TF阅读真题第848篇Wool production in Europe on the high Middle Ages

Wool production in Europe on the high Middle Ages

During the High Middle Ages (A.D. 1000-1300)， the Baltic Sea, North Sea, and English Channel tied together the peoples of Scandinavia, Lithuania, northern Germany, England, and Flanders(a Dutch-speaking region along the North Sea). Scandinavian fish and timber, Baltic grain, English wool, and Flemish cloth circulated, linking these lands in a common economic network. In this region, as in southern Europe, there developed urban merchant and manufacturing communities linked by sea routes and distinguished by a distinctly urban commercial mentality.

The earliest of those interrelated communities were the wool-exporting towns of England, particularly London, and the cloth-producing towns of Flanders, Brabant (a region adjacent to Flanders), and northern France. Chief among these cloth-producing towns were Ghent, Bruges, and Ypres. Both Flanders and England had been known for their cloth production since Roman times. In the eleventh century, Flanders, lacking the land for large-scale sheep grazing and facing a growing population, began to specialize in the production of high-quality cloth made from English wool. At the same time, England, which experienced an economic and population decline following the Norman Conquest in 1066， began to export the greater part of its wool to Flanders to be worked. The production of wool cloth began to change from a small-scale industry carried on in the home by family members using their own equipment into Europe’s first major industry.

Woolen manufacture was a natural activity for such a transformation. The looms required to manufacture wool cloth were large and expensive. The skills needed to produce the cloth were complex. The need for water both to power looms and to wash the cloth during production tended to concentrate cloth manufacture along waterways. As competition increased, only centralization and regulation of manufacture could ensure quality control and thus enhance marketability. And Europe’s growing population provided the first large-scale market for manufactured goods since the disintegration of the Roman Empire. For all of those reasons, by the late eleventh century the traditional method of cloth production had been transformed. No longer did individual women sit in farmhouses spinning and weaving. Now manufacture was concentrated in towns, and men replaced women at the looms. Furthermore, production was closely regulated and controlled by a small group of extremely wealthy drapers (cloth merchants).

Concentration of capital, specialization of labor, and an increased urban population created vibrant, exciting cities essentially composed of three social orders. At the top were wealthy patricians-the drapers. Their agents traveled to England and purchased raw wool, which they then distributed to weavers and other master artisans. The master artisans-often using equipment rented from the patricians- directed less-skilled workers in the other tasks such as carding, dyeing, and spinning. Finally, the finished cloth was returned to the patricians, whose agents then marketed it throughout Europe. Through their control of raw materials, equipment, capital, and distribution, the drapers controlled the cloth trade, and thus the economic and political life of Flemish wool towns. Through their closed trade groups, they controlled production and set standards, prices, and wages. They also controlled communal government by monopolizing urban councils. In wealth and power, the drapers had become almost indistinguishable from the great land-owning nobles.

At the bottom of urban society were the unskilled and semiskilled artisans, called blue nails because constant work with dye left their fingers permanently stained. Their existence was more uncertain than that of most peasants (farmworkers). Employed from week to week without any guarantee of future employment, paid barely living wages, and entirely dependent on the woolen industry for their livelihood, they often hovered on the edge of subsistence. In the early fourteenth century, the temporary interruption of grain shipments from northern Germany to Ypres left thousands dead of starvation. Unsurprisingly, from the thirteenth century on, these workers were increasingly hostile to the patricians. Sporadic rebellions and strikes spread across Flanders, Brabant, and northern France. Everywhere they were ruthlessly suppressed. The penalty for organizing a strike was death.

Between the patricians and the unskilled and semiskilled workers stood the masters-the skilled artisans who controlled the day-to-day production of cloth and lesser crafts. Masters organized into guilds, with which they regulated every aspect of their trades and protected themselves from competition. The masters often leased their looms or other equipment from the drapers and received from them raw materials and wages to be distributed to their workers.

