Chapter XXI. The emergence and development of medieval cities in Europe

According to their origin, Western European medieval cities are divided into two types: some of them trace their history back to ancient times, from ancient cities and settlements (for example, Cologne, Vienna, Augsburg, Paris, London, York), others arose relatively late - already in the era Middle Ages. Former ancient cities in the early Middle Ages experienced a period of decline, but still remained, as a rule, the administrative centers of a small district, the residences of bishops and secular rulers; Trade ties continue to be maintained through them, primarily in the Mediterranean region. In the 8th-10th centuries. in connection with the revival of trade in the North of Europe, proto-urban settlements appeared in the Baltic (Hedeby in Schleswig, Birka in Sweden, Slavic Wolin, etc.).

However, the period of mass emergence and growth of medieval cities occurred in the 10th-11th centuries. The earliest cities that had an ancient foundation were formed in Northern and Central Italy, in Southern France, and also along the Rhine. But very quickly the whole of Europe north of the Alps was covered with a network of cities and towns.

New cities arose near castles and fortresses, at the intersections of trade routes, and at river crossings. Their appearance became possible thanks to the rise of agriculture: peasants were able to feed significant groups of the population not directly employed in the agricultural sector. In addition, economic specialization led to an increasingly intensive separation of crafts from agriculture. The population of cities grew due to the influx of villagers, who were attracted by the opportunity to gain personal freedom in the city and take advantage of the privileges that city dwellers had. Most of those who came to the city were involved in handicraft production, but many did not completely abandon agricultural activities. The townspeople had plots of arable land, vineyards and even pastures. The composition of the population was very varied: artisans, merchants, moneylenders, representatives of the clergy, secular lords, hired soldiers, schoolchildren, officials, artists, artists and musicians, tramps, and beggars. This diversity is due to the fact that the city itself played many important roles in the social life of feudal Europe. It was a center of crafts and trade, culture and religious life. Government bodies were concentrated here and the residences of the powerful were built.

At first, the townspeople had to pay many taxes to the lord of the city, submit to his court, be personally dependent on him, and sometimes even work as corvee labor. The lords often patronized the cities, as they received considerable benefits from them, but the payment for this patronage over time began to seem too burdensome to the stronger and richer townspeople. A wave of clashes, sometimes armed, between townspeople and lords swept across Europe. As a result of the so-called communal movement, many Western European cities received the right of self-government and personal freedom for their citizens. In Northern and Central Italy, the largest cities - Venice, Genoa, Milan, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Bologna - achieved complete independence and subjugated large territories outside the city walls. There the peasants had to work for the city republics in the same way as before for the lords. The large cities of Germany also enjoyed great independence, although they, as a rule, verbally recognized the authority of the emperor or duke, count or bishop. German cities often united in alliances for political or trade purposes. The most famous of them was the union of North German merchant cities - the Hansa. The Hansa flourished in the 14th century, when it controlled all trade in the Baltic and the North Sea.

In a free city, power most often belonged to an elected council - the magistrate, all seats in which were divided between patricians - members of the richest families of landowners and merchants. Townspeople united in partnerships: merchants - in guilds, artisans - in guilds. The workshops monitored the quality of products and protected their members from competition. Not only the work, but the whole life of the artisan was connected with the workshop. The guilds organized holidays and feasts for their members, they helped “their” poor, orphans and old people, and, if necessary, deployed military detachments.

In the center of a typical Western European city there was usually a market square, and on or near it stood the buildings of the city magistrate (town hall) and the main city church (in episcopal cities - cathedrals). The city was surrounded by walls, and it was believed that inside their ring (and sometimes also outside at a distance of 1 mile from the wall) a special city law was in effect - people were judged here according to their own laws, different from those adopted in the district. Powerful walls, majestic cathedrals, rich monasteries, magnificent town halls not only reflected the wealth of the city's inhabitants, but also testified to the ever-increasing skill of medieval artists and builders.

The life of members of the urban community (in Germany they were called burghers, in France - bourgeois, in Italy - popolani) was sharply different from the life of peasants and feudal lords. Burghers, as a rule, were small free owners; they were famous for their prudence and business savvy. Rationalism, which became stronger in the cities, promoted a critical view of the world, free thinking, and sometimes doubt in church dogmas. Therefore, the urban environment from the very beginning became favorable for the spread of heretical ideas. City schools, and then universities, deprived the church of the exclusive right to prepare educated people. Merchants went on long journeys, opened routes to unknown countries, to foreign peoples, with whom they established trade exchanges. The further, the more cities turned into a powerful force that contributed to the growth in society of intensive commodity relations, a rationalistic understanding of the world and the place of man in it.

Liberation from the power of the lords (not all cities managed to achieve this) did not eliminate the basis for intra-city conflicts. In the 14th-15th centuries. In the cities of Europe, the so-called guild revolutions took place, when craft guilds entered into a struggle with the patriciate. In the 14th-16th centuries. The urban lower classes - apprentices, hired workers, the poor - rebelled against the power of the guild elite. Plebeian movements became one of the most important components of the Reformation and early bourgeois revolutions of the 16th and 17th centuries. (see Dutch bourgeois revolution of the 16th century, English bourgeois revolution of the 17th century).

The first sprouts of early capitalist relations in cities appeared in the 14th and 15th centuries. in Italy; in the 15th-16th centuries. - in Germany, the Netherlands, England and some other areas of Trans-Alpine Europe. Manufactories appeared there, a permanent layer of hired workers arose, and large banking houses began to emerge (see Capitalism). Now petty shop regulations are increasingly beginning to hinder capitalist entrepreneurship. Organizers of manufactories in England, the Netherlands, and Southern Germany were forced to transfer their activities to the countryside or small towns, where guild rules were not so strong. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, during the era of the crisis of European feudalism, friction began to occur in cities between the emerging bourgeoisie and the traditional burghers, as a result of which the latter was increasingly pushed away from the sources of wealth and power.

The role of cities in the development of the state is also significant. Even during the period of the communal movement, in a number of countries (primarily in France), an alliance between cities and royal power began to take shape, which played an important role in strengthening royal power. Later, when estate-representative monarchies emerged in Europe, cities not only found themselves widely represented in medieval parliaments, but with their funds contributed significantly to the strengthening of central power. The gradually growing monarchy in England and France subjugates the cities and abolishes many of their privileges and rights. In Germany, the attack on the liberties of the cities was actively carried out by the princes. The Italian city-states evolved towards tyrannical forms of government.

Medieval cities made a decisive contribution to the formation of the new European culture of the Renaissance and Reformation, and new economic relations. In the cities, the first sprouts of democratic institutions of power (election, representation) grew stronger, and a new type of human personality, filled with self-esteem and confident in their creative powers, was formed here.

