section_path: High Middle Ages/Economic revival
section_name: Economic revival
paragraph_text: Economic revival
  
  The expansion of population, greater agricultural productivity, and relative political stability laid the foundations for the commercial revolution in the 11th century. People with surplus cash began investing in commodities such as salt, pepper, silk, wine and honey in faraway markets. Rising trade brought new methods of dealing with money and gold coinage was again minted in Europe, first in Florence and Genoa. New forms of commercial contracts emerged, allowing risk to be shared within the framework of partnerships known as commenda or compagnia. Bills of exchange also appeared, enabling the easy transmission of money. Since many types of coins were in circulation, money changers facilitated transactions between local and foreign merchants. Loans could be negotiated with them, which gave rise to the development of credit institutions known as banks.
  
  As local commercial centres developed into towns, economic growth caused a new wave of urbanisation. Kings and aristocrats primarily supported the process in the hope of increased tax revenues. Most urban communities received privileges acknowledging their autonomy, but few cities could eliminate all elements of external control. Townspeople engaged in the same trade or profession were united in confraternities known as guilds. These associations typically made rules governing quality, training, and pricing, and only their members had access to local markets.
  
  The Italian maritime republics, such as Amalfi, Venice, Genoa, and Pisa, were the first to profit from the revival of commerce in the Mediterranean. In the north, German merchants established associations known as hansas and controlled trade routes connecting the British islands and the Low Countries with Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. Trading fairs were established and flourished in northern France, allowing Italian and German merchants to trade with one another and with local merchants.
  
  Economic growth provided opportunities for Jewish merchants to spread throughout Europe with the support of local rulers. Jews could not engage in prestigious trades outside their communities, and often took low-status jobs such as ragmen or tax collectors. They were especially active in moneylending, because they could ignore the Christian clerical condemnation of loan interest. Jewish moneylenders and pawn brokers reinforced antisemitism which manifested itself in the blood libel and pogroms. Church authorities' growing concerns about Jewish influence on Christian life inspired legal segregation and the expulsion of the Jews from England.