Commerce Mediterraneen et Banques Italiens au Moyen Age (Variorum Collected Studies) Book

This is the second selection of articles on economic history by Robert-Henri Bautier to be published by Variorum; the first, "Sur l'histoire economique de la France medievale", focused on the infrastructure of economic life within the kindgom of France - the network of land and river routes, and the fairs. The present collection deals first with European trade across the Mediterranean in the 13th-14th centuries, both on an international level, and with regard to the particular circumstances, for example, of Amalfi, charting the changing pattern of its commercial relationships through this period. The following articles concentrate on the "Lombards", Italian bankers and merchants, notably from Sienna and Piacenza. Professor Bautier also looks in detail at their activities in France, both as traders at the fairs of Champagne, and as bankers and money-lenders, and makes an especial study of their role in the expansion of credit during the later Middle Ages.Read More