A history of business in medieval Europe, 1200-1550
Editorial CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Mainland Spain
- Publisher CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
- ISBN13 9780521495813
- ISBN10 0521495814
- Type BOOK
- Pages 277
- Published 1999
- Bookbinding Cloth
Subjects
Economic HistoryA history of business in medieval Europe, 1200-1550
Editorial CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Mainland Spain
Book details
A History of Business in Medieval Europe, 1200-1550, 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. Then they deal with the responses of businessmen to the devastating plagues, famines, and warfare that beset Europe in the late Middle Ages. The 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 the 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.