At the beginning of the Middle Ages, most trade was in expensive goods, but soon there was trade in all items, even like food. There was trade between countries for things like spices as well as local trade. Towns grew around the local markets.
             Markets were very different in the middle ages than our marketplaces. Crossing roads often became marketplaces. People selling things had to set up tents. A lot of people came to the marketplace to shop. The people even sang songs that told how busy marketplaces could be. The peasants sold crops and livestock. The artisans sold their art. Going to a marketplace was like going to a carnival or fair.
             Some towns became rich because their people specialized in a certain type of thing. A guild was a group of people with a common interest. People formed religious and social guilds. The most important guild was a group of merchants and craft workers. One reason that merchant guilds were organized was for greater security against attack as they traveled.
             Craft guilds were bakers, brewers, goldsmiths, tailors, weavers and other craft workers. To protect their members, they established rules much like the rules of the merchant. guilds.
             There were different levels of craft workers. A journeyman went through training. He was a skilled worker who got paid. He couldn't open a shop because he wasn't a guild member. He had to work for a master for three years. The final year he had to make a masterpiece to become a member of the guild.
             An apprentice is someone who went to live with a skilled person who would teach the apprentice everything he would need to know to become good at whatever he was studying. The apprentice was kind of like an assistant to his master. He would watch his master to learn how to do his master's craft. Apprentices did not get paid. One of the biggest things that affected life was silk. They did not have silk they only had wool. So silk was a big advancement for them especiall...