Florence
Although changes took place everywhere in Europe, Florence was the centre of the Renaissance. Fifteenth century Florence was an exciting place to be. At that time the city was independent and had a population of about 60,000.
12 guilds controlled trade in the city. The members of these guilds were very rich and held high positions in the city's government. They also gave the city a lot of money.
Most powerful among the guilds were the textile workers. Florence was the centre of cloth making and cloth trading. Wool of excellent quality came from England. In Florence the raw material was cleaned, spun , dyed and woven. The finished material was very expensive and sold in other European cities.
Another source of income was banking. Many families of Florence were successful bankers. They even produced a gold coin, the florin, which became popular in all of Europe. The most famous bankers were the Medici. They controlled Florence up to the beginning of the 18th century.
Image (modified): TUBS, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE,
via Wikimedia Commons
Words
- century = a period of a hundred years
- cloth = material used for making clothes
- coin = a piece of metal that is used as money
- dye = to change the colour of something, especially cloth or clothes
- government = the people who rule a country
- guild = a group of people who have the same job
- independent = free, to govern yourself
- source of income = the work you get your money from
- spin - spun = to make cotton or wool into thread
- trade = to buy and sell things
- weave - wove - woven = to make cloth, carpets, or baskets by crossing pieces of thread under and over each other by hand