Most
people worked as farmers during the beginning of the Middle
Ages because farming methods were inefficient and most of
the population was needed to farm the land for food. As farming
methods improved towards the beginning of the eleventh century,
more people were able to leave their farms and earn their
living by becoming craftsmen and traders. As these people
came together to practice their trades, they formed the first
towns.
 The
people in towns were free; they owed service and obedience
to no lord. Instead, the people paid a tax to the lords who
owned the land on which the town stood. The towns government
was led by a lord mayor and a council, who passed laws that
were made public by a town crier with a bell. These mayors
and councilmen were generally chosen from among the wealthiest
of the craftsmen and traders and they zealously guarded the
rights and privileges of their town against outsiders. Towns
were almost always fortified with high stone walls that encircled
the town and patrolled by guards in case the lord decided
to go back on his agreement.
Inside
the walls were a myriad of specialized industries such as
weaving, leather working, bakers, and shoemaking, that provided
many new jobs and many new goods. Merchants established new
shops in the growing towns where there were many customers.
Guards were needed to patrol the town walls and keep the peace,
and musicians were needed to play at feasts and in civic processions.
Bankers and lawyers arrived and set up there shops, developing
a new middle class. There was no room for town residents to
grow food, so peasants from the countryside came to sell their
produce in markets and buy the specialized goods of the town
at least once a week. Sometimes serfs tried to hide in the
towns. If they could stay for one year and one day without
their lord finding them, the serf would become a freeman.
Townspeople
lived in tall skinny houses that lined narrow, winding lanes.
These houses were usually at least two floors. The bottom
floor was a long skinny workroom where the owner displayed
his goods and waited on customers. Subsequent floors housed
the owner, his family, servants, and any apprentices he had.
If a townsmen needed to add a room onto his house, he simply
built on another floor. The windows in the house were covered
by wooden shutters, although a few wealthy merchants had thick
pieces of glass to keep out the elements. The houses were
constructed of wood, or rough quartz and flint cemented together.
Most houses were also painted, usually black, red, or blue,
with paint made of pitch and linseed. Both the paint and the
roof were highly flammable and the cry of "Fire!"
sounded often, striking terror in listeners.
 Towns
helped to usher in new goods and new luxuries. They also helped
to increase the quality of goods produced through regulation
by trade guilds and ushered in the end of feudalism by providing
people with options other than farming.
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