Making merchants : the cultural construction of a merchant class in early modern Germany / Martha C. Howell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Howell, Martha C., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Merchants--Germany--History--16th century.

Merchants.

Merchants--Germany--History--17th century.

Germany.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Summary:

"Using a rare collection of personal narratives written by successful merchants in early modern German-speaking Europe, this study examines how such men understood their role in commerce and in society more generally. As they told it, their honor was based not just on riches won in long-distance trade but, more fundamentally, on their comportment both in and outside the marketplace. As these men described their experiences as husbands and fathers, as civic leaders, as men who "lived nobly," or as practitioners of their faith, they did not, however, seek to obscure their role as merchants. Rather, they built on it to construct a class identity that allowed them entry into the period's moral economy. Martha C. Howell not only disrupts linear histories of capitalism and modernity, she demonstrates how the model of mercantile honor these merchants fashioned would live beyond the early modern centuries, providing later capitalists with a narrative about their own self-worth"-- Cambridge University Press.

Contents:

The historiographical context

The sociocultural context

The problem of merchants’ self-perception

The Selbstzeugnisse at the center of this study

Mercantile honor/dishonor

Merchants and the urban political elite

Living “noblement”

Family

Faith

Renaissance men

The performance of manhood

Capitalism and class.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (Cambridge University Press, viewed November 4, 2025).

Other Format:

Print version: Howell, Martha C. Making merchants

ISBN:

9781009647717

1009647717

9781009647670

1009647679

9781009647694

1009647695

OCLC:

1539298067

Publisher Number:

CIPO000281554

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license