Newly available in paperback, this is a wonderfully readable account of the role of merchants and money in the medieval world. Professor Spufford, who has made a lifelong study of the subject, brings together a vast amount of material from archives all over the world to build up this important economic history of the origins of capitalism essential reading for the scholar, but also engaging and entertaining to the layman.

This collection of merchant documents is essential reading for any student of economic developments in the Middle Ages who wishes to go beyond the level of textbook summaries. Different aspects of economic life in the Mediterranean world are delineated in the light of a rich variety of articles and other contemporary writings, drawn from Muslim and Christian sources. From commercial contracts, promissory notes, and judicial acts to working manuals of practical geography and philology, this volume of documents provides an unparalleled portrait of the world of medieval commerce.

"This little volume contains the substance of lectures ... delivered from October to December 1922 in several American universities."--Pref. Bibliography: p. [245]-249.

In The Medieval Economy of Salvation, Adam J. Davis shows how the burgeoning commercial economy of western Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, alongside an emerging culture of Christian charity, led to the establishment of hundreds of hospitals and leper houses. Focusing on the county of Champagne, he looks at the ways in which charitable organizations and individuals—townspeople, merchants, aristocrats, and ecclesiastics—saw in these new institutions a means of infusing charitable giving and service with new social significance and heightened expectations of spiritual rewards. In tracing the rise of the medieval hospital during a period of intense urbanization and the transition from a gift economy to a commercial one, Davis makes clear how embedded this charitable institution was in the wider social, cultural, religious, and economic fabric of medieval life.

The author analyzes the economic changes which occurred in Europe between the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of modern European states about 1450 A.D. In particular he deals with such problems of historical analysis as the Pirenne thesis and its later revisions; the economy of Europe during the so-called Dark Ages; the effects of the Crusades upon commerce and trade; and the return to gold coinage for use in trade. This clear, balanced account, which combines an original narrative and readings from 45 sources, gives an exceptionally vivid picture of medieval history and commerce.

Roman and barbarian precedents The growth of self-centered agriculture The take-off of the commerical revolution The uneven diffusion of commercialization Between crafts and industry The response of the agricultural society.

"Eminent medievalist Jean Favier introduces and analyzes the political, social, moral, and economic milieux of the late Middle Ages that engendered Europe's transformation from feudalism to capitalism. ... Favier reveals that the ultimate consequence of this risk-taking was not merely the accumulation of wealth by such families as the Medici and the Fuggers, but the transposition of social and aesthetic values upon the populace, leading to the rise of the middle class."--Jacket.