A History of Business in Medieval Europe, 1200–1550

by Edwin S. Hunt , James Murray

• ISBN13: 9780521499231
• ISBN10: 0521499232
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-03-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book demolishes the widely held view that the phrase 'medieval business' is an oxymoron. The authors review the entire range of business in medieval western Europe, probing its Roman and Christian heritage to discover the economic and political forces that shaped the organization of agriculture, manufacturing, construction, mining, transportation and marketing. Businessmen's responses to the devastating plagues, famines, and warfare that beset Europe in the late Middle Ages are equally well covered. Medieval businessmen's remarkable success in coping with this hostile new environment was 'a harvest of adversity' that prepared the way for the economic expansion of the sixteenth century. Two main themes run through this book. First, the force and direction of business development in this period stemmed primarily from the demands of the elite. Second, the lasting legacy of medieval businessmen was less their skillful adaptations of imported inventions than their brilliant innovations in business organization.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	ix
Introduction	1	(10)
Part I Before the Black Death: progress and problems
Economics, Culture, and geography of early medieval trade	11	(20)
Tools of trade: business organization	31	(1)
Traders and their tools	32	(43)
The politics of business	75	(24)
Business gets bigger: the super-company phenomenon	99	(26)
Part II Business in the late Middle Ages: a harvest of adversity
Introduction	125	(121)
The new business environment of the Middle Ages	132	(19)
Business responses to the new environment	151	(27)
The fifteenth century: revolutionary results from old processes	178	(26)
Sources of capital in the late Middle Ages	204	(22)
A new age for business	226	(20)
Conclusions	246	(4)
Notes	250	(10)
Further reading	260	(9)
Index	269