Trade

With Manoralism, each manor is self sufficient and thus doesn’t need to go out, not that the serfs had permission anyway. But when the lords started to kick people out, people are now making contact and start trading. What do they trade? Food! With all those food surpluses, they can make money out of them. There’s even a new class now; merchants.

One of the things that come out of trade are Fair Days. Fair Days are days where groups of merchants from different cities cluster together and exchange goods. Bartering is currently still in use but people are transitioning to a money economy now because at first, bartering is easy in the manor. But once you get over 100 goods, it gets way complicated.

Trade by sea is thriving but comes with risks. If Merchant Merlin loads all his goods into a ship, then the ship sinks or gets robbed by pirates the goods are lost. Merchant Merlin has a bad rest of his life. The truth is that overland trade is safer due to the fact that the only real hazard is bandits.

Thanks to the risks involved, the first insurance company is born. A whole new profession is created. The process is: Merchant Merlin joins a group of nine merchants. The ten of them buys ten ships. Merchant Merlin and his nine friends put 10% of their cargo on each ship. That way, if one ship sinks, 90% of their cargo is still there. And the chance of all ten ships sinking in a freak storm is highly unlikely.

Overland trade is the same. Ten people traveling together are safer than one. But the larger the group, the slower they travel. The average group can travel for only 25 miles a day, that isn’t enough to make it from one city to the next. To solve this, inns and rest stops are built. There, merchants can stop, get dinner, have their horses fed, and some sleep before they head out again.

The Hanseatic League, an alliance of trading cities and guilds, was also a result of trade. The league established a trade monopoly in the North Sea.

Urbanization

All this leads to food surplus, and with more food, it leads to a population growth. Unfortunately, the manor can’t support that many people so what they do is kick them out. Once the people are kicked out, they move to the cities, causing a wave of urbanization.

Now these cities are filthy. They weren’t well planned; there are no streets laid out, no building codes, no sewer systems, and you’ve got houses built on top of each other. The rivers and water supply was so bad, no one can drink it, and so the population lived off of a supply of beer, wine, and milk. So sanitation was at an all time low. That causes the Black Death

Guys, I’m not just talking about a few leaves and rainwater running around in the streets. This is people’s filth, the trashcans for all contents of a chamber pot. Whatever’s in there gets dumped outside for merchants and animals to step on again. And finally, all that runs into the river where you wash your clothes drink water (and fall dangerously ill). IT’S FILTHY.

The centers of the towns are usually walled as a defense. The bigger the city gets, the more trade there is, thus more vulnerable attacks. They all had a town hall, in fact some of the European cites that survived WWII still have town halls dating back to the medieval ages.

They all had a church, a clock, and gallows where they punish criminals on display. That way, not only does he get whipped, but it gives you to throw trash, kick dirt, and curse at him for fun.

Jews also lived in medieval towns for money loaning reasons and even worked there, for they are the first bankers. But because it was against Christian law, they were quarried off.

Houses were usually two stories. The shop or restaurant was in the first floor, and the inhabitants slept in the second. And whatever profession people had, it was done in the street or near the windows so that it was on display.

Night walking was prohibited. Night watchers, medieval police, roam the streets in case of someone outside. Except for a board of wood, people back then didn’t have a lock on their doors. So if you were outside after sunset, you were probably up to no good because you can do anything in the complete darkness.

Agriculture

The Second Agricultural Revolution is caused by a natural global warming. To Europe, this is awesome for them. Because it’s warmer and warmer for a longer time, new crops can be harvested. This leads to a more diverse diet, and with more kinds of foods, people get a healthier and longer life, thus giving them more energy to work even more on farming.

More importantly, not only do they have a longer season, but they also have new improved plows. These plows can dig deeper and get to the really nutrient-rich soil. Farmers can also plow twice as fast as they replace oxen with horses.

