Climatic change and inter-city cooperation in medieval northern Europe

At this lunch meeting at the Centre for Medieval Studies, Angela Huang (Saxo Institute) and Ulla Kypta (University of Basel) will lecture on Climatic change and inter-city cooperation in medieval northern Europe.

During the late 13th and the 14th century, a colder climate reduced crops in Europe, leading to famine and population decline well before the devastating epidemics that stroke since the middle of the 14th century. Curiously, inter-city cooperation made decisive advances in northern Europe parallel to this population crisis. In some cases the cooperation of cities even developed into leagues of towns that stretched over vast territories.

In our presentation we argue that climatic change was a motor for increasing inter-city cooperation across northern Europe: evidence suggests that in a colder climate, crops and the lords’ revenues were reduced. To compensate for the lost income, the lords pledged their rights of disposal and use to their cities. The increasing urban autonomy allowed cities to freely interact with each other.

The reduced power of lords also led to a stronger orientation of the rural economy towards the markets of nearby cities, boosting the supply side of the municipal markets. Furthermore, demand increased, because the decline in population increased the per capita stock, fostering production and the emergence of guilds.

Regional specialization in production due to natural resources and local traditions led to trade relations not only between a city and its hinterland, but also between regions. Population decline and increasingly autonomous cities together thus intensified supra-regional commercial activities; inter-city cooperation provided the necessary infrastructure.

By investigating the development of inter-city cooperation between 1280 and 1380, our presentation will test the hypothesis that the climatic deterioration did not only trigger a 'crisis of the 14th Century', but also ushered a northern European era of towns that laid the ground for the economic recovery of the late 14th and 15th Century and shaped urban society well into the modern era.

All interested are welcome.