical Middle Ages, in the XIV-XV centuries, the guild organization of industrial production is becoming more and more obvious as a retarding factor. The workshops are becoming more and more isolated, they stop developing. In particular, it was almost impossible to become a master to many: in reality, only the master’s son or his son-in-law could receive the status of a master. This led to the fact that in the cities a significant in size layer of "eternal apprentices" appears. In addition, the strict regulation of the craft begins to restrain the introduction of technological innovations, without which progress in the sphere of material production is inconceivable. Therefore, the guilds gradually exhaust themselves, and by the end of the classical Middle Ages a new form of organization of industrial production appears - manufacture.

The development of manufactory. The manufactory assumed the specialization of labor between workers in the performance of any product, which significantly increased labor productivity, which, as before, remained manual. In the manufactories of Western Europe, hired workers worked. The most widely used manufacture in the next period of the Middle Ages.

Trade and merchants. An important layer of the urban population were merchants who played a major role in domestic and foreign trade. They constantly traveled to cities with goods. Merchants, as a rule, were literate and could speak the languages ​​of the countries through which they passed. Foreign trade in this period, apparently, is still more developed than domestic. The centers of foreign trade in Western Europe were then the North, Baltic and Mediterranean Seas. Cloth, wine, metal products, honey, timber, fur, and pitch were exported from Western Europe. From the East to the West were carried mainly luxury items: colored fabrics, silk, brocade, precious stones, ivory, wine, fruit, spices, carpets. Imports to Europe as a whole exceeded exports. The largest participant in the foreign trade of Western Europe was the Hanseatic cities ¹ . There were about 80 of them, and the largest of them were Hamburg, Bremen, Gdansk, Cologne.

Subsequently, the Hansa, which flourished in the 13th-14th centuries, gradually lost its political and economic power and was supplanted by the English company of adventurer merchants, which led to intensive overseas trade.

The development of domestic trade was significantly hampered by the lack of a single monetary system, numerous internal customs and customs duties, the lack of a good transport network, and constant robbery on the roads. Many people, both simple and noble people, hunted for plunder. Among them are small knights who could not find a place in the constructive economic life, since only the eldest son could inherit his father’s property - “the crown and possessions”, while war, campaigns, robberies, and knightly entertainment became the lot of the rest. The knights robbed the city merchants, and the townspeople, without bothering themselves with the court, hung on the city towers of the knights who had fallen to them. Such a relationship system hampered the development of society. However, despite the existence of numerous dangers on the roads, medieval society was very dynamic and mobile: there was an intensive demographic exchange between regions and countries, contributing to the formation of a united Europe.

Persons of ecclesiastical titles were constantly on their way — bishops, abbots, monks who had to attend church councils, go to Rome with reports. It was they who really interfered with the church in the affairs of national states, which was manifested not only in ideological and cultural life, but also quite tangibly in financial one — an enormous amount of money went from each state to Rome.

Medieval universities. Another part of Western European medieval society, students and masters, was also mobile . The first universities in Western Europe appeared precisely in the classical Middle Ages. So, at the end of the XII - the beginning of the XIII centuries. universities were opened in Paris, Oxford, Cambridge and other European cities. Universities were then the most important and often the only source of information. The power of universities and university science was exceptionally strong. In this regard, in the XIV-XV centuries. Paris University was particularly prominent. It is indicative that among his students (and there were more than 30 thousand of them altogether) there were completely adult people and even old people: everyone came to exchange opinions and get acquainted with new ideas.

University science - scholasticism - formed in the XI century. Its most important feature was boundless faith in the power of reason in the process of knowing the world. Over time, however, scholasticism becomes more and more dogmatic. Its provisions are considered infallible and final. In the XIV-XV centuries. scholasticism, which used logic alone and rejected experiments, becomes an obvious obstacle to the development of natural science in Western Europe. Practically all the departments in European universities were then occupied by monks of the Dominican and Franciscan orders, and the usual topics of debates and scientific works were: “Why did Adam eat apple in paradise, but not a pear? and "How many angels can fit on the needle point?"

The entire system of university education had a very strong influence on the formation of Western European civilization. Universities contributed to the progress in scientific thought, the growth of public self-awareness and the growth of individual freedom. Магистры и студенты, переезжая из города в город, из университета в университет, что было постоянной практикой, осуществляли культурный обмен между странами. О национальных достижениях сразу же становилось известно и в других европейских странах. Так, «Декамерон» итальянца Джаванни Бокаччо (1313-1375) был быстро переведен на все языки Европы, его читали и знали везде. Формированию западноевропейской культуры способствовало и начало в 1453 г. книгопечатания. Первопечатником считают Иоганна Гутенберга (между 1394-1399 или в 1406-1468), жившего в Германии.

Features of the historical development of the leading countries of Europe. Germany, despite the generally successful development, however, was not a leading country in the field of culture or economy. In the XIV-XV centuries. Italy was still the most educated and prosperous country in Europe, although politically it was a multitude of states, often frankly hostile to each other. The commonality of the Italians was expressed mainly in a single language and national culture. Most of all in state-building France has succeeded, where the processes of centralization began earlier than in other countries. In the XIV-XV centuries. France has already introduced permanent state taxes, a single monetary system and a single postal service.

С точки зрения прав человека и защиты личности наибольших успехов добилась Англия, где наиболее четко были сформулированы как закон права народа, добытые им в противостоянии с королем: так, король не имел права без согласия с парламентом налагать новые налоги и издавать новые законы, в своей конкретной деятельности он должен был сообразовываться с уже имеющимися законами.

Другой особенностью развития Англии был усиленный рост товарно-денежных отношений, широкое использование наемного труда во всех сферах хозяйства, активная внешнеторговая деятельность. Отличительной чертой английского общества было также наличие в нем духа предпринимательства, без чего немыслима быстрая хозяйственная эволюция. Этому психологическому настрою в немалой степени способствовало отсутствие жесткой сословности в английском обществе. Так, еще в 1278 г. был принят закон, по которому лично свободные крестьяне, имеющие годовой доход более 20 фунтов стерлингов, получали дворянское звание. Так формировалось «новое дворянство» – слой экономически активных людей, объективно способствующих быстрому подъему Англии в следующий период.