From Abbey Estate to Market City
1In the early 800s, Irminon, the abbot of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, a large monastery just outside Paris, ordered a survey of the abbey's lands. Scribes went from village to village and wrote down each peasant household and what it owed. The abbey's lands were run as manors. Each family held a small farm, called a manse. In return, the family owed the abbey days of plowing and harvesting in the abbey's own fields, loads of wine or wood carted to the abbey, a few chickens and eggs, and sometimes a little silver. Some families were free tenants and others were serfs, but all of them owed duties. Much of what the estates needed, from grain and wine to cloth, was produced on the estates themselves.
2Over the next centuries, the countryside changed. After about 1000, farmers cleared forests and drained wet ground for new fields, and heavy plows and better farming methods helped them grow more grain. Europe's population grew. Many lords began to ask for rents in coins instead of days of work, so peasants carried their extra grain, wine and eggs to markets to earn the coins. Markets near bridges, castles and abbeys drew buyers and sellers each week.
3Paris became one of the largest cities in Europe. Around 1268, Étienne Boileau, the royal official in charge of the city, had the rules of about 100 Paris crafts written down in a work later called the Book of Crafts. Each craft was organized as a guild. The rules said how many years an apprentice had to train, which materials could be used and when shops had to close. Some guilds let a master take only one or two apprentices at a time. Each guild chose sworn masters who inspected shops and could fine members who broke the rules.
4Every June, crowds traveled to the Lendit Fair on the plain of Saint-Denis, a few miles north of Paris. Merchants came with cloth, horses, sheep and many other goods. The head of the University of Paris rode out with students to buy the parchment the schools would need for the coming year. Traders paid tolls for a place at the fair, which brought income to the abbey of Saint-Denis.