Download Group: Clancy Gray, Katiana Castor, Rebecca Ferdinand Middle

Group: Clancy Gray, Katiana Castor, Rebecca Ferdinand
Middle Ages Project Note Sheet -Topic: Economic Recovery Sparks Change
Chapter: 7.4 Page: 235-236
Class period: 6
Important Events and people
 Creation of Medieval towns and cities
 No bigger than modern towns
 Mostly all towns were walled in for protection
 Main buildings such as: cathedral, the marketplace.
 The people had everything they needed inside the walls this gave the people a sense
of unity
 Food and water was never sanitary which lead to many disease epidemics and plagues
 Discouraged trade
 Guilds
 Associations of people who did the same types of work
- (Shoemakers Guild, Blacksmiths Guild, Weavers Guild, Bakers Guild)
 It was a lot of work to be accepted into a guild
 At age 7 or 8 you were taken to become an apprentice or trainee in your area of craft
-You spent 7 years learning your specific trade
-They did not get paid but the guild master provided them with food and housing
 Guilds were formed by merchants and artisans
- Merchants dominated town life passing laws and taxes
- Artisan later on came on to resent the merchants
- The artisans organized craft guilds
 The Rise of the Middle Class
 Merchants and Artisans developed a new class called the Middle Class
- gained economic and political power
 Many merchants came from wealthy families
Important Vocabulary terms
The Rise of the Middle Class
Middle class- class ranked between nobles and peasants
Guilds- associations formed by artisans and merchants
Apprentice- a young person learning a trade from a master
Journeymen- a salaried worker employed by a guild master
Tenant Farmer- someone who would pay rent to a lord to farm part of the lord’s land
Charter- in the Middle Ages, a written document that set out the rights and privileges of a town
Capital- money or wealth used to invest in business or enterprise
Partnership- a group of merchants who joined together to finance a large-scale venture that
would have been too costly for any individual trader
Middle Class













First appeared in late middle ages, revival of trade and development of structures
Money into power
Rise of Middle Class
Enormous expansion in 19th century (Industrial Revolution)
Offered new forms and scales of production, providing for more jobs and flexible
investments
New middle class- not united or alike
Shopkeepers- bottom of expanding capitalist economy
All middle class shared interest in same new concept “expansion of the economy”
Highest goals- personal security and prosperity
If everybody worked together it would result to success of society as whole
Competition stimulated them to give their best human effort
Inclined to avoid risk
New Middle Class
Government should reduce foreign competition but, stay out of domestic competition
Reduce cost competition by providing transportation
Works cited
Jones, Jim. "The Rise of the Middle Class." 19th Century Eurpoean Middle Class.
N.p., 1997. Web. 6 Feb. 2012. <http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his311/
notes/mid-clas.htm>.
Pelt-Diller, Max Van, and Michael Costolo. "The Rise of the Middle Class ."
Life and Money in Medieval Europe. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2012.
<http://https://sites.google.com/a/guilford.edu/
life-and-money-in-medieval-europe/the-rise-of-the-middle-class>.
Pelt-Diller, Max Van, and Michael Costolo. Life and Money in Medieval Europe .
N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2012. <https://sites.google.com/a/guilford.edu/
life-and-money-in-medieval-europe/guilds-and-professions>.