You have seen how a few artisans(butchers and bakers and an occasional candle-stick maker)came to live near the castle to tend to the wants of their masters and to find protection in case of danger.Sometimes the feudal lord allowed these people to surround their houses with a stockade.But they were dependent for their living upon the good-will of the mighty Seigneur of the castle.When he went about they knelt before him and kissed his hand.Then came the Crusades and many things changed.The migrations had driven people from the north-east to the west.The Crusades made millions of people travel from the west to the highly civilised regions of the southeast.They discovered that the world was not bounded by the four walls of their little settlement.They came to appreciate better clothes, more comfortable houses, new dishes, products of the mysterious Orient.After their return to their old homes, they insisted that they be supplied with those articles.The peddler with his pack upon his back-the only merchant of the Dark Ages-added these goods to his old merchandise,bought a cart, hired a few ex-crusaders to protect him against the crime wave which followed this great international war,and went forth to do business upon a more modern and larger scale.His career was not an easy one. Every time he entered the domains of another Lord he had to pay tolls and taxes.But the business was profitable all the same and the peddler continued to make his rounds.
