The Western Economy: Revival or Revolution?
lectures
- Urban and Economic Renewal I
- Urban and Economic Renewal II
Seminar Questions
- Why were some areas of medieval Europe more urbanised than others?
- In what sense was there a commercial revolution in the thirteenth century?
Documents
- Pope Innocent III: License to Venice to Trade With The Saracens, 1198 .
- Privileges Granted to German Merchants at Novgorod, 1229
.
-
Giovanni Villani's Florence.
[Final section beginning '
Since we have described the income and expenditure of the commune of Florence...']
Introductory Reading
Barber, The Two Cities, 48-79
Bartlett, The Making of Europe, 167-196, 233-235, 280-288
Power, The Central Middle Ages, 57-90.
Waley and Denley, Later Medieval Europe, 15-21, 90-92
e-resources
- The Internet Medieval Sourcebook has sections on the rise of towns and the commercial revoultion.
- The Burghal Hidage
- 'The Viking Way'. BBC radio series, November 2005.
- The Viking Age in Ireland
- Novgorod Online
- Medieval Coventry
- Map showing the main trade routes of late medieval Europe. The black lines show the routes of the Hanseatic League, the blue Venetian and the red Genoese routes. Purple lines are routes used by both the Venetians and the Genoese. Overland and river routes are stippled.
- The Carta marina of the Baltic Sea region (1539)
- In Our Time, "The City", Part One and Two. BBC Radio series, March 2010.
Further Reading
Bautier, R.-H., The Economic Development of Medieval Europe (London, 1971)
Brundage, James A., 'Usury' in Joseph R. Strayer et al. (eds.), Dictionary of the Middle Ages, 13 vols. (New York, 1982-89), vol. 12, pp. 335-9.
Day, John, The Medieval Market Economy (Oxford, 1987)
Duby, Georges, The Early Growth of the European Economy: Warriors and Peasants from the Seventh to the Twelfth Century (Ithaca, NY, 1974)
Hanawalt, Barbara, Growing Up in Medieval London: The Experience of Childhood in History (Oxford, 1993) [also online]
Holt, Richard, and Rosser, Gervase, (eds.), The English Medieval Town: A Reader in English Urban History 1200-1540 (London, 1990)
Howell, Martha C., Commerce before capitalism in Europe, 1300-1600 (Cambridge, 2010).
Hunt, Edwin S., and Murray, James M., A History of Business in Medieval Europe, 1200-1550 (Cambridge, 1999)
Le Goff, Jacques, Time, Work, and Culture in the Middle Ages, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Chicago, 1980)
Lopez, Robert S. et al. (eds. and trans.), Medieval Trade in the Mediterranean World (1955; rept. 2001) [An important collection of documents]
Lopez, Robert S., The Commercial Revolution of the Middle Ages 950-1350 (Cambridge, 1976)
Mollat, Michel, The Poor in the Middle Ages, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (New Haven, 1986)
Nicholas, David, Medieval Flanders (London, 1992)
Nicholas, David, The Growth of the Medieval City (Harlow, 1997)
Nicholas, David, The Later Medieval City (Harlow, 1997)
Pirenne, Henri, Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade (Princeton, NJ, 1952)
Postan, M.M., et al. (eds.), The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. 2: Trade and Industry in the Middle Ages, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 1987)
Pounds, N., An Economic History of Medieval Europe, 2nd ed. (London, 1994)
Spufford, Peter, Money and Its Use in Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 1988)
Spufford, Peter, Power and Profit: The Merchant in Medieval Europe (London, 2002)
