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The culture of the High Middle Ages is the spiritual turning point of the 13th century. High Middle Ages. Cultural change: the development of a hierarchical system

During the classical or high Middle Ages, Western Europe began to overcome difficulties and revive. Since the 10th century, state structures have been enlarged, which made it possible to raise larger armies and, to some extent, to stop raids and robberies. Missionaries brought Christianity to the countries of Scandinavia, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, so that these states also entered the orbit of Western culture.

The relative stability that followed made it possible for cities and the economy to rapidly expand. Life began to change for the better, the cities flourished their own culture and spiritual life. An important role in this was played by the church, which also developed, improved its teaching and organization.

The economic and social takeoff after 1000 began with construction. As contemporaries said: "Europe was covered with a new white dress of churches." Based on artistic traditions ancient rome and the former barbarian tribes, Romanesque, and later brilliant Gothic art arose, and not only architecture and literature developed, but also other types of art - painting, theater, music, sculpture.

At this time, feudal relations finally took shape, the process of personality formation was already completed (XII century). The outlook of Europeans has significantly expanded due to a number of circumstances (this is the era of the Crusades outside Western Europe: acquaintance with the life of Muslims, the East, with a higher level of development). These new impressions enriched the Europeans, their horizons expanded as a result of the travels of merchants (Marco Polo traveled to China and, upon his return, wrote a book introducing Chinese life and traditions). Expanding horizons leads to the formation of a new worldview. Thanks to new acquaintances, impressions, people began to understand that earthly life is not aimless, has great significance, the natural world is rich, interesting, does not create anything bad, it is divine, worthy of study. Therefore, the sciences began to develop.

Literature

Features of the literature of this time:

1) The relationship between ecclesiastical and secular literature is decisively changing in favor of secular literature. New class directions are formed and flourish: chivalric and urban literature.

2) The sphere of literary use of folk languages has expanded: in urban literature, the folk language is preferred, even church literature refers to folk languages.

3) Literature acquires absolute independence in relation to folklore.

4) Dramaturgy emerges and develops successfully.

5) The genre of the heroic epic continues to develop. There are a number of gems of the heroic epic: "The Song of Roland", "The Song of my Sid", "The Song of the Nebelung".

Heroic epic.

The heroic epic is one of the most characteristic and popular genres of the European Middle Ages. In France, it existed in the form of poems called gestures, that is, songs about deeds, exploits. The thematic basis of the gesture is made up of real historical events, most of which date back to the 8th - 10th centuries. Probably, immediately after these events, legends and legends about them arose. It is also possible that these legends originally existed in the form of short episodic songs or prose stories that developed in the pre-knight's retinue environment. However, very early, episodic tales went beyond this environment, spread among the masses and became the property of the whole society: they were listened with equal enthusiasm not only by the military estate, but also by the clergy, merchants, artisans, and peasants.

Since initially these folk tales were intended for oral melodious performance by jugglers, the latter subjected them to intensive processing, which consisted in expanding the plots, in their cyclization, in the introduction of inserted episodes, sometimes very large ones, conversational scenes, etc. As a result, short episodic songs took gradually the appearance of plot-and stylistically-organized poems - a gesture. In addition, in the process of complex development, some of these poems were subject to a noticeable influence of church ideology, and all without exception - to the influence of knightly ideology. Since chivalry had a high prestige for all sectors of society, the heroic epic gained the widest popularity. Unlike Latin poetry, which was practically reserved for clerics alone, gestures were created in French and were understood by everyone. Originating from the early Middle Ages, the heroic epic took on a classical form and experienced a period of active existence in the 12th, 13th, and partly 14th centuries. Its written fixation also belongs to the same time. Gestures are usually divided into three cycles:

1) the cycle of Guillaume d "Orange (otherwise: the cycle of Garena de Montglan - named after great-grandfather Guillaume);

2) the cycle of "rebellious barons" (in other words: the cycle of Doon de Mayans);

3) the cycle of Charlemagne, King of France. The theme of the first cycle is the disinterested, driven only by love for the motherland, service of the faithful vassals from the Guillaume family to the weak, vacillating, often ungrateful king, who is constantly threatened by either internal or external enemies.

The theme of the second cycle is the rebellion of the proud and independent barons against the unjust king, as well as the cruel feuds of the barons among themselves. Finally, in the poems of the third cycle (“The Pilgrimage of Charlemagne”, “Big-Legs”, etc.), the sacred struggle of the Franks against the “pagan” Muslims is sung and the figure of Charlemagne is heroized, appearing as the center of virtues and the stronghold of the entire Christian world. The most remarkable poem of the royal cycle and of the entire French epic is the "Song of Roland", the recording of which dates back to the beginning of the 12th century.

Features of the heroic epic:

1) The epic was created in the conditions of the development of feudal relations.

2) The epic picture of the world reproduces feudal relations, idealizes a strong feudal state and reflects Christian beliefs, Christian ideals.

3) With regard to history, the historical basis is clearly visible, but at the same time it is idealized, exaggerated.

4) Heroes - defenders of the state, the king, the independence of the country and the Christian faith. All this is interpreted in the epic as a nationwide affair.

5) The epic is associated with a folk tale, with historical chronicles, sometimes with a chivalric romance.

6) The epic has been preserved in the countries of continental Europe (Germany, France).

The era of the mature Middle Ages begins with the time of "cultural silence", which lasted almost until the end of the 10th century. Endless wars, civil strife, the political decline of the state led to the division of the empire of Charlemagne (843) and laid the foundation for three states: France, Italy and Germany.

During the period of the classical or high Middle Ages, Europe began to overcome difficulties and revive. In the XI century. the improvement of the economic situation, the growth of the population, the decrease in hostilities led to the acceleration of the process of separation of craft from agriculture, which resulted in the growth of both new cities and their size. In the XII-XIII centuries. many cities are freed from the power of spiritual or secular feudal lords.

Since the 10th century, state structures have been enlarged, which made it possible to raise larger armies and, to some extent, to stop raids and robberies. Missionaries brought Christianity to the countries of Scandinavia, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, so that these states also entered the orbit of Western culture. The relative stability that followed made it possible for cities and the economy to rapidly expand. Life began to change for the better, the cities flourished their own culture and spiritual life. A big role in this was played by the same church, which also developed, improved its teaching and organization.

European medieval society was very religious and the power of the clergy over the minds was extremely great. The teaching of the church was the starting point of all thinking, all sciences - jurisprudence, natural science, philosophy, logic - everything was brought into line with Christianity. The clergy were the only educated class, and it was the church that for a long time determined the policy in the field of education. All cultural life European society of this period was largely determined by Christianity.

An important layer of the formation of folk culture during the classical Middle Ages is sermons. The bulk of society remained illiterate. In order for the thoughts of the social and spiritual elite to become the dominant thoughts of all parishioners, they had to be "translated" into a language accessible to all people. This is what the preachers did. Parish priests, monks, and missionaries had to explain to the people the basic principles of theology, instil the principles of Christian behavior and eradicate the wrong way of thinking. The sermon assumed as its listener any person - literate and illiterate, noble and commoner, city dweller and peasant, rich and poor.

