As Pirenne explains, “the cities which were then to be found were without two of the fundamental attributes of the cities of the Middle Ages and of modern times- a middle-class population and a communal organization.” Towards the end of the tenth and into the eleventh century, this budding middle class began to form, Pirenne argues, in direct correlation with the expansion of trade, and with that formation, communal organization and social progress soon followed.Īs Islamic control in the Mediterranean faded, and as Scandinavian traders in the north became more prevalent, true medieval towns began to develop throughout Europe. Feudal estates, monasteries, castles and fortresses dominated the European landscape, but none of these could be labeled as towns or cities. He believed that at this point in time the only European settlements not purely agricultural were those of the ruling noble classes or those of the Church. Pirenne maintained that between the ninth and tenth centuries, the only real trade occurring in Europe was at a local level, long distance commerce having all but disappeared as a result of Muslim domination in the Mediterranean. In a series of lectures presented during the early 20 th century, Belgian historian Henri Pirenneput forth his understanding of the development of cities in Medieval Europe, an understanding based upon the decline and subsequent rise of commercial activity.
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