To what extent did the Renaissance constitute an economic revolution?

To a large extent, the Renaissance constituted an economic revolution. The European economy
increased substantially throughout the Renaissance, notably in the field of commerce.
Population expansion, financial advances, expanded trade routes, and new industrial processes
all contributed to an overall increase in commercial activity.
The Renaissance began in the Republic of Florence at the end of the 13th century, one of the
many states of Italy. Various theories have been proposed to account for its origins and
characteristics, focusing on a variety of factors including the social and civic peculiarities of
Florence at the time: its political structure, the patronage of its dominant family, the Medici.
From Italy, the Renaissance spread throughout Europe in France, the British isles, Spain,
Portugal, Germany and elsewhere, and that’s thanks for the international trade. International
trade was centred on the Mediterranean Sea. Venice controlled trade in the region for its
formidable maritime trade and strategic position. The Venetians had complete control over the
flow of luxury goods and spices from Asia to Europe. That’s one of the many things that helped
the economy to increase. Another example could be the invention of the printing press. The
Printing Press had great significance for literary people since it encouraged talented people to
write. During the Middle Ages, books had to be hand-copied and were therefore very
expensive. Johan Gutenberg made the metal printing press, making it possible to make cheaper
copies of books, which made it possible to make 8-20 million copies, and that’s how the
knowledge spread out. So as the above shows us, the Renaissance constituted to large extent
an economic revolution, thanks to international trade through the Mediterranean Sea,
inventions made that helped create more products to sell and many other things.

The renaissance constituted also a political and social evolution to a large extent.
In the sixteenth century, Italian society had the same rigidity of roles and lack of dynamic
between classes as the previous century. Despite the loss of authority due to European
monarchs’ invasion of Italy in the first 500 years, the ruling classes emphasized their power
and status, particularly in the princely courts. In the period afterwards, a huge chasm between
the aristocratic elite and the common masses, dissemination of humanistic principles only
among a tiny circle that does not reach the public classes, as well as a schism between clerical
and secular intellectuals who are not interested in the popular masses. With the crisis of
municipal institutions, affirmation of lordship, patronage, establishment of a court composed
of political personnel, intellectuals, and artists, withdrawal from civil life and political dialectic,
cultural flowering aided by the situation of tranquillity following the peace of praises of 1454.
As the above shows us, the classes emphasized the power ruling the classes just in the first 500
years, after which people were no longer interested so much in social classes, to which this is
also thanks to humanism which says that every person can become whomever they want and
how without having to depend on the social class.

As the above shows us the renaissance was just a humanitarian evolution, to perish from the
economy and to include politics and society. Thanks to humanism in the 15th century, the life
of each person changed for the good because the social classes crumbled. Society began to
evolve, starting also from the literature that had a great impact in that period. Art was also very
important, so as to influence the common day, also thanks to the invention of the first print,
which prompts more people to become cultured and learn more, so as to have more chances of
being able to rise in social class. Speaking of Italy, politics was very conflicted between the
republics and the larger cities, thus creating more competition. The competition was achieved
precisely thanks to culture, between art and literature. Also, for this reason, part of the people
was looking for artists from all over Italy, and the artist's work was no longer seen as a job for
the poor, on the contrary, it had become a work of high importance and with a lot of power.