The most famous preachers structured their sermons in such a way as to hold the attention of the public for a long time and convey to it the ideas of church teaching in the form of simple examples. Some used for this the so-called "examples" - short stories written in the form of parables on everyday topics. These "examples" are one of the early literary genres and are of particular interest for a more complete understanding of the worldview of ordinary believers. "Example" was one of the most effective means of didactic influence on parishioners. In these "cases from life" one can see the original world of medieval man, with his ideas about saints and evil spirits as real participants in a person's daily life. However, the most famous preachers, such as Berthold of Regenburg (XIII century), did not use the "Examples" in their sermons, building them mainly on biblical texts. This preacher built his sermons in the form of dialogues, addressed appeals and statements to a certain part of the audience or professional categories. He widely used the method of enumeration, riddles and other techniques that made his sermons small performances. The ministers of the church, as a rule, did not introduce any original ideas and statements into their sermons, this was not expected of them, and the parishioners would be unable to appreciate this. The audience received satisfaction just from listening to familiar and well-known things.

In the XII-XIII centuries. the church, having reached the peak of its power in the fight against the state, gradually began to lose its positions in the fight against the royal power. By the XIII century. natural economy begins to collapse as a result of the development of commodity-money relations, the personal dependence of the peasants is weakened.

High (classical) Middle Ages (X-XIII centuries)

European medieval society was very religious and the power of the clergy over the minds was extremely great. The teaching of the church was the starting point of all thinking, all sciences - jurisprudence, natural science, philosophy, logic - everything was brought into line with Christianity. The clergy were the only educated class, and it was the church that for a long time determined the policy in the field of education. The entire cultural life of European society of this period was largely determined by Christianity.

An important layer in the formation of folk culture during the classical Middle Ages was sermons. The bulk of society remained illiterate. In order for the thoughts of the social and spiritual elite to become the dominant thoughts of all parishioners, they had to be "translated" into a language accessible to all people. This is what the preachers did. Parish priests, monks, and missionaries had to explain to the people the basic principles of theology, instil the principles of Christian behavior and eradicate the wrong way of thinking. The sermon assumed as its listener any person - literate and illiterate, noble and commoner, city dweller and peasant, rich and poor.

MIDDLE AGES

Early Middle Ages

(from 500 to 1000)

It starts from the time of the fall of the Great Roman Empire (476) and lasts about 5 centuries. This is the time of the so-called Great Migration of Peoples, which began in the 4th century and ended in the 7th. During this time, the Germanic tribes captured and subjugated all the countries of Western Europe, thus determining the appearance of modern European world. The main reasons for mass migration during this period of the Middle Ages were the search for fertile lands and favorable conditions, as well as a sharp cooling of the climate. Therefore, the northern tribes moved closer to the south. In addition to the Germanic tribes, Turks, Slavs and Finno-Ugric tribes participated in the resettlement. The great migration of peoples was accompanied by the destruction of many tribes and nomadic peoples.

Viking tribes appeared, the kingdoms of the Ostrogoths in Italy and the Visigoths in Aquitaine and the Iberian Peninsula arose, the Frankish state was formed, which occupied most of Europe during its heyday. North Africa and Spain became part of the Arab Caliphate, many small states of the Angles, Saxons and Celts existed on the British Isles, states appeared in Scandinavia, as well as in central and eastern Europe: Great Moravia and the Old Russian state. The neighbors of the Europeans were the Byzantines, the population of the ancient Russian principalities and Muslim Arabs. The inhabitants of Europe maintained different relations with the nearest countries and states. The Arab states and Byzantium had the greatest influence on all aspects of the life of European countries.

The medieval society of Western Europe was agrarian. The basis of the economy was agriculture, and the vast majority of the population was employed in this area. Labor in agriculture, as well as in other sectors of production, was manual, which predetermined its low efficiency and slow overall rates of technical and economic evolution.

The vast majority of the population of Western Europe throughout the entire period of the Middle Ages lived outside the city. If cities were very important for ancient Europe - they were independent centers of life, the nature of which was predominantly municipal, and a person’s belonging to a city determined his civil rights, then in Medieval Europe, especially in the first seven centuries, the role of cities was insignificant, although over time time, the influence of cities is increasing.

The early Middle Ages in Europe are characterized by constant wars. Barbarian tribes, having destroyed the Roman Empire, began to create their own states of the Angles, Franks and others. They fought fierce wars with each other for territory. In 800, Charlemagne managed, at the cost of numerous campaigns of conquest, to subjugate many peoples and create the Frankish Empire. Having broken up after the death of Charles after 43 years, it was again recreated in the 10th century by the German kings.

In the Middle Ages, the formation of Western European civilization began, developing with greater dynamism than all previous civilizations, which was determined by a number of historical factors (the legacy of Roman material and spiritual culture, the existence of the empires of Charlemagne and Otto I in Europe, which united many tribes and countries, the influence of Christianity as a single religion for all, the role of corporatism, penetrating all spheres of social order).

The basis of the economy of the Middle Ages was agriculture, which employed most of the population. The peasants cultivated both their land plots and those of the masters. More precisely, the peasants had nothing of their own; only personal freedom distinguished them from slaves.

By the end of the first period of the Middle Ages, all peasants (both personally dependent and personally free) have an owner. Feudal law did not recognize simply free, independent people, trying to build social relations according to the principle: "There is no man without a master."

During the formation of medieval society, the pace of development was slow. Although in agriculture the three-field instead of the two-field was already fully established, the yield was low. They kept mainly small livestock - goats, sheep, pigs, and there were few horses and cows. The level of specialization of agriculture was low. Each estate had almost all vital, from the point of view of Western Europeans, branches of the economy: field crops, cattle breeding, and various crafts. The economy was natural, and agricultural products were not specially produced for the market; the craft also existed in the form of work to order. The domestic market was thus very limited.

During the period of the early Middle Ages - the beginning of the formation of medieval society - the territory on which the formation of Western European civilization is taking place is significantly expanding: if the basis of ancient civilization was Ancient Greece and Rome, then medieval civilization covers almost the whole of Europe. The most important process in the early Middle Ages in the socio-economic sphere was the formation of feudal relations, the core of which was the formation of feudal land ownership. This happened in two ways. The first way is through the peasant community. The allotment of land owned by a peasant family was inherited from father to son (and from the 6th century to daughter) and was their property. This is how the allod gradually took shape - the freely alienable land property of the communal peasants. Allod accelerated the stratification of property among free peasants: the lands began to be concentrated in the hands of the communal elite, which already acts as part of the feudal class. Thus, this was the way of forming the patrimonial-allodial form of feudal ownership of land, which was especially characteristic of the Germanic tribes.

During the early Middle Ages, feudal fragmentation was observed in Europe. Then the role of Christianity in the creation of a united Europe increases.

Medieval cities

They arose primarily in places of lively trade. In Europe it was Italy and France. Here, cities appeared already in the 9th century. The time of appearance of other cities refers to

Beginning in the 12th and 13th centuries, there was a sharp rise in the development of technology in Europe and an increase in the number of innovations in the means of production, which contributed to the economic growth of the region. In less than a century, more inventions have been made than in the previous thousand years.

Cannons, glasses, artesian wells were invented. Gunpowder, silk, compass and astrolabe came from the East. There were also great advances in shipbuilding and watches. At the same time, a huge number of Greek and Arabic works on medicine and science were translated and distributed throughout Europe.

At that time, science and culture began to develop. The most progressive rulers also understood the value of education and science. For example, back in the 8th century, on the orders of Charlemagne, the Academy was formed, bearing his name.

