Mediaeval Market Economy

This volume comprises ten essays, six of which are published in English for the first time. The author considers the development of medieval capitalism from the vantage point of international merchants and merchant-bankers. He reconsiders the much discussed "Great Depression" of the 14th and 15th centuries, and is particularly concerned with the active and often destabilizing role played by money in the medieval economy at a time when the money supply consisted overwhelmingly of metallic currency. It includes an account of how a money shortage of critical proportions resulted from the decline of mine production and the steady drain of precious metal to the eastern Mediterranean. The book contains numerous tables and charts of mint production, prices and wages, foreign trade and other selected economic indicators for different countries of Europe in the late Middle Ages.