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  3. Economic Decline in Europe During the Fourteenth Century P1: Some very negative factors accounted for the economic crisis in fou

Economic Decline in Europe During the Fourteenth Century P1: Some very negative factors accounted for the economic crisis in fou

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问题 Economic Decline in Europe During the Fourteenth Century
P1: Some very negative factors accounted for the economic crisis in fourteenth-century Europe. With minimal human influence, the climate in Europe in the 1300s changed drastically, and the results were devastating. For seven years the weather turned abnormally cold and wet, triggering floods and ruining crops. There is substantial historical evidence for the Little Ice Age. The Baltic Sea froze over, as did many of the rivers and lakes in Europe. All of these indicate that during the fourteenth century, Europe’s average annual temperature declined approximately two degrees Celsius—this may sound like very little at first, but if one considers current projections about the possible effects of global warming, in which the average annual temperature shift is only one degree Celsius, a rather different impression emerges. As the temperature dropped, shortening the summer growing season and affecting the resilience of certain vegetable species, the wind and rain increased. During the coldest times, England’s growing season was shortened by one to two months compared to present day values.
The availability of varieties of seed today that can withstand extreme cold or warmth, wetness or dryness, was not available in the past. Therefore, climate changes had a much greater impact on agricultural output in the past.
P2: The next essential change occurred in the geopolitics of the Mediterranean world. The trade routes served principally to transfer raw materials, foodstuffs, and luxury goods from areas with surpluses to others where they were in short supply. The Byzantine trade was among the most advanced in Europe and the Mediterranean for many centuries. The decline of the Byzantine Empire, which had dominated the eastern Mediterranean, meant the interruption of trade routes to central and eastern Asia. The empire once operated as a prime hub in a trading network that at various times extended across nearly all of Eurasia and North Africa, in particular as the primary western terminus of the famous Silk Road. European interest in circumnavigating Africa and exploring westward into the Atlantic Ocean, in fact, originated in the desire to avoid the roadblock in the eastern Mediterranean and to tap directly into the trade with eastern Asia that had long sustained Europe’s economic growth.
P3: A more immediate cause of the ailing economy was an observable absence: since the eleventh century there had been few innovations in the agricultural technology. The groundwork for disaster was laid when populations exploded, as roughly the same farming methods as those adopted two hundred years prior were still in use, which brought a disruption in the food supply. With a much larger population to feed, there was little surplus left to generate fresh capital. Although the failure of agriculture to keep up with the growing population did not become a crisis until the fourteenth century, clear signs of the problem had already emerged by the middle of the thirteenth century, when occasionally low yields due to bad weather or social disruption revealed how perilous the balance between Europe’s population and its food supply had become. Farmlands most recently brought under cultivation during the economic crisis of the twelfth century witnessed the first evident tentativeness of the food supply. The less established farmers of these lands frequently did not have the ability to survive successive poor harvests. Tenant farmers unable to pay their rents were thus heavily in debt, and landlords who collected rents for their financial source tended to rely considerably on urban financiers for credit.
P4: The credit crisis afflicted almost all European countries and the most remarkable of which was England. The cycle of indebtedness was hardly inevitable, but the string of bank failures and commercial collapses in the first half of the fourteenth century was striking. The famed Bardi and Peruzzi banks of Florence (the two largest financial houses of Europe) collapsed spectacularly in the 1340’s. They were soon followed by the Riccardi bank of Lucca, whose massive loans had kept the English government afloat for years. Many more houses collapsed in turn.
P5: Farm expansion in Europe had come to an end by the year 1300. Much farm land fell into disuse, reducing the output of food.
Farm animals died, further diminishing the food supply. With all the deaths and drop in demand for food, the price of food dropped. In cities of Western Europe, with fewer people to work the demand for labor increased, as did wages. Consequently, large-scale migration of rural populations rushed into the cities. Europe’s overall population growth from 1050 to 1300 had been primarily due to an increase in the number of rural folk. Many cities doubled in size, and some even tripled, over the course of just one or two generations. Few were capable of absorbing such large numbers of people.
P3: ■ A more immediate cause of the ailing economy was an observable absence: since the eleventh century there had been few innovations in the agricultural technology. ■ The groundwork for disaster was laid when populations exploded, as roughly the same farming methods as those adopted two hundred years prior were still in use, which brought a disruption in the food supply. ■ With a much larger population to feed, there was little surplus left to generate fresh capital. ■ Although the failure of agriculture to keep up with the growing population did not become a crisis until the fourteenth century, clear signs of the problem had already emerged by the middle of the thirteenth century, when occasionally low yields due to bad weather or social disruption revealed how perilous the balance between Europe’s population and its food supply had become. Farmlands most recently brought under cultivation during the economic crisis of the twelfth century witnessed the first evident tentativeness of the food supply. The less established farmers of these lands frequently did not have the ability to survive successive poor harvests. Tenant farmers unable to pay their rents were thus heavily in debt, and landlords who collected rents for their financial source tended to rely considerably on urban financiers for credit.
Why does the author mention in the passage that the Bardi and Peruzzi banks were "the two largest financial houses of Europe"?
选项 A、To indicate the connection between Florence banks and the English government
B、To emphasize the great impact that these bank failures had on the economy
C、To compare the Bardi and Peruzzi banks with the Riccardi bank
D、To indicate the success that these banks had previously achieved
答案B
解析 【修辞目的题】第四段说14世纪上半叶一连串银行的倒闭和商业崩溃是相当惊人的，两个欧洲最大的金融机构在14世纪40年代轰然倒塌。所以作者提这两个最大的金融机构是为了强调银行倒闭对经济的重大影响。
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