The Commercial Renaissance was one of the strands of the Italian Renaissance, a cultural, economic and political movement that emerged in Italy in the 14th century.
Alongside the Cultural and Urban Renaissance, the Commercial Renaissance was marked by the intensification of commercial relations between nations, putting an end to the feudal system and giving rise to commercial capitalism.
Historical Context:Summary
The end of the feudal system and the emergence of the capitalist system were fundamental to consolidate the expansion of trade.
However, it was after the Crusades (between the 11th and 13th centuries), military expeditions of an economic, political and religious nature, that trade relations with the East were strengthened.
Furthermore, the opening of the Mediterranean Sea was essential for the increase of trade routes between countries, leading to the end of the Middle Ages period and the beginning of the Modern Age.
The Renaissance, allied to prevailing scientism and humanism, established new ways of seeing the world. Thus, anthropocentrism, that is, man as the center of the world, was replaced by medieval theocentrism, where God was at the center of the Universe, and people's lives revolved around religion.
To this end, the “Dark Ages” (coined by some humanists to indicate the dark and static period of the Middle Ages), lasted for a long time in Europe, from the 5th to the 15th century, and was based on a monarchic society where the king was the most sovereign lord, followed by the nobility and the clergy.
The serfs were the last of the medieval hierarchical structure, and they certainly did not have the power and/or the same possibilities as the above estates (nobility and clergy).
Supported by the crisis of the feudal regime, Italian humanists claimed that the previous period of the Medieval period was marked by a great human setback, in relation to classical productions.
Therefore, the central idea of these intellectuals, artists and humanist thinkers was above all, the valorization of man, insofar as they expressed and disseminated this new world view, which emerged allied to the social, political and economic transformations of Europe.
In this way, in addition to the crisis of the feudal system, the great overseas navigations of the 16th century, of which Portugal was one of the pioneers, changed and expanded the mentality of men, allied to the scientism of the Heliocentric Theory (Sun at the center of the world), proposed by the mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, to the detriment of Geocentrism accepted by the Church, where the earth was the center of the Universe.
This new way of seeing the world has significantly altered the mentality of men, questioning the old values in an impasse developed between faith and reason.
In addition to these essential factors for the transformation of medieval society, the emergence of a new social class, called the bourgeoisie, consolidate the new social, economic and political system.
In the meantime, the bourgeois who lived in the small medieval walled cities called “burgos”, began to develop internal commerce, driven by the open markets, places of purchase and sale of diverse products.
To learn more about aspects of medieval fairs, read the article:History and Origin of Fairs.
Note that the feudal system was no longer able to meet the needs of all its inhabitants, so some fled and others were expelled by the landlords.
In fact, this group of marginalized people went to the cities (burgos) in search of a better quality of life, and those who dedicated themselves to street commerce gradually constituted the new social class that would later replace the previous system, holding back the means of production and capital accumulation:the bourgeoisie.
Therefore, open-air fairs (including the Champagne fair in France and Flanders in Belgium) were essential for the development of manufacturing activities, increased circulation of goods, the return of financial transactions, the reappearance of of currency and formation of trade and production control associations (Hanseatic Leagues, Medieval Guilds and Craft Guilds).
Although the Italian cities of Venice, Florence and Genoa stood out with the opening of the Mediterranean Sea, in the 15th and 16th century, since they used the sea as a maritime trade route, especially for spices coming from the East, the overseas expansion made the sea a new trade route, thus replacing the trade axis from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean, with the discovery of land in the new world.
Rebirth - All MatterDeepen your research on the topic by reading the articles :
- Renaissance:Characteristics and Historical Context
- Characteristics of the Renaissance
- Phases of Rebirth
- Cultural Renaissance
- Artistic Renaissance
- Urban Renaissance
- Scientific Renaissance
- Renaissance Humanism
- Formation of National Monarchies