What were the economic and trade conditions in Europe before during and after the Hundred Years War?

Answer 1

Main Anglo - French trade before the war was in the grain and wine and salt: English exported the grain and buy wines and salt from the Gascogne, French province. During the war troop movements destroyed the crops and vineyards in France, so after the war all this farms and vineyards had to be rebuilt and replanted.

The English were very found of French wines and the large convoys were made to bring the wine from Bordeaux to London and other ports. Most of the customs incomes of the English Crown were from selling wines and wool. Wool was produced in England and exported in the sacks ( one sack equals 300 sheep fells ) to the Flandres and Brabant ( todays Belgium ) where textile was produced in the various towns. Main port on the Continent was Brugges, trading center where Venetian and Hansa merchants and ships met and exchanged wares.

Answer 2

This was an economic crisis, the conditions were horrible and money and supplies were low all throughout Europe.

Over this period in History there were some of the greatest changes in the economics of Europe. During the first phase of this conflict The Black Death arrived in Europe and wiped out around one third of the Population.

This devestated the economy and disrupted the order of society where the Lords relied on serfs to work on their fields, providing most of their disposable income.

They was such a shortage of labour in England that landowners began to bribe the serfs of other Lords to come and work for them instead. This was the birth of capitalism. Many Lords could not magage their large estates and began to lease land to commoners so that they could at least earn somethig from the land that couldn't farm themselves. This was the birth of the middle class.

The English army relied on commoners to volunteer for military service rather than being serfs, so as the war progressed it became more expensive to hold the army together. The English army became more mercenary, with soldiers willing to fight for whoever would pay them best.

Their leaders taxed the areas of France under their control using the fear of attack as a form of exrating protection money from the local population.

They would also raid ares that they were not strong enough to conquer and destroy everything before withdrawing to their strongholds. This had the effect of keeping their enemies weak and continually having to rebuild their resources before the English came back and destroyed them again.