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Ch. 14 Sec. 3
The Growth of Towns
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The Rights of Townspeople
As towns grew, townspeople no longer fit into the manorial system
They were makers & traders of goods, not farmers
Manor lords, however still controlled the towns
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Some towns gained the right to self-gov’t peacefully; others resorted to violence
In time, European townspeople gained four basic rights: freedom, exemption, town justice, & commercial privileges
First, anyone who lived in a town for a year & a day became free, including serfs
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Second, townspeople were exempt from having to work on the manor
Third, towns had their own courtsFourth, townspeople could sell
goods freely in the town market & charge outside traders a fee
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GuildsEach town had a merchant guild, an
association of merchants & workers created to protect their rights to trade & to help out members & their families
In time, skilled workers formed craft guilds, which set standards for working conditions
Each guild had members from a single craft such as weaving
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The guilds took care of ill members & controlled the training of boys & men in their craft
First, a boy served as an apprentice – his parents paid a master worker to house, feed, clothe, & train the boy for several years
Then he became a journeymen, a skilled worker who was paid wages by a master
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If the journeyman made a masterpiece – a piece of work worthy of a master – then he became a guild member & opened his own shop
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Medieval TownsIn time, guild members became the
middle class – a class of skilled workers between the upper class of nobles & lower class of poor & unskilled workers
The middle class favored kings over nobles bcuz kings provided stable gov’ts that protected trade, business, & property
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Towns offered serfs a chance to improve their lives; they could learn a craft or become traders & move into the middle class
Some serfs escaped their manors; others were pushed off as farming methods changed
Serfs who stayed on the manors sold their crops at town markets & paid their lords w/ $ rather than labor
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The Black Death
Most cities had fewer than 2,000 people
Since cities had little land, houses were built several stories high; each story extended out beyond the one below it
At their tops, houses almost touched over the street
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Cities were exciting places, but they were also dark, unsafe, dirty, & unhealthy; waste was dumped into open gutters, & disease spread quickly
Beginning in 1347, a terrible plague called the Black Death swept throughout Europe
It spread along trade routes, entering ports on trading ships
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Black rats on the ships carried the disease; it spread to people by bites from fleas on the rats
Entire villages and towns were wiped out
By some estimates, 25 million people died in Europe w/in four years – about one-third of the pop.
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The Black Death shook people’s faith, & the church lost power; the upper class also lost power
Workers, now in short supply, demanded higher wages; in some countries peasants started uprisings