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[Economy]
[Intro ToC ]
[Prestige Crafts]
The Economy of Europe in the Renaissance
Manufacturing and the Crafts
Big Business
Your books cover this topic pretty well. Start with Jensen, in
Chapter 3, the section entitled "Industrial Development". Then read
Hay, Chapter 14, "Industrial Activity". Read also Brucker, Ch. 2, the
section titled "Varieties of Business Enterprise: The Cloth Industry".
These sections deal mostly with the business end of these
industries, although Jensen does talk some about the Arsenal. If
you want to know more about the actual trades themselves that
were big business -- wool, silk, armories -- look at the
Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages in the library's reference
section.
Types of Crafts
I define three types or levels of crafts: prestige, respectable,
and lowly. All three types were usually formally organized into
guilds and their members had citizenship standing. Nevertheless,
their social position varied considerably, though all were below
the level of the merchant guilds and were above the level of the
day laborers.
We don't have many places left in the U.S. with signs that say
"Tradesmen's Entrance" but that distinction captures the social
divide nicely. A delivery man, a repair man, these enter through
the alley, through a back door. The jeweller, the doctor, or
even a baker or shoemaker, these get to enter through the front.
And, of course, the banker doesn't come around at all -- we go to
him.