Gordon S Fowkes, KCTJ, LTC
USA RET
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| Cistercian order was unusual in that it got its hands dirty and acted as a agent of change |
The very existence of the
First and subsequent Crusades were made possible to a series of revolutions in
economic and political life that transformed Northern Europe from backwater and
boondock status to a dominance it is retained to this day. Technology (Tools) drove the process, and it
was the entrepreneurial spirt of inventive farmers, craftsmen, and what we call
today business.
The first markets for these
inventive farmers were often held in front of the local church, as that was the
single most accessible location. The monastery as an economic enterprise
provided central direction upon reflection and quickly adopted the technologies
to enhance the productivity of the monastery.
The Cistercian Order under Saint Bernard is found in the middle of the
process. What is now called the 12th
Century Renaissance is also called the first “world” economy) that went from
China to Indonesia to India to the Levant, Europe, and Iceland. Silk at one
end, wool at the other. And back again.
The soil of northern Europe was too dense and
damp to be plowed efficiently with the scratch plows of the day to produce much
past subsistence. Even during Roman
times the northern woods were at best a buffer or border even in areas under
firm Roman control, economic activity was marginal.
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In order to cut the heavy soil, the heavy plow
was invented which included a cutter (c), plowshare, and wheels and was
initially drawn by oxen. The need for speed and horse power as horses pulled
two hours longer and faster, lead to the invention of the horse collar which
solved the problem of the oxen yoke which choked the horse. The hooves of horses did not fare well in the
damp earth, unlike oxen, which lead to the use of horse shoes.
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Oxen could survive largely
on hay, but horses needed vegetable protein such as from grain and legumes
(beans). The additional protein in
farmers diets lead to increased energy in the people in the area. Yes, bean
power.
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Since legumes contain
symbiotic bacteria called Rhizobia were found to restore
nitrogen to farmland, crop rotations changed from fallow and wheat to fallow,
wheat, and legumes, a change to three crop rotation which also extended the
productive use of the land. Farming is
always a gamble, and often a dead end career for those stuck on the farm,
particularly when the crops fail. The
woods were often the only place a person could survive, often as bandits. The woods were also where pigs were allowed
to forage for nuts, tubers, and fruits that had been shaken loose by the farmer
or game keeper.
This resulted in a sea change in the land use
that allowed the subsistence farmer to go the market originally at the local
church to buy and sell. The creation of
markets at the churches gave way to more defined market places that specialized
in certain products
The world of agriculture
produced product that was either mobile (sheep, cattle, horses) that required
processing (hides, textiles) and resale elsewhere. Some rooted to the ground that had to be
taken to a market for further processing (wines, mines) and some that had several
stages of production. Sheep were a good
investment, for their wool, especially fine in the colder northern
climates. Sheep’s wool was sheared by
the shepherd, which wool was sold in the Fairs and markets of Champaign, later
Belgian for processing and weaving, which was bought by Italians from Northern
Italy for further refinement, and from there for international trade
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The increase in the need
for specialized labor and services like blacksmith (Smith) created an entirely
system of family names based on trade, craft, or job such as: Spinner, Weaver,
Fuller, tailors (Taylor), skinners (Skinner), Farmers, Banker, Driver, Gates,
Monk, Priest, Tucker, Walker, and the
like. The impact of this association of
economic function with family name lasts to the present day is an indicator of
the dramatic and dynamic change in society, economics, war and politics north
of the Alps.
Commerce requires an
exchange of goods, services, and/or money.
And the Northern Italians brought their financial, industrial, and transportation
skills honed in the Mediterranean to plug into the Campaign, Belgian and
English trade centers. And with the
Italian financiers came a necessary connection between the Papacy, and the Holy
Roman Empire where St Bernard was a superb diplomat and player in the politics
of the Catholic world.
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This was enhanced by the law in many lands
that if a peasant, serf or bound servant were able to stay away from the local
area for a year, that person was a free person (Freeman) who could work at the
growing towns. The more successful in
business and trades created a new social class that lived and worked in a town,
called the burger (burg is Germanic for town) hence “bourgeoisie”. They, then as now, organized into Guilds and
associations for the purpose of quality control.
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Likewise the tradesmen,
artisans, and workers did organize. The first labor laws protecting selected
trades were enacted in Ghent in the 11th Century (give or
take). While Burger and the Trades often
were at serious odds to each other, when it came time to protect the town, they
raised city militias and trained professional quality troops. All this at the same time as the
Crusades. Machiavelli’s “On War (De Re
Militari)” argued that the best military for a Republic was a well-trained
militia.
Politically, there is
always a group of “elders” or “good old boys” who serve as either formal or
informal form of governance which before 1800 were called, a Commune. Normally property owners, burgers, and
representatives of the guilds and associations, shared power with the titular
feudal authority except when they went their own way. The communes controlled the means of
production in their towns and with association with other towns. The wool producing towns in France, Belgium
and Germany were either dominated by the communes or independent as “communal
republics”.
Yes, Marx stole the name of
a form of governance run by business interests leaving scholars no noun to
describe a business oriented polity.
The concept of “capitalism” likewise make it impossible to mix business
and politics except behind the door.
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Many Italian city states
used the communal republic as a form of governance. As such, Florence, Genoa
and Venice were republic in form.
Universal suffrage was a 20th Century development. Romeo and Juliet is about a family feud
within the Republic of Venice. These
Italian cities provided the banking, trading and maritime skills for the wool
producing regions which regions later shifted to Belgium and England.
We know that St Bernard of Clairvaux whose
monastery was near the wool market at Bar-sur-Aube orchestrated the recognition
of the Knights Templar at the Council of Troyes in 1129, a decade after their
founding in Jerusalem. Troyes was one of
the cities that held the annual Champagne trade fairs which brought to the
fore, the domination of the early wool trade.
Trade in textiles before the US Civil War had the same influence as does
oil does today. King Cotton did not save
the CSA.
St Bernard was a cut above
your average run of the mill king maker, he was the Pope maker (three or four)
behind the door as well as up front in the pulpit. King makers came to him. As the Papacy’s premier and extraordinary
representative, he was a Guelph (Papacy) versus Ghibelline (Holy Roman Emperor)
in their struggle to control the wealthy north Italian cities. These cities had organized into alliances such as the Lombard
League in league with the Frangipani (three popes and thirty four cardinals)
and Orsini families.
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This further allied the
powers that were in France and the Low Countries in also in opposition to the
Holy Roman Empire. Key amongst the
French supporters of the Papacy included Counts of Anjou (Fulk or Foulques)
family who were avid supporters of the Cistercians, St Bernard and the Knights
Templar. Fulk III had built abbeys and monasteries in the Loire valley (heart
of France). Fulk IV became King of
Jerusalem, and his son, Geoffrey Plantagenet was the first of the line of the
Plantagenet Royal family of England (as in Richard the Lion Hearted) and of the
Angevin Empire.
Go figure
NNDNN
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