MEM Test #2
Economic problems for Germany on the eve of the Reformation (select all that apply):
- The power of the Hanseatic League had peaked - Germany has experienced a relative decline in population - the rise of the "Atlantic" economy pulls activity away from Germany
Characteristic of earlier times in Germany/The Holy Roman Empire leading up to the eve of the Reformation (select all that apply):
- growth of national self-consciousness in the German lands in 12th and 13th centuries - signs the first European state might even emerge there - the Empire was the center of gravity of Europe - the Holy Roman Emperor shared with the Emperor of Byzantium the prestige associated with the inheritance of imperial Rome - Under the Hohenstaufen, Germany seemed united and strong
The following are mentioned by Hughes as characteristics of Germany on the eve of the Reformation (select all that apply):
- the call for a fundamental reform of the Empire - calls for social and economic reforms - the prediction of the emergence of a messianic leader from the lower orders who would lead a movement to retsore the Emperor to his powers as a just father of his people - Revolutionary and reactionary sentiments, often mixed - a yearning for a return to the society of the past
By the 13th century the "third estate" includes (choose all that are correct): bankers engineers salesmen doctors poets peasants and proletarians
All are correct
A spiritual or intellectual Germany according to Hughes first came into being in the 19th century.
F
And the farther one goes back in history, the simpler things get.
F
Based on Gies, the best leather and shoes seem to be Italian.
F
Cultural tensions had the effect of bringing about solidarity and overcoming divisions among different groups.
F
Germany's development as empire occurred pretty much in isolation from the rest of Europe.
F
Hughes characterizes the Holy Roman Empire as a "melting pot."
F
Hughes history is a primarily economic one.
F
Hughes' study will focus exclusively on the most prominent or significant historical events, such as the Thirty Years War and the French Revolution.
F
Merchants bring their wares to the Fair at their own risk, there are no guarantees of protection or compensation in case of robbery or theft.
F
One of the most striking characteristics of the empire was its uniformity and simplicity.
F
Recently there has been a new turn towards forcing the poorest and most destitute citizens to perform a city's required military service.
F
The "Statute in Favour of the Princes" helped centralize political power under the emperor.
F
The Borussian legend was that it was Austria's manifest destiny to lead and unite Germany.
F
The Lingua Franca of the Fair is Latin.
F
The Third Estate refers to knights living in towns, as well as canons, priests, and monks.
F
The citizens remain religious enough to support crusades, and don't mind paying the "aids" that make crusades possible such as that of King Louis IX, especially as the latter turned out to be such a success.
F
The most important of these is salt.
F
The most popular wines come from afar, the Bordeaux region.
F
The popluation growth was strongest in the east.
F
A merchant may borrow at one fair, promising to repay as he sells the goods he buys with the borrowed funds at subsequent fairs.
T
After the cloth market is closed, another market is opened for goods that have to be weighed.
T
Also, a variety of calamities befall Troyes, Champagne, and Western Europe generally in the fourteenth century.
T
An increasingly complex financial system with different kinds of financial "instruments" is coming into existence surrounding the fairs.
T
Another reason for the waning of the Fairs suggested by Gies: The fairs nurtured more efficient ways of doing business, e.g., the grandson of the Italian business man who struggled over the Alpine passes stays at home, and deals with representatives permanently stationed in the north.
T
Arrangements have become available whereby merchants can involve themselves in the Fair without having to make the journey there and be physically present.
T
As in all times, wealthier felons tend to get off easier than poorer ones.
T
At the fair there is a standard ell,i.e. standard dimensions for a bolt of cloth.
T
By the latter 15th century, the Venetian reign in the Mediterranean will become less signficant in the scheme of things as the result of the initiatives of a Genoan explorer.
T
Charters of different cities show a great variety of arrangements regarding the kind of military service the city owes its feudal lord.
T
Cities are allowed to operate their own law courts for lesser crimes, limits are set to required military service, and usually they are permitted a mayor and a town council.
T
During this part of the fair, a range of other commodities are also sold, from German iron, to the art of Italian gold- and silversmiths.
T
Experts can tell immediately identify the special characteristics of certain cloths and tell where they were made.
T
For 19th and 20th century historians, political progress meant progress towards a national state, and the Empire seemed to lack the essential characteristics of a real state.
T
Frequently, freedoms are exemptions from certain kinds of taxes.
T
Gies considers one spice surpasses all others: pepper.
T
Gies notes growing tensions between the topmost members of the third estate -- the patricians -- and the traditional medieval powers of the princes and Church officials.
T
Gies suggests the move from money to credit transactions of different kinds point more than anything else towards future economic developments.
T
Hughes considers the idea of an "interplay of dualities" as crucial in imperial/German history.
T
Hughes even speaks of a romanticizing or idealizing of the Holy Roman Empire that goes hand in hand with a new kind of nationalism.
T
Hughes wants to make a case for writing about "Germany," even when it was deeply fragmented.
T
Hughes' study is about the failure of a feudal empire to find unity, except in the loosest of federations.
T
In 1477, the Habsburgs by way of marriage opened a huge territorial prospect for striking at France and for trying to strengthen their position in Germany.
T
In Champagne, cases reserved for the count are heard by his provost.
T
In Gies' account, the Italian cities seem most closely connected to banking.
T
In Hughes' study, the question of failed empire will be considered with the ideas of a German national feeling and a German cultural unity.