Among the sciences: astronomy. In the Middle Ages, it was closely associated with astrology. The geocentric concept of Ptolemy was taken as the basis of the world, although many scientists by that time were already sure of its fallacy. But Nicolaus Copernicus was the first to openly criticize; Chemistry: In the Middle Ages it was called alchemy. Alchemists were looking for philosopher's stone, which gives wisdom, and a way to create gold from other metals. In the course of these searches, a huge number of important inventions and etc.

In Western European art of the 10th-12th centuries, the Romanesque style prevails. He expressed himself most fully in architecture.

Classical (High) Middle Ages

(1000 to 1300)

The main characterizing trend of this period was the rapid increase in the population of Europe, which in turn led to dramatic changes in the social, political and other spheres of life.

In the XI-XV centuries. in Europe, there is a process of gradual formation of centralized states - England, France, Portugal, Spain, Holland, etc., where new forms of government controlled- Cortes (Spain), Parliament (England), States General (France). The strengthening of centralized power contributed to the more successful development of the economy, science, culture, the emergence of a new form of organization of production - manufactory. In Europe, capitalist relations are emerging and establishing themselves, which was largely facilitated by the Great Geographical Discoveries.

In the High Middle Ages, Europe begins to actively flourish. The arrival of Christianity in Scandinavia. The collapse of the Carolingian Empire into two separate states, on the territories of which modern Germany and France were later formed. The organization of Christian crusades with the aim of recapturing Palestine from the Seljuks. Cities are developing and getting rich. Culture is developing very actively. There are new styles and trends in architecture and music.

In Eastern Europe, the era of the High Middle Ages was marked by the flourishing of the Old Russian state and the appearance on the historical stage of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The invasion of the Mongols in the XIII century caused irreparable damage to the development of Eastern Europe. Many states of this region were plundered and enslaved.

The Western European Middle Ages is a period of dominance of natural economy and weak development of commodity-money relations. The insignificant level of specialization of the regions associated with this type of economy determined the development of mainly long-distance (foreign) rather than near (internal) trade. Long-distance trade was focused mainly on the upper strata of society. Industry during this period existed in the form of handicrafts and manufactory.

Medieval society - class. There were three main estates: the nobility, the clergy and the people (peasants, artisans, merchants were united under this concept). Estates had different rights and obligations, played different socio-political and economic roles.

The most important characteristic of medieval Western European society was its hierarchical structure, the system of vassalage. At the head of the feudal hierarchy was the king - the supreme overlord and, at the same time, often only a nominal head of state. This convention absolute power the highest person in the states of Western Europe is also an essential feature of Western European society, in contrast to the truly absolute monarchies of the East. Thus the king medieval Europe- just a "first among equals", and not an omnipotent despot. It is characteristic that the king, occupying the first step of the hierarchical ladder in his state, could well be a vassal of another king or the pope.

On the second rung of the feudal ladder were the direct vassals of the king. These were large feudal lords - dukes, counts, archbishops, bishops, abbots. According to the immunity letter received from the king, they had various types of immunity (from Latin - immunity). The most common types of immunity were tax, judicial and administrative, i.e. the owners of immunity certificates themselves collected taxes from their peasants and townspeople, ruled the court, and made administrative decisions. Feudal lords of this level could themselves mint their own coin, which often had circulation not only within the boundaries of the given estate, but also outside it. The subordination of such feudal lords to the king was often merely formal.

On the third rung of the feudal ladder stood the vassals of dukes, counts, bishops - barons. They enjoyed virtual immunity on their estates. Even lower were the vassals of the barons - the knights. Some of them could also have their own vassals - even smaller knights, others had only peasants in submission, who, however, stood outside the feudal ladder.

The system of vassalage was based on the practice of land grants. The person who received the land became a vassal, the one who gave it became a seigneur. The owner of the land - the seigneur, could give a fief (land plot) for temporary use on special conditions. The land was given under certain conditions, the most important of which was the service of the seigneur, which, as a rule, was 40 days a year according to feudal custom. The most important duties of a vassal in relation to his lord were participation in the lord's army, protection of his possessions, honor, dignity, participation in his council. If necessary, the vassals redeemed the lord from captivity.

When receiving land, the vassal took an oath of allegiance to his master. If the vassal did not fulfill his obligations, the lord could take away his land, but this was not so easy to do, since the vassal, as a feudal lord, was inclined to defend his property with weapons in his hands. In general, despite the apparent clear order, the system of vassalage was rather confusing, and a vassal could have several lords at the same time. Then the principle "the vassal of my vassal is not my vassal" was in effect.

In the Middle Ages, two main classes of feudal society were also formed: feudal lords, spiritual and secular - land owners, and peasants - land holders. The basis of the economy of the Middle Ages was agriculture, which employed most of the population. The peasants cultivated both their land plots and those of the masters.

Among the peasants there were two groups, differing in their economic and social status. Personally free peasants could, at will, leave the owner, give up their land holdings: rent them out or sell them to another peasant. Having freedom of movement, they often moved to cities or to new places. They paid fixed taxes in kind and in cash and performed certain work in the household of their master. The other group is the personally dependent peasants. Their duties were wider, moreover (and this is the most important difference) they were not fixed, so that personally dependent peasants were subjected to arbitrary taxation. They also carried a number of specific taxes: posthumous - upon entering into an inheritance, marriage - redemption of the right of the first night, etc. These peasants did not enjoy freedom of movement.

The producer of material goods under feudalism was the peasant, who, unlike a slave and a hired worker, ran the household himself, and in many respects quite independently, that is, he was the owner. The peasant was the owner of the yard, the main means of production. He also acted as the owner of the land, but was a subordinate owner, while the feudal lord was the supreme owner. The supreme owner of the land is always at the same time the supreme owner of the personalities of the subordinate owners of the land, and thus also of their labor force. Here, as in the case of slavery, there is an extra-economic dependence of the exploited on the exploiter, but not complete, but supreme. Therefore, the peasant, unlike the slave, is the owner of his personality and labor force, but not complete, but subordinate.

Progress in agriculture was also facilitated by the liberation of peasants from personal dependence. The decision on this was made either by the city near which the peasants lived and with which they were connected socially and economically, or by their feudal lord, on whose land they lived. The rights of peasants to land allotments were strengthened. Increasingly, they could freely pass on land by inheritance, bequeath it and mortgage it, lease it, donate it, and sell it. This is how the land market gradually develops and becomes ever wider. Commodity-money relations develop.

Church. The schism (schism) of 1054 led to the formation of two main branches of the Christian Church - the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe and Orthodox Church in Eastern. In the era of the classical Middle Ages in Europe, the Catholic Church reached its power. It influenced all spheres of human life. The rulers could not compare with its wealth - the church owned 1/3 of all land in each country.

A whole series of crusades took place over the course of 400 years, from the 11th to the 15th centuries. They were organized by the Catholic Church against Muslim countries under the slogan of protecting the Holy Sepulcher. In fact, it was an attempt to capture new territories. Knights from all over Europe went on these campaigns. For young warriors, participation in such an adventure was a prerequisite to prove their courage and confirm their knighthood.

Medieval man was extremely religious. What is considered incredible and supernatural for us was ordinary for him. Faith in the dark and light kingdoms, demons, spirits and angels - this is what surrounded a person, and in which he unconditionally believed.

