Renaissance Merchants

Merchants in the middle ages played a part to make society what it is today. Merchants are referred to as business people who were involved in trade or retail to earn a living. The skill of trading in the Renaissance time, used by merchants, is reflected in the trading that occurs in the present century. Over time, merchants grew wealthy, but not before they were discriminated against by some of society. The job of a merchant may come across as simple, but in fact merchants in the Renaissance era were skilled, had challenges to overcome, an occupation to fill, shaping society, and evolving into the 21st century (Newman, “Merchants in the Middle Ages”). Merchants are dealers of wares between countries. Merchants is a term that in Latin is “mercer”
Between 1346-1353 the damaging plague (or Black Death) swept the world- especially Europe. About 75 to 200 million people died in this event that will always be remembered. Rats, as most people believed, first started to carry the plague and they would often hitch a ride on a boat or such that a traveling merchant would be on. Thus, merchants were blamed for spreading the Black Death. However, with less people, goods were not hard to come by and the prices dropped immensely. Wages rose and jobs paid more. This worked in the merchant's favor because they earned much more money and were able to obtain more goods (“Cultural and Economic Effects of the Black Plague”). The 14th century also was quite a good time for merchants. Nobility grew more wealthy and peasants were paid more. Hence, peasants had more money to purchase goods from the merchants. The merchants social status increased until they were one of the richest people in society. Therefore, merchants had positions in governments, such as mayor and some of their children married children born into nobility. Both of these events were very important for merchants and helped them greatly evolve into the 21st century (Newman, “Merchants in the Middle Ages”). In conclusion, a merchant's road in life of the time of the Renaissance was hard to travel on because of everything that came their way due to their job. Like skills; the education, learning Latin; shaping society, influencing the building of towns and cities; and evolving into the 21st century. Without merchants, the present would be different for the reason that merchants played a big part in the past when they changed society for the better (Newman, “Merchants in the Middle