CHAPTER XVII THE RISE OF TOWNS AND GILDS As the decline of the ancient city-state had sounded the knell of classical culture, so the revival of town life was a
- hief factor in medieval civilization. The de- Revival of
- tructive work of war and the productive toil of town hfe
iigriculture were the chief occupations in the early Middle jges and the basis of feudal society. There were a few scat- tered industries in monastery and manor, but really skilled lirtisans had to be sought from Constantinople. What | owns there were in southern Italy or on the Mediterranean toasts of France and Spain owed their existence to their rading relations with Constantinople. In most regions an >ccasional market or fair sufficed for the business life of a arge area. Roman municipal institutions had given way to he rule of bishops or of feudal lords, and the people had to a large extent lost even their personal freedom. But after the break-up of Charlemagne's empire and the renewed bar- >arian invasions, Western Christendom began to increase in copulation, to develop industries and commerce and cities imd a free working-class of its own. Indeed, it is thought jhat the very incursions of Northmen and Hungarians 'aused the building of protecting walls about settlements Ind so contributed to the growth of towns. But it is difficult to speak with any certainty concerning own life in the West before the twelfth century, since we to not possess records until then. As a matter of e . . .. . Sources act, our information is scanty until some time iter that. Consequently, when first we begin to hear of the owns, the gilds, and the burghers, they are often already § ull-fledged and their origins are lost in a dim past. For a long ime most writers were clergymen and were little interested n business and commerce except as the monasteries kept ecords of their, own property. Nor had the authors of
