The New Order

I. Economic Expansion

    A. Agricultural Improvements

1. Heavy plow/Draft Horse team

            2. Three Crop Rotation

    B. Higher yields--more surplus wealth
             1. Return of cash economy

             2. Lords increasingly ask for rents rather than service

                     a. payments of rents creates new incentives

b. rents generate cash and greater potential for wealth
             3. Rise of free peasantry (under contract)  and decline of serfdom

II. Significance of economic expansion
    A. Population Growth

    B. Powerful aristocracy
        1. Patronage of the church
        2. Warrior ambitions and their limits
        3. How can aristocrats further extend their wealth and power?

    C. Expansion of Trade and Growth of Cities
        1. Importance of cloth trade
        2. Fairs
        3. Rise of the bourgeoisie
             a. how do they fit in?

III. Medieval Cities
    A. Some cities in Flanders and Italy gain independence

    B. Others win rights through charters. 
        1. govern own affairs through councils and guilds

    C. Guilds regulate economic and social life
        1. organized by trade
        2. specified membership, methods, and prices
        3. early capitalism competes with guilds

    D. Cities, like aristocrats, become patrons of the church and the arts
        1. Spiritual Revolution next. . .