Commercial Agreements and Social Dynamics in Medieval Genoa

by Van Doosselaere, Quentin

• ISBN13: 9781107404298
• ISBN10: 1107404290
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-05-10
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

Commercial Agreements and Social Dynamics in Medieval Genoa is an empirical study of medieval long-distance trade agreements and the surrounding social dynamics that transformed the feudal organization of men-of-arms into the world of Renaissance merchants. Making use of 20,000 notarial records, the book traces the commercial partnerships of thousands of people in Genoa from 1150 to 1435 and reports social activity, on a scale that is unprecedented for such an early period of history anywhere. In combining a detailed historical reading with network modeling to analyze the change in the long-distance trade relationships, Quentin Van Doosselaere challenges the prevailing western centric view of development by demonstrating that the history of the three main medieval economic frameworks that brought about the European capitalism - equity, credit, and insurance - was not driven by strategic merchants' economic optimizations but rather by a change in partners' selections that reflected the dynamic of the social structure as a whole.

Table of Contents

List of figures

List of tables

Abbreviations

Acknowledgments

From sword into capital

Genoa at the dawn of the commercial expansion

Equity partnerships for heterogeneous ties

Credit network for routinized merchants

Insurance ties for oligarchic cohesion

Conclusion

Sample of prices and income

Sample of long-distance trade participants' occupations

Commenda network graphs

Nodal degree distributions of commenda networks

List of top mercantile nonaristocratic families

Partner selection probability model

Bibliography

Index

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