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In the aftermath of the Black Death, the economy of Italy benefited greatly from trade and thus some areas became industrialized such as Florence. In this city, there was a large class of weavers who wove cloth for home consumption and export. The wealth of Italy increased because of trade but it also changed people’s outlook, who gradually adopted a more rational approach to the world. Italian society had evolved very differently from the rest of Europe. Northern Italy in particular, was much more urbanized than the rest of Europe. Many of the largest cities in Europe were located in Northern Europe such as Florence and Milan. Urban societies are widely believed to be more dynamic than agrarian societies. In towns and cities' people come together and converse and debate. Urban societies are also more open to new ideas as immigrants and traders settled in them. The plazas and taverns of Florence and other cities were often filled with people, many of them outsiders discussing new ideas and exchanging copies of manuscripts. This was a milieu that was beneficial to creative and intellectual endeavors.<ref> Burkhardt, Jacob (1990) <i>The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy</i>.(Hammondsworth, Penguin Classics, 1990) p. 78</ref>
Because of the increasing urbanization of Italian society and the impact of the Black Death, the feudal economic system collapsed.<ref>Ruggiero, Guido. <i>The Renaissance in Italy: A Social and Cultural History of the Rinascimento </i> (Cambridge University Press, 2015), p. 648 </ref> Feudalism was a political-social and economic system that gave political and military power to the landed elite and which tied the majority of the population to this elite. Feudalism was a system that demanded obedience, deference and ordained that people should accept their position in society, without question. It endorsed a view of the world that it advanced the belief that the world was govern by unchanging and fixed by the laws of God. Feudalism was never strong in Italy, even in the High Middle Ages, and after the 1350s it all but collapsed. The collapse of feudalism led to the release of social forces that led to the Renaissance.<ref>Lopez, Robert Sabatino, <i>The Three Ages of the Italian Renaissance </i> Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1970., p. 89</ref> People were freer than ever before and they were prepared to question and doubt and develop new ideas about society and to create new means of expression and styles of art to represent them. The society of Italy in the period from 1350 to 1500 energized people and encouraged them to experiment with the arts, thought and modes of life.<ref> Gilbert, Felix. <i>History: Politics or Culture? Reflections on Ranke and Burckhardt</i>. (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990). p. 109</ref>
==The New Elite==