The decisive point in the transition of European countries from early feudal society to the established system of feudal relations is the 11th century. A characteristic feature of developed feudalism was the emergence and flourishing of cities as centers of craft and trade, centers of commodity production. Medieval cities had a huge impact on the economy of the village and contributed to the growth of productive forces in agriculture.

The dominance of subsistence farming in the early Middle Ages

In the first centuries of the Middle Ages, subsistence farming almost reigned supreme in Europe. The peasant family itself produced agricultural products and handicrafts (tools and clothing; not only for their own needs, but also for paying rent to the feudal lord. The combination of rural labor with industrial labor is a characteristic feature of the natural economy. Only a small number of artisans (household people) who did not or almost not engaged in agriculture, there were on the estates of large feudal lords.There were also very few peasant artisans who lived in the village and were specially engaged in some kind of craft along with agriculture - blacksmithing, pottery, leatherworking, etc.

The exchange of products was very insignificant. It was reduced primarily to trade in such rare but important household items that could be obtained only in a few points (iron, tin, copper, salt, etc.), as well as luxury items that were not then produced in Europe and were imported from East (silk fabrics, expensive jewelry, well-crafted weapons, spices, etc.). This exchange was carried out mainly by traveling merchants (Byzantines, Arabs, Syrians, etc.). The production of products specifically designed for sale was almost not developed, and only a very small part of agricultural products was received in exchange for goods brought by merchants.

Of course, in the period of the early Middle Ages there were cities that survived from antiquity or arose again and were either administrative centers, or fortified points (fortresses - burghs), or church centers (residences of archbishops, bishops, etc.). However, with the almost undivided dominance of natural economy, when handicraft activity had not yet separated from agricultural activity, all these cities were not and could not be the focus of handicraft and trade. True, in some cities of the early Middle Ages already in the 8th-9th centuries. handicraft production developed and there were markets, but this did not change the picture as a whole.

Creating prerequisites for the separation of crafts from agriculture

No matter how slow the development of productive forces was in the early Middle Ages, by the X-XI centuries. Important changes took place in the economic life of Europe. They were expressed in the change and development of technology and craft skills, in the differentiation of its branches. Certain crafts have improved significantly: mining, smelting and processing of metals, primarily blacksmithing and weaponry; manufacturing of fabrics, especially cloth; skin treatment; production of more advanced clay products using a potter's wheel; milling, construction, etc.

The division of crafts into new branches, the improvement of production techniques and labor skills required further specialization of the artisan. But such specialization was incompatible with the situation in which the peasant found himself, running his own farm and working simultaneously as a farmer and as an artisan. It was necessary to transform crafts from ancillary production in agriculture into an independent branch of the economy.

Another side of the process that prepared the separation of crafts from agriculture was the progress in the development of agriculture and cattle breeding. With the improvement of tools and methods of soil cultivation, especially with the widespread adoption of the iron plow, as well as two-field and three-field systems, there was a significant increase in labor productivity in agriculture. The area of cultivated land has increased; Forests were cleared and new land masses were plowed up. Internal colonization played a big role in this - the settlement and economic development of new areas. As a result of all these changes in agriculture, the quantity and variety of agricultural products increased, the time for their production decreased, and, consequently, the surplus product appropriated by feudal landowners increased. A certain surplus over consumption began to remain in the hands of the peasant. This made it possible to exchange part of agricultural products for products of specialist artisans.

The emergence of medieval cities as centers of crafts and trade

Thus, approximately by the X-XI centuries. In Europe, all the necessary conditions appeared for the separation of crafts from agriculture. At the same time, the craft, small industrial production based on manual labor, separated from agriculture, went through a number of stages in its development.

The first of these was the production of products to order from the consumer, when the material could belong to both the consumer-customer and the artisan himself, and payment for labor was made either in kind or in money. Such a craft could exist not only in the city; it was also widespread in the countryside, being an addition to the peasant economy. However, when a craftsman worked to order, commodity production did not yet arise, because the product of labor did not appear on the market. The next stage in the development of the craft was associated with the artisan’s entry into the market. This was a new and important phenomenon in the development of feudal society.

A craftsman specially engaged in the manufacture of handicraft products could not exist if he did not turn to the market and did not receive there the agricultural products he needed in exchange for his products. But by producing products for sale on the market, the artisan became a commodity producer. Thus, the emergence of crafts, isolated from agriculture, meant the emergence of commodity production and commodity relations, the emergence of exchange between city and countryside and the emergence of opposition between them.

Craftsmen, who gradually emerged from the mass of the enslaved and feudally dependent rural population, sought to leave the village, escape from the power of their masters and settle where they could find the most favorable conditions for selling their products and running their own independent craft economy. The flight of peasants from the countryside led directly to the formation of medieval cities as centers of crafts and trade.

The peasant artisans who left and fled the village settled in different places depending on the availability of favorable conditions for crafts (the possibility of selling products, proximity to sources of raw materials, relative safety, etc.). Craftsmen often chose as the place of their settlement precisely those points that played the role of administrative, military and church centers in the early Middle Ages. Many of these points were fortified, which provided the artisans with the necessary security. The concentration of a significant population in these centers - feudal lords with their servants and numerous retinues, clergy, representatives of the royal and local administration, etc. - created favorable conditions for the artisans to sell their products here. Artisans also settled near large feudal estates, estates, castles, the inhabitants of which could be consumers of their goods. Craftsmen also settled at the walls of monasteries, where many people flocked to pilgrimage, in settlements located at the intersection of important roads, at river crossings and bridges, at river mouths, on the banks of bays, bays, etc., convenient for parking ships, etc. the difference in the places where they arose, all these settlements of artisans became the centers of the population center, engaged in the production of handicrafts for sale, centers of commodity production and exchange in feudal society.

Cities played a vital role in the development of the internal market under feudalism. By expanding, albeit slowly, handicraft production and trade, they drew both the master and peasant economy into commodity circulation and thereby contributed to the development of productive forces in agriculture, the emergence and development of commodity production in it, and the growth of the domestic market in the country.

Population and appearance of cities

In Western Europe, medieval cities first appeared in Italy (Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Naples, Amalfi, etc.), as well as in the south of France (Marseille, Arles, Narbonne and Montpellier), since here, starting from the 9th century. the development of feudal relations led to a significant increase in productive forces and the separation of handicrafts from agriculture.

