The manufacture and movement of goods

The manufacture and movement of goods did much to shape the culture of theRenaissance. Wealthy families expressed their success in business and theirstatus in their civic worlds publicly through elaborate building programs, portrait painting, and other forms of artistic representation. They also filled their private, interior spaces with furnishings and precious objects that reflected their selfconfidence, their pride, and their ambitions. The manufacture and movement of goods advanced this remarkable efflorescence of high culture in important ways. They generated surplus wealth, establishing the conditions for social and economic mobility. Most important, they helped constitute the culture of material life itself.