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Beginning in the 1160s, the opening of new silver mines in northern Europe led to the minting and circulation of vast quantities of silver coins. The widespread use of cash greatly increased the volume of international trade. Business procedures changed radically. The individual traveling merchant who alone handled virtually all aspects of exchange evolved into an operation involving three separate types of merchants: the sedentary merchant who ran the "home office," financing and organizing the firm’s entire export-import trade; the carriers who transported goods by land and sea; and the company agents resident in cities abroad who, on the advice of the home office, looked after sales and procurements.
Commercial correspondence, unnecessary when one businessperson oversaw everything and made direct bargains with buyers and sellers, multiplied. Regular courier service among commercial cities began. Commercial accounting became more complex when firms had to deal with shareholders, manufacturers, customers, branch offices, employees, and competing firms. Tolls on roads became high enough to finance what has been called a road revolution, involving new surfaces and bridges, new passes through the Alps, and new inns and hospices for travelers. The growth of mutual trust among merchants facilitated the growth of sales on credit and led to new developments in finance, such as the bill of exchange, a device that made the long, slow, and very dangerous shipment of coins unnecessary.
The ventures of the German Hanseatic League illustrate these advancements. The Hanseatic League was a mercantile association of European towns dating from 1159. The league grew by the end of the fourteenth century to include about 200 cities from Holland to Poland. Across regular, well- defined trade routes along the Baltic and North seas, the ships of league cities carried furs, wax, copper, fish, grain, timber, and wine. These goods were exchanged for finished products, mainly cloth and salt, from western cities. At cities such as Bruges and London, Hanseatic merchants secured special trading concessions, exempting them from all tolls and allowing them to trade at local fairs. Hanseatic merchants established foreign trading centers, the most famous of which was the London Steelyard, a walled community with warehouses, offices, a church, and residential quarters for company representatives. By the late thirteenth century, Hanseatic merchants had developed an important business technique, the business register. Merchants publicly recorded their debts and contracts and received a league guarantee for them. This device proved a decisive factor in the later development of credit and commerce in northern Europe.
These developments added up to what one modern scholar has called "a commercial revolution." In the long run, the commercial revolution of the High Middle Ages (A D 1000-1300) brought about radical change in European society. One remarkable aspect of this change was that the commercial classes constituted a small part of the total population—never more than 10 percent. They exercised an influence far in excess of their numbers. The commercial revolution created a great deal of new wealth, which meant a higher standard of living. The existence of wealth did not escape the attention of kings and other rulers. Wealth could be taxed, and through taxation, kings could create strong and centralized states. In the years to come, alliances with the middle classes were to enable kings to weaken aristocratic interests and build the states that came to be called modern.
The commercial revolution also provided the opportunity for thousands of agricultural workers to improve their social position. The slow but steady transformation of European society from almost completely rural and isolated to relatively more urban constituted the greatest effect of the commercial revolution that began in the eleventh century. Even so, merchants and business people did not run medieval communities, except in central and northern Italy and in the county of Flanders. Most towns remained small. The nobility and churchmen determined the predominant social attitudes, values, and patterns of thought and behavior. The commercial changes of the eleventh through fourteenth centuries did however, lay the economic foundation for the development of urban life and culture.
托福阅读TPO46真题Part2题目：
1. According to paragraph 1, one effect of the increased use of cash was that
O an individual merchant no longer performed all aspects of trading operations
O a company's home office declined in importance
O merchants no longer had to transport their goods to distant places
O the volume of trade declined in areas lacking silver mines
2. The word “radically”， in the passage is closest in meaning to
O fundamentally
O quickly
O unexpectedly
O gradually
3. The word oversaw" in the passage is closest In meaning to
O understood
O included
O delivered
O supervised
4. According to paragraph 2, which of the following was NOT an effect of the change in business procedures?
O An increase in credit sales
O The use of courier services between cities
O The adoption of simpler accounting procedures
O The improvement of roads
5. Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.
O Credit sales and bills of exchange were devices that merchants developed in order to increase their mutual trust.
O Merchants developed ways to finance their sales without having to rely on slow and dangerous shipments of coins.
O Greater trust among merchants led to an increase in credit sales and to the use of bills of exchange that made the shipping of coins unnecessary.
O Merchants began to trust one another when it became too slow and dangerous for a single merchant to ship coins.
6. According to paragraph 3, Hanseatic merchants benefited by all of the following EXCEPT
O the use of trading centers in distant cities
O a new system of recording commercial transactions
O the opening of overland trade routes across northern Europe
O access to markets in about 200 cities
7. The word "decisive" in the passage is closest in meaning to
O probable
O determining
O helpful
O limiting
8. Why does the author provide the information in paragraph 4 that the commercial classes never exceeded 10 percent of the population?
O To argue that the wealth created by the commercial revolution benefited only a small number of people
O To challenge the view that the commercial classes made up a majority of the population of Europe
O To suggest a reason that the commercial revolution ended around A. D. 1300
O To emphasize the point that the commercial revolution was brought about by a small part of the population
9. According to paragraph 4, which of the following was associated with the rise of modem states?
O Increased wealth for the ruling classes
O The weakening of the aristocracy
O The decline of the middle class
O A reduction in taxes
10. The word "alliances" in the passage is closest in meaning to
O transactions
O communications
O partnerships
O conflicts
11. According to paragraph 5, the most important result of the commercial revolution
was to
O simplify the organization of European society
O provide employment to agricultural workers
O encourage merchants to become community leaders
O change Europe from a rural to a more urban society
12. Paragraph 5 supports which of the following inferences about the commercial revolution between ad 1000 and 1300?
O It had very little impact on social attitudes and values.
O It brought about major political changes throughout Europe.
O It lessened the influence of the church.
O It increased the population of small towns.
13. Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.
While It originated in the German city of Liibeck, it began to expand in 1241 when Liibeck entered into a mutual protection treaty with the city of Hamburg.
Where would the sentence best fit? Click on a square [■] to add the sentence to the passage.
14. Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.
Drag your answer choices to the spaces where they belong To remove an answer choice, click on it
To review the passage, click VIEW TEXT
During the High Middle Ages (A.D. 1000-1300), Europe underwent a commercial revolution.
Answer Choices
Merchants adopted new accounting and trading procedures to make long-distance trading more efficient.
The faster transportation made possible by improved roads expanded the variety of goods that could be brought to European towns from far away.
The increasing importance of commercial trade led to a decline in the influence of traditional sources of power, such as kings and church leaders.
The mining of silver improved the security of commercial transactions by allowing coins to replace credit and bills of exchange as the means of exchange.
The Hanseatic League was an association of European towns that obtained shipping, trading, and financial benefits for its members.
European society became increasingly urban, with better living conditions and a stronger centralized government.
托福阅读TPO46真题Part2答案：
1-5.BCBAA 6-9.DCCC 10.AD 11-13.CDA 14.BCF
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