ECONOMY IN THE MIDDLE AGES

In this article we are going to talk about Economy, Coins and Weapons in the middle ages.

ECONOMY

The main economy activity continued to be Agriculture. Were cultivated for their consume, example :cereals crops, black bread and porridge.

They also cultivated vegetables like cabbage and onions and with this materials they make soups.

They drunk wine in Mediterranean Europe and it is one of the best continents beer .

Agriculture was made by two main groups, obtained by animals and by nature.

- Cheese , milk and honey that was made from sheeps, goats, cows

and bees.

- Natural food: strawberries and fish

- Wool and leather was used for clothes and shoes.

- Horses, mules….were used for transport.

- They did crop-rotation.

- Irrigation techniques.

- They used animals excrements as fertilizers.

COINS: 1000-1200

In the average age in the Iberian Peninsula , they didn´t have a lot of coins, but the ones they had were very similar to the English ones.

Firstly ,I¨ll talk about the Iberian Peninsula between 1000 and 1200 ,at that time was not Spain because it was divided into four kingdoms: León, Aragon, Castilla, Navarra.

There were many different type of coins but the most common coins such as, Maravedes, Cornodos, the Obolos...

There were also silver coins that were used to pay pieces of livestock and tools for the orchads as the money and at the end of the 13 century the reales appeared ,that were used until the years 1868 that is when Isabel 2 died, in 1869 they made the first pesetas made by the provisional government.

In England they have maintained since the beginning of the tenth century until now the penny at the time also had kings like Spain and are the few centuries that the monarchy is maintained if it is Absolute Monarchy, the currency most used in England was silver.

Both in Spain and England there was Christian Cross ,that cross always appeared usually on the back of the coin and on the front usually appears the bust of the king.

WEAPONS

1050 a.c. Crossbows :

Are the only military find of the middle ages.

Difficult to hands but was a very effective weapon , which in 1130 the church forbide it use, except agains the muslims.

1298 a.c. Long bows:

 It was made of wood, although ash and boxwood were also used .Its length was 1,8 meters, although some render 2m . To arm them ,a force of 50 kg had to be exerted, which required a lot of force, its reach was around 300m.

1326 a.c. Glaive:

Derived from the agricultural prunes or cutter on a curves cutting blade with a hooded on the tip that serves as a pear and another side that is used to knode down the rides , the length was between 2,4 and 2,7 meters .

The word comes from the French “Glaive” means sword it was used during the war of a hundred years by the billmens.

1345 a.c. English cannons :

it is believed that there shot long and as simple form of shroparel, but they were so important that they were under the direct supervision of the Real Inventory the barrel had to be cooled after each shot. Its caliber was 30 to 26 mm. it has a range of seven hundred meters.

1565 a.c. Musket:

It’s the English copy of Spanish arquebus but improves, the musket could shot bullets capable of penetring the armor all this weapons the used in the hundred years war , except muskets and arquebus

We hope that with this small summary you can imagine how the economy was in the Middle Ages very different to today.

BY

ANTONIO MARSELLA PUERTO

ASIER ORTEGA LOPEZ

RAUL GRACIA FLORENCIO

2º E