The church strictly watched that its prestige was not damaged. All free-thinking thoughts were nipped in the bud. Many scientists suffered from the actions of the church: Giordano Bruno, Galileo Galilei, Nicolaus Copernicus and others. At the same time, in the Middle Ages it was the center of education and scientific thought. At the monasteries there were church schools in which they taught literacy, prayers, Latin and singing hymns. In the workshops for copying books, in the same place, at the monasteries, the works of ancient authors were carefully copied, preserving them for posterity.

The main branch of the economy of Western European countries during the classical Middle Ages, as before, was agriculture. The main characteristics of the development of the agricultural sector as a whole was the process of rapid development of new lands, known in history as the process of internal colonization. It contributed not only to the quantitative growth of the economy, but also to serious qualitative progress, since the duties imposed on the peasants on the new lands were predominantly monetary, and not in kind. The process of replacing in-kind duties with monetary ones, known in the scientific literature as rent switching, contributed to the growth of economic independence and enterprise of the peasants, and to an increase in their labor productivity. The sowing of oilseeds and industrial crops is expanding, and oil and winemaking are developing.

Grain yield reaches the level of sam-4 and sam-5. The growth of peasant activity and the expansion of the peasant economy led to a reduction in the economy of the feudal lord, which in the new conditions turned out to be less profitable.

Artisans were an important ever-increasing stratum of the urban population. From the XII-XIII centuries. In connection with the increase in the purchasing power of the population, the growth of consumer demand is marked by the growth of urban crafts. From work to order, artisans move to work for the market. The craft becomes a respected occupation that brings a good income. Special respect was enjoyed by people of construction specialties - masons, carpenters, plasterers. At that time, the most gifted people, with a high level of professional training, were engaged in architecture. During this period, the specialization of crafts deepened, the range of products expanded, handicraft techniques improved, remaining, as before, manual.

The technologies in metallurgy, in the manufacture of cloth fabrics are becoming more complicated and more effective, and in Europe they begin to wear woolen clothes instead of fur and linen. In the XII century. in Europe, mechanical watches were made, in the XIII century. - a large tower clock, in the XV century. - pocket watch. Watchmaking is becoming the school in which the technique of precision engineering was developed, which played a significant role in the development of the productive forces of Western society. Other sciences also developed successfully, and many discoveries were made in them. The water wheel was invented, water and windmills were improved, mechanical watches, glasses, and a loom were created.

Craftsmen united in guilds that protected their members from competition from "wild" artisans. In cities there could be dozens and hundreds of workshops of various economic orientations, because the specialization of production took place not within the workshop, but between workshops. So, in Paris there were more than 350 workshops. The most important feature of the shops was also a certain regulation of production in order to prevent overproduction, to maintain prices at a fairly high level; shop authorities, taking into account the volume of the potential market, determined the quantity of output.

Throughout this period, the guilds waged a struggle with the tops of the city for access to management. The city leaders, called the patriciate, united representatives of the landed aristocracy, wealthy merchants, usurers. Often the actions of influential artisans were successful, and they were included in the city authorities.

The guild organization of handicraft production had both obvious disadvantages and advantages, one of which was a well-established apprenticeship system. The official training period in different workshops ranged from 2 to 14 years, it was assumed that during this time the artisan must go from apprentice and apprentice to master.

The workshops developed strict requirements for the material from which the goods were made, for tools, and production technology. All this ensured the stability of work and guaranteed great quality products. The high level of medieval Western European craft is evidenced by the fact that an apprentice who wanted to receive the title of master was obliged to complete the final work, which was called a “masterpiece” (the modern meaning of the word speaks for itself).

The workshops also created conditions for the transfer of accumulated experience, ensuring the continuity of handicraft generations. In addition, artisans participated in the formation of a united Europe: apprentices in the learning process could roam around different countries; masters, if they were recruited in the city more than required, easily moved to new places.

On the other hand, by the end of the classical Middle Ages, in the 14th-15th centuries, the guild organization of industrial production began to act more and more obviously as a retarding factor. Shops are becoming more and more isolated, stopping in development. In particular, it was almost impossible for many to become a master: only the son of a master or his son-in-law could actually obtain the status of a master. This led to the fact that a significant layer of "eternal apprentices" appeared in the cities. In addition, the strict regulation of the craft begins to hinder the introduction of technological innovations, without which progress in the field of material production is unthinkable. Therefore, workshops gradually exhaust themselves, and by the end of the classical Middle Ages, a new form of industrial production organization appears - manufactory.

In the classical Middle Ages, old cities quickly grow and new cities appear - near castles, fortresses, monasteries, bridges, river crossings. Cities with a population of 4-6 thousand inhabitants were considered average. There were very large cities, such as Paris, Milan, Florence, where 80 thousand people lived. Life in a medieval city was difficult and dangerous - frequent epidemics claimed the lives of more than half of the townspeople, as happened, for example, during the "black death" - a plague epidemic in the middle of the 14th century. Fires were also frequent. However, they still aspired to the cities, because, as the proverb testified, “the city air made the dependent person free” - for this it was necessary to live in the city for one year and one day.

Cities arose on the lands of the king or large feudal lords and were beneficial to them, bringing income in the form of taxes from crafts and trade.

At the beginning of this period, most cities were dependent on their lords. The townspeople fought for gaining independence, that is, for turning into a free city. The authorities of independent cities were elected and had the right to collect taxes, pay the treasury, manage city finances at their own discretion, have their own court, mint their own coin, and even declare war and make peace. The means of struggle of the urban population for their rights were urban uprisings - communal revolutions, as well as the redemption of their rights from the lord. Only the richest cities, such as London and Paris, could afford such a ransom. However, many other Western European cities were also rich enough to gain independence for money. So, in the XIII century. About half of all cities in England gained independence in collecting taxes - that is, about 200.

The wealth of cities was based on the wealth of their citizens. Among the richest were moneylenders and money changers. They determined the quality and usefulness of the coin, and this was extremely important in the conditions of the defacing of the coin that was constantly practiced by mercantilist governments; they exchanged money and transferred it from one city to another; took on the preservation of free capital and provided loans.

At the beginning of the classical Middle Ages, banking activity was most actively developed in Northern Italy. The activities of usurers and money changers could be extremely profitable, but sometimes (if large feudal lords and kings refused to return large loans) they also became bankrupt.

Late Middle Ages

(1300-1640)

In Western European science, the end of the Middle Ages is usually associated with the beginning of the Church Reformation (beginning of the 16th century) or the era of great geographical discoveries (15th-17th centuries). The late Middle Ages is also called the Renaissance.

This is one of the most tragic periods of the Middle Ages. In the XIV century, almost the whole world experienced several epidemics of the plague, the Black Death. In Europe alone, it killed more than 60 million people, almost half of the population. This is the time of the strongest peasant uprisings in England and France and the longest war in the history of mankind - the Hundred Years. But at the same time - this is the era of the great geographical discoveries and the Renaissance.

Reformation (lat. reformatio - correction, transformation, reformation) - a broad religious and socio-political movement in Western and Central Europe of the 16th - early 17th centuries, aimed at reforming Catholic Christianity in accordance with the Bible.

The main cause of the Reformation was the struggle between those who represented the emerging capitalist mode of production and the defenders of the then dominant feudal system, whose ideological dogmas were protected by the Catholic Church. The interests and aspirations of the emerging bourgeois class and the masses of the people who somehow supported its ideology found expression in the founding of Protestant churches that called for modesty, economy, accumulation and self-reliance, as well as in the formation of nation-states in which the church did not play a major role.

