Industry and Trade

THEORIES as to the nature and extent of industry in pre-Carolingian times are closely related to those on the decline of the Roman town and primitive German civilization after the so-called age of the migrations. This is inevitable. The logical corollary of the theory that the conflicts of the migration period caused a breach in the continuity of civilization is the theory that the Germans were mainly occupied with agricultural pursuits, and had not time to develop industries. A very minor importance was therefore attached to most industries and, owing to the influence of the manorial theory, it was assumed that they were carried on only on the great estates, in order to supply their own demand. The theory of the medieval “ closed household economy ” advanced by political economists ¹ lent weight to these arguments. It was held that all the necessities of life were produced within the household, or within a larger but clearly defined agricultural unit, no surplus remaining for the market of which the household or estate was quite independent, save for a few articles which were not to be found in the country. Later, at the earliest in the tenth century, the growth of towns created a demand for an industry independent of the great estates, so that free manual labour was able to develop out of that which earlier was bound by the custom of the manor. ²