As cities grew, so too did the need for food. Uncultivated lands gave way to the plow, and farmers learned to fertilize fields and alternate crops. New crops were cultivated, including buckwheat, maize, cotton, and sugarcane. Innovative technologies often borrowed from the Muslims who, in turn, had learned them from the Chinese came into use. The windmill and wheelbarrow helped people work. The iron horseshoe and the breast-strap increased the usefulness of horses as draught animals.

As seaborne trade revived, sailors were quick to exploit another Asian invention, the magnetized needle which pointed faithfully to the north. Mounted on a straw and set upon water in a bowl, it acquired the name compass. Another innovation, the rudder, firmly attached by hinges to the rear of a boat, replaced the steersman's oar and enabled builders to fashion heavier craft suitable for ocean navigation.

Money, long forgotten in the West, came into circulation again, encouraged by supplies of gold taken from Byzantium and the Levant. In Europe a kind of gold rush occurred as prospectors found the precious ore in such rivers as the Rhone and the Rhine, and miners found gold in Hungary and the Caucuses. Royal mints were established in Sicily, Genoa, and England to mold gold into coins. The new money facilitated trade and encouraged a social revolution, in which wage-earners began to replace serfs.

Another piece in the economic growth puzzle was supplied by the rebirth of banking. The Catholic church had discouraged trade for centuries by outlawing the loaning of money at interest; they preached that a Christian should not charge interest for giving money to someone in need, a practice called usury. Now such regulations fell into disuse. Along with loans came insurance and letters of credit. The first modern bank in Europe was established in Venice in 1171. Encouraged by a favorable business climate, merchants developed new ways of making profits. In Germany, for example, the merchants of several dozen cities drew together for mutual protection, forming the Hanseatic League in 1358. The German trade with England gave the English the name for their currency: they called the Hanseatic traders "Easterlings," and because of this English currency came to be known as "sterling."

By packhorse and cart as well as by ship, trade goods began to move from region to region. Russia exported cereals and furs; England, wool and tin; France, honey and wine; Flanders, cloth. Fairs were held throughout Europe where merchants exchanged goods. There, men and women were introduced to a wider world which included not only the merchants and their wares, but also wandering singers and actors. Perhaps most captivating of all were products manufactured far away by a people few Europeans would ever see spices, silk, cotton, and perfume from China.

Crusades:

Why People went? Political, Social Economic Reasons

Age of Faith