Until the 16th century, the church in Europe owned large fiefs, and its power could only last as long as the feudal system existed. The riches of the church were based on the ownership of land, church tithes and payment for ceremonies. The splendor and decoration of the temples was amazing. The church and the feudal system ideally complemented each other.

With the advent of a new class of society, gradually gaining strength - the bourgeoisie, the situation began to change. Many have long expressed dissatisfaction with the excessive splendor of the rites and temples of the church. The high cost of church rites also caused a great protest among the population. The bourgeoisie was especially dissatisfied with this state of affairs, which wanted to invest not in magnificent and expensive church rites, but in production.

In some countries where the power of the king was strong, the church was limited in its appetites. In many others, where the priests could manage to their heart's content, she was hated by the entire population. Here the Reformation found fertile ground.

In the 14th century, Oxford professor John Wyclif spoke openly against the Catholic Church, calling for the destruction of the institution of the papacy and the removal of all land from the priests. His successor was Jan Hus, rector of the University of Prague and part-time pastor. He fully supported the idea of Wyclif and proposed to reform the church in the Czech Republic. For this he was declared a heretic and burned at the stake.

The beginning of the Reformation is considered to be the speech of Martin Luther, doctor of theology at Wittenberg University: on October 31, 1517, he nailed his “95 theses” to the doors of the Wittenberg Castle Church, in which he opposed the existing abuses of the Catholic Church, in particular against the sale of indulgences. Historians consider the end of the Reformation to be the signing of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, as a result of which the religious factor ceased to play a significant role in European politics.

The main idea of his composition is that a person does not need the mediation of the church to turn to God, he has enough faith. This act was the beginning of the Reformation in Germany. Luther was persecuted by church authorities who demanded that he retract his words. The ruler of Saxony, Friedrich, stood up for him, hiding the doctor of theology in his castle. Followers of Luther's teachings continued to fight to bring about a change in the church. The speeches, which were brutally suppressed, led to Peasants' War in Germany. Supporters of the Reformation began to be called Protestants.

The death of Luther did not end the Reformation. It began in other European countries - in Denmark, England, Norway, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, the Baltic States, Poland.

Protestantism spread throughout Europe in the creeds of the followers of Luther (Lutheranism), John Calvin (Calvinism), Ulrich Zwingli (Zwinglianism), and others.

A set of measures taken by the Catholic Church and the Jesuits to combat the Reformation,

The process of pan-European integration was contradictory: along with rapprochement in the field of culture and religion, there is a desire for national isolation in terms of the development of statehood. The Middle Ages is the time of the formation of national states that exist in the form of monarchies, both absolute and class-representative. The peculiarities of political power were its fragmentation, as well as its connection with conditional ownership of land. If in ancient Europe the right to own land was determined for a free person by his ethnicity - the fact of his birth in a given policy and the civil rights arising from this, then in medieval Europe the right to land depended on a person's belonging to a certain estate.

At this time, centralized power is being strengthened in most Western European countries, national states (England, France, Germany, etc.) begin to form and strengthen. Large feudal lords are increasingly dependent on the king. However, the king's power is still not truly absolute. The era of estate-representative monarchies is coming. It was during this period that the practical implementation of the principle of separation of powers begins, and the first parliaments arise - class-representative bodies that significantly limit the power of the king. The earliest such parliament - the Cortes - appeared in Spain (end of the 12th - beginning of the 12th centuries). In 1265 Parliament appears in England. In the XIV century. Parliaments have already been established in most Western European countries. At first, the work of parliaments was not regulated in any way, neither the dates of meetings nor the procedure for holding them were determined - all this was decided by the king, depending on the specific situation. However, even then it became the most important and permanent issue that was considered by parliamentarians - taxes.

Parliaments could act both as an advisory, and as a legislative, and as a judicial body. Legislative functions are gradually assigned to parliament, and a certain confrontation between parliament and the king is outlined. Thus, the king could not impose additional taxes without the sanction of the parliament, although formally the king was much higher than the parliament, and it was the king who convened and dissolved the parliament and proposed issues for discussion.

Parliaments were not the only political innovation of the classical Middle Ages. Another important new component of public life was political parties, which first began to form in the 13th century. in Italy, and then (in the XIV century) in France. Political parties fiercely opposed each other, but the reason for their confrontation then was more psychological reasons than economic ones.

In the XV-XVII centuries. in the field of politics also appeared a lot of new things. Statehood and state structures are noticeably strengthening. The line of political evolution common to most European countries was to strengthen the central government, to strengthen the role of the state in the life of society.

Almost all countries of Western Europe during this period went through the horrors of bloody strife and wars. An example is the War of the Scarlet and White Roses in England in the 15th century. As a result of this war, England lost a fourth of its population. The Middle Ages is also a time of peasant uprisings, unrest and riots. An example is the revolt led by Wat Tyler and John Ball in England in 1381.

Great geographical discoveries. One of the first expeditions to India was organized by Portuguese sailors who tried to reach it by going around Africa. In 1487 they discovered the Cape of Good Hope - the southernmost point of the African continent. At the same time, the Italian Christopher Columbus (1451–1506) was also looking for a way to India, who managed to equip four expeditions with the money of the Spanish court. The Spanish royal couple - Ferdinand and Isabella - believed his arguments and promised him huge incomes from the newly discovered lands. Already during the first expedition in October 1492, Columbus discovered the New World, then called America by the name of Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512), who participated in expeditions in South America in 1499–1504 It was he who first described the new lands and first expressed the idea that this is a new, not yet known to Europeans, part of the world.

The sea route to real India was first laid by the Portuguese expedition led by Vasco da Gama (1469-1524) in 1498. The first round-the-world voyage was made in 1519-1521, led by the Portuguese Magellan (1480-1521). Of the 256 people of Magellan's team, only 18 survived, and Magellan himself died in a fight with the natives. Many expeditions of that time ended so sadly.

In the second half of the XVI - XVII centuries. the British, Dutch and French entered the path of colonial conquests. By the middle of the XVII century. Europeans discovered Australia and New Zealand.

As a result of the Great geographical discoveries, colonial empires begin to take shape, and from the newly discovered lands to Europe - the Old World - treasures flow - gold and silver. The consequence of this was an increase in prices, especially for agricultural products. This process, which took place to one degree or another in all countries of Western Europe, was called the price revolution in the historical literature. It contributed to the growth of monetary wealth among merchants, entrepreneurs, speculators and served as one of the sources of the initial accumulation of capital.

Another most important consequence of the Great Geographical Discoveries was the movement of world trade routes: the monopoly of Venetian merchants on caravan trade with the East in Southern Europe was broken. The Portuguese began to sell Indian goods several times cheaper than the Venetian merchants.

The countries actively engaged in intermediary trade - England and the Netherlands - are gaining strength. Engaging in intermediary trade was very unreliable and dangerous, but very profitable: for example, if one of the three ships sent to India returned, the expedition was considered successful, and the merchants' profits often reached 1000%. Thus, trade was the most important source for the formation of large private capital.

The quantitative growth of trade contributed to the emergence of new forms in which trade was organized. In the XVI century. for the first time there are exchanges, the main purpose and purpose of which was to use price fluctuations over time. Thanks to the development of trade at this time, there is a much stronger connection between the continents than before. This is how the foundations of the world market begin to be laid.

