Guns and Gold; Faith and Food : 159 



century. The economic and social effects in Europe generally were 

 similar to the effects in England. 



There was at least temporarily a relief of pressure, a chance for 

 readjustment, a little more of everything to go around, a little more 

 space and light and air. Of course, from modern standards and from 

 the point of view of present crowded Europe, the land of fourteenth- 

 century Europe did not appear to be overoccupied nor the cities very 

 large compared with the modern metropolis, but this is a wrong set 

 of standards to apply. There is a relativity in society just as there is 

 a relativity in physics. 



The technology view of the fourteenth century is very different 

 from our own. Since then, we have had an industrial revolution and 

 our technological progress in agriculture, industry, transportation, 

 medicine and so forth makes possible and tolerable a concentration 

 in population that in the fourteenth century would have been un- 

 bearable. In terms of technology and economy, the fourteenth century 

 was overburdened. In fact, the Black Death itself was probably one 

 of the results of this burden. 



The generations that grew up in Europe following the plague had 

 the benefit of relief from the old conditions. They were probably a 

 little healthier, happier, better fed and more hopeful than the pre- 

 ceding generation. They had the benefit of growing up in the more 

 hopeful atmosphere of the age of the revival of learning and the 

 Renaissance which began to spread over Europe. Quite possibly the 

 new conditions of the population facilitated the utilization and spread 

 of the Renaissance ideas and the Renaissance ideas also assisted the 

 population in improving their conditions and their attitude toward 

 life. 



Of course, in the beginning, interest in the new philosophy of life 

 was confined to the princes and their courts, to the relatively Hmited 

 class of specially educated people, to the artists and philosophers. 

 However, there was implicit in this new philosophy and in the arts 

 and the growing sciences an increased opportunity for the independ- 

 ent individual. The Renaissance influence spread not only in a geo- 

 graphical sense from Italy northward into France and England but 

 it also spread in a social sense to different elements in the society. 

 The Renaissance was not confined to the arts or to a set of intellec- 

 tual ideas, it also represented some improvements in technology and 

 in the means and standards of ordinary life. 



In a technical sense the term "industrial revolution" has been ap- 

 plied by the historians and the economists to the period that followed 