One of the favorable factors that contributed to the development of Italian and southern French cities was the trade relations of Italy and Southern France with Byzantium and the East, where there were numerous and flourishing craft and trade centers that have survived from antiquity. Rich cities with developed handicraft production and lively trading activities were such cities as Constantinople, Thessalonica (Thessalonica), Alexandria, Damascus and Bahdad. Even richer and more populous, with an extremely high level of material and spiritual culture for that time, were the cities of China - Chang'an (Xi'an), Luoyang, Chengdu, Yangzhou, Guangzhou (Canton) and the cities of India - Kanyakubja (Kanauj), Varanasi (Benares) , Ujjain, Surashtra (Surat), Tanjore, Tamralipti (Tamluk), etc. As for medieval cities in Northern France, the Netherlands, England, South-West Germany, along the Rhine and along the Danube, their emergence and development relate only to X and XI centuries.

In Eastern Europe, the oldest cities that early began to play the role of centers of craft and trade were Kyiv, Chernigov, Smolensk, Polotsk and Novgorod. Already in the X-XI centuries. Kyiv was a very significant craft and trade center and amazed its contemporaries with its splendor. He was called a rival of Constantinople. According to contemporaries, by the beginning of the 11th century. There were 8 markets in Kyiv.

Novgorod was also a big and rich holy fool at that time. As excavations by Soviet archaeologists have shown, the streets of Novgorod were paved with wooden pavements already in the 11th century. In Novgorod in the XI-XII centuries. There was also a water supply: water flowed through hollowed out wooden pipes. This was one of the earliest urban aqueducts in medieval Europe.

Cities of ancient Rus' in the X-XI centuries. already had extensive trade relations with many regions and countries of the East and West - with the Volga region, the Caucasus, Byzantium, Central Asia, Iran, Arab countries, the Mediterranean, Slavic Pomerania, Scandinavia, the Baltic states, as well as with the countries of Central and Western Europe - the Czech Republic, Moravia , Poland, Hungary and Germany. A particularly important role in international trade from the beginning of the 10th century. Novgorod played. The successes of Russian cities in the development of crafts were significant (especially in metal processing and the manufacture of weapons, in jewelry, etc.).

Cities also developed early in Slavic Pomerania along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea - Wolin, Kamen, Arkona (on the island of Rujan, modern Rügen), Stargrad, Szczecin, Gdansk, Kolobrzeg, cities of the southern Slavs on the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea - Dubrovnik, Zadar, Sibenik, Split, Kotor, etc.

Prague was a significant center of crafts and trade in Europe. The famous Arab traveler geographer Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, who visited the Czech Republic in the middle of the 10th century, wrote about Prague that it “is the richest of cities in trade.”

The main population of cities that arose in the X-XI centuries. in Europe, were artisans. Peasants who fled from their masters or went to the cities on the condition of paying a quitrent to the master, becoming townspeople, gradually freed themselves from excellent dependence on the feudal lord “From the serfs of the Middle Ages,” wrote Marx Engels, “the free population of the first cities emerged” ( K. Marx and F. Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party, Soch., vol. 4, ed. 2, p. 425,). But even with the advent of medieval cities, the process of separating crafts from agriculture did not end. On the one hand, artisans, having become city dwellers, retained traces of their rural origin for a very long time. On the other hand, in the villages both the master's and the peasant farms continued for a long time to satisfy most of their needs for handicraft products with their own funds. The separation of handicrafts from agriculture, which began to be carried out in Europe in the 9th-11th centuries, was far from being complete and complete.

In addition, at first the artisan was also a merchant. Only later did merchants appear in the cities - a new social stratum, whose sphere of activity was no longer production, but only the exchange of goods. In contrast to the itinerant merchants who existed in the feudal society in the previous period and were engaged almost exclusively in foreign trade, the merchants who appeared in European cities in the 11th-12th centuries were already mainly engaged in domestic trade associated with the development of local markets, i.e. with exchange of goods between city and countryside. The separation of merchant activity from handicraft activity was a new step in the social division of labor.

Medieval cities were very different in appearance from modern cities. They were usually surrounded by high walls - wooden, more often stone, with towers and massive gates, as well as deep ditches to protect against attacks by feudal lords and enemy invasion. The inhabitants of the city - artisans and merchants carried out guard duty and made up the city military militia. The walls that surrounded the medieval city became cramped over time and could not accommodate all the city buildings. Urban suburbs gradually arose around the walls - settlements inhabited mainly by artisans, and artisans of the same specialty usually lived on the same street. This is how streets arose - blacksmith's, weapons, carpentry, weaving, etc. The suburbs, in turn, were surrounded by a new ring of walls and fortifications.

The size of European cities was very small. As a rule, cities were small and cramped, with only one to three to five thousand inhabitants. Only very large cities had a population of several tens of thousands of people.

Although the bulk of the townspeople were engaged in crafts and trade, agriculture continued to play a certain role in the life of the urban population. Many residents of the city had their fields, pastures and gardens outside the city walls, and partly within the city. Small livestock (goats, sheep and pigs) often grazed right in the city, and the pigs found plenty of food for themselves there, since garbage, leftover food and infrequencies were usually thrown directly into the street.

In cities, due to unsanitary conditions, epidemics often broke out, the death rate from which was very high. Fires often occurred, as a significant part of the city buildings were wooden and the houses adjoined each other. The walls prevented the city from growing in breadth, so the streets became extremely narrow, and the upper floors of houses often protruded in the form of ledges above the lower ones, and the roofs of houses located on opposite sides of the street almost touched each other. The narrow and crooked streets of the city were often dim, some of them never penetrated the rays of the sun. There was no street lighting. The central place in the city was usually the market square, not far from which the city's cathedral was located.

The struggle of cities with feudal lords in the XI-XIII centuries.

Medieval cities always arose on the land of a feudal lord and therefore inevitably had to submit to the feudal lord, in whose hands all power in the city was initially concentrated. The feudal lord was interested in the emergence of a city on his land, since crafts and trade brought him additional income.

But the feudal lords' desire to extract as much income as possible inevitably led to a struggle between the city and its lord. The feudal lords resorted to direct violence, which provoked resistance from the townspeople and their struggle for liberation from feudal oppression. The political structure that the city received and the degree of its independence in relation to the feudal lord depended on the outcome of this struggle.

The peasants who fled from their lords and settled in the emerging cities brought with them from the village the customs and skills of the communal structure that existed there. The structure of the community-mark, changed in accordance with the conditions of urban development, played a very important role in the organization of city government in the Middle Ages.

The struggle between lords and townspeople, during which city self-government arose and took shape, took place in different European countries in different ways, depending on the conditions of their historical development. In Italy, for example, where cities early achieved significant economic prosperity, the townspeople achieved great independence already in the 11th-12th centuries. Many cities in Northern and Central Italy subjugated large areas around the city and became city-states. These were city republics - Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Florence, Milan, etc.

