Gold & Spices: The Rise of Commerce in the Middle Ages

In Gold and Spices eminent medievalist Jean Favier introduces and analyzes the political, social, moral, and economic milieus of the late Middle Ages that engendered Europe's transformation from feudalism to capitalism. Favier presents striking portraits of the era's important and emerging centers of commerce such as London, Bruges, and Lbeck in the north, Genoa and Venice in the south, and Constantinople in the east and their various impacts at the dawn of Europe's slow march to its modern economic state are detailed. In indicating the extent of these cities' inter-dependence, he charts the many commercial land and sea routes that became the conduits of increased social and economic activity. But the book's central theme is the evolution of the medieval businessman. The merchant-entrepreneur is the hero of Gold and Spices and Favier examines the risks that led to the invention of new concepts, activities, relationships, organizations and communities. Among those risks were new markets, trade routes, forms of credit, means of production, and bold, new methods of speculation. Favier also reveals that the ultimate consequence of such actions 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. As a descriptive social history Gold and Spices excels at not only recreating the past but connecting it to the present. In several highly informative chapters Favier traces the development of currency, methods of payment, banking, accounting and the often tricky relationship between the homme des affaires and the Prince. He also clearly reveals the diversity of commerce at that time, and the fundamental adaptability needed by those who played a part in re-ordering the conditions of life.

A painstakingly detailed account of the development of capitalist institutions and practices in Europe from the 11th to the 15th centuries by a French historian. Favier's story is in many ways a heroic one. He praises those who in any period are determined to extend the limits of what is imaginable. This would seem to be his view of the great medieval trading families of Europe, who over the course of several centuries transformed themselves from, as he puts it, ``dusty-footed merchants'' to a dominant economic and political force. At the same time, there is little that is heroic here; after all, the driving force for most of the merchants was simply to make the most profit with the least risk. To do so they had to be willing to confront, or manipulate, or coopt, both religious and secular authorities. New ways of doing business had to be imagined; new methods of exchange, accounting, payment, and raising capital had to be devised. If at the end of the 15th century the capitalist class, as, say, Ricardo or Marx had imagined it, had not yet emerged, the tools it would use to rule and define the world were, Favier concludes, firmly in place. Favier's work is most of value in the detail he provides. This is not grand narrative, but a careful historical investigation of precisely how, for instance, the merchants of Genoa kept their accounts or of how the credit systems they devised to protect themselves from uncertain royal currency systems worked. This is not, however, a work for the faint-hearted; a whole chapter on the various types of coins in circulation in Europe, their comparative worth, and how this worth fluctuated is not everyone's idea of fascinating reading. Still, with a bit of forbearance, the details do accumulate into a worthwhile tale of the origins of the modern economic world. Not for everyone, but an impressive historical achievement. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Favier (The World of Chartres, LJ 4/1/90), a medieval historian, examines Europe's transformation from a feudal economy to a nascent form of capitalism. He details the technological advances in shipbuilding and the formation of large trading companies that made possible the success of merchant entrepreneurs at the center of this story. These developments led to an expansion in intellectual horizons as well. People became less bound to an agricultural economy and were introduced to a range of exotic products, which later helped to stimulate the Age of Discovery. Forms of speculation appeared and reappeared: loans to rulers, leased monopolies, buying on credit, fixed exchange rates, etc. The merchant entrepreneurs became major players in European politics, and the owners of shipping fleets and banks produced descendants who, like the Medici, could become secular rulers or even popes. This work should appeal to interested lay readers as well as to students and scholars. Highly recommended for academic and large public libraries.?Robert Andrews, Duluth P.L., MN
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.