A history of business in medieval Europe, 1200-1550 / Edwin S. Hunt, James M. Murray.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 260-268) and index.

Before the Black Death: progress and problems -- Economics, culture, and geography of early medieval trade -- Tools of trade: business organization -- Traders and their tools -- The politics of business -- Business gets bigger: the super-company phenomenon -- Business in the late Middle Ages: a harvest of adversity -- The new business environment of the Middle Ages -- Business responses to the new environment -- The fifteenth century: revolutionary results from old processes -- Sources of capital in the late Middle Ages -- A new age for business.

Print version record.

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.

eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - Worldwide