A similar situation occurred in Germany, where the so-called imperial cities starting from the 12th, and especially in the 13th century, formally subordinate to the emperor, were in fact independent city republics. They had the right to independently declare war, make peace, mint their own coins, etc. Such cities were Lubeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Frankfurt am Main and others.

Many cities of Northern France - Amiens, Saint-Quentin, Beauvais, Laon, etc. - as a result of a stubborn and fierce struggle with their feudal lords, which often took the form of bloody armed clashes, also achieved the right of self-government and could elect a city council from among themselves and officials, starting with the head of the city council. In France and England, the head of the city council was called the mayor, and in Germany - the burgomaster. Self-governing cities (communes) had their own courts, military militia, finances and the right of self-taxation.

At the same time, they were exempted from performing the usual seigneurial duties - corvee and quitrent and from various payments. The responsibilities of city-communes in relation to the feudal lord were usually limited to only the annual payment of a certain, relatively low monetary rent and sending a small military detachment to help the lord in case of war.

In Rus' in the 11th century. With the development of cities, the importance of veche meetings increased. The townspeople, as in Western Europe, fought for urban liberties. A unique political system developed in Novgorod the Great. It was a feudal republic, but the commercial and industrial population had great political power there.

The degree of independence in urban self-government achieved by cities was uneven and depended on specific historical conditions. Often cities managed to gain self-government rights by paying the lord a large sum of money. In this way, many rich cities in Southern France, Italy, etc. were liberated from the lord’s tutelage and fell into communes.

Often large cities, especially cities located on royal land, did not receive self-government rights, but enjoyed a number of privileges and liberties, including the right to have elected city government bodies, which acted, however, together with an official appointed by the king or another representative of the lord. Paris and many other cities in France had such incomplete rights of self-government, for example Orleans, Bourges, Loris, Lyon, Nantes, Chartres, and in England - Lincoln, Ipswich, Oxford, Cambridge, Gloucester. But not all cities managed to achieve this level of independence. Some cities, especially small ones, which did not have sufficiently developed crafts and trade and did not have the necessary funds and forces to fight their lords, remained entirely under the control of the lordly administration.

Thus, the results of the struggle of cities with their lords were different. However, in one respect they coincided. All townspeople managed to achieve personal liberation from serfdom. Therefore, if a serf peasant who fled to the city lived in it for a certain period of time, usually one year and one day, he also became free and not a single lord could return him to a serfdom. “City air makes you free,” said a medieval proverb.

Urban craft and its guild organization

The production basis of the medieval city was crafts. Feudalism is characterized by small-scale production both in the countryside and in the city. A craftsman, like a peasant, was a small producer who had his own tools of production, independently ran his own private farm based on personal labor, and had as his goal not making a profit, but obtaining a means of subsistence. “An existence befitting his position—and not exchange value as such, not enrichment as such...” ( K. Marx, The process of production of capital in the book. "Archive of Marx and Engels", vol. II (VII), p. 111.) was the goal of the artisan’s labor.

A characteristic feature of medieval craft in Europe was its guild organization - the unification of artisans of a certain profession within a given city into special unions - guilds. Guilds appeared almost simultaneously with the emergence of cities. In Italy they were found already from the 10th century, in France, England, Germany and the Czech Republic - from the 11th-12th centuries, although the final registration of guilds (receiving special charters from kings, recording guild charters, etc.) usually took place , Later. Craft corporations also existed in Russian cities (for example, in Novgorod).

The guilds arose as organizations of peasants who fled to the city, who needed unification to fight against the robber nobility and protection from competition. Among the reasons that determined the need for the formation of guilds, Marx and Engels also noted the need of artisans for common market premises for the sale of goods and the need to protect the common property of artisans for a certain specialty or profession. The association of artisans into special corporations (guilds) was determined by the entire system of feudal relations that prevailed in the Middle Ages, the entire feudal-class structure of society ( See K. Marx and F. Engels, German Ideology, Works, vol. 3, ed. 2, pp. 23 and 50-51.).

The model for the guild organization, as well as for the organization of city self-government, was the communal system ( See F. Engels, Mark; in the book “The Peasant War in Germany,” M. 1953, p. 121.). The artisans united in workshops were the direct producers. Each of them worked in his own workshop with his own tools and his own raw materials. He grew together with these means of production, as Marx put it, “like a snail with its shell” ( K. Marx, Capital, vol. I, Gospolitizdat, 1955, p. 366.). Tradition and routine were characteristic of medieval crafts, as well as of peasant farming.

There was almost no division of labor within the craft workshop. The division of labor was carried out in the form of specialization between individual workshops, which, with the development of production, led to an increase in the number of craft professions and, consequently, the number of new workshops. Although this did not change the nature of the medieval craft, it did lead to certain technical progress, improvement of labor skills, specialization of working tools, etc. The craftsman was usually helped in his work by his family. One or two apprentices and one or more apprentices worked with him. But only the master, the owner of the craft workshop, was a full member of the guild. The master, journeyman and apprentice stood at different levels of a kind of guild hierarchy. Preliminary completion of the two lower levels was mandatory for anyone who wanted to join the workshop and become a member of it. In the first period of the development of guilds, each student could become an apprentice in a few years, and an apprentice could become a master.

In most cities, belonging to a guild was a prerequisite for practicing a craft. This eliminated the possibility of competition from artisans who were not part of the workshop, which was dangerous for small producers in the conditions of a very narrow market at that time and relatively insignificant demand. The craftsmen who were part of the workshop were interested in ensuring that the products of the members of this workshop were ensured unhindered sales. In accordance with this, the workshop strictly regulated production and, through specially elected officials, ensured that each master - a member of the workshop - produced products of a certain quality. The workshop prescribed, for example, what width and color the fabric should be, how many threads should be in the warp, what tool and material should be used, etc.

Being a corporation (association) of small commodity producers, the workshop zealously ensured that the production of all its members did not exceed a certain size, so that no one entered into competition with other members of the workshop by producing more products. To this end, guild regulations strictly limited the number of journeymen and apprentices that one master could have, prohibited work at night and on holidays, limited the number of machines on which a craftsman could work, and regulated stocks of raw materials.

The craft and its organization in the medieval city were feudal in nature. “...The feudal structure of land ownership corresponded in cities to corporate ownership ( Corporate property was the monopoly of a workshop in a particular specialty or profession.), feudal organization of craft" ( K. Marx and F. Engels, German Ideology, Works, vol. 3, ed. 2, page 23.). Such an organization of crafts was a necessary form of development of commodity production in a medieval city, because at that time it created favorable conditions for the development of productive forces. It protected artisans from excessive exploitation by feudal lords, ensured the existence of small producers in the extremely narrow market of that time, and contributed to the development of technology and the improvement of craft skills. During the heyday of the feudal mode of production, the guild system was in full accordance with the stage of development of the productive forces that was achieved at that time.

