During the Middle Ages, the social and economic structure was heavily influenced by the concept of feudalism, where tradesmen played a significant role. These tradesmen, often referred to as merchants, were involved in the exchange of various goods like salt, iron, textiles, silk, and spices.
Guilds in the Middle Ages were associations or groups of craftsmen. Each guild focused on a specific trade such as the candlemaker's guild or the tanner's guild.
Tradesman
Tradesmen called merchants commonly traded items such as salt, iron and textiles. There were also rarer items, such as silk and spices, that came from trades in China and the Middle East. With time, craftsmen produced cloth, made shoes, became brewers (beer makers), made glass and shaped stones for buildings.
Tradesmen often worked an apprenticeship, a system of training in which a master craftsman assists beginners in the learning of a trade. Most of the training is done on the job while working for an employer. Often some informal, theoretical education is also involved.
A trade or occupation generally refers to a job that requires some specific kind of skill. It often refers to people who produced goods or services that required specific skills. Generally people who were tradesmen lived in cities. They formed guilds, which were associations of craft people with a specific trade. Tradesmen generally had a higher level of education and had more privileges than people who worked in the fields.
Trades That Have the Same Name Today, but Different Meanings:
Bailiff
Gives jobs to the peasants and repairs tools,
Assists in the courts
Barber
Cuts hair, is a dentist and sometimes is a doctor,
Cuts hair
Blacksmith
Shoes horses and makes weapons for the knights,
Shoes horses and forges iron for many uses
Spinster
Spins the yarn or thread from sheared sheep,
An unmarried older woman
Miner
Digs tunnels during sieges to undermine a castle,
Digs for ore
A family surname, or last name, is the part of a person’s name that indicates to what family a person belongs. In the Middle Ages, surnames often were derived from a person’s occupation. Examples include Miller, Smith, Cooper, Fletcher, Driver, Skinner, Tanner, Hunter, etc.
Over 90% of people during the medieval ages were considered peasant's to the upper class like : Kings, priest, nun's etc. when it came to the middle class there way of life was the equivalent to running a reastraunt where the idea was you put in what you get out so that way you always come out even, so they wouldn't lose money but they weren't rich, they were even.
