Walker - 1967 - A geography of Italy

PART i: SOME GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
dominant motif was beginning to emerge from the obscurity o f the earlier
centuries; the Germans were on the offensive in the east, the Spaniards and
Normans in the south. In Italy, Byzantine and Muslim control in the south had
come to an end, and an improving economic situation in northern Europe and a
more favourable strategic position in the Mediterranean made possible a revolution
in the geography of the coxmtry, the most important features o f which were
a growth in the population, and the emergence o f prosperous trading and manufacturing
cities rivalhng those o f Roman Italy in size and surpassing them in
wealth.
Medieval Italy was fortimate in that she lay between the Levant termini of the
great Asiatic trade routes on the one hand, and the main market in north-west
Europe on the other. Her access to the Levant was made easier by the counteroffensive
o f the Christian powers against the Muslims which foimd its most
obvious expression in the Crusades, while the market for luxury goods in the
towns and courts o f Europe, both lay and ecclesiastical, expanded with more
cultivated tastes and more settled times. O f the return trade the most important
commodities were English wool, and later, woollens, Flemish linens and cloth,
slaves from east German frontier wars, furs and metal. Vast fairs were held in
Champagne and Brie to facilitate exchange between Europe’s two most economically
developed areas, north Italy on the one hand and north France, the Low
Countries and south-east England on the other. These fairs lost much o f their
importance in the fourteenth century because o f the wars between Flanders and
France and the development o f the sea route from Italy to the Channel. What
Rheims and Troyes lost London and Antwerp gained.
A compelling influence in the rise o f Italian trade and industry was the growth
o f population in the country, in common with most o f the rest o f Europe, despite
the catastrophic setbacks with which the period is studded. Although Italy was
already (c. looo) the most heavily populated sizeable area in Europe, she lacked
the plentiful wastelands o f France and England and the expansible frontier o f
Germany and Spain. The numerous unprovided sons o f the lesser nobility sought
their opportunity in trade and finance, which came to be regarded not only as a
lucrative activity but also as an honourable one. Similarly the surplus rural
population swelled the artisan classes o f the towns, which in turn provided a
demand for specialized commercial products such as flax, silk, wool and hides.
The Itahans became the middlemen o f Europe, and were foimd wherever a deal
could be made from London to Pekin, and from the Baltic to the Niger. They
managed the opulent finances o f the Vatican, acted as advisers to foreign kings ^
and successfully challenged the Jewish banking monopoly. Humbler folk found
an outlet for their talents as mercenary soldiers, sailors and artisans.
Economic developments were very imevenly spread over Italy. With the
exception o f Venice, the early pioneer cities o f the Itahan commercial revival,
* The Florentine Franzenzi brothers to Philip the Fairj the Genoese Pessagno to Edward
II of England.
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