The guild organization covered all aspects of the life of a medieval artisan. The workshop was a military organization that participated in the protection of the city (guard service) and acted as a separate combat unit of the city militia in the event of war. The workshop had its own “saint,” whose day it celebrated, its own churches or chapels, being a kind of religious organization. The workshop was also an organization of mutual assistance for artisans, which provided assistance to its needy members and their families in the event of illness or death of a member of the workshop through the entrance fee to the workshop, fines and other payments.

The struggle of the guilds with the urban patriciate

The struggle of cities with feudal lords led in the overwhelming majority of cases to the transfer (to one degree or another) of city government into the hands of the citizens. But not all citizens received the right to take part in the management of city affairs. The struggle against the feudal lords was carried out by the forces of the masses, that is, primarily by the forces of artisans, and the elite of the urban population - urban homeowners, landowners, moneylenders, and rich merchants - benefited from its results.

This upper, privileged layer of the urban population was a narrow, closed group of the urban rich - a hereditary urban aristocracy (in the West, this aristocracy was usually called the patriciate) that seized into its own hands all positions in city government. City administration, court and finance - all this was in the hands of the city elite and was used in the interests of wealthy citizens and to the detriment of the interests of the broad masses of the artisan population. This was especially evident in tax policy. In a number of cities in the West (Cologne, Strasbourg, Florence, Milan, London, etc.), representatives of the urban elite, having become close to the feudal nobility, together with them brutally oppressed the people - artisans and the urban poor. But, as the craft developed and the importance of the guilds grew stronger, artisans entered into a struggle with the city aristocracy for power. In almost all countries of medieval Europe, this struggle (which, as a rule, became very acute and led to armed uprisings) unfolded in the 13th-15th centuries. Its results were not the same. In some cities, primarily those where the handicraft industry was highly developed, guilds won (for example, in Cologne, Ausburg, Florence). In other cities, where the development of crafts was inferior to trade and merchants played the leading role, the guilds were defeated and the city elite emerged victorious from the struggle (this was the case in Hamburg, Lübeck, Rostock, etc.).

In the process of struggle between townspeople and feudal lords and guilds against the urban patriciate, the medieval class of burghers was formed and developed. The word burgher in the West originally meant all city dwellers (from the German word “burg” - city, hence the French medieval term “bourgeois” - bourgeois, city dweller). But the urban population was not united. On the one hand, a layer of merchants and wealthy artisans gradually formed, on the other hand, a mass of urban plebeians (plebs), which included journeymen, apprentices, day laborers, bankrupt artisans and other urban poor. In accordance with this, the word “burgher” lost its previous broad meaning and acquired a new meaning. Burghers began to be called not just townspeople, but only rich and prosperous townspeople, from whom the bourgeoisie subsequently grew.

Development of commodity-money relations

The development of commodity production in towns and villages has led to the development of industrial goods starting from the 13th century. significant, compared to the previous period, expansion of trade and market relations. No matter how slow the development of commodity-money relations in the countryside was, it increasingly undermined the subsistence economy and drew into market circulation an ever-increasing portion of agricultural products exchanged through trade for urban handicraft products. Although the village still gave the city a relatively small part of its production and largely satisfied its own needs for handicrafts, the growth of commodity production in the village was still evident. This testified to the transformation of some peasants into commodity producers and the gradual formation of the domestic market.

Fairs played a major role in domestic and foreign trade in Europe, which became widespread in France, Italy, England and other countries already in the 11th-12th centuries. At the fairs, wholesale trade was carried out in such goods as were in great demand, such as wool, leather, cloth, linen fabrics, metals and metal products, and grain. The largest fairs also played a major role in the development of foreign trade. Thus, at fairs in the French county of Champagne in the 12th-13th centuries. Merchants from various European countries met - Germany, France, Italy, England, Catalonia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Italian merchants, especially the Venetians and Genoese, delivered expensive oriental goods to the champagne fairs - silks, cotton fabrics, jewelry and other luxury items, as well as spices (pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, etc.). Flemish and Florentine merchants brought well-made cloth. Merchants from Germany brought linen fabrics, merchants from the Czech Republic brought cloth, leather and metal products; merchants from England - wool, tin, lead and iron.

In the 13th century European trade was concentrated mainly in two areas. One of them was the Mediterranean, which served as a link in the trade of Western European countries with the countries of the East. Initially, the main role in this trade was played by Arab and Byzantine merchants, and from the 12th-13th centuries, especially in connection with the Crusades, primacy passed to the merchants of Genoa and Venice, as well as to the merchants of Marseille and Barcelona. Another area of European trade covered the Baltic and North Seas. Here, the cities of all countries located near these seas took part in trade: the northwestern regions of Rus' (especially Novgorod, Pskov and Polotsk), Northern Germany, Scandinavia, Denmark, France, England, etc.

The expansion of trade relations was extremely hampered by the conditions characteristic of the era of feudalism. The possessions of each lord were fenced with numerous customs outposts, where significant trade duties were levied on merchants. Duties and all kinds of levies were collected from merchants when crossing bridges, fording rivers, and when driving along a river through the possessions of a feudal lord. The feudal lords did not stop at banditry attacks on merchants and robberies of merchant caravans. Feudal orders and the dominance of subsistence farming determined a relatively insignificant volume of trade.

Nevertheless, the gradual growth of commodity-money relations and exchange created the possibility of accumulating monetary capital in the hands of individuals, primarily merchants and moneylenders. The accumulation of funds was also facilitated by money exchange operations, which were necessary in the Middle Ages due to the endless variety of monetary systems and monetary units, since money was minted not only by emperors and kings, but also by all sorts of prominent lords and bishops, as well as large cities. To exchange some money for others and to establish the value of a particular coin, there was a special profession of money changers. Money changers were engaged not only in exchange operations, but also in the transfer of money, from which credit transactions arose. Usury was usually associated with this. Exchange operations and credit operations led to the creation of special banking offices. The first such banking offices arose in the cities of Northern Italy - in Lombardy. Therefore, the word “pawnshop” in the Middle Ages became synonymous with banker and moneylender. The special lending institutions that emerged later, carrying out operations on the security of things, began to be called pawnshops.

The largest moneylender in Europe was the church. At the same time, the most complex credit and usury operations were carried out by the Roman Curia, into which enormous funds flowed from almost all European countries.

