Transport
In the middle-ages,not so many kinds of transport existed...And besides,travelling
was quite risky. Of course,there would be priests, travelling on foot,but,for
your security (and for your goods' security), the wealthiest people
would either not travel at all or they would take a boat.
Although,there wouldn't be a thief waiting for you in every forest, thieves
were a possible danger (and a big one). It would be quite unsafe for noble
people to travel on their own.But remember that the middle-ages were
a time of knights and noblemen would surely be escorted.
Sometimes,people who wanted to purify themselves in the eyes of God
went on a pilgrimage. This is why sometimes you could see people travelling
without an economic purpose such as selling goods or trading.These pilgrims
would usually be going to a church to see the bones of a saint.
Merchants
At that time,merchants had donkeys to pull their small carriages.
Also,there was there was the 'Silk Road' : merchants from countries of
Asia came all the way to countries such as Italy to exchange products(spices,silk
etc.).
Merchants travelled on medieval roads between the main rich cities
of Europe.
However, these roads were very badly maintained and were hardly practicable
during the bad season(winter). Sometimes there were lords' taxes to cross
a bridge.
Merchandise was bought and sold thanks to the network of fairs.
Boats
First,ships of northern Europe were designed in a way quite like
Viking ships.These ships were sturdy though they couldn’t carry too much
weight or they would sink.
Equipment wasn’t really sophisticated, though,ships still had astrolabes
(a useful compact tool that can tell time and latitude from the position
of the moon) and the 'Jacob’s ladder'. In fact, many ways of trying to find
where you were and your destination were quite inaccurate and irrationall
(ex:”if you sailed some direction and you saw so -and-so,it would mean so-and-so
and you’d have to sail to some other direction for so-and-so days until
you reached your destination”). These methods were “superstitious”.Since
middle-ages people didn’t know much about their worlds,they would have
to invent rituals and imagine things,as well as methods.
There were risks about losing the merchandise ships carried.This
is why merchants bought the cargo of more than one ship,so that they wouldn’t
lose everything.
* What was the most interesting part of the project?
We all
pretty much liked to see other groups' market stalls,perhaps because we didn't
have a stall ourselves. The Thursday the Market place was
up was probably the most fun moment.
Our work was mostly only collecting information,
writing paragraphs and drawing illustratons to go with our paragraphs.
* What was the most difficult part of the project?
Probably it was when we were collecting information.There would be information
in books and on the internet, but most of the time it wasn't really complete
and didn't really list all the ways of transportation. Finding information
was the most difficult.*
When you used this information, you somehow had to situate it
in time,just to be sure it really was used in the Middle-Ages.
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