Question

what was the centre of economic activity in medieval europe

Answer 1

The manorial system is the economic, political and social system in which peasants in the Middle Ages economy depended on both their land and that of their masters to derive a living. The basic element of the manorial system was the manor which was a self-efficient estate controlled by the lord.

Answer 2

From 11th century, more stable conditions began to prevail in western Europe. Population began to increase, the volume of trade expanded, and towns in many parts of Europe multiplied in number and grew in size. On the North Sea coast a particularly dense network of trading towns emerged in Flanders; and in northern Italy an even greater concentration of large urban centres developed. Cities such as Venice, Genoa, Milan and Florence grew wealthy on the growing trade handled by their merchants. Much of this went north-west, up the Po and Rhone valleys into central and northern France, where the trade routes linked up with those coming south west from Flanders and the North Sea. International trade fairs in the towns of Champaign, in north-east France, became a regular feature of the international trading scene where merchants from Italy and Flanders dealt directly with one another.