A characteristic feature of the Middle Ages was the growth of cities. This is due, first of all, to the division of society into social groups and the development of crafts. A typical medieval city in Western Europe was a small settlement by modern standards, located near a monastery, fortress or castle. A prerequisite for the construction of a new settlement was the presence of a body of water - a river or lake. The Middle Ages itself covers a very significant period of time: from the fifth century to the fifteenth (the Renaissance). Many cities of the 5th-15th centuries were real fortresses, surrounded by a wide rampart and a fortress wall, which made it possible to hold the defense during a siege, since wars were not uncommon for this period of time.

The European medieval city was an unsafe place, life in it was quite difficult. If high walls and an active army saved from devastating raids of foreign troops, then stone fortifications were powerless against diseases. Frequent epidemics that broke out in thousands claimed the lives of ordinary citizens. One plague epidemic could cause incomparable damage to the city. The following reasons for the rapid spread of the plague among the 5th-15th centuries can be noted. Firstly, the state of medicine of those times did not allow to deal with a single focus of the disease. As a result, the "Black Death" spread first among the inhabitants of one settlement, then went far beyond its borders, acquiring the character of an epidemic, and sometimes a pandemic. Secondly, despite the small number of inhabitants, in such cities it was quite high. The overcrowding of people was the best way to contribute to the spread of the infection, which is quickly transmitted from a sick person to a healthy one. Thirdly, by the standards of modern people, the medieval city was a collection of garbage, household waste and animal excrement. Unsanitary conditions are known to contribute to the emergence of many dangerous diseases spread by rats and other small rodents.

However, the birth and expansion of cities also had its positive features. Thus, most of them arose on the lands of large feudal lords or kings. People living in the territory subject to the vassal could engage in farming and trade, while receiving significant income. The vassal benefited from the prosperity of “his” city, since he could receive the bulk of his income from the taxes of the townspeople.

Description of the medieval city

Most cities of the 5th-15th centuries had from 4 to 10 thousand inhabitants. A city with a population of up to 4 thousand inhabitants was considered medium. The largest medieval city could barely count 80 thousand inhabitants. Milan, Florence, and Paris were considered megacities of those times. Mostly small merchants, artisans, warriors lived in them, and there was a local city nobility. A characteristic feature of European cities of the 12th century was the opening of universities in them and the emergence of students as a separate social class. The first such institutions opened in large centers of that time - Oxford, Paris, Cambridge. Their appearance had a significant impact on the development of individual countries and Europe as a whole.

Today, the medieval city seems to us a dull and dangerous place, where even in the heat of the day one could witness a robbery or murder. However, there is something romantic in the narrow streets of ancient European cities. How else can we explain the increased interest of tourists and travelers in such ancient cities as Sartene (Italy), Cologne (Germany). They allow you to plunge into history, escape from the bustle of the modern “concrete jungle”, and take, albeit a short, journey into the past.

Novgorod was also a big and rich holy fool at that time. The streets of Novgorod were paved with wooden pavements already in the 11th century. In Novgorod in the XI-XII centuries. There was also a water supply: water flowed through hollowed out wooden pipes. This was one of the earliest urban aqueducts in medieval Europe.

7. Cities of Europe during the Renaissance. Cities of Italy.

On the eve of the great geographical discoveries, the largest cities in Europe were the cities of Italy, which developed on the main routes of eastern trade. Venice had the largest fleet, a developed industry associated with extensive trade operations. The importance of Florence, Europe's largest center of the cloth industry, trade and financial activity, learning and the arts, was exceptionally great. The second center of eastern trade after Venice was Genoa, which had numerous strongholds on its traditional routes, including in very remote places. Milan was an important center for the production of weapons, silk and cloth industries. Naples was one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean. The pan-European significance of Rome was determined by the special role of the Catholic Church. Italian cities, which developed on transit trade, were not interested in political unity. In architecture, Gothic cathedrals, stone structures, town halls and palaces are being replaced by clear, calm, harmonious solutions focused on the scale and proportions of the human body. Architects return to the ancient order, trying to restore its tectonic significance, revealing the true design of the structure, turn to the centric composition of church buildings with a domed top, widely use arcades and arched window openings, strive for calm, rhythmic balanced horizontal divisions, a strict, geometrically correct form of buildings , mathematical accuracy of proportions. In the 16th century in Italy, a complex and lush Baroque style was established, in which the Catholic Church surrounded itself with an aura of power, luxury, and splendor, and Protestants were doomed to the simplicity of bare churches, freed from unnecessary decorations and decor. In city planning, there is a desire for rectilinear street perspectives, such as the oval square in front of St. Peter's Cathedral. Transitional from the Renaissance to the Baroque is the relatively small trapezoidal Capitol Square built by Michelangelo with the Palazzo Senatori in the center and the flanking buildings of the Palazzo Conservatory and the Capitoline Museum and numerous ancient sculptures with allegorical subjects. Calm silhouettes of low three- and five-story houses, bridges, jewelry shops. In Rome, the largest temples, numerous ensembles and palaces are being built, and new highways are being laid. After the great geographical discoveries, the position of Italian cities changed dramatically under the influence of the shift in trade routes to the Atlantic Ocean, this was most clearly manifested in the fate of Venice - the strongest maritime and colonial power with the largest fleet in Europe, enormous wealth, and a unique state organization. After 1587, Venice's commercial importance rapidly declined.

8) Medieval cities of the East. The term “Middle Ages” is used to designate the period in the history of the Eastern countries of the first seventeen centuries of the new era. The natural upper limit of the period is considered to be the 16th – early 17th centuries, when the East became the object of European trade and colonial expansion, which interrupted the course of development characteristic of Asian and North African countries.

Geographically, the Medieval East covers the territory of North Africa, the Near and Middle East, Central and Central Asia, India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and the Far East.

The transition to the Middle Ages in the East in some cases was carried out on the basis of already existing political entities (for example, Byzantium, Sasanian Iran, Kushano-Gupta India), in others it was accompanied by social upheavals, as was the case in China, and almost everywhere the processes were accelerated thanks to participation of “barbarian” nomadic tribes in them. In the historical arena during this period, such hitherto unknown peoples as the Arabs, the Seljuk Turks, and the Mongols appeared and rose. New religions were born and civilizations arose on their basis.

The countries of the East in the Middle Ages were connected with Europe. Byzantium remained the bearer of the traditions of Greco-Roman culture. The Arab conquest of Spain and the campaigns of the Crusaders to the East contributed to the interaction of cultures. However, for the countries of South Asia and the Far East, acquaintance with Europeans took place only in the 15th-16th centuries.

The formation of medieval societies of the East was characterized by the growth of productive forces - iron tools spread, artificial irrigation expanded and irrigation technology was improved; the leading trend of the historical process both in the East and in Europe was the establishment of feudal relations. Different results of development in the East and West by the end of the 20th century. were determined by the lesser degree of its dynamism.

