Fairs, Cities and Merchants : Spatiotemporal Analyses (14th-17th Century).

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gaulin, Jean-Louis.

Contributor:

Rau, Susanne.

Universität Erfurt, Funder.

Series:

SpatioTemporality / RaumZeitlichkeit Series

SpatioTemporality / RaumZeitlichkeit Series ; v.19

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (498 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Basel/Berlin/Boston : Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2025.

Summary:

Today, it has largely been forgotten that fairs played a decisive role in trade and finance in pre-modern Europe. In the Middle Ages and Early Modern period, many cities endeavoured to obtain a fair privilege and attract as many merchants as possible. Through the economic activities and infrastructures provided, a supra-regional spatial configuration gradually emerged, which was not only made up of places within a region, but across the whole of Europe and in some cases the wider world. The contributions in this volume are based on a project jointly funded by the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche and the German Research Foundation, which focussed mainly on fairs and cities in France, the Holy Roman Empire and Italy. In chronological terms, they cover the period from the end of the Champagne fairs (ca. 1320) to the success of the Besançon fairs (ca. 1580 to 1630), which epitomised a new type of fair. The geographical focus has been extended to include fairs and trade routes in Eastern Europe and China (temple fairs). This overall view makes it possible for the first time to analyse the functions of the various market forms in their regional context and in their development: from the exchange of goods to the credit market and financing government debt, but also the deep integration of the merchant culture into urban and religious culture. Based on archival studies and the integration of artefacts, new graphs and maps, this volume provides a new look at the history of annual markets and fairs. In addition to functional aspects, spatiotemporal aspects such as disputes over fair dates, visiting rhythms, the transport of goods and routes (by land and water) are dealt with. Credit activities, transport of goods, and mobility of merchants, trading families and companies point to the highly developed transnational dimension of pre-modern trade. The volume concludes with a presentation of the project database, its functionalities and opportunities to participate.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Configuration of European fairs: an introduction

Chapter I: Creating, defining, and attending fairs

The privileging of ‘new’ fairs in the late medieval Holy Roman Empire: coordination of fairs by means of privileges

Festa and Feria: on the exhibitions of Christ relics during fairs and the coordination of sanctuary and merchant calendars in the Middle Ages

Shopping at the Geneva fairs: the contribution of Savoyard accounting records in the time of Duke Amadeus VIII

Chapter II: Credit and financial techniques

Papacy and fairs: an elusive link?

Interactions between regional and international markets: Asti, credit, and fairs between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age

Accounting fairs: Florentine and south German merchant-bankers at the fairs in 16th-century Lyon

‘News from the South’: price lists and currents from the Spanish and Italian exchange fairs between the 15th and 17th centuries

International fairs as money, credit, and exchange markets, from the 12th to 16th centuries

Chapter III: Merchants at fairs

From Florence to Lyon and Geneva fairs: the Pazzi family, the King of France, and the shifting economic geography during the late 15th century

From the markets of Chieri to the fairs of Lyon: tracing the mobility of the Pietraviva family from the 13th to 15th centuries

Before the fairs: merchants and moneylenders in late medieval Lyon

Liquidity management through financial service providers and the role of fairs: the case of the Augsburg merchant David Gauger and the Bolzano merchant David Wagner

Chapter IV: Europe and beyond: time and space of fairs

Fair rhythms: on times, spaces, and experiences of fairs

Foreign merchants and the new trading route in the Hungarian Kingdom in the 14th century

The network of temple fairs and their actors: religious communities, brokers, and merchants in late Imperial China

East of Leipzig: great annual markets and fairs in Poland and Muscovy up to the 17th century

Chapter V: Presentation of the CoMOR website/ database

Fairs in History: the public database of the CoMOR project

List of authors

Notes:

This eBook is made available Open Access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9783111621296

3111621294

OCLC:

1507695709