Chapter 14.3
The Growth of Towns
The Rights of Townspeople Trade and cities generally
grow together As towns grew,
townspeople realized they did not fit in the manorial system They played a little part in the
farming economy of villages Instead they made a living by
making and trading goods Manor lords continued
to control the towns
The Rights of Townspeople
Some towns won self-government while others resorted to violence
Some lords granted charters of liberties A charter was a written
statement of the town’s rights
In time the townspeople throughout Europe gained FOUR basic rights
The Rights of Townspeople
1. Freedom If you lived in a town for a
year you were considered free (This included serfs)
2. Exemption Exempt from having
to work on the manor 3. Town justice
Towns had their own courts 4. Commercial
privileges Sell goods freely in town
markets
Guilds
As trade increased, towns grew larger and richer
Merchants and workers began to unite in associations called guilds
In each town, a merchant guild had the sole right to trade there If you were an outside
merchant you had to pay a fee
These guilds were a union of people who would help out other members
Workers In time, skilled workers came
together in craft guilds Members included
shoemakers and weavers They set rules for wages,
hours, and working conditions
They controlled the training of skilled workers
First a boy served as an apprentice His parents paid the master
worker to house, feed, clothe, and train the boy
Training took five to nine years
Workers Next, the young man
became a journeyman A skilled worker who was
paid wages by a master Journeyman could
become a master by making a masterpiece
If the guild approved of the masterpiece the journeyman could open his own shop and become a member of the guild
The rise of the middle class
In time, towns’ guild members, merchants, and master workers, became the middle class Between the class of nobles and
that of peasants and unskilled workers
The middle class favored kings over nobles Could provide a stable government
that would protect trade, business, and property
The middle class gave the kings advice and some were given government positions Middle class started to gain power
Medieval Towns In the Middle Ages,
most northern and western European cities had fewer than 2,000 people
By the 1200s, Paris had 150,000 people
London had about 40,000 people Population of Sandy Utah:
90,231 Population of Draper Utah:
45,285
Town Life Towns offered serfs a chance to
improve their lives Some would escape from
manors and live in towns for freedom
Manor serfs sold crops and had to pay the lord money rather than crops
Cities often stood on hilltops or lay along river bends for added protection Cities had little land, so
houses were built several stories high
Cities also had large public buildings, including churches or cathedrals, town halls, and guild halls
The Black Death Many cities were an
exciting place, however, many were dark, unsafe, dirty, and unhealthy Cities had NO street lights
or police People didn’t go out at
night for fear of robbers
Waste was dumped into open gutters
Diseases spread quickly through the crowded cities
The Black Death
Beginning in 1347, one such disease, a terrible plague called the Black Death, swept through Europe This plague began in Asia
and spread along busy trade routes
Black rats on the ships carried the disease
The plague was spread to people by bites from fleas on the rats
The Black Death Some entire villages and towns
were wiped out! Some estimate about 25 million
people died in Europe in 1347 to 1351, about 1/3 of the population
The Black Death caused many changes in Europe People’s faith in God was shaken Church lost some of its power
and importance Relations between the upper
classes and lower classes changed Workers demanded higher
wages, peasants staged uprisings
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