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Power and profit : the merchant in medieval Europe / Peter Spufford.
Lippincott Library HF3495 .S68 2003
Available
Lippincott Library HF3495 .S68 2003
By Request
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Spufford, Peter.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Merchants--Europe--History--To 1500.
- Merchants.
- Money--Europe--History--To 1500.
- Money.
- Commerce.
- History.
- Europe--Economic conditions--To 1492.
- Europe.
- Economic conditions.
- Europe--Commerce--History--To 1500.
- Physical Description:
- 432 pages : illustrations (some color), maps, portraits (some color) ; 26 cm
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Thames & Hudson, 2003.
- Summary:
- The Earliest Surviving Check was drawn in 1365 by two Florentines to pay a draper for black cloth for a family funeral... In 1477 a confidence man persuaded a citizen of Cologne to buy shares in a non-existent silver mine... From a thousand tiny facts like these, the fruit of nearly thirty years' research in the municipal archives, commercial records, account books and letters of a dozen countries, Peter Spufford creates a revealing picture of the medieval business world. The book opens with the emergence of a European entrepreneurial class and the origins of modern banking, insurance and borrowing. The wealth that generated these changes came largely from the royal courts and their demands for luxuries, demands that were met at the great international fairs. Practical problems -- primitive transport, bad roads, dangerous Alpine passes and the threat of robbery -- were impressively surmounted. Key elements in the story are provided by the connection between cheap raw materials and expensive manufactured goods, and the role of such centers of power and wealth as Paris, London, Bruges, Venice and Florence. Professor Spufford concludes by examining the balance of trade between countries, both within Europe and far beyond its boundaries, assessing their relative wealth on the threshold of what we now call the capitalist world. Virtually every aspect of medieval society is illuminated by this wide-ranging and immensely detailed study, which includes stories of individual merchants whose fortunes and misfortunes bring the whole subject vividly to life. The illustrations have been chosen largely from unpublished material, and there are over a dozen specially drawn maps.
- Contents:
- 1 The transformation of trade 12
- The commercial revolution of the thirteenth century
- The merchant who did not travel
- Merchants abroad
- Trading companies
- Commercial correspondence and couriers
- Bookkeeping, literacy and commercial arithmetic
- Insurance
- International banking
- Local banking
- Usury and interest rates
- Centre and periphery
- Staple towns
- Fairs
- Exchanges and brokers Information
- Careers in business
- Climate for growth and capital accumulation
- Money supply and economic change
- 2 Courts and consumers 60
- The wealth of rulers
- The palaces of rulers
- Princely town houses
- The composition of court cities
- The size of court cities
- City and country
- Feeding court cities
- Court cities and the trade in luxuries
- The demand for luxury food and drink
- The demand for luxury clothing
- The demand for plate and jewels
- Military demand
- Italian suppliers of luxuries
- 3 From court to counting house 140
- From Paris to Dijon
- Brie and Champagne
- Burgundy
- The Great
- St Bernard and Simplon passes
- Rhone valley routes to Italy
- The Mont Cenis route to Italy
- Sea routes to Italy
- 4 Helps and hindrances to trade 174
- Bridges
- The road revolution
- Mountain passes
- Commercial pressure for improvement
- Roads, rivers and lakes
- Local carriers and watermen
- Longer-distance carriers
- Loads, speeds and costs of carriage
- Inns
- Hospices
- Brigands and robbers
- Armed escorts
- Reprisal
- War
- Customs dues
- Tolls
- Quicker, cheaper and safer transport
- 5 Trade in manufactured goods 228
- Industrial regions
- Woollen cloth
- The manufacture of woollen cloth
- Silk fabrics
- Linens, cottons and fustians
- Paper
- Metal working
- Arms and armour
- Brass
- Glass
- Pottery
- Soap
- Soda ash
- Trade in 'works of art'
- Tapestries and carpets
- Opus Anglicanum and ivory
- Manuscript and printed books
- Imitation
- 6 Trade in foodstuffs, raw materials and slaves 286
- Grain
- Wine and beer
- Salt
- Olive oil
- Honey and wax
- Sugar
- Spices
- Silk
- Pearls and precious stones
- Raw materials at Bruges
- Building materials and fuel
- Metals
- Wool
- Wool from England
- Wool from Spain
- Cotton Flax and hemp
- Dyestuffs and alum
- Furs
- Slaves
- 7 Imbalances in trade 342
- The Black Sea and the Levant
- The Baltic
- North Africa
- England and Castile
- The Southern Netherlands and Northern Italy
- Southern Germany
- Silver and gold mines
- Miners, mine-owners, smelters and mints
- Mining towns
- Precious metals and European trade
- 8 Conclusion: the pattern of trade 376
- The scale of commercial activity
- Changes in land routes
- Sea routes Cost, speed and safety
- Main themes.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.
- ISBN:
- 0500251185
- OCLC:
- 49906319
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