Medieval Economic Changes

2026.03.04

"Industrial Revolution" in the Middle Ages

  • not a real revolution;
  • 90% adoption of existing innovations, 10% original innovations;
  • Cistercian monasteries functioned as large-scale industrial enterprises;
  • Textile industry: a primary necessity, with significant innovations; dispersed manufactories (production at home, but also a central workshop); from the 14th century onward, guilds;
  • Iron industry: located far from towns; the Cistercians recruited lay workers; labor shortages due to desertions; decline;
  • Construction: cathedrals; wastefulness resulting from concentrated wealth;
  • Reasons for the stagnation of development:
  • environmental damage, deforestation;
  • accumulation of waste;
  • deterioration of bodily hygiene;
  • poor harvests due to climatic factors;
  • the Great Plague;
  • the disintegration of feudalism, labor shortages, uprisings;
  • Inhibiting factors:
  • demographic stagnation, a shrinking consumer market, no demand for technical equipment;
  • agricultural crisis, cultivation of less fertile lands, lack of technical innovation, famines;
  • the spread of guilds (opposition to innovations);
  • there was no industrial revolution in the Middle Ages, only an agricultural one.
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