The process of primitive accumulation of capital also took place in the sphere of agriculture, which is still the basis of the economy of Western European society. In the late Middle Ages, the specialization of agricultural areas was significantly enhanced, which was mainly based on various natural conditions. There is an intensive draining of swamps, and by transforming nature, people have transformed themselves.

The area under crops, the gross harvest of grain crops increased everywhere, and the yield increased. This progress was largely based on the positive evolution of agricultural technology and agriculture. So, although all the main agricultural implements remained the same (plow, harrow, scythe and sickle), they began to be made of higher quality metal, fertilizers were widely used, multi-field and grass sowing were introduced into agricultural circulation. Cattle breeding also developed successfully, cattle breeds were improved, and stall fattening was used. Socio-economic relations in the field of agriculture were also changing rapidly: in Italy, England, France, and the Netherlands, almost all peasants were already personally free. The most important innovation of this period was the widespread development of rental relations. Landowners were more and more willing to rent land to the peasants, since it was economically more profitable than organizing their own landlord economy.

During the late Middle Ages, rent existed in two forms: feudal and capitalist. In the case of feudal lease, the landowner gave the peasant some piece of land, usually not very large, and, if necessary, could supply him with seeds, livestock, implements, and the peasant gave part of the crop for this. The essence of capitalist lease was somewhat different: the owner of the land received a cash rent from the tenant, the tenant himself was a farmer, his production was market-oriented, and the scale of production was significant. An important feature of capitalist rent was the use of hired labor. During this period, farming expanded most rapidly in England, northern France and the Netherlands.

Some progress was also observed in the industry. Manufactory assumed specialization between workers in the manufacture of any product, which significantly increased the productivity of labor, which, as before, remained manual. Wage workers worked at the manufactories of Western Europe.

Technique and technology improved. In industries such as metallurgy, blast furnaces, drawing and rolling mechanisms are beginning to be used, and steel production is increasing significantly. In mining, sump pumps and hoists were widely used, which increased the productivity of miners. In weaving, and in particular in cloth-making, the method invented at the end of the 15th century was actively used. a self-spinning wheel that performed two operations at once - twisting and winding the thread.

The most important processes taking place at that time in the field of socio-economic relations in industry were reduced to the ruin of a part of the artisans and their transformation into hired workers in manufactories.

An important layer of the urban population were merchants, who played a major role in domestic and foreign trade. They constantly traveled around the cities with goods. Merchants, as a rule, were literate and could speak the languages of the countries through which they passed. Foreign trade during this period, apparently, is still more developed than domestic. Centers foreign trade in Western Europe then there were the North, Baltic and Mediterranean seas. Cloth, wine, metal products, honey, timber, fur, resin were exported from Western Europe. From East to West, mainly luxury goods were transported: colored fabrics, silk, brocade, gems, ivory, wine, fruits, spices, carpets. Imports to Europe generally exceeded exports. The largest participant in the foreign trade of Western Europe were the Hanseatic cities. There were about 80 of them, and the largest of them were Hamburg, Bremen, Gdansk and Cologne.

The development of internal trade was significantly hampered by the lack of a unified monetary system, numerous internal customs and customs duties, the lack of a good transport network, and constant robbery on the roads.

European science is also actively developing, having so strongly influenced not only European civilization, but also all of humanity. In the XVI-XVII centuries. in the development of natural science there are significant shifts associated with the general cultural progress of society, the development of human consciousness and the growth of material production. This was greatly facilitated by the Great Geographical Discoveries, which gave a lot of new facts in geography, geology, botany, zoology, and astronomy. The main progress in the field of natural sciences in this period went along the line of generalization and comprehension of the accumulated information. Thus, the German Agricola (1494–1555) collected and systematized information about ores and minerals and described the mining technique. The Swiss Konrad Gesner (1516–1565) compiled the fundamental work The History of Animals. The first multi-volume classifications of plants in European history appeared, and the first botanical gardens were founded. The famous Swiss doctor

F. Paracelsus (1493-1541), studied the nature of the human body, the causes of diseases, methods of their treatment. Vesalius (1514-1564), born in Brussels, studied in France and Italy, author of the work "On the structure of the human body", laid the foundations of modern anatomy, and already in the 17th century. Vesalius' ideas were recognized in all European countries. The English scientist William Harvey (1578–1657) discovered the human circulation. An important role in the development of the methods of natural science was played by the Englishman Francis Bacon (1564-1626), who argued that true knowledge should be based on experience.

There are a number of great names in the field of physics. This is, above all, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). The brilliant scientist made technical projects that were far ahead of his time - drawings of mechanisms, machine tools, apparatus, including a project for a flying machine. The Italian Evangelista Torricelli (1608–1647) studied hydrodynamics, studied atmospheric pressure, and created a mercury barometer. The French scientist Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) discovered the law of pressure transmission in liquids and gases.

A major contribution to the development of physics was made by the Italian Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), who gained great fame as an astronomer: he first designed a telescope and for the first time in the history of mankind saw a huge number of stars invisible to the naked eye, mountains on the surface of the Moon, spots on the Sun. His predecessor was the Polish scientist Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), the author of the famous work "On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres", in which he proved that the Earth is not a fixed center of the world, but rotates along with other planets around the Sun. The views of Copernicus were developed by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), who succeeded in formulating the laws of planetary motion. These ideas were also shared by Giordano Bruno (1548-1600), who argued that the world is infinite and that the Sun is only one of an infinite number of stars, which, like the Sun, have planets similar to the Earth.

Mathematics is developing intensively. Italian Gerolamo Cardano (1501–1576) finds a way to solve equations of the third degree. The first tables of logarithms were invented and published in 1614. By the middle of the XVII century. special signs for recording algebraic operations are in general use: signs of addition, exponentiation, root extraction, equality, brackets, etc. The famous French mathematician Francois Viet (1540–1603) proposed using letter designations not only for unknown, but also for known quantities , which made it possible to set and solve algebraic problems in a general form. Mathematical symbolism was improved by René Descartes (1596–1650), who created analytic geometry. The Frenchman Pierre Fermat (1601–1665) successfully developed the problem of calculating infinitesimal quantities.

National achievements quickly became the property of all-European scientific thought. By the end of the late Middle Ages in Europe, the organization of science and scientific research was noticeably changing. Communities of scientists are being created, jointly discussing experiments, methods, tasks, and results. On the basis of scientific circles in the middle of the XVII century. national academies of sciences are formed, the first of them arose in England and France.

During the late Middle Ages, the most important idea of the West took shape: an active attitude to life, the desire to know the world around and the conviction that it can be known with the help of reason, the desire to transform the world in the interests of man.

In the field of technology, great progress was observed: more advanced horse harness and wagons with a rotary axle, stirrups for riders, windmills, articulated steering wheels on ships, blast furnaces and cast iron, firearms, and a printing press appeared. In the Middle Ages, organized vocational training appeared in the form of universities, but in general, science was in deep decline. In the XII century, there were no more than 10 scientists in the whole of Europe, in the XIII - no more than 15, in the XIV - less than 25 (for comparison: today there are hundreds of thousands of them).

