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Late-Medieval Merchants: History, Education, Mentality, and Cultural Significance

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Fifteenth-Century Studies Vol. 28
This chapter is in the book Fifteenth-Century Studies Vol. 28
Late-Medieval Merchants: History, Education, Mentality, and CulturalSignificanceEdelgard E. DuBruck Western European towns, eventually becoming the merchants’ most im-portant support system in terms of clientele, grew remarkably in the four-teenth and fifteenth centuries, in spite of conflicts erupting sporadically between urban forces and territorial princes. Towns became places of order, progress, freedom, and civilization.1 As exemplified by a number of towns, the gradual development of a complex urban society, manifested in each town by its own civic hierarchy, facilitated the immediate satisfac-tion of citizens’ needs, eliminating the necessity of merchant (or client) travel to distant points. The urban societal units practiced manorialism (a system of landed estates), within which late-medieval merchants played a significant role. However, the history of salespeople, trades, and markets really began at the agricultural level. This article will outline and explain the development, education, mentality, and cultural importance of the late-medieval merchant class. A Brief History of Merchants, Trades, and Markets At first, merchants were itinerant, using roads, bridges, and streams to transport their goods. For long-distance trading, mountains (Pyrenees and Alps) posed tremendous obstacles; for instance, impeding the exchange of goods between Flanders and Italy. Roads were rarely paved, and the method of harnessing transport animals (for pulling carts and wagons) was primitive gauged by later standards; dangers lurked in each forest. When one adds to these difficulties taxes, road- and bridge tolls, the mer-chandise being peddled becomes expensive, whether slaves, luxury yard-goods, spices (nearly 300 kinds!), or the more utilitarian corn, wine, and salt are being conveyed.2In German parlance, traveling the roads is synonymous with experi-ence (erfahren); the creation of maps mitigates confusion (also in Mediter-ranean shipping); such aids indicate the best roads whereby intended destinations and, of course, Rome, might be reached, with distances shown in terms of approximate time units. In the fifteenth century, a ride from Constance to Milan took a week; from Germany to Rome and back thirty-two days were needed; a riding messenger could do one hundred kilometers a day, whereas a loaded four-wheel cart did twenty to thirty kilometers. Theoretically, princes and municipalities had vouched to pro-tect travelers, but their arms did not reach into far corners of a region,
© 2003, Boydell and Brewer

Late-Medieval Merchants: History, Education, Mentality, and CulturalSignificanceEdelgard E. DuBruck Western European towns, eventually becoming the merchants’ most im-portant support system in terms of clientele, grew remarkably in the four-teenth and fifteenth centuries, in spite of conflicts erupting sporadically between urban forces and territorial princes. Towns became places of order, progress, freedom, and civilization.1 As exemplified by a number of towns, the gradual development of a complex urban society, manifested in each town by its own civic hierarchy, facilitated the immediate satisfac-tion of citizens’ needs, eliminating the necessity of merchant (or client) travel to distant points. The urban societal units practiced manorialism (a system of landed estates), within which late-medieval merchants played a significant role. However, the history of salespeople, trades, and markets really began at the agricultural level. This article will outline and explain the development, education, mentality, and cultural importance of the late-medieval merchant class. A Brief History of Merchants, Trades, and Markets At first, merchants were itinerant, using roads, bridges, and streams to transport their goods. For long-distance trading, mountains (Pyrenees and Alps) posed tremendous obstacles; for instance, impeding the exchange of goods between Flanders and Italy. Roads were rarely paved, and the method of harnessing transport animals (for pulling carts and wagons) was primitive gauged by later standards; dangers lurked in each forest. When one adds to these difficulties taxes, road- and bridge tolls, the mer-chandise being peddled becomes expensive, whether slaves, luxury yard-goods, spices (nearly 300 kinds!), or the more utilitarian corn, wine, and salt are being conveyed.2In German parlance, traveling the roads is synonymous with experi-ence (erfahren); the creation of maps mitigates confusion (also in Mediter-ranean shipping); such aids indicate the best roads whereby intended destinations and, of course, Rome, might be reached, with distances shown in terms of approximate time units. In the fifteenth century, a ride from Constance to Milan took a week; from Germany to Rome and back thirty-two days were needed; a riding messenger could do one hundred kilometers a day, whereas a loaded four-wheel cart did twenty to thirty kilometers. Theoretically, princes and municipalities had vouched to pro-tect travelers, but their arms did not reach into far corners of a region,
© 2003, Boydell and Brewer

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. The Current State of Research on Late-Medieval Drama: 1998–2000. Survey, Bibliography, and Reviews 1
  4. History or Fiction? The Role of Doubt in Antoine de La Sale’s ‘Le Paradis de la royne Sibille’ 37
  5. Drawing Conclusions: the Poetics of Closure in Alain Chartier’s Verse 51
  6. Widows: Their Social and Moral Functions According to Medieval German Literature, with Special Emphasis on Erhart Gross’s ‘Witwenbuch’ (1446) 65
  7. Robert Henryson’s Pastoral Burlesque ‘Robene and Makyne’ (c.1470) 80
  8. Late-Medieval Merchants: History, Education, Mentality, and Cultural Significance 97
  9. Grandeur et modernité de Philippe de Commynes (1447–1511) 111
  10. Who Witnessed and Narrated the ‘Banquet of the Pheasant’ (1454)? A Codicological Examination of the Account’s Five Versions 124
  11. Medications Recommended in Incunabula 138
  12. English Knights, French Books, and Malory’s Narrator 148
  13. Quatre figures féminines apocryphes dans certains Mystères de la Passion en France 173
  14. Die Bibel in der spätmittelalterlichen religiösen Gebrauchsliteratur 184
  15. Conter et juger dans les ‘Arrêts d’Amour’ de Martial d’Auvergne (c. 1460) 199
  16. L’Argent: cette nouvelle merveille des merveilles dans la version en prose de la ‘Chanson d’Esclarmonde’ (1454) 212
  17. Magic and Superstition in a Fifteenth-Century Student Notebook 224
  18. Book Reviews 242
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9781571137913-006

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. The Current State of Research on Late-Medieval Drama: 1998–2000. Survey, Bibliography, and Reviews 1
  4. History or Fiction? The Role of Doubt in Antoine de La Sale’s ‘Le Paradis de la royne Sibille’ 37
  5. Drawing Conclusions: the Poetics of Closure in Alain Chartier’s Verse 51
  6. Widows: Their Social and Moral Functions According to Medieval German Literature, with Special Emphasis on Erhart Gross’s ‘Witwenbuch’ (1446) 65
  7. Robert Henryson’s Pastoral Burlesque ‘Robene and Makyne’ (c.1470) 80
  8. Late-Medieval Merchants: History, Education, Mentality, and Cultural Significance 97
  9. Grandeur et modernité de Philippe de Commynes (1447–1511) 111
  10. Who Witnessed and Narrated the ‘Banquet of the Pheasant’ (1454)? A Codicological Examination of the Account’s Five Versions 124
  11. Medications Recommended in Incunabula 138
  12. English Knights, French Books, and Malory’s Narrator 148
  13. Quatre figures féminines apocryphes dans certains Mystères de la Passion en France 173
  14. Die Bibel in der spätmittelalterlichen religiösen Gebrauchsliteratur 184
  15. Conter et juger dans les ‘Arrêts d’Amour’ de Martial d’Auvergne (c. 1460) 199
  16. L’Argent: cette nouvelle merveille des merveilles dans la version en prose de la ‘Chanson d’Esclarmonde’ (1454) 212
  17. Magic and Superstition in a Fifteenth-Century Student Notebook 224
  18. Book Reviews 242
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