Status of merchants in feudal Europe
Upvote:2
First of all, peasants were not slaves or anything like that. They were essentially renting a given lend, and most often than not they came into this relationship volunteerly as free men. In many if not most lands and eras getting free from this relationship was actually possible, and peasants could move to another landlord. After bigger wars or diseases that killed large part of the population of a given area, settlers from other lands are often came to work on the empty land.
While the relationship of feudal landlords and peasant were not rosy, being landless (therefore independent from a landlord) was not difficult - being landless AND SURVIVE in an agriculture based society, that was difficult. For certain ethnics and religious were even forbidden by law to work as a peasant, e.g. Gypsies and Jews in Eastern Europe.
Back to your original question: There were all kind of different kind of merchants. Some could have special status, or altogether could form independent communities. Merchants generally formed guilds to control and regulate local trade and negotiate with authorities. As cities are natural market centers and trade-posts, these guilds could give much power to a city or town. Many cities had local independence or were independent states. Independent state means independent not only local feudal rulers, but independent from kings, having own legislation, army, etc. Such city states with elected civil leaders were actually very common along major trading routes (e.g. Venice and Italian city states), and these cities often formed alliances (The Hansa or the Strasbourg-Zurich-Bern-Basel alliance) to protect themselves.
Upvote:3
Merchants usually raised from the people of the cities, that is craftsmen. They usually did not originate from the peasants and as such had no allegiance to the feudal lords.
They also could originate from the city aristocracy, especially in Italy.
Upvote:5
Merchants during the feudal system, tended to be Jews or other "foreigners." Lombards, Genovese and Venetians, (from the most entrepreneurial parts of Italy), and Greeks, tended to perform this function in northern Europe, Dutch (and other western Europeans) in Eastern Europe, etc.
Merchants were basically independent of the feudal system, being neither landowners nor peasants. As such, they were regarded with suspicion by the local elites. Their main selling point was that they had good connections with foreigners who could help them procure scarce goods. Hence, they were likely to be "foreign" (rather than local) members of a given society; most locals would not want to take on such a "foreign" role, at least at home.
Merchants weren't particularly well respected, but they were tolerated, and were allowed to live a bit outside the usual rules because they performed an essential (trading) service.
More post
- 📝 Did a German Jew in the US Army save his home district from bombing?
- 📝 Is there a reason why Turkey took the Balkan territories of the Ottoman Empire, instead of Greece or another of the Balkan states?
- 📝 Which Luftwaffe units participated in the raid on Manchester on 11 March 1941?
- 📝 Where was the furthest extent of Arabian trade explorations?
- 📝 Are there any battles that have been extensively studied across the world?
- 📝 What are the social preconditions for division of labour, when compared in different emerging civilizations?
- 📝 How did the Tutsis win the civil war in Rwanda after 70% of them had been killed?
- 📝 Disappearance and reappearance of helmets in European armies circa 1600 to 1900
- 📝 what is the history of naming newborn in different community?
- 📝 How would an American returning from international travel prove his citizenship before 1914?
- 📝 Why were the Marines so badly outnumbered at the critical point at Guadalcanal?
- 📝 What were the factors that caused debtors' prison to disappear in most parts of the world in the 20th century?
- 📝 What was the official language used across European monarchies in the XII century?
- 📝 Symbol on utility pole in photograph from 1906
- 📝 Why was most of Europe against communism right from the start?
- 📝 Who invented psychological pricing?
- 📝 Had there been a significant physiological difference between the Vikings and the Europeans (around the 11th century)?
- 📝 Time of day first traffic light exploded
- 📝 Why did Lübeck not have colonies like other strong city-states?
- 📝 How did Nazi concentration camp staff deal with survivors of gassings?
- 📝 Under Catherine the Great were all officers appointed for five years?
- 📝 What language(s) were spoken within the Holy Roman Empire?
- 📝 How was the safety of allied leaders ensured in transportation for conferences during WW2?
- 📝 Third Reich? What were the other two?
- 📝 Was Churchill's "backwards" victory symbol a rude gesture to Hitler?
- 📝 Did Charles IV of Spain legally change Spanish succession law in 1789?
- 📝 What was the status of peasants who left to join the People's Crusade?
- 📝 Did people in the area the Virgin Mary is said to have lived wear headdresses at the time?
- 📝 Why did Sun Tzu believe you shouldn't wait beside a river when eager to fight?
- 📝 Does the long dense habitation and cultivation of lands correlate with a high incidence of tetanus and gangrene in badly disinfected wounds?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Status of merchants in feudal Europe
- 📝 Why was France granted an equal status among victors of World War II?
- 📝 Why did Europe not see Roman-era numbers of men participating in battles until the 17th century?
- 📝 What was the typical peasant's diet like in Europe during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 Aside from the Pyramids, what is the tallest man-made structure still standing in Europe & the Near East from ancient times?
- 📝 What was the status of Arab Christians during the crusades?
- 📝 Did anyone in Europe predict the existence of the Americas?
- 📝 Were the living standards in Medieval Europe a lot worse than in the Muslim world?
- 📝 Which languages would be most useful in Europe at the end of the 19th century?
- 📝 Was frequent bathing for personal hygiene in medieval Europe common or not?
- 📝 What was a plausible timetable for a train journey across Europe in 1870?
- 📝 How was the modern geographic boundary between Europe and Asia decided?
- 📝 What factors enabled Europe to conquer almost the whole world?
- 📝 How and why did e.g. Chechnya differ in status from entities like Armenia?
- 📝 Why does Europe have so few skyscrapers compared to East Asia?
- 📝 What was the legal status of an East German once he had reached West Germany?
- 📝 Have Germans expelled from Eastern Europe been re-enfranchised?
- 📝 How many barons were there in feudal 10th century France?
- 📝 Why were bloody religious wars so incredibly frequent in Europe in the century following the Reformation?
- 📝 How much materiel was shipped to Continental Europe per month, after D-Day?
- 📝 Why are most of the world's oldest buildings in Europe and not in the Fertile Crescent?
- 📝 Have there been any efforts by the countries of Europe to restore their monarchies?
- 📝 Why were Germanic languages able to spread over much of northern Europe after 500BC? Did they mostly replace Celtic?
- 📝 Is it true that Proto-Ukrainians conquered Europe and India?
- 📝 How were taxes collected for traveling merchants in the middle ages?
- 📝 In what ways did the rise of a true middle class in Europe during the late 19th century become apparent?
- 📝 How did commoners in late medieval to early modern Europe learn to read?
- 📝 What status and rights did a Roman freedwoman have?
- 📝 Why did Russia inherit the USSR status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council with veto power?
- 📝 What was the relative social status of a "grazier" in Victorian England?