There was a Two-Field System where the people found out if using the same piece of land to grow over and over, the soil loses its nutrients. So farmers have two fields; one is to grow, the other resting and regaining nutrients. But now there are more types of food! So farmers add another field so that:

• One field has fast growing crops that will harvest in the summer
• One field has regular crops that will harvest in the fall
• And one field that’s taking a breather. (A break, resting, reviving nutrients)

Islam in Africa and the Lays Incestiture Controversy

Islam spreads rapidly on the northern coast of Africa by caravan trade, with the converts being nobility rather than the peasants. Only in some cases had widespread conversion. The issue is that in the lower classes in Sub-Saharan and Central Africa, the women enjoy their high status and aren’t willing to give it up.

However, the nobility is a more patriarchal society already and more ready to accept the religion. Islam was a way for them to connect themselves to the rest of the world and hold power. You see, unlike in Europe where the Pope and Emperor squabble over power so much that a name with capitol letters is given to this issue (Lays Investiture Controversy), religion and political power in Africa is merged so there were no arguments.

If anyone needs a review, “Lays” means “not part of the church”. It only happens in Europe, like every kingdom of it.

You say, “I’m the king and I should get the right to name this bishop of the church in my country!”

Pope: No, no, no! The bishop works for me. Just because he’s in your country doesn’t mean you get a say. I will name the bishop -

You: No! This is my land, if you want your church here, you play by my rules!

Pope: No! You ain’t part of the church/clergy! What the @#$ do you know about church? I’m gonna name my bishop

That’s the gist. There was one situation involving Emperor Henry II names one of his bishops Thomas Beckett and Beckett turns on him and goes, “Since I’m a religious leader now, I work for the Pope, you ain't pushing me around, HA!”

The comment outraged Henry and 4 of his knights went (not on the king's orders) murders Beckette as he's praying on the altar. That's low man, LOW.

The Indian Ocean Trade

Any trade in the Indian Ocean must go through the Strait of Malacca, this narrow strait, thus causing a lot of traffic. To this day, it is the busiest waterway. Due to the slowness, these ships are sitting ducks for pirates; I mean all they have to do is wait for a ship to slowly ooze by. So what is also to this day, the Strait of Malacca has the most frequent pirate attacks.

Bananas are exported from the poor towns on the east coast of Africa and into Southeast Asia. Along with bananas are the culture and skills of the Bantu people. Their specialties, ironworking, farming techniques, and animal husbandry, spread throughout Africa and ended up in those poor towns. People get salt in the Sub-Saharan trade. In the west in Ghana, there’s gold. Wealthy empires like Ghana (who fell and get replaced by Mali) and, in the east, you get several trade empires such as Mogadishu and Mombasa all getting their wealth from the Indian Ocean trade routes.

India

Weather

The Himalayas: huge natural walls in India. During the rainy season, there is low pressure over the mountains and that creates a sort of vacuum. It sucks all the wind, packed with moisture, from the Indian Ocean and rams it up against the Himalayas and dumps. All that moisture pours down the mountains and floods India. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Wet Monsoon.

Eventually, the opposite happens where all the moisture leaves the Indian subcontinent and empties out. That gives us the Dry Monsoon.

Delhi Sultanate

The Muslims conquer India in a violent fashion and were able to take over the northern part of India. If people didn’t convert, then there were taxed. The Buddhists and Hindu temples were destroyed and looted. Under the Delhi Sultanate, they built really good centers of learning that are equivalent to modern day colleges. And they also had large scale irrigation works that a.) relieved some of the effects of the monsoons and b.) made other parts of India more suitable for farming.

The Voyages of Zheng He

Why did the Yongle emperor send Zheng He on his voyages of exploration, what did they accomplish, and why were they ended?

The emperor did so to establish trade routes and get tributary states from Southeast Asia. Xenophobia, the fear of all things foreign, played a small role in ending it, but the main reason why was because Zheng He died. And to show how important he is, the emperor orders all the ships to be destroyed in his memory.

And how important was Zheng He? He sailed all over the place, and very likely reached the Americas. However, we have no proof because the emperor ordered all records, all ships, and all equipment to be destroyed.