Sur l'Histoire Economique de la France Medievale

This is the first of two collections of articles by Robert-Henri Bautier on the economic history of medieval Europe to be published by Variorum; the second "Commerce Mediterraneen et Banquiers Italiens au Moyen Age", will appear in 1992. A further pair of volumes will deal with the political and institutional history of medieval France. The present selection concentrates on the structure of commerce within the territories of medieval France. The articles examine, first, the physical network of land and river routes along which the merchants travelled, and second, the fairs at which they gathered to trade their wares. Attention is given, too, to the movement of textiles, one of the key items of medieval trade, notably those of Belgium (then part of the French kingdom), and especially, to the history of the fairs of Champagne, from the late 12th to the early 14th century the greatest commercial and financial centre of Western Europe.