Among the factors causing the “lag” of eastern societies, the following stand out: the preservation, along with the feudal structure, of primitive communal and slave relations that were extremely slowly disintegrating; the stability of communal forms of living, which restrained the differentiation of the peasantry; the predominance of state property and power over private land ownership and the private power of feudal lords; the undivided power of the feudal lords over the city, weakening the anti-feudal aspirations of the townspeople.

Re-odization of the history of the medieval East. Taking into account these features and based on the idea of the degree of maturity of feudal relations in the history of the East, the following stages are distinguished:

I-VI centuries AD – transitional period of the emergence of feudalism;

VII-X centuries – the period of early feudal relations with its inherent process of naturalization of the economy and the decline of ancient cities;

XI-XII centuries – pre-Mongol period, the beginning of the heyday of feudalism, the formation of the estate-corporate system of life, cultural takeoff;

XIII centuries - the time of the Mongol conquest, which interrupted the development of feudal society and reversed some of them;

XIV-XVI centuries – the post-Mongol period, which is characterized by a slowdown in social development and the conservation of a despotic form of power.

9. Cities of Spain and Portugal. In the first half of the 16th century. P, then I-powerful states of Europe. Their colonial empires are huge. Lisbon and Seville are the greatest ports and cities in Europe. Lisbon in the early 15th century. was a provincial capital of a small, impoverished country, but after discoveries and conquests in Africa, Asia, L. America and the emergence in the late 15th-16th centuries. huge colonial empire, Portugal briefly became one of the richest powers in Europe, and Lis. One of the largest European Capitals (here the wealth of the East is unloaded for distribution throughout the world). Seville, located on the river. Guadalquivir, per floor. 16th century surpasses all major European countries in terms of trade turnover. ports. The Spanish kings granted the city a monopoly on colonial trade, valid from the 15th century to the 18th century. The capital of the Spanish city, located in Toledo in 1561, was transferred to Madrid, which at that time numbered barely 20 thousand. Seville was more suitable for the role of the capital than Madrid, and this is one of the reasons for the early loss of Spain's possessions, but this is quite controversial thought. The enormous wealth flowing into Is. (note also applies to P) did not lead to the development of its economy. The royal authorities began to direct their huge incomes to the maintenance of the court and the construction of luxurious palaces.
In the development of Spanish cities there are historical layers of different eras, a mixture of architectural styles. Is. Cities, usually located on hills, inherited from the Middle Ages an extremely intricate network of streets rising to the gates of the fortress walls: only in some places regularly planned squares were cut into this medieval network (for example, Plaza Mayor in Madtida). From the Moors (Arabs and Berbers) not only buildings in the Moorish style were preserved, but also the traditions of decorativeness and splendor of buildings. Moorish architects combined Muslim traditions with Gothic (Mudejar)

10. Cities of England, France, Germany in the 17th – early 20th centuries.

In the second half of the 17th century. takes a leading position in European trade and in the struggle for colonies England. The role of England as the first industrial, commercial, financial and colonial power in the world radically changed the economic and geographical position of its capital, London, and contributed to the development of intensive urbanization processes in the country. Before the great geographical discoveries, London was one of the largest, but far from the largest cities in Europe. But with the opening of new trade routes across the Atlantic, London found itself at the center of Europe's vast northwestern front facing the ocean. What was important for London was its position at natural junctions, from which river and land routes diverged into the interior of the country. London is located on the Thames, England's largest navigable river, connected to the entire country by an extensive system of tributaries and canals.

The historical core of London is the City, the famous “square mile” at London Bridge, surrounded by walls in the times of the Roman Londonium and later in the era of Shakespeare, when London was not yet a very large medieval city. Along with London, the largest concentrations of industrial cities were formed in England after the industrial revolution. (Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Newcastle, Sheffield)

France occupied a special place on the European political scene back in the Middle Ages. It was the most populous country in Europe. After the Great French Revolution of 1789, France, having ceded economic primacy to England, remained one of the leading world powers. In the person of Paris, France created a city of world significance - the largest center of science, culture, art and the center of monopoly capital. The main stages of the development of Paris: 1. the historical core of Paris - the Ile de la Cité 2. medieval Paris of the 17th century. 3. Paris 18th century limited by external boulevards connecting the squares Charles de Gaulle, La Villette, Nation, Italy laid on the site of the demolished city walls of the late 18th century 4. Paris 19th century within the boundaries of the “boulevards of marshals”

Germany. For a long time, conditions for the development of large cities did not exist in Central Europe; a dense network of relatively small urban settlements, inherited from the Middle Ages, remained, only some of which reached a more or less significant size. Economic ties between different parts of Germany were very weak and did not create the prerequisites for the development of large cities. Urbanization processes in Germany intensified sharply only in the second half and especially at the end of the 19th century. The nature and features of these processes can be illustrated by the example of Berlin. In 1850-1900 Berlin's population increased 5 times to 2.7 million people. The city's development is rapidly expanding. Several zones are emerging, differing in the nature of development: 1. capitalist business center of the city with a large concentration of government agencies, palaces, banks, hotels, and commercial establishments. 2. the so-called "Wilhelm's Ring" with densely built-up quarters of barracks, with a regulated height of 20m and extremely small palaces-wells surrounded by the rear facades of houses. 3. the outer zone, which includes, on the one hand, large industrial enterprises and working enterprises, and, on the other hand, the Koralevsky residence and bourgeois suburbs with cottage development among lakes and forest parks.

Genesis of the city in the Middle Ages. Page 4-6

Cities of Rus'. Page 7-12

Cities of Western Europe. Pages 13-17

Similarities and differences between the cities of Rus' and Western Europe. Pages 18-19

Conclusion. Page 20

Bibliography. Page 21

INTRODUCTION

My work is dedicated to medieval cities.

In the modern city, contacts between different peoples are actively developing. And in the past, in the era of feudalism, the city was the center of ethno-cultural processes, an active participant in the formation of folk culture in all its diversity. There was, perhaps, not a single significant area of \u200b\u200bfolk culture to which the townspeople would not have made a contribution. But if the role of the city and the urban population in the development of the spiritual culture of the people has long been recognized by researchers, then the material culture of the townspeople, until recently, has not yet been studied by ethnographers to such an extent that such generalizations could be made in this area. At the same time, the material culture of the city is an integral part of folk culture.

In my work I set several tasks:

1. Determine the place of the city in feudal society, its essence.

2. Determine the prerequisites for the formation of a feudal city.

3. Study the development of the city in the Middle Ages, its role in economic, social and political processes.

This work is intended to reveal a broader idea of the population, appearance and features of the medieval city, on the basis of which the cities and metropolises familiar to us exist. As an example, the cities of Rus' and Western Europe are considered.

