Urganch ranch texnologiya Universiteti Iqtisodiyot va ishlab chiqarishni tashkil qilish fakulteti

Spread of the market economy

The expansion of trade drew more and more rural communities into the market economy, and links between countryside and towns grew stronger. Manors lost a large measure of their self-sufficiency as they participated more in the money economy. These developments stimulated the expansion of towns, of merchant communities, and of coinage.
The Black Death, after great initial disruption, accelerated the spread of the markets in the longer term by creating a shortage of labor and thus boosting the purchasing power of both urban and rural workers. In proportion to the rest of the economy, towns and cities rose in size and influence – indeed many cities had regained their pre-plague populations by 1400. All over western Europe merchants became increasingly wealthy, and politically more powerful. Meanwhile the countryside languished, in levels of population if not in prosperity. In those areas were the influence of large towns and their trade was strongest, in southern England, Flanders and northern Italy, serfdom began to die out.
Medieval Europe was comparatively isolated from the rest of the world, geographically, culturally and commercially. 

To the West: the Atlantic

The broad reaches of the Atlantic ocean formed an impenetrable barrier to the west. The small and comparatively primitive ships of the time were not well suited to long voyages in heavy ocean seas, and the navigation techniques were utterly inadequate to the challenge of long voyages far from land. Despite these limitations, by the end of the Middle Ages some Europeans had neared, or even landed on, the North American cost. The Vikings had settled Iceland, areas of Greenland (warmer, less ice-bound in those days) and “Vinland”, which may have been Newfoundland or Labrador. Later, Breton fishermen took to sailing regularly to the cod fishing grounds off Newfoundland and New England, to satisfy the huge demand for fish in Catholic Europe (where eating fish was virtually compulsory on a Friday). These long voyages were probably initiated by sailors who had been blown well off course from their usual sailing routes, but in any case are testament to astonishing practical navigation skills and outstanding courage.