By the year 1000 the Andalusian caliphate constituted a highly urbanized society, where the largest cities in Europe were located, while the economy of the Christian kingdoms of Iberia was characterized by a low level of urbanization and a poor market development. Five hundred years later, the territory of al-Andalus had disappeared and its economy had been absorbed and transformed into the Christian kingdoms. The latter’s territorial expansion was marked by the growth of cities, the impact of trade on the agrarian economy and an increase in rural stratification that, at different levels, made the market important for the satisfaction of needs and peasant consumption. In the Christian kingdoms, a strong increase in noble spending, emulated by urban elites, dedicated to the conspicuous consumption of products partially purchased on the international market, occurred throughout the period. After the Black Death, with the consolidation of a rural elite, important sectors of the population were attracted by the lifestyle of the urban elites. This evolution can also be detectable in the lifestyle of vast sectors of the population, in the cities as well as in the rural areas.