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International Business Finance and Monetary Policy in Western Europe, 1384–1410

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Herman van der Wee
Herman van der Wee
Affiliation:
Professor of Economic History, University of Louvain
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Abstract

Professor van der Wee reviews Raymond de Roover's important new study of medieval business history, The Bruges Money Market around 1400.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1969 , pp. 372 - 380
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1969

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References

1 de Roover, Raymond, The Bruges Money Market around 1400. With a statistical supplement by Sardy, Hyman (Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor no. 63. Brussels, Paleis des Academien, 1968. Pp. 180).Google Scholar

2 Money, Banking and Credit in Mediaeval Bruges: Italian Merchant-Bankers, Lombards and Money-Changers; A Study in the Origins of Banking (Cambridge, Mass., 1948); Gresham on Foreign Exchange: An Essay on Early English Mercantilism (Cambridge, Mass., 1949); L'évolution de la lettre de change: XIVe–XVIIIe siècles (Paris, 1953); The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 1397–1494 (Harvard Studies in Business History, No. 21. Cambridge, Mass., 1963).

3 Usher, A. P., The Early History of Deposit Banking in Mediterranean Europe (Cambridge, Mass., 1943)Google Scholar; Síeveking, H., “Das Bankwesen in Genua und die Bank van S. Giorgio,” in Van Dillen, J. G. (ed.). History of the Principal Public Banks (The Hague, 1943), 15–38.Google Scholar

4 Usher, , “Deposit Banking in Barcelona, 1300–1700,” Journal of Economic and Business History, IV (1931).Google Scholar

5 de Roover, Money, Banking and Credit in Mediaeval Bruges, 171–344.

6 von Stromer, W., “Handel und Geldgeschäfte der Mendel von Nürnberg, 1305–1449,” Tradition (1966), 1–16Google Scholar; von Stromer, W., “Das Schriftwesen der Nürnberger Wirtschaft vom 14. bis zum 16. Jahrhundert. Zur Geschichte Oberdeutscher Handelsbüchern,” Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte Nürnbergs, Bd II (Nürnberg, 1967), 751–799.Google Scholar

7 van der Wee, H., “Anvers et les innovations de la technique financière aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles,” Annales (Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations), No. 5 (1967), 1085–1089Google Scholar; Sneller, Z. W., Rotterdam's Bedrijfsleven in het Verleden (Amsterdam, 1940), 113–114Google Scholar; de Malynes, G., Consuetudo vel Lex Mercatoria (London, 1622), chap. XII, 98–99Google Scholar: “Transferring and setting over of Bills Obligatorie, or Billes of Debt … this Custome is much practised by the Merchants Adventurers beyond the Seas at Middleborough, Amsterdam, Antverp, Hamborough and other places … nay more, if he will have readie money for these bills, he may sell them to other merchants that are moneyed men, and abating for the the interest for the time, and (commonly one moneth over) according to the rate, as they can agree, and as money is plentifull, they shall have money at all times to imploy in commodities, or to deliver by exchange, or to pay debts withall, or to carrie home in specie ….”

8 Marius, J., Advice concerning Bils of Exchange (London, 1656), 3.Google Scholar

9 Cf. ibid.; see also W. von Stromer, Nürnberg in der Weltwirtschaft des Mittelalters (unpublished text, kindly communicated to me by the author).

10 van der Wee, , The Growth of the Antwerp Market and the European Economy (Paris, 1963), I, 123, 125CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also my forthcoming study on the Economic History of Money in the Low Countries.

11 van Werveke, H., “Monnaie de compte et monnaie réelle,” Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire, XIII (1934), 123–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Feaveryear, A., The Pound Sterling: A History of English Money (Oxford, 1963), 21–25.Google Scholar No doubt the ducal decrees provided for an official money of account rate for the new or old gold coins in circulation, but it is remarkable to establish, when studying medieval records, that there did not exist a fixed, permanent link between the money of account and the gold coins.

