Reading Comprehension

Read the passage and answer the question.

In medieval Europe, town clocks did not always show minutes. Early mechanical clocks on church towers often had only an hour hand, and many had no face at all, instead striking a bell to mark the hours. For most people, this rough sense of time was enough; daily life followed the sun and the seasons rather than precise schedules. Only later, as trade and travel grew, did demand rise for finer divisions of time. The minute hand became common in the seventeenth century, once springs and gears could be made accurately enough to track such small intervals.