European Economic Expansion: 11th to 13th Centuries

From 930 to 1300, the West saw the start of development, mainly agricultural, which is known thanks to new research techniques. This produced a transformation of rural space and the emergence of an agrarian social order. This agricultural development is associated with urban and commercial expansion. Similarly, there was cultural and political development. The pace of the expansion process accelerated from 980 to the beginning of the 13th century. The West expanded its geographic boundaries across the European continent.

Historical science has not stopped investigating the causes of this expansion. It is problematic. Various factors that researchers have been considering to explain this expansion are not enough: the weakening of external pressures, population growth, improved production techniques, and trade. Undoubtedly, all these factors had their weight and influenced each other: the increase in agricultural production made possible the growth of the population, and vice versa, resulting in the breaking of new land. Some have come to believe that technological progress may be due to the stimulation of an increased tax burden on agricultural production in the manor.

Instruments of Expansion

More Favorable Conditions of Existence

From the data of the Domesday Book, a catalog of the resources of the kingdom of England made in 1086, the royal forest was a total of 4 million hectares, of which 60% were non-productive land. The saltus, that is, non-cultivated land, receded from the tenth century because of the actions of the peasantry. Some scholars suggest that the work of loggers and land reclamation could be facilitated by climatic changes. Between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, Europe enjoyed a "climatic optimum" favorable for crops, especially cereal, which was the staple food. Thanks to that, the threat of famine was made less burdensome, although there were some shortages. We found a better-nourished population. It remains difficult to determine and quantify the population expansion. Historians today do not agree on population figures, even in the best-known case: England. It is estimated that Europe's population doubled between 950 and 1300, and in some countries, it tripled. It was a slow and steady growth.

This population growth resulted in migration, which made possible the new reclamation and urban and commercial expansion. These migrations include those staged by the Franks in the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula, the Flemings who participated in the German colonization, and so on.

A Better Domain of Techniques

Rather than innovation, it was the refinement and dissemination of techniques of production and transformation that were known before. Progress of the tools involved:

• The domain of iron and fire. The development of iron ore mining is attested from the tenth century. In the twelfth century, it aroused interest among the "masters". The blacksmith became an important element of rural society.
• The domain of animal power. The front yoke for oxen, the rigid horse collar, leaning on the shoulder blades or shoulders, and hitching in a row are distributed systems since the eleventh century, which increased the drag force and were critical to the operation of heavy and deep soils; a "revolution" in land transport.
• The domain of water. The watermill was widely used in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. First in rural areas, where it facilitated the milling of cereal to save labor, then in urban environments. Irrigation techniques were used for the conquest of new farmland. Other regions held major collective works of drainage and improved river traffic.

It is perhaps in urban and commercial activities where real technical innovations were recorded. The introduction of the horizontal loom allowed, in the twelfth century, to triple the performance. That is a basis of development that took place first in Flanders and neighboring regions. On the other hand, trade association contracts and banking practices came to mobilize capital and adapt the most important means of payment to the boom in commercial transactions. Despite these improvements, the West was still inadequately equipped. Thanks to the proliferation phase of tillage, there was an undeniable increase in yields in agriculture. Productivity was still limited, with even a tendency to decrease.