GENESIS OF THE CITY IN THE MIDDLE AGES.

There are common features of all cities of all times:

1. Multifunctionality: (trade and craft center, cultural center, spiritual and religious center, fortress).

2. There is no agricultural production in cities.

3. Concentration of two types of activities (craft and trade).

4. Administrative center.

A feudal city is a specific settlement with a relatively high population density, a fortified settlement with special rights and legal privileges, concentrating not agrarian production, but social functions associated with small-scale commodity production and the market.

Features of a feudal city :

1. Corporate organization of production.

2. Corporate social structure (rights, obligations, privileges).

3. Regulation of production.

4. Small production.

5. A certain system of privileges (the rights of residents or freedom), the right to have an army in the city, self-government bodies.

6. Close connection with land, land ownership, seigneury (especially at the first stage - the city arises on the land of the feudal lord).

7. Certain duties, taxes.

8. Part of the population consists of feudal lords who own land.

9. The top of the city acquires land in the district.

Medieval city- a higher stage of development of settlements compared to previous stages of pre-medieval eras.

Prerequisites and factors for the formation of a medieval city:

The prerequisites for the formation of a medieval city were progress in agriculture: productivity, specialization, and the release of part of the population from agricultural activities. Demographic factors in the formation of the city: raw materials base, growing demand among the agricultural population for artisan goods.

The formation of a feudal estate ensures:

1. labor intensification

2. organization of work

3. promotes specialization

4. development of handicraft production – population outflow.

Formation of the social and political structure of feudal society:

Development of the state (administrative apparatus).

The formation of a class of feudal lords interested in the city (labor organization, weapons, luxury goods, blacksmithing, shipbuilding, trade, fleet, money circulation).

Conditions that ensure the emergence of cities:

Social division of labor.

Development of commodity circulation.

A stimulating factor is the presence of urban centers that come from a previous time: an ancient or barbarian city.

The level of development of crafts and trade (the emergence of professional artisans working for the market; the development of near and far trade, the creation of merchant corporations (guilds)).

Formation of the city.

How does it arise? The question is controversial. In the history of mankind there have been diverse forms of city formation. There are various theories by authors from different countries about the founding of cities:

· Romanesque theory (based on ancient cities) – Italy.

· Burg theory (locks) – Germany.

· patrimonial theory – Germany.

· Market theory – Germany, England.

· Trade concept (foreign trade) – Netherlands.

The city did not arise suddenly. The process of city formation is a long process. The transformation of an early city into a medieval one occurs mainly in Europe in the 11th century. .

The cities had a complex social composition: feudal lords, “slaves”, and clergy (churches), a free trading population, artisans - a complex complex of both free and dependent, and those who had not yet received freedom.

Gradually, the entire urban population turned into a single class - Burgeuses - residents of the city.

CITIES OF Rus'.

Education of cities.

A consequence of the successes of the eastern trade of the Slavs, which began in the 7th century, was the emergence of the most ancient trading cities in Rus'. The Tale of Bygone Years does not remember the beginning of the Russian land, when these cities arose: Kyiv, Lyubech, Chernigov, Novgorod, Rostov. At the moment from which she begins her story about Rus', most of these cities, if not all of them, apparently were already significant settlements. A quick glance at the geographical location of these cities is enough to see that they were created by the successes of Russian foreign trade. Most of them stretched out in a long chain along the main river route “from the Varangians to the Greeks” (Volkhov-Dnepr). Only a few cities: Pereyaslavl on Trubezh, Chernigov on the Desna, Rostov in the upper Volga region, moved east from this, so to speak, operational basis of Russian trade, indicating its flank direction to the Azov and Caspian Seas.

The emergence of these large trading cities was the completion of a complex economic process that began among the Slavs in their new places of residence. Eastern Slavs settled along the Dnieper in lonely fortified courtyards. With the development of trade in these one-yard farms, prefabricated trading points arose, places of industrial exchange where trappers and beekeepers came together to trade. Such collection points were called graveyards. From these large markets our ancient cities grew along the Greco-Varangian trade route. These cities served as trading centers and main storage points for the industrial districts that formed around them.

The Tale of Bygone Years identifies the first local political form that formed in Rus' around the half of the 9th century: this is an urban region, i.e., a trading district governed by a fortified city, which at the same time served as an industrial center for this district. The formation of this first political form in Rus' was accompanied in other places by the emergence of another, secondary and also local form, the Varangian principality. From the union of the Varangian principalities and the city regions that retained their independence, a third form emerged, which began in Rus': it was the Grand Duchy of Kiev. Kyiv served primarily as the country's defensive outpost against the steppe and as a central trading post for Russian trade.

A city like Novgorod was formed from several settlements or settlements, which at first were independent, and then merged into one large urban community.

Medieval settlements can be divided according to the occupation of the inhabitants into rural-type settlements, associated mainly with agriculture, and urban-type settlements, mainly crafts and trade. But the names of the types of settlements did not correspond to modern ones: villages with defensive fortifications were called cities, and unfortified villages had other names. Settlements of the rural type predominated - peasant villages along with rural estates of feudal lords. The land of the peasant community extended for many tens of miles. The administrative, commercial and religious center of the community was the churchyard - a village in which the estates of representatives of the community administration, a church with the courtyards of the clergy and a cemetery were grouped near the trading area, but there were few estates of ordinary peasants who mostly lived in villages.

In the center, in the north of European Russia, a different process was going on: from the 15th to the 16th centuries. Small craft and trading settlements without fortifications arose (on the Novgorod lands - “rows”). In the XVII century. the process continued, settlements of this kind were called uncultivated settlements, and as they grew, they were renamed posads, but were not called cities.

Population.

The bulk of the population of the old cities were “townsman people” engaged in crafts and small trade, and various types of military personnel - “service people”. In large cities, especially in Moscow, noticeable groups were merchants of various categories, clergy and others. Secular and ecclesiastical feudal lords had estates in the cities, and the central estates of monasteries were often located here.

The quantitative relationships between the main groups of the urban population were different in different cities. For example, in Moscow there were relatively more representatives of the feudal classes and various civil servants than in other cities. Foreigners living in Moscow were predominantly of Western European origin; there were about 600 thousand inhabitants. In addition to the Russians, there were many Greeks, Persians, Germans, and Turks, but there were no Jews at all, because they were not tolerated throughout the state.

In general, foreigners noticed that the population in cities was much smaller than one might expect, judging by the number of buildings. This stemmed from the importance of the city in the Moscow state: it was, first of all, a fenced place in which the surrounding population sought refuge during an enemy invasion. To satisfy this need, which so often arose from the circumstances in which the state was formed, cities had to be larger in size than was necessary to accommodate their permanent population.