After the Black Death wiped out about 70% of the population, the decrease of population leads to labor shortage. As a result, farmers produced a surplus of food, which also lead to various areas in Europe to specialize products (ex: England produced wool, and Germany produced grain). People then traded off the products in their area for either money or other goods from other areas, this is when specialization increased rapidly. This stimulated the economy to grow during the Renaissance. Feudal lords had a hard time finding peasants to harvest their crops and work for them, this lead to peasants demanding more money and eventually freedom from their lords. As the peasants gained freedom from their lords, the feudalism system faded day by day, people who survived the plague soon had a much, much better life. Merchants became extremely wealthy, causing the nobles to lose power. The decline of power in the nobles (caused by the lack of peasants and the rise of the merchants) was a major influence and stimulation to the development of the Renaissance. Although it seemed like the economic system and the political system were not related influences, they are. The political system went from the feudalism system in the Middle Ages to a system where merchants, the wealthier people, basically gained control over the politics. As you can see, the influence on the economic change lead to political changes, which stimulated the Renaissance to develop successfully.
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May 2015
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