The Medieval Theories of the Just Price: Romanists, Canonists, and Theologians in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
If capitalism was a new movement originating sometime during the late Middle Ages and the early Modern Period, then it must follow that the preceding epoch of the Middle Ages possessed significantly contrasting characteristics.
The Economics of Lady Mede’s Agency in The Vision of Piers the Plowman
This paper will argue that rather than being controlled by the process of sexual commodification Lady Mede uses the correlation of gender, money, and sex to counter Conscience’s attempts to discount her place in the court and, in so doing, her agency.
Did traditional cultures live in harmony with nature? Lessons from Angkor, Cambodia
Recent archaeological and geomorphological research at the medieval Khmer capital of Angkor reveals that the impact of this low-density pre-industrial city on the natural environment was profound.
What lessons for economic development can we draw from the Champagne fairs?
During their medieval heyday, the Champagne fairs took place six times a year and rotated among four towns – Bar-sur-Aube, Lagny, Provins and Troyes – none of which was a major merchant center in its own right.
Whose Music is it Anyway? How we Came to View Musical Expression as a Form of Property
By analyzing the economic and legal structures governing music making in Western Europe from the classical period in Greece through the Renaissance, the article shows that the law first granted some exclusive rights in the Middle Ages, when musicians’ guilds enjoyed the exclusive right to perform music in medieval cities, but that the concept of music as a form of property was not established until
The Rebirth of a Communications Network: Europe at the Time of the Carolingians
This paper attempts to explain the accelerated economic growth of medieval Europe by incorporating communications technologies in the analysis. During the reign of Charlemagne, written and spoken Latin was effectively standardized which reduced the cost of information storage relative to transmission.
The Economic Consequences of the Black Death
Great epidemics mark the agricultural world of the past; from Neolithic times onwards. The formation of much denser societies with respect to those of hunters and gatherers, and daily contact with domestic animals are at the origins of serious epidemic infections which have accompanied humans for 10,000 years.
The Economics of Organizing 9th Century Viking raids
Some scholars have argued that the early raids were a deliberate ‘softening up’ of Europe, a deliberate prelude to land-grabbing. But this view assumes that raiders were displaced farmers, victims of climate change or population pressure.
River navigation in Medieval England
The significance of Medieval water transport lay in its low cost, for carriage by land could be more than ten times the price of transport by water; indicating the price differential was as great, if not greater, than during the industrial revolution.
The 1363 English Sumptuary Law: A comparison with Fabric Prices of the Late Fourteenth-Century
This thesis provides a comparison of the 1363 English sumptuary law, the most comprehensive of the fourteenth-century English sumptuary laws, with available fabric prices from the fourteenth century.
Wayward Women: Representations of Mobile Jewish Businesswomen in Medieval Northern Europe
This thesis focuses on representations of Jewish female economic travel, which were frequently depicted even though traditional Rabbinic Judaism dictated travel as a distinctly male activity.
Kings and Vikings: On the Dynamics of Competitive Agglomeration
While we hope our theory is useful in understanding the basic forces driving agglomeration in the face of conflict in a general setting, we shall discuss our theory in terms of a particularly dramatic episode in history: the era of the Viking invasions.
The evolutionary dynamics of the credit relationship between Henry III and Flemish merchants, 1247-1270
Within England, the royal household was by far the biggest single customer for cloth,
wax and other high-status goods.
Organization and modus operandi of the Byzantine salt monopoly
This article analyzes the organization and functioning of the Byzantine salt monopoly. Saltworks were owned by the state, but some were also owned by monasteries and laymen.
Slavery and the slave trade in pre-colonial Africa
Slavery and the Slave Trade have been age old institutions and practices in almost every continent in the world.
Profiling English Landed Society in 1066
Professor Lewis details the project, Profile of a Doomed Elite: The Structure of English Landed Society in 1066 project, which involves completing a prosopography of landowners from England in 1066
The Dynamics of Landed and Portable Wealth: Defining Elites in Northwest Europe from an Archaeological Perspective, between AD 650 and 1150
What was the relationship between material wealth and social status? Did portable wealth convey to social status for elites?
The contribution of the English mints to government revenue, 1158-1544
The contribution of the English mints to government revenue, 1158-1544 By Martin Allen Paper given at Economic History Society Annual Conference, University of…
The Crisis of the Fourteenth Century Reassessed: Between Ecology and Institutions – Evidence from England (1310-1350)
In England, as elsewhere in Northern Europe, the local population was hit by a series of harsh crises, the three most devastating of which were the Great Famine of 1314/5-22, the Great Cattle Plague of c.1315-21 and the Black Death of 1348-51
Neighbors, Partners, Enemies: Jews and the Monasteries of Germany in the High Middle Ages
German-speaking lands in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were home to the largest Jewish communities north of the Alps and Pyrenees and thus constituted key locations for Christian-Jewish interaction.
The relationships between the State and the Church in the Romanian Countries (14th-18th centuries)
The relationships between the State and the Church in the Romanian Countries (14th-18th centuries) Flaut, Daniel Revista Romana de Studii Eurasiatice, Vol.4 (2008) Abstract…
Neither privileged nor poverty-‐stricken: Widows in medieval Flanders
Neither privileged nor poverty-‐stricken: Widows in medieval Flanders Kittell, E. Paper delivered at the Human Community Research Consortium, University of Idaho (2011) Abstract In…