Question

Pros and cons of being an merchant in the medieval age

Answer 1

PROS:

- The constant wars, battles and military conflicts characteristic of the age, provoked a ¨moved¨ economy, a lot of resources of a different kind were required almost permanently, and this was the perfect opportunity for a merchant, to commerce different goods for the diverse needs, gain a lot of profits in the process, and be respected and well-positioned in the society, thanks to the importance of his duty and personal success .

- The competence between merchants was not ¨too agressive¨, since before there weren´t many sources to obtain different goods, at least compared to modern days, so having success and gaining profits doing this activity was normal in these days.

CONS

- The lack of security for merchants and regular people was notable, thievery, murdering, and other crimes were easily committed on those times, so the merchants without hired security were in constant danger.

- Traveling itself was difficult, the archaic transportation and all the dangers outside the walls of the cities and towns, made this work a difficult one, surviving to the weather, roads, invaders, bandits, etc, was not an easy task to accomplish

Answer 2

To begin with, their was a multiple of pros and cons of being an merchant in the medieval age.

One pro of being an merchant, was the possibilities to help people, rather than directly as there was more little towns in the medieval times. This can be seen by the fact that, you had more access to a good education. This meant that you had an clear communication to communicate with the people, due to the fact of being a merchant because merchants were one of the few litterate person, which allowed them to teach and help people how to read and write.

Additionally, this suggested that they could also have an intellectual influence and a social influence by their teaching to the local lord’s children, and how to read sometimes they gave political pieces of advice to the local lord.

One con of being an merchant is the fact that you had to help people discuss that they were sentenced to death, which is a very difficult thing to discuss, on a physiological point of view.