The Middle Ages: Merchants
By Madison Nef
Merchants in
the middle ages were business people who participated in retail and trade. The
term “merchant” comes from the Latin term “mercer” which means trafficking and
from the French term “mercies” which means wares. Thus, the medieval merchant
was seen as both a trader and trafficker of wares across countries. These
merchants would trade wares amongst each other and look for good things during
their travels, and then sell them at festivals, fairs and in shops.
In the middle ages, society was divided into three main categories that
defined where you stood in the ranks of life. These three categories were the clergy, the peasants and the
fighters/nobility. Merchants were not included in these categories and they
were largely discriminated against. The reasoning for this was that many of the
people in the three categories looked up merchants as those trying to enrich
themselves at the expense of society… though in reality, that was what tax
collectors and just about everyone was doing to begin with. Through all of
this, these three categories DID rely on merchants heavily in order to
transport goods, trade and buy wares.
When
merchants first started to form their own class, the clergy got annoyed-
especially with their activities involving banking and trading. To even the
score, the clergy convinced most of the community that the activities the
merchants were partaking in were against the will of God and were pure evil.
Because of this, the merchants were the brunt of much abuse and blame whenever
a natural disaster (such as drought, disease, or famine) struck.
The nobility
were particularly against the merchants. In the eyes of nobility, merchants
were perceived as misers. The nobility’s behavior was quite the opposite of
that of the merchant- nobility loved to spend their money excessively on
high-end items, while merchants were always looking for a deal and
coin-counting to save money. This is what I like to call common sense- but that
was apparently frowned on back then.
In the 13th
and 14th centuries, merchants became important staples on society as
the nobility became even richer and peasants became better placed to buy goods
from the merchants that they came with from other foreign countries. Many
merchants in these times were Genoese and Venetians.
Merchants
were very vicious and would many times argue and even battle over trade routes,
through which all the wares they sold would come through including spices,
cloths and perfumes and even food. Though many of the bloodiest wars during the
Crusades were about religion, there were also a majority of wars fought over
trading rights and merchants trying to gain control of routes.
In time,
merchants began to make a name for themselves and were considered to be ranked
as workers. While this was still a low rank in the social scale, it was far
higher than the social standing of a peasant. However, merchants had a decidedly
better life than any other on the social scale… peasants worked long hard hours
in the fields surrounding farms and the nobility lazed around their palaces and
mansions all day. Meanwhile, merchants got to travel around the world
collecting goods… by the late 14th century, merchants were some of
the wealthiest known people and held influential positions in the local government.
So… that’s
how merchants lived back then. Nowadays, merchants are extremely common and
found all over- we like to call them clerks and other names depending on where
they work. They are no longer rich, or considered to have better lives than
commoners… in fact, they’re all around us. You may be one yourself! It’s funny
how the world changes so fast… only a few centuries pass, and things go to the
complete opposite end of the scale.
What do you
think of merchants? Let me know.
Maddie
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