• military/politics/religion all enter into the progression of technology
• economic system shapes technology
• agricultural surplus means farmers have food to sell and money to buy things and craftspeople can buy food
  
• somewhat more ability to borrow money
• a lot of regional trade, allowing regional specialization so larger scale production (though not factories)
• more skilled craftspeople and the guild system
• competition between cities encouraged some innovation
  
• increasing population and increasing surplus is starting to increase the rate of progress
• step by step development of technologies reached the point of take-off (improvement begins to build on itself)
• instead of the kings and the lords having all political power, merchants, guilds, armies (eg. knights templar) have increasing ability to stand up to the feudal system (because they organized)
  

• residents were free from feudal obligations
• governed themselves (communes)
• trade fairs where merchants met
• Ways around the ban on usury
• the Bible prohibits lending money to be repaid with interest, which is called usury
  
• Exodus 22:24-25, Leviticus 25:36-37, Deuteronomy 23:19-21, Psalms 15:5
• in the middle ages the Church defined usury as charging interest in any circumstances

Trade both depended on and encouraged agricultural surplus

• manorial system and communal (open-field) agriculture
• decisions for the three large fields farmed communally were made by the peasants
• Three field crop rotation (9th century)
• winter wheat or rye
• spring oats, beans, or barley
• fallow (often used as pasture)

• the invention of the cam allowed the conversion of rotary motion into reciprocating motion
• new uses for water power:
• around 1000: fulling wool cloth, beating hemp, water driven trip hammers to break up iron ore
• around 1100 water powered bellows, edge runner wheels to crush olives for oil
• around 1200 saw mills that used water power both to power a rotary saw and to feed in the log
• around 1300 water powered grindstones, pumps to remove water from mines
• building dams on rivers for water power--1177 Toulouse had 3 dams with 45 mills.  The largest dam was 1300 feet long
• windmills (late 12th century) used in areas where land was flat or streams froze in the winter

Most crafts were small scale

• cloth making was often done at home with a foot treadle loom
• but increasingly some regions specialized
• fine wool was woven particularly in Flanders but sometimes dyed in Italy, which also became a center for cotton and silk
• many other craftspeople worked in cities, sometimes on a scale of a dozen workers but with limited use of mechanical power
  

By the 12th century crafts were organized into guilds

• you had to be a member of the guild to make and sell that product in that city
• membership was limited and prices were set
• they were cautious about innovation fearing it might reduce quality
• people looked for stability, change wasn't yet associated with progress
• 
  
• the introduction of hops made beer keep better so it could be traded farther

Cathedrals showed the wealth of cities and attracted merchants
Castle designs also improved for defensive purposes
cobblestone roads and bridges were built