T
In some regions, we observe a medieval advance in jurisprudence: courts of appeal.
T
In the 14th and 15th centuries, the importance of Troyes is "on the downgrade."
T
In the case of Troyes, because of the wealth provided by the fairs, people remain satisfied even though the machinations of the Count show their political liberties to be illusory.
T
In the late 15th century, many thought the world was coming to an end.
T
In the month following the market the money flow generated by it results in a foreign exchange and money trade.
T
In traditional historiography, there are large blank areas between important events that Hughes proposes to examine in his study.
T
In view of Count Thibaut's turning out of his original council and his subsequent arrangements with Bernard de Montcuc, city government looks like little more than a money making agency for the Count.
T
Jurisdiction is also an important source of revenue, so different agencies compete for it.
T
Many different parties profit from transactions at the Fair, besides the merchants themselves.
T
Many of the examples of advanced credit methods cited by Gies involve Italians.
T
Members of a commune typically take an oath to defend their lord and be good and loyal burghers.
T
Modern historians have frequently considered that Germany's problems in modern times were based on an "arrested development" associated with its imperial past.
T
More recently, historians have begun in different ways to consider the empire not merely as a failed alternative to the nation state, but for possibly positive contributions.
T
Old Germanic legal customs still survive; in some cases, a killer can still buy his freedom by compensating the family of his victim.
T
On the longer term, the population of Germany rose between the late fifteenth and the early seventeenth century.
T
One Florentine house keeps a balance in an account with the moneychangers so its agents are never without funds.
T
One senses based on Gies' remarks that much economic activity shifts to the north and to cities that can trade over waterways.
T
One theory about the waning of the Fairs is that they began to be overtaxed.
T
Overall, one could speak of a renaissance of law, the increasing presence of court trials, examination of witnesses under oath, the use of trained lawyers, and the use of trained lawyers.
T
Paris as the capital of a powerful central monarchy and with a much larger population took over as the major economic hub by the end of the Hundred Years War.
T
People generally have an increased need for reassurance about the availability of salvation and rush to achieve it.
T
Preparations for the Hot Fair, as rendered by Gies, suggest gambling, drinking, and prostitution are forms of "entertainment" that the populace of Troyes prepares for visiting merchants and clients.
T
Princes can request "aids," or cash payments from their cities. Such payments could impoverish cities to the point of bankruptcy.
T
Punishments for severe crimes handled by the count's provost were severe by modern standards, even execution by hanging is not a "clean" death.
T
Roman Law is that of princes and cities, the religious law of bishops (Canon Law) was codified by a man named Gratian.
T
Spices brought by Italian merchants come from as far away as Constantinople, Acre, Antioch, or Tripoli.
T
Straight loans are also obviously part of the money business at fairs.
T
The "freedoms" enjoyed by city-dwellers aren't modern in the sense of a democracy. they are grants of freedom from feudal obligations of different kinds.
T
The Champagne Fairs became so successful they made themselves obsolete.
T
The Fair is an interesting and diverse spectacle, during which one might expect to see all different kinds of people of different social rank and entertainers with trained animals performing on street corners.
T
The following paragraph from Gies is extremely important. Please read and consider it carefully, and after you have done so click on "A. True" below: "The Commercial Revolution, as modern scholars have named it, supplied the economic and technological basis for exploitation of the New World. At the same time it laid the foundations in mining and metallurgy, banking and merchandising, for the momentous developments in northwest Europe in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. The descendants of the craftsmen, merchants, and moneylenders of thirteenth-century France, England, Germany, and Flanders steadily augmented their power, toppling thrones, overturning churches, burying hallowed customs and taking over the privileges of the privileged classes. Without the Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages, neither the French Revolution nor the Industrial Revolution is conceivable."
T
The freedoms are set down in a document called a "charter," a kind of contract between a sovereign and the commune as a collective bargaining agent.
T
The growth of monopolies may also have played a role in the waning of the Fairs.
T
The loudest arguments tend to happen before the smaller stalls.
T
The major and some councilmen act as judges.
T
The moneychangers' function at the fair is also to form part of an increasingly elaborate and extensive system of credit.
T
The most important Fair in Champagne is the Hot Fair of Troyes.
T
The nobility associated with cities ever improves its situation vis-a-vis nobility in the countryside.
T
The original city council of Troyes was chosen by the prince.
T
The price of spices probably has something to do with the mystery attached to them and the long distances they have come.
T
The third law court in town is that of the bishop, which is for people with any church office: clerics, monks, etc.
T
The town has jurisdiction over petty minor infractions.
T
There are now law schools where one can study either Roman Law or Canon Law.
T
There are special courts that are under the supervision of the "Keepers of the Fair" to handle crimes committed at the Fair.
T
Town government tends to remain in the hands of wealthy burghers whose interests are close to those of their prince.
T
Trial by ordeal has fallen into disrepute; Gies connects this to the rise of a kind of thinking one might call reasonable or rational.
T
Typically a small number of families monopolize political power.
T
Various people who are not merchants take advantage of the market to find a bargain or sell a hen or a cow.
T
Venetian, Pisan, and Florentine merchants do not agree on when the year begins, or even what year it is.
T
Venice becomes the "unchallenged queen of the Mediterranean."
T
The first signs of decline began to appear in this century:
the fourteenth
