Growth And Recession: A Synthesis

Abstract

This book aims to contribute to a revision of medieval history. The traditional perspective views the social and economic development of Europe as a prolonged boom period, starting around 1000 A.D., followed by a general state of crisis beginning in the early or mid-fourteenth century and lasting for about 200 years. It is generally agreed that population growth characterized Europe in the High Middle Ages. The history of the Danish peasantry in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries evokes a rather dismal picture of the High Middle Ages. Urbanization, the increasing division of labour, and rising standards of living in the Late Middle Ages are reflected in the development of commodity trade. This conclusory chapter states that the image of a booming economy in the High Middle Ages followed by a late medieval recession does not adequately reflect the development of Danish resources as examined in this book.Keywords: commodity trade; Danish resource; economic growth; high middle age; late medieval recession; urban revolution