The word “distinguished” in the passage is closest in meaning to

Asupported

Bconnected

Cinfluenced

Dmarked

It can be inferred from paragraph 2 that Flanders did not specialize in wool production because

AFlanders was too small to produce a great deal of wool

BFlanders’ tradition of cloth production was too strong

CFlanders was conquered by a foreign country

Dthe population declined in rural areas of Flanders

According to paragraph 3, all of the following were required to successfully manufacture wool cloth EXCEPT

Alarge, expensive looms

Bworkers with complex skills

Caccessible waterways for transporting wool and cloth

Da water source that could provide enough energy to run machinery

All of the following are identified in paragraph 3 as ways in which the cloth industry changed EXCEPT:

AThe cloth produced became more consistent in quality.

BMen began performing aspects of cloth making previously associated with women.

CManufactured cloth goods became more varied to increase product marketability.

DCloth production began to take place mainly in urban settings.

According to paragraph 4, which of the following statements about the drapers is true?

AThey mostly belonged to the class of great nobles.

BThey dominated the political life of the wool towns.

CThey were the highest-ranking master artisans.

DThey traveled throughout Europe to market finished cloth.

The word “temporary” in the passage is closest in meaning to

Adangerous

Bsudden

Cminor

Dlasting a limited time

According to paragraph 5, what was true of the unskilled and semiskilled artisans called blue nails

AThey accepted low wages to avoid the harsh punishments that would result from rebelling.

BThey were unsure whether their employment would continue beyond a given week.

CThey often took jobs outside the cloth industry to add to their income.

DThey became increasingly difficult to suppress from the thirteenth century on.

In paragraph 5, why does the author include the information that the interruption of grain shipments left thousands of workers dead of starvation?

ATo support the idea that survival was very uncertain for workers at the bottom of urban society

BTo help explain why the patricians decided to ruthlessly suppress rebellions and strikes

CTo give an example of the consequences suffered by workers for organizing strike

DTo explain why it was possible for strikes and rebellions to spread across Flanders, Brabant, and northern France

Woolen manufacture was a natural activity for such a transformation. [■]The looms required to manufacture wool cloth were large and expensive. [■]The skills needed to produce the cloth were complex. [■]The need for water both to power looms and to wash the cloth during production tended to concentrate cloth manufacture along waterways. [■]As competition increased, only centralization and regulation of manufacture could ensure quality control and thus enhance marketability. And Europe’s growing population provided the first large-scale market for manufactured goods since the disintegration of the Roman Empire. For all of those reasons, by the late eleventh century the traditional method of cloth production had been transformed. No longer did individual women sit in farmhouses spinning and weaving. Now manufacture was concentrated in towns, and men replaced women at the looms. Furthermore, production was closely regulated and controlled by a small group of extremely wealthy drapers (cloth merchants).

Look at the four squaresthat indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage

Woolen cloth had never been very suitable for home production because of the demands involved in its manufacture.

Where would the sentence best fit？Click on a square sentence to the passage.

In northern European during the High Middle Ages, the production of wool cloth developed into the first major industry.

AAlthough timber, fish, and grains were the first goods to be traded in the common economic network linking northern European countries, raw wool and cloth came to be more important.

BEurope’s growing population provided a market for large-scale wool manufacture, which required specialized labor and became concentrated along the waterways needed to power the looms.

CA small group of wealthy patricians dominated the wool towns both politically and financially and controlled every aspect of the cloth trade, from raw materials to the distribution of finished products.

DFlanders had been known since Roman times for its production of high-quality cloth made from English wool, which it had imported by way of the sea routes that linked the two lands.

EGuilds were closed and often secret organizations through which drapers and artisans worked together to set standards for cloth production and prices at which cloth was sold.

FMasters-skilled artisans organized into guilds-directed the work of poorly paid unskilled and semiskilled workers who were totally dependent on the wool industry for a living.

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