Fighting crime and inflation

Times were hard for other Germans, too. With no strong national government to keep

order, and with the line between knight and robber blurred, merchants had to pay

protection money or hire their own muscle just to transport goods safely. The high cost

of shipping contributed to inflation. Prices rose, not just in Germany, but all over

Europe.

The situation was more complex than this (isn’t everything?), but the inflation also was

tied to an increase in population. A decrease in the number of people in Europe caused

by the bubonic plague helped bring about the Renaissance, because plague survivors

and their children had more material wealth to go around. (For more on the bubonic

plague, turn to Chapter 7.)

Good times bred more people, however, and by the sixteenth century, the population

burgeoned. People needed work, food, clothing, and shelter, but there wasn’t enough

for everybody. Things cost more despite the fact that no one had more money to pay.

The price of a loaf of bread, for example, just about quadrupled between 1500 and

1600.

Cash-strapped landlords put the squeeze on peasants in order to get more work for

less. People were poor, overworked, overtaxed, hungry, and nervous about both their

present and future.