Factors Affecting Social and Economic Relations

The social and economic fabric of medieval Europe was not static; it was reshaped by a web of interlocking forces that the chapter lays out in a specific sequence. The first of these is the environment, whose geography and climate dictated what could be grown and how people lived. Closely tied to this is technology, which determined how effectively that land could be worked. From these material conditions flow the social relations that bound lords, peasants, and artisans, an …