Compassionate Capitalism Business and Community in Medieval England

It may seem like a recent trend, but businesses have been practising compassionate capitalism for nearly a thousand years.

Based on the newly discovered historical documents on Cambridge’s sophisticated urban property market during the Commercial Revolution in the thirteenth century, this book explores how successful entrepreneurs employed the wealth they had accumulated to the benefit of the community.

Cutting across disciplines, from economic and business history to entrepreneurship, philanthropy and medieval studies, this outstanding volume presents an invaluable contribution to our knowledge of the early phases of capitalism.

A companion book, The Cambridge Hundred Rolls Sources Volume, replacing the previous incomplete and inaccurate transcription by the Record Commission of 1818, is also available from Bristol University Press.

Catherine Casson is Senior Lecturer in Enterprise at the University of Manchester.

Mark Casson is Professor of Economics at the University of Reading and Director of the Centre for Institutions and Economic History. A Fellow of the British Academy, he has published extensively in the fields of the fields of economic history, international business, entrepreneurship and transport studies.

John S. Lee is Research Associate at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of York. His publications include Cambridge and its Economic Region, 1450-1560 (Hatfield, 2005).

Katie Phillips is an AHRC-funded PhD student in Medieval Studies at the University of Reading.