Renaissance, or Renaissance (French Renaissance, Italian Rinascimento; from "re / ri" - "again" or "again" and "nasci" - "born") - an era in the history of European culture, which replaced the culture of the Middle Ages and pre-modern culture. Approximate chronological framework of the era: the beginning of the XIV - the last quarter of the XVI century and in some cases - the first decades of the XVII century (for example, in England and, especially, in Spain). A distinctive feature of the Renaissance is the secular nature of culture and its anthropocentrism (that is, interest, first of all, in a person and his activities). There is an interest in ancient culture, there is, as it were, its “revival” - and this is how the term appeared.

The growth of city-republics led to an increase in the influence of estates that did not participate in feudal relations: artisans and artisans, merchants, and bankers. All of them were alien to the hierarchical system of values created by medieval, in many respects church culture, and its ascetic, humble spirit. This led to the emergence of humanism - a socio-philosophical movement that considered a person, his personality, his freedom, his active, creative activity as the highest value and criterion for evaluating social institutions.

In the late Middle Ages, a new worldview based on humanism was taking shape in Europe. Now a specific person was placed at the center of the world, and not the church. Humanists sharply opposed the traditional medieval ideology, denying the need for complete subordination of the soul and mind to religion. Man is becoming more and more interested in the world around him. During this period, inequality in the levels of economic and political development is more clearly manifested. individual countries. Italy, the Netherlands, England and France are developing at a faster pace. Spain, Portugal, Germany are lagging behind. However, the most important processes in the development of European countries are still common to all countries.

Secular centers of science and art began to appear in the cities, the activities of which were outside the control of the church. The new worldview turned to antiquity, seeing in it an example of humanistic, non-ascetic relations. The invention of printing in the middle of the 15th century played a huge role in spreading the ancient heritage and new views throughout Europe.

The revival arose in Italy, where its first signs were noticeable as early as the 13th and 14th centuries (in the activities of the Pisano family, Giotto, Orcagna, etc.), but it was firmly established only from the 20s of the 15th century. In France, Germany and other countries, this movement began much later. By the end of the 15th century, it reached its peak. In the 16th century, a crisis of Renaissance ideas was brewing, resulting in the emergence of Mannerism and Baroque.

NEW TIME

New time is still a rather conditional concept, since all countries entered it in different time. New time was a stage of great changes in all spheres of life: economic, social, political. It occupies a shorter period when compared with the Middle Ages, and even more so with the ancient world, but in history this period is extremely important. The famous geographical discoveries, the book of Nicolaus Copernicus changed the old ideas of people about the Earth, expanded human knowledge about the world.

The Reformation, which passed through all the countries of Europe, abolished the power of the popes over the minds of people, and led to the emergence of the Protestant movement. The humanists of the Renaissance achieved the emergence of many universities and led to a complete revolution in the mind of man, explaining his place in the world around him.

In the era of modern times, humanity has realized that it actually lives in a small space. Geographical discoveries led to the convergence of countries and peoples. In the Middle Ages, things were different. The slow speed of movement, the inability to cross the ocean led to the fact that even about neighboring countries there was no reliable information.

Western Europe has carried out expansion in modern times, establishing its dominance over most countries in Asia and Africa. For the peoples of these countries, the new time has become a period of brutal colonization by European invaders.

How did the small countries of Western Europe manage to subjugate vast territories in Africa and Asia in a short time? There were several reasons for this. European countries are far ahead in their development. In the East, the life of subjects, their lands and property belonged to the ruler. Most of all, it was not the personal qualities of a person that were valued, but the interests of the community. The basis of the economy was agriculture. In the West, things were different. Above all were human rights, his personal qualities, the desire for profit and prosperity. The cities that arose in the Middle Ages led to the emergence of a variety of crafts and a breakthrough in the development of technology. In this respect, the countries of the European countries have gone far ahead of the eastern ones.

The new time has led to a change in the political system in many countries. The rapid development of trade, especially during the period of famous geographical discoveries, the emergence of banking, the emergence of manufactories began to increasingly contradict the traditional economy and political order. The emerging new class, the bourgeoisie, is gradually beginning to play a significant role in the state.

In the 18th century the power of the bourgeoisie increased manifold. In many countries, the contradictions between the capitalist mode of production and the feudal system, which had reached their limit, led to bourgeois revolutions. This happened in England and France. Capitalism is finally victorious in Europe. The industrial revolution begins, and the obsolete manufactory is replaced by the factory.

Most European countries in modern times are going through a difficult time of changing forms of power, a crisis of absolute monarchy. As a result of changes in the political system, parliamentary democracy is emerging in the most progressive countries. In the same period, the modern system of international relations began to take shape.

New time is a period of a kind of second Renaissance. Reality showed how much an ordinary person can actually do and change. Gradually, a thought is formed in the human mind - a person can actually do anything. There is a conviction that he can subdue nature and change his future.

Philosophy is developing a lot. There is a literal rebirth. Philosophy has managed to retain its dominant position among the sciences. Modern philosophers sincerely believed that society needed their ideas. A completely new philosophy is being formed, the problems of which remain important today.

In the early modern period in the European economy, the agrarian sphere of production still sharply prevailed over industry; despite a number of technical discoveries, manual labor dominated everywhere. Under these conditions, such factors of the economy as the labor force, the scale of the labor market, and the level of professionalism of each employee acquired particular importance. Demographic processes had a noticeable impact on the development of the economy in this era.

One of the main historical prerequisites for the genesis of capitalism was a high level of division of social labor, as well as technical shifts in the leading industries, which made it possible to organize manufacturing production. The progressive nature of the genesis of capitalism, its irreversibility, also largely depended on the breadth of exports of manufactured consumer goods. So, a large part of them began to be absorbed by the colonies, which prompted the production of clothing, utensils and other goods in European countries.

The early modern era was the era of the formation of the prerequisites for capitalism and the formation of the early capitalist structure in the economy of a feudal society. One of the main aspects of this process is the initial accumulation of capital in its various forms - commercial, banking and usurious and industrial - in conditions of a higher level of production and exchange than in the Middle Ages. In the early modern times, commodity circulation quickly outgrew local and national boundaries, acquiring a wide international scope. Initial accumulation was given a powerful impetus by the Great Geographical Discoveries and the development of new lands and trade routes associated with them, which accelerated the formation of the world market. In the XVI - the first half of the XVII century. production for the export of consumer goods steadily increased, the trade in them by European countries acquired a much more significant scale than before. Trade with the colonies, in which the rate of profit was especially high, accelerated the formation of large merchant capital.

A significant impact on the economic development of Europe had the so-called "price revolution" (a kind of mechanism for the depreciation of money) - an increase in food prices caused by an increase in the mass of money in circulation. With the development of the American colonies, rich in deposits of precious metals, and the robbery of the treasures of the Indians, cheap gold and silver began to flow into Europe - their low cost was associated with the use of almost free labor of the local population in the mines. The "price revolution" that lasted for many decades led to the enrichment of the most diverse sections of European society, depending on the economic and political situation in a particular country. So, in England it was mainly the new nobility and farmers who benefited from it, in Spain - the grandees, in Germany - the big merchants.

The accumulation of capital in the sphere of trade was favored by the system of monopolies that had developed in previous centuries. In a number of countries, the demands of the rank-and-file merchants to introduce free trade and resolutely combat monopolies in the trade in certain types of goods proved to be generally futile. Monopolies were often imposed or actively supported by the royal power. So it was in Spain, England, France. The process of primitive accumulation was also accelerated by the significant difference in prices for many "colonial" goods. Thus, the sale price for spices imported from Indonesia, India, and Arabia was a hundred or more times higher than their cost at the place of production. Such an important economic factor of the era as the availability of cheap labor in the conditions of mass pauperization of the peasantry and urban artisans also played a significant role in the initial accumulation. Especially cheap was women's and children's labor, the widespread use of which became a characteristic and very sad sign of the times.

