Ben Dodds & Christian D Liddy 
Commercial Activity, Markets and Entrepreneurs in the Middle Ages [PDF ebook] 
Essays in Honour of Richard Britnell

Numerous aspects of the medieval economy are covered in this new collection of essays, from business fraud and changes in wages to the production of luxury goods.


Long dominated by theories of causation involving class conflict and Malthusian crisis, the field of medieval economic history has been transformed in recent years by a better understanding of the process of commercialisation. Inrecognition of the important work in this area by Richard Britnell, this volume of essays brings together studies by historians from both sides of the Atlantic on fundamental aspects of the medieval commercial economy. From examinations of high wages, minimum wages and unemployment, through to innovative studies of consumption and supply, business fraud, economic regulation, small towns, the use of charters, and the role of shipmasters and peasants as entrepreneurs, this collection is essential reading for the student of the medieval economy.


Contributors: John Hatcher, John Langdon, Derek Keene, John S. Lee, James Davis, Mark Bailey, Christine M. Newman, Peter L. Larson, Maryanne Kowaleski, Martha Carlin, James Masschaele, Christopher Dyer

Table des matières

Richard Britnell: An Appreciation

Unreal Wages: Long-run Living Standards and the ‘Golden Age’ of the Fifteenth Century – John Hatcher

Minimum Wages and Unemployment Rates in Medieval England: The Case of Old Woodstock, Oxfordshire, 1256-1357 – John Langdon

Crisis Management in London’s Food Supply, 1250-1500 – Derek J Keene

Grain Shortages in Late Medieval Towns – John S. Lee

Market Regulation in Fifteenth-Century England – James Davis

Self-Government in the Small Towns of Late Medieval England – Mark Bailey

Marketing and Trading Networks in Medieval Durham – C. M. Newman

Peasant Opportunities in Rural Durham: Land, Vills and Mills 1400-1500 – Peter L. Larson

The Shipmaster as Entrepreneur in Medieval England – Maryanne Kowaleski

Cheating the Boss: Robert Carpenter’s Embezzlement Instructions [1261 x 1268], and the Employee Fraud in Medieval England – Martha Carlin

The Public Life of the Private Charter in Thirteenth-Century England – James Masschaele

Luxury Goods in Medieval England – Christopher Dyer

Bibliography of the Writings of Richard Britnell

Tabula Gratulatoria

A propos de l’auteur

MARK BAILEY was recently High Master of St Paul’s School, London, and a visiting fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. He was previously a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and is now the Professor of Later Medieval History at the University of East Anglia. His numerous publications include Medieval Suffolk. An economic and social history 1200-1500 (2007) and After the Black Death. Economy, society and the law in fourteenth-century England (2021).