Industry

The production of goods changed in some ways during the Renaissance, but industry in the modern sense did not emerge until much later. The term industria, as used at the time, simply meant hard work. For the most part, items were made by hand in workshops rather than produced on a large scale in factories. Still, several aspects of the modern industrial world had their roots in the Renaissance.

Urbanism, Capitalism, and Production. During the Middle Ages, small-scale trade and manufacturing began to take root in towns from Flanders* to southern Germany and northern Italy. The Black Death* and later outbreaks of plague halted this development until the mid-1400s. Then as Europe began to recover from its population losses, new urban centers emerged. Though small and widely scattered, these cities encouraged a new attitude toward business and promoted capitalism*. However, this capitalism was fueled by commerce rather than by industry. Trade and commerce were still more important than manufacturing, which depended on the skill and effort of individual crafts workers. Moreover, trade involved raw materials rather than large quantities of finished goods.

The production of goods was a fairly simple affair during the Renaissance. It usually occurred on a small scale, even in major industries such as textiles. For example, an important group of cloth manufacturers in Florence employed no more than 15 workers. However, as the population of Europe began to grow again, the demand for goods increased. The urban expanding markets encouraged merchants to offer a greater variety of products, as well as luxury goods such as silk cloth.

Large-Scale Activities. While the production of most goods took place on a limited basis during the Renaissance, three industries—textiles, building construction, and mining—operated on a larger scale. Textiles were a source of new wealth for many cities. Florence had a reputation for its fine woolen cloth, but Florentine manufacturers did not raise their profits by increasing production. Instead, they used their contacts to bring the best materials and techniques to Florence so that they could produce less expensive cloth that more people could buy.

When the demand for cloth dropped sharply in the late 1300s, manufacturers began to invest in silk production. They could maintain their profits on luxury fabrics such as silk, brocade, and velvet even with a smaller market. In addition, the invention of a silk-throwing machine greatly simplified the process of making silk. When economic growth began again in the mid-1400s, the demand for luxury items expanded as well.

Building construction flourished in the Renaissance, as communities and princes* sought to erect ever more impressive structures. These projects employed large crews of workers for long periods of time. In Rome in the 1500s, more than 2,000 workers participated in the construction of St. Peter's church. In France and Spain, palaces became larger and more elaborate and incorporated many new luxuries such as glass windows.

The most remarkable building complex of the Renaissance was the shipyard known as the Venetian Arsenal. Several thousand people, including a significant number of women employed as sail makers, worked in what was the leading technological center of the age. In 1574 workers there outfitted a ship in the time it took for the visiting King Henry III of France to have dinner.

The major mining centers of Europe were located outside of Italy. Mining required many workers and enormous sums of money for the machinery needed to extract materials such as copper, silver, tin, and coal. At the beginning of the Renaissance, these mines produced most of the metals used for coins. However, in the late 1500s silver and gold from the Americas flooded Europe and greatly increased the number of coins in circulation. This increase, in turn, stimulated the demand for goods, which resulted in a widespread rise in prices.

The methods the Spanish used to extract gold and silver in the Americas formed a model for later industrial production. The Spanish assembled a large and dependent labor force, tightly controlled the means of production, and kept expenses to a minimum largely by ignoring labor conditions.

War and Communication. European countries at the time spent much of their wealth on military defenses and technology. The introduction of cannons had a profound impact on the nature of warfare. City walls and fortresses had to be rebuilt to withstand the firepower of cannons. Knights on horseback gradually gave way to foot soldiers, and firearms came into general use. As a result of these changes, armies grew larger and wars became longer and much costlier. Few rulers could afford the steep increase in military expenditures, even the Spanish with their rich overseas resources.

Printing was another industry that developed quickly during the Renaissance and had far-reaching effects. A German invention, printing spread to Italy in the mid-1400s, and by 1500 Venice had become the leading book producer in Europe. However, printing remained a relatively small enterprise. Books were expensive and many people could not read. Nevertheless, printing was the beginning of a revolution in communications that made it possible to circulate new ideas and information rapidly throughout Europe. Printing helped spread the ideas of ERASMUS, the humanist* scholar, and of Martin LUTHER, the Protestant reformer.