Guns and Gold; Faith and Food : 157 



time. We should look also for a particular set of circumstances devel- 

 oping at a particular time that would leave these causes free to 

 operate. 



Naturally one of the basic ingredients of any historic situation is 

 the matter of population. In Europe, from the fall of the Roman 

 Empire up to the fourteenth century, population had been relatively 

 stabilized. Perhaps this should be more precisely stated by saying that 

 there had been a slow but general population increase in Europe over 

 these centuries. Of course, elements of the European population had 

 shifted from place to place; there had been wars, famines and plagues 

 and these had made local differences in the population of various 

 countries. Various areas had high and low spots but over the whole 

 period, population was slowly increasing. 



This battle of the people of Europe for survival was a grim one, 

 particularly in the Middle Ages. Birth rates were very high and so 

 were death rates. Many individuals died young and the average 

 length of life was much shorter than it is today. Life was hazardous 

 and unsanitary. This was particularly true in the cities. The numbers 

 of deaths in the large cities of Europe always exceeded the numbers 

 of births; in other words, the populations of the cities never replaced 

 themselves. The only way that a city was able to maintain itself was 

 by a steady stream of people flowing to it from the country districts 

 and the small towns and here, of course, the births exceeded the 

 deaths. This destructive effect of city living was very marked in the 

 ancient cities of Europe. It was decreased by improvements in medi- 

 cine and sanitation that came in the latter part of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury but it continues even today. Even in modern America it is the 

 rural districts that make the expansion of the large cities possible. 



In medieval times food for the population was a perpetual prob- 

 lem. Occasionally there were prosperous periods and prosperous areas 

 but over a large part of Europe, people lived on the margin of fam- 

 ine. Methods of producing food were crude and methods of preserv- 

 ing and distributing cruder still. Anything that upset the basic 

 economy of a country produced a large number of deaths; anything 

 like a drought or a set of unusually cold winters could produce a 

 famine and continually millions of people were so undernourished 

 that their lives were shortened. 



Despite hazard and disaster the population of Europe was slowly 

 increasing until an extraordinary event upset the balance and pro- 

 duced some unexpected changes in the European living pattern. The 

 changes began with disaster — this was the great plague or Black 



