The Rise Of Capitalism And Western Dominance

8 Pages 2084 Words

ng any sort of decent income. Therefore, those who weren’t legally born into an existing estate were doomed to life-long poverty (legally being a key word, as bastard children of a lord were often banished from his household). Although serfs made up probably 90% of the population of Europe, the oppressively unfair feudal social structure gave them the shortest straw. Serfs could never acquire any land (and therefore any wealth) because they didn’t have any to begin with.
However, in a rather slow process that started with the First Crusade in 1096 and continued to progress for many centuries to come, a middle-income social class gradually filled in the enormous chasm that had for so long separated the rich from the poor. As Crusade after Crusade sent massive waves of Europeans to the Middle Eastern “Holy Land” and back again, traders began to take their wares with them, in order to bring back Middle Eastern spices, textiles, and any other goods they could possibly sell in their homeland. As a consequence, European trade with the Middle East and eventually throughout the entire Mediterranean seaboard flourished, allowing the new merchant class to develop and gradually gain power. As merchants gained power, other middle-class professions appeared to cater to them, such as lawyers, bankers, accountants, and notaries. The sudden prevalence of imported goods also encouraged European craftsmen to try to produce the same goods themselves if it was possible, because they could offer their domestic goods at lower prices than imported ones.
The new social order forever moved the economy of Europe away from being entirely land-based. Wealth (and therefore power) now came from not only land holdings, but also material wealth (i.e. money). This newfound wealth also profoundly affected the peasant class. As they witnessed especially savvy merchants become privately rich, serfs...