But before this system came into operation Charles the Great was to re-establish a strong centralised government; he was to make these social forces serve the interests of the State itself, and by his genius was to restore with incomparable brilliancy that Frankish monarchy which at the close of the Merovingian period had seemed likely to disappear.
The Merovingian period as a whole is without doubt a melancholy period. It marks in history what must be called an eclipse of civilisation, and it deserves to be described as a barbaric era. Nevertheless, it must not be imagined that the two hundred and seventy years which it includes were, so to speak, sunk in unbroken gloom. Even in this period it is possible to note some facts concerning industry and commerce, arts and letters.
Industry found refuge chiefly in the country districts, where each estate produced for itself all the supplies necessary to agricultural work and common life. The towns themselves took on a country-like air. The ancient buildings — temples, basilicas, baths — had been destroyed during the invasions and their ruins lay on the ground; the only considerable buildings now erected were churches. A sparse population occupied rather than filled the space surrounded by the half-ruined walls. Many houses had disappeared and wide areas lay vacant; these were turned into fields or vineyards, and thus in the interior of formerly populous cities there were closes and culturae. Outside the ramparts there rose, in many cases, a high-walled monastery — a sacred city alongside of the secular city — and these monasteries became new centres of population. Within the decayed cities we nevertheless find, at all events at first, some traces of industry. There is mention in the sixth and seventh centuries of workshops for the manufacture of cloth at Trèves, at Metz, and at Rheims. There were also potteries, and numerous specimens of their art have been found in the tombs. The Merovingians had a taste for finely wrought arms, for sword-belt buckles of damascene work, for jewellery, and gold-plate. The Merovingian goldsmiths were skilful. Eligius, son of a minter at Limoges, attained by the aid of his art to the highest posts; he became the counsellor of Dagobert and bishop of Noyon. There was also in the Merovingian period a certain amount of commercial activity. The Franks imported from abroad spices, papyrus, and silk fabrics. This merchandise was either brought to the ports of Marseilles, Arles, and Narbonne, or came by way of the Black Sea and the Danube. In the time of Dagobert a Frankish merchant named Samo went to trade on the banks of the Elbe, and there formed a great Slav kingdom which had its centre in Bohemia, and extended from the Havel to the Styrian Alps. The merchants of the town of Verdun formed an association in the time of Theudibert, about 540. The king aided them by lending them, at the request of the bishop Desiderius, 7000 aurei. They were thus enabled to put their business on a sound footing,
