A collection of Professor Postan's major essays on medieval trade and finance.

Professor Postan's work on the social and economic history of the Middle Ages has had an enormous influence upon the study of medieval history and upon the development of the subject. His essays represent his major contribution and are a unique and valuable addition to the literature. Twenty-two essays are gathered together into two volumes: Essays on Medieval Agriculture and General Problems of the Medieval Economy and Medieval Trade and Finance. Previously published elsewhere, frequently in obscure places, over a period from 1928 to 1972, they are still used today by students and scholars in all branches of medieval and economic history as well as by social scientists and economists more generally.

Professor Postan's work on the social and economic history of the Middle Ages has had an enormous influence upon the study of medieval history and upon the development of the subject. His essays represent his major contribution and are a unique and valuable addition to the literature. Twenty-two essays are gathered together into two volumes: Essays on Medieval Agriculture and General Problems of the Medieval Economy and Medieval Trade and Finance. Previously published elsewhere, frequently in obscure places, over a period from 1928 to 1972, they are still used today by students and scholars in all branches of medieval and economic history as well as by social scientists and economists more generally.

This book challenges the notion that economic crises are modern phenomena through its exploration of the tumultuous ‘credit-crunch’ of the later Middle Ages. It illustrates clearly how influences such as the Black Death, inter-European warfare, climate change and a bullion famine occasioned severe and prolonged economic decline across fifteenth century England. Early chapters discuss trends in lending and borrowing, and the use of credit to fund domestic trade through detailed analysis of the Statute Staple and rich primary sources. The author then adopts a broad-based geographic lens to examine provincial credit before focusing on London’s development as the commercial powerhouse in late medieval business. Academics and students of modern economic change and historic financial revolutions alike will see that the years from 1353 to 1532 encompassed immense upheaval and change, reminiscent of modern recessions. The author carefully guides the reader to see that these shifts are the precursors of economic change in the early modern period, laying the foundations for the financial world as we know it today.

The sixteen articles in this collection analyse the contribution made by overseas trade, and the wealth in coin which it created, to the development of the English economy and locate this in an European-wide setting. In time, they range from the late Anglo-Saxon period up to the advent of the Tudors. The papers include general surveys of the importance of coinage and credit in the rise and decline of a market economy, and of the way that credit functioned in a society that lacked reliable supplies of bullion and which was also subject to the scourges of warfare and devastating disease. They illustrate, too, how from the tenth century the English crown used its control and exploitation of the coinage as part of a sophisticated fiscal system which helped create the precocious power of the English state. The author further shows how the wool trade altered the geographical pattern of wealth and enriched peasants, landowners and merchants, while the competing interests involved in the trade also cause political conflicts in Parliament and in the government of London during the period when London was establishing itself as the political capital and the financial centre of the kingdom.

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.