However, the merchants, who disdained robbery, always had to be on the alert. Going on a trade journey, they exposed themselves to many dangers and hardships. A sea voyage was especially risky: there was “seasickness”, and a riot of eternally dissatisfied sailors, and sea storms that annually sent dozens of merchant ships to the bottom. The "lucky one", whose goods were thrown ashore by the waves after the crash of the ship, was forced to give up his property to the local feudal lord, into captivity to which the surviving people could also fall. Various surprises awaited the merchant in an unfamiliar land.
The merchant, who moved by land, experienced no less difficulties. The roads were mostly in a deplorable state. Laid on clay or swampy soil, after each rain they turned into a dirty swamp with countless ruts and pits; horses sank into them up to their chests, wagons sank up to their hubs. Even in the 16th century the merchant had to constantly change the route, making his way around the fields, endlessly expanding the trampled area. Most of the rivers had to be forded, risking spoiling the goods. Real stone or wooden bridges were extremely rare even in the late Middle Ages, and road tolls and “bridge” money were paid for travel over them.
Even more burdensome requisitions were levied from the merchant at the time of feudal fragmentation when crossing the border of the next duchy or county. But even the payment of all this money did not protect the trade caravans from attacks and robberies. Robber feudal lords, speaking before the royal court, admitted that they attacked merchants, having already collected the usual tax from them. In addition, the countryside was teeming with runaway soldiers and vagabonds. Any traveler could be attacked by them, especially if he had a lot of money or goods with him. And the merchant who arrived at the destination of his journey was not expected by a cordial welcome. In many cities, local artisans themselves traded their products, and the goods of visiting merchants were bought up only in bulk, in limited quantities and at a strictly defined time. Feeling not quite comfortable in a foreign city, non-resident and foreign merchants usually stopped at special city trading farmsteads, where their goods were also stored. Truly, there were many dangers and accidents in the life of a merchant.
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Despite this, the ranks of merchants multiplied. The hope for big profits, the opportunity to get rich, to see overseas countries forced them to neglect difficulties, attracted enterprising and gambling people, adventurers into trade. Who among them did not count on the fabulous income that a successful trade could bring, even if you start doing it with little cash?
Already at the beginning of the XI century. in one literary source characterizing different professions, the following words are put into the mouth of a merchant: “I am useful to the king, the nobility, the rich and all the people, I enter the ship with my goods and sail to overseas lands, sell goods and acquire valuable things, which are here no. I spend them at great risk, sometimes I suffer shipwrecks, losing all my property and barely saving my own life ... I sell more than I bought myself in order to get some profit and feed my wife and children.
However, in the views of contemporaries, the merchant did not immediately take a worthy place. He, like any city dweller, initially fell out of the traditional scheme of feudal society, which was divided into "those who pray" (clergy and monks), "those who fight" (chivalry), and "those who plow the land" (peasants ). Gradually real life took its toll. Developing along with cities, at the end of the thirteenth century. the merchant class reached its peak. The social significance of the merchant became obvious. In the Tale of the Merchants, which appeared at that time, it was said:
So that the country can be supplied with everything it needs, Merchants have to work hard, To bring everything that is not in it from outside. They should not be persecuted without guilt. As they wander the restless seas, They bring goods into the country, for which they are worthy of love.
Seized by the thirst for profit, the desire to increase their capital, merchants often became usurers, i.e. borrowed money at interest. Although the Catholic Church in the XII century. officially forbade Christians to engage in usury, this phenomenon was widespread in the Middle Ages and became the cause of public discontent with merchants. Moneylenders are favorite characters of medieval urban folklore. In one of the German urban stories (the so-called Schwank), even the devil does not carry the deceased usurer to hell, but squeamishly grabs him by the legs and throws him into the abyss. In many shvankas, the greed of merchants is severely scourged and punished. In a famous story, a merchant cannot calmly endure the fact that he has to feed the servants and spend supplies on them. The “sufferer” pretends to be dead, hoping that the servants will not be able to take anything in their mouths from grief. When the calculation was not justified, the merchant "comes to life", but the servants, mistaking the resurrected for a demon, kill him.
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