A History of Business in Medieval Europe, 1200–1550

This book reviews business in medieval western Europe, probing its Roman and Christian heritage to discover the economic and political forces that shaped its organization.

Edwin S. Hunt (Author), James Murray (Author)

9780521495813, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 April 1999

288 pages, 1 b/w illus. 1 table
23.8 x 16.1 x 2.2 cm, 0.59 kg

"Hunt and Murray have done a valuable service in producing this textbook...The authors are also to be commended for their ability to transform sometimes technical business jargon into well-crafted, readable prose." Speculum

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.

Introduction
Part I. Before the Black Death: Progress and Problems: 1. Economics, culture, and geography of early medieval trade
2
Tools of trade: business organization
3. Traders and their tools
4. The politics of business
5. Business gets bigger: the super-company phenomenon
Part II. Business in the Late Middle Ages: A Harvest of Adversity: Introduction
6. The new business environment of the Middle Ages
7. Business responses to the new environment
8. The fifteenth century: revolutionary results from old processes
9. Sources of capital in the late Middle Ages
10. A new age for business
Conclusions
Further reading.

Subject Areas: Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], European history [HBJD]