By the ninth or tenth century: two extensive
regional economies had very early taken
shape, almost independently of each other, out of the still malleable material of
Europe's economic activity. In the North the process was rapid: here there was little
resistance from the surrounding regions which were not even emergent but simply
primitive. In the Mediterranean, in regions already developed by a long history, the
revival may have begun later, but it progressed more quickly, as the rise of Italy
drew strength from the accelerating presence of Islam and Byzantium. As a result,
the North was, other things being equal, less sophisticated than the South, more
`industrial', while the South was the greater trading centre. Poles apart, both
geographically and electrically, these two worlds were bound to attract and
complement one another. Their meeting was effected by the North-South overland
route, of which the thirteenth-century Champagne fairs were the first obvious sign.