13 See also Professor de Roover's article, “La balance commerciale entre les Pays-Bas et l'Italie au quinzième siècle,” Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire, XXXVII (1959), 374–386.Google Scholar

14 Account of the Transit Toll for English Wool via Brabant to Lombardy, 1432–1507, General Archives of the Kingdom, Chambre des Comptes, 23249, Brussels. Professor de Roover, furthermore, based his conclusions mainly upon the cargos of the Florentine galleys returning from the North to Italy and having only English wool on board and no industrial northern products. The basis of this conclusion is, in my opinion, too narrow. First, the galleys went to the North with the special purpose of loading wool; much of the export of manufactured textiles from the North did not take place by sea but over land, and not to the industrial town of Florence, but to the commercial centres (Venice, Genoa, et al.) (see Brulez, W., “Les routes commerciales d'Angleterre en Italie au XVIe siècle,” Studi in onore di Amintore Fanfani (Milano, 1962), IV, 123–184).Google Scholar Moreover, Watson found out that the Florentine galleys did not bring to Flanders many Italian products, but a lot of Spanish goods before sailing to England in search of wool for export to Florence (Watson, W. B., “The Structure of the Florentine Galley Trade with Flanders and England in the Fifteenth Century,” Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire, XXXIX (1961), 1073–1091CrossRefGoogle Scholar; XL (1962), 317–347).

15 van der Wee, , “Conjunctuur en Economische Groei in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden tijdens de 14e, 15e en 16e eeuw (avec résumé français),” Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse der Letteren, XXVII (1963), 17–19.Google Scholar

16 Marechal, J., Bijdrage tot de Geschiedenis van het Bankwezen te Brugge (Bruges, 1955)Google Scholar, passim; de Roover, , The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 1397–1494 (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), 331–357.Google Scholar

17 Ibid. Bruges and the Brabant Fairs of Antwerp and Bergen op Zoom were by far the most important northern buying centres of Asiatic, Mediterranean, and Flemish goods and manufactured products for the English and Hanseatic merchants.

18 Lopez, R. S., “The Dollar of the Middle Ages,” Journal of Economic History, XI (Summer 1951), 209–234Google Scholar; Enno van Gelder, H., De Nederlandse Munten (Utrecht, 1965), 29–31.Google Scholar

19 van Werveke, H., “Currency Manipulation in the Middle Ages; The Case of Louis de Male, Count of Flanders,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, Fourth Series, XXXI (1949), 115–127CrossRefGoogle Scholar; van Werveke, , “De Muntslag in Vlaanderen onder Lodewijk van Male,” Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België. Klasse der Letteren, XI (1949)Google Scholar; Miskimin, H. A., Money, Prices and Foreign Exchange in fourteenth-century France (Yale Studies in Economics, No. 15, New Haven, 1963), 83–210.Google Scholar

20 Laurent, H., La Loi de Gresham au Moyen-âge. Essai sur la circulation monétaire entre la Flandre et le Brabant à la fin du XIVe siècle (Brussels, 1933)Google Scholar; Munro, J. H. A., Wool, Cloth, and Gold: Bullionism in Anglo-Burgundian Commercial Relations, 1384–1478 (unpublished Ph.D. thesis in Economic History, Yale University, 1965), 60.Google Scholar

21 Laurent, La Loi de Gresham, passim; van der Wee, Growth of the Antwerp Market, I, 111.

22 de Roover, Money, Banking and Credit in Mediaeval Bruges, 9–75.

23 van der Wee, Growth of the Antwerp Market, I, 125–126; van Werveke, , “De Vlaamsche Munthervorming van 1389–1390,” Nederlandsche Historiebladen, I (1938), 336–345.Google Scholar

24 de Pas, L. Deschamps, “Essai sur l'histoire monétaire des comtes de Flandre de la maison de Bourgogne et description de leurs monnaies d'or et d'argent,” Revue Numismatique, Nouvelle Série, VI (1861)Google Scholar; Pas, Deschamps de, “Supplément à l'essai sur l'histoire monétaire des comtes de Flandre de la maison de Bourgogne,” Revue Numismatique, Nouvelle Série, XI (1866), 197–245.Google Scholar

25 van der Wee, , “L'échec de la réforme monétaire de 1407 en Flandre, vu par les marchands italiens de Bruges,” Studi in onore di Amintore Fanfani, III (1962), 579–589.Google Scholar

26 Ibid., 581–582.

27 Ibid., 585–586.

28 van der Wee, Growth of the Antwerp Market, I, 126.