establishment of that credit which has made modern trade and industry
possible. With money once more in general use as a measure of value, the
Arabic system of notation in use for commercial transactions, and credit
at reasonable interest rates provided as a basis for finance, an era in
trade and commerce and manufacturing set in unknown since the days of
Roman rule. Order, security, and a wider extension of educational
advantages now were needed, and nothing contributed more to securing these
than the growth of wealth and manufacturing industries in the towns, and
the extension of commerce and the use of money throughout the country.
Nothing tends so powerfully to demand or secure these things as the
possession of wealth among a people.

EDUCATION FOR THESE NEW SOCIAL CLASSES. With the evolution of these new
social classes an extension of education took place through the formation
of guilds. [34] The merchants of the Middle Ages traded, not as
individuals, nor as subjects of a State which protected them, for there
were as yet no such States, but as members of the guild of merchants of
their town, or as members of a trading company. Later, towns united to
form trading confederations, of which the Hanseatic League of northern
Germany was a conspicuous example. These burgher merchant guilds became
wealthy and important socially; [35] they were chartered by kings and
given trading privileges analogous to those of a modern corporation (R.
95); they elbowed their way into affairs of State, and in time took over
in large part the city governments; they obtained education for
themselves, and fought with the church authorities for the creation of
independent burgh schools; [36] they began to read books, and books in the
vernacular began to be written for them; [37] they in time vied with the
clergy and the nobility in their patronage of learning; they everywhere
stood with the kings and princes to compel feudal lords to stop warfare
and plundering and to submit to law and order; [38] and they entertained