4.29 Europe: a.d. 1501 to 1600

Europe (the time of the reformation and beginning of world exploration)

Back to Europe: A.D. 1401 to 1500

At the beginning of this century Europe had a population of about 69,000,000 and it was increasing rapidly. Commerce and financial transactions remained essentially linked to the great fairs held regularly at centers between northern Italy and Flanders and there was a continuous inflation year after year. In a little over 100 years in France, prices rose a total of 627.6% (i.e. from 1471 to 1598). (Ref. 260 ) In the second half of the century, private trading with traveling merchants became a common feature, probably because the public markets were becoming inadequate and too closely controlled. Advertising was already flourishing and land was bought and sold frequently. The commission system, whereby all merchants worked on commission for other merchants, who did the same for them, became quite common by the end of the century. (Ref. 292 )

Braudel (Ref. 292 ) makes the interesting observation that the first 2/3 of the century was an age of accelerated social promotion, with the highest bourgeoisie group climbing from the trade background to join the limited ruling classes, all over Europe. As a section of the old nobility disappeared, it was replaced by these wealthy new-comers. At the end of the century this trend was reversed - "the door to social advancement was in effect slammed shut, the ladder pulled up." In general, successful merchant families only survived as such for 2 or 3 generations. After that they abandoned trade to live quietly on country estates or when possible slipped into the nobility class.

Roads in Europe were chiefly tracks a yard wide, suitable for horsemen, although sometimes there were adjacent footpaths for pedestrians and herds. When wheeled carriages appeared in large numbers in this century they posed real problems, making severe town surgery necessary in most places. The new thoroughfares, however, in the long run helped both hygienically and commercially. The inhabitants of towns of ten spent only part of their lives there because they had to participate in the harvests, even in such busy places as Flanders. Algerian pirates had no trouble taking Gibraltar in 1540 because, as they knew, all the inhabitants were outside the walls, helping with the grape harvest. (Ref. 260 )

In spite of almost constant warfare and religious strife, or perhaps because of the latter, men of education in science, theology, art and medicine seemed to rove from one European country to another. Because many were born in one nation, educated in another and worked finally in a third or fourth location it would be difficult to describe all of them under the sectional divisions of this manuscript. Some of these remarkable men are therefore listed in this paragraph and one might just classify them as "Europeans". Vesalius, born in Belgium, but a student in France and Italy, wrote one of the greatest medical works of all time on the human anatomy. It was published in Basel, Switzerland in 1543 and included many illustrations drawn by the great artist, Titian. In fact it may be said that the year 1543 marks the beginning of the "Scientific Revolution" because of three features:

• The anatomical drawings of Andreas Vesalius
• the translation of Greek mathematics and physics of Archimedes
• Copernicus' treatise - "The Revolution of the Heavenly Orbs." (Ref. 21 )