In the banking and usurious sphere, the accumulation of capital had its many sources - state and large private loans, a system of tax-collection payoffs, usurious lending to artisans (loans secured by a workshop, machine tools, inventory) and, on a particularly large scale, financing at high interest rates from the peasantry. The monetary dependence of tenants and other categories of land holders on the usurer deepened the differentiation in their environment, this contributed to the replenishment of the free labor market and at the same time led to a significant enrichment of lenders.

Merchant capital in craft and industry. It was merchant capital that initiated innovations in the organization of market-oriented production in this era, with a tendency to expand exports of products to other countries.

The financial dependence of artisans on merchants - and usurers acted hand in hand with them - led to the gradual loss of property rights by independent producers to the workshop, tools of production and their transformation, in essence, into hired workers. The expropriation of urban and rural artisans, the pauperization of the bulk of the producers - a process that invariably accompanied the penetration of merchant capital into the sphere of handicraft and industry.

The most profound and wide-ranging was the introduction of commercial capital into mining, metallurgy, textile and book production. New methods of organizing production gave rise to changes in the social status of its contractors: a merchant and a master turned into entrepreneurs of the early capitalist type, and artisans formed an environment of dispossessed hired workers, pre-proletariat,

Manufactory. The subordination of handicrafts and industry to profit-oriented commercial capital entailed the search for new, more profitable forms of organization of production. This form of early capitalist entrepreneurship was the manufacture, based on the whole on manual labor, but the most specialized. The economic base of the manufactory was the entrepreneur's ownership of the tools of production, the organization and control over the process of manufacturing products and their marketing, and the use of hired labor of workers. Early modern times are marked by a variety of types of manufactory - depending on the nature of the production itself and the degree to which it is covered by capital. Manufactories were of three types - scattered, mixed and centralized.

Mixed manufacture turned out to be more economically efficient, when part of the production operations were carried out in the entrepreneur's workshop.

Industrial capital in the early modern times was just beginning to take shape as an independent financial sector, more often it was one of the functions of commercial and banking capital. In the new forms of industrial organization, primarily in manufactories, favorable conditions were created for initial accumulation. The growth of profits here was facilitated by: an increase in labor productivity, in which technical improvements and improvement in production technology played a significant role; lack of competition in the labor market; finally, the protectionist policy of the authorities pursued in a number of countries.

When all the functions of capital were combined in the activities of individual merchant houses, companies, clans, conditions were created for the formation of huge fortunes for that era, sometimes millions of dollars. The presence of large capital was an important, but not the only condition for intensifying the process of the genesis of capitalism. In addition, the large masses of money accumulated in the trade and banking sphere were by no means always rushed into industry, into entrepreneurship of the early capitalist type. More reliable, as before, was the investment of capital in landed property and other real estate. Often, wealthy merchants spent huge sums on acquiring noble titles and titles, on buying profitable positions in the state apparatus, and also on maintaining a lavish, prestigious lifestyle.

Apart from the accumulation of capital, another important economic condition for the genesis of capitalism was the existence of a free labor market. In the early modern times, such a market was actively formed due to the pauperization of the peasantry and urban artisans. Deprived of the means of production, knocked out of their usual rut, the poor were forced to sell their labor to the entrepreneur on favorable terms for him. Laws against vagrancy (in England, France) forced the beggars and vagabonds to work, forcibly drawing them into the sphere of early capitalist production and making them the object of particularly cruel exploitation. The socially heterogeneous mass of poor people was, as a rule, deprived of any legal protection and doomed to a miserable, semi-beggarly existence, even in those cases when, voluntarily or under duress, they got work in manufactories. The genesis of capitalism was accompanied by an unprecedented intensification of labor and a high rate of exploitation of hired workers (low wages, long working hours, the use of the labor of women and children, who were paid less for work equal to men).

In the early modern times, the early capitalist way of life took shape or began to take shape in most European countries. The dynamics of its development also actively influenced the traditional forms of feudal production, prompting changes in the guild craft, rental relations, and free small-scale farming. Early capitalism marked the main line of economic progress in Europe in the following centuries.

The greatest achievement of modern times was the destruction of the feudal-patriarchal fetters and the proclamation of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen. This unleashed enormous creative forces that changed the face of the world, but could not prevent the concentration of property and power in the hands of a few, their exploitation and suppression of the majority of individuals and peoples. Collisions between freedom and equality, the interests of the individual and society, the efficiency of production and social justice have been exposed as never before. The result of the fetishization of capital was the extreme aggravation of class, interethnic and other social contradictions. They contributed to the rise of nationalist and socialist utopias, which further exacerbated the antagonisms.

Agriculture in the early modern period was still engaged in by the vast majority of the population of Europe. This main sector of the economy remained little affected by changes in both agriculture and inventory. In land use methods, one can note the transition in a number of areas of grain farming to multi-field and fallow grass sowing, as well as the more frequent use of fertilizers than in previous centuries. Types of iron agricultural implements multiplied, replacing wooden implements. There were no cardinal changes in the organization of production - it remained small, individual, based on manual labor with the traditional use of animal traction - horses and bulls.

And yet, under the influence of expanding market relations, the rural landscape began to change: in many areas, grain crops were reduced, but the size of the areas occupied by gardens and kitchen gardens increased, the scale of cultivation of industrial crops - flax, hemp, more beautiful (woad, madder, saffron) increased. . The intensification of farming methods was more noticeable in viticulture and horticulture than in arable farming; it occurred mainly under the influence of the requirements of urban or foreign markets (for example, export trade and wine). The food demands of the townspeople had a noticeable effect on the expansion of garden crops. In addition to traditional vegetables, the diet of a Western European city dweller now included potatoes, tomatoes, cauliflower, artichokes, and twill.

There was an evolution of land relations: although different forms of feudal holding did not disappear (sometimes only the legal status of the land user changed), they gave way to free fixed-term lease with a tendency to reduce its terms, which is typical for many countries. Land owners were directly interested in this, since a short period of time - from 3 to 5 years - made it possible to change the terms of the lease more often and increase the payment for land, bringing it in line with the changing market conditions.

The middle stratum of the peasantry, which consisted predominantly of personally free tenants of comparatively small plots of land, increasingly oriented its economy towards connection with the market. This was expressed, in particular, in the rejection of arable farming and the transition to intensive gardening, viticulture, and the cultivation of industrial crops. This stratum is characterized by the use of wage labor along with family labor.

The peasant poor, although they had a small household plot, not always provided with draft animals, saw the main source of livelihood in wages, hiring themselves to wealthy neighbors, urban landowners, and farmers. From the mass of the poor, a rural pre-proletariat was formed, which was also involved in the village craft organized by entrepreneurs.

A stratum of farming also took shape - large tenants (or owners) of land, for the cultivation of which laborers were involved. Farms were usually commercial in nature, they more often met with new methods of intensifying labor and specialization dictated by market conditions. Both people from wealthy peasants and townspeople who switched to agricultural entrepreneurship became farmers. Early capitalist relations began to penetrate into the rural economy, but their share in agriculture was small.

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