trade

In the Middle Ages, long-distance trade was rare. Travel was dangerous, and most people lived a subsistent existence on rural estates, where they grew just enough to support their families and pay a landlord for the use of the land. Rare and valuable goods were imported from the Middle East and, in later centuries, via the Silk Road that linked eastern Europe with central Asia. As money was in short supply, most of this trade was carried out by the barter system, in which goods were exchanged for other goods.

The expansion of the banking system, the improvement of roads, and the growth of manufacturing industries and a middle class all contributed to a rise in international trade during the Renaissance. Cities of the Low Countries and northern Italy became the wealthiest in Europe. These regions specialized in the making of cloth, silk, woven tapestries, armor, and other goods in demand throughout Europe. German cities prospered from a trade in silver, England sold its wool and herring, and the Scandinavian countries exported fur and timber. From port cities such as Amsterdam, Genoa, Lisbon, and Venice, merchants and navigators sailed to distant regions of Asia to trade in valuable goods in short supply in Europe, such as silk and spices.

The rise of a middle class went hand in hand with economic growth, and the wider circulation of money played an important role in the artistic flowering of the Renaissance. Prominent families such as the Medici of Florence thrived from loans and letters of credit that made longdistance trade possible. The Medici ran an international conglomerate, with banks, mines, mills, trading houses, and other businesses all over Europe; the vast wealth they acquired allowed them to take power as a hereditary ruling dynasty in Florence. The Medici and other merchant families displayed their wealth by patronizing artists, architects and sculptors, and commissioning new works of art for their homes, palaces, and private chapels.

Italy was well located to serve as a center of international trade. Its ports and manufacturing centers lay between western Europe and the Middle East, along convenient shipping routes through the Mediterranean. Trade was also conducted along the major rivers of the continent, including the Danube, the Rhine, the Loire, and the Rhone. As monarchies grew stronger and unified nations emerged, central governments extended their control of trade through taxes, tariffs, and customs barriers. At the same time, foreign trade helped diminish the feudal system, as the money economy allowed bonded serfs to leave their estates and sell their know-how and skills in the cities.

The age of exploration that began in the fifteenth century, with Portuguese expeditions down the coast of Africa and across the Indian Ocean to southern Asia, spelled the end of Italy's dominance of trade. Portuguese and other navigators opened up new sea routes and established colonies, which allowed Portugal and the rest of Europe to bypass the Italian middlemen who had controlled trade between Europe and the Middle East. Busy shipping lanes across the Atlantic linked England, France, and Spain with their overseas American colonies, which provided raw materials and eventually a hungry market for goods manufactured in Europe. Foreign trade replaced agriculture as the lifeblood of western Europe's economies, and would spur the industrial revolution that began in the eighteenth century.