Medieval Economic History

Maria Paola ZANOBONI, Donne al lavoro nell’Italia e nell’Europa medievali (secc.XIII-XV), Milano, Jouvence, 2016
VINCITORE DEL PREMIO ITALIAMEDIEVALE 2017:
http://www.italiamedievale.org/portale/premio-italia-medievale/
http://premioitaliamedievale.blogspot.it/
Prendendo in considerazione la svariata casistica italiana ed europea tra il secolo XIII e la fine del XV, questo libro intende sfatare i molteplici luoghi comuni sul lavoro femminile medievale che lo consideravano limitato soltanto ad alcune attività del comparto tessile ed alimentare, sottopagato, in costante dipendenza o correlazione con l’attività del consorte, esterno alle corporazioni per volontà delle corporazioni stesse. Un po’ dovunque, in Italia e in Europa, nel secolo XIII come nel XV, la realtà era invece un’altra: donne che lavoravano in tutti i possibili settori, compresa l’edilizia, le miniere e le saline; imprenditrici che si autofinanziavano con propri capitali ottenuti dalla vendita di abiti e gioielli; retribuzioni commisurate “alle reali capacità” e quindi non dipendenti dal genere; donne che col proprio lavoro riuscivano a mantenere sé stesse e familiari in difficoltà, o a saldare i debiti dei mariti; nobildonne impegnate nelle attività più varie: dall’organizzazione di laboratori per il ricamo, alla gestione di miniere, alla direzione di opere di bonifica, all’impianto di caseifici, alla gestione di alberghi.
Dotate di notevolissime capacità organizzative nella flessibilità estrema dei loro ruoli, erano le donne stesse a tenersi fuori dalle associazioni professionali, che, per parte loro, in genere ne tolleravano il “lavoro nero”, senza escluderle , ma cercando al contrario di obbligarle ad iscriversi quando avevano necessità di tenerle sotto controllo.
L’apprendistato femminile esisteva, spesso in modo informale, e tendeva ad emergere in casi particolari, quando erano le lavoratrici stesse ad aver bisogno di un attestato che dimostrasse le loro capacità (ad esempio nella lavorazione di materie prime preziose). Talvolta erano invece le corporazioni ad imporre alle donne la stipulazione scritta del contratto di apprendistato, soprattutto in settori importanti per la salute della collettività (come la confezione del pane).

Maria Paola ZANOBONI, Donne al lavoro nell’Italia e nell’Europa medievali (secc.XIII-XV), Milano, Jouvence, 2016
The traditional opinion considered female labour in medieval age low paid worrk restricted to textile and feeding fields only and generally dependent on husband’s work, outside of guilds.
On the contrary, a considerable body of evidence resulting from researches on Italian and European documents of XIII century up to the end of XV century, shows that during XIII, XIV and XV centuries in several European countries female work was employed in almost all fields of activity, including buildings, mines, salt processing. Women’s wages were proportional to their real capacity and were not conditioned by gender.
In many cases women succeeded in supporting the whole family (or discharging their husband’s debts) by their own work. Moreover some women sold their dresses and jewels to obtain capitals in order to establish a firm. Noblewomen were involved in very different jobs as embroidery workshops organization, mines and reclamation management, dairy establishment, hotel management.
Women showed a remarkable ability in work organization in spite of the enormous variety of their tasks and they preferred to be outside of guilds; on the other hand guilds tolerated this type of black work but tried to compel women to be registered when a special control was needed.
Female apprenticeship was often informal but in particular cases it was displaied when workers needed to demonstrate their ability in some jobs such as precious raw materials manufacture. In other cases guilds obliged women to stipulate a written apprenticeship contract, particularly in public health fields, for example to knead

The legal framework of the salt trade in Hungary before the Mongol invasion was different from what we know from the late fourteenth century. Approximately till the end of the eleventh century the production of the Transylvanian salt mines was mainly carried on the northern land route with caravans and on carts. Mines were already property of the king and the trade with the salt belonged to his domanial incomes. The river transport began to develop by the turn of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Church institutions, especially monasteries were rather early involved in the salt transport. The break-through happened in the last third of the twelfth century when the number of privileged institutions multiplied considerably. There are some traces of an essay to reorganise the salt trade around 1217. The oath of Bereg (1233) was planned to be the final treaty between the King and the Church concerning the rights of the ecclesiastic institutions in the salt trade, involving most of the diocesan bishops with certain collegiate chapters, Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries and the Knights Hospitaller. However, it did not survive the death of King Andrew II. King Béla IV withdrew the concessions shortly after his accession to the throne, although he continued to support the monasteries from the salt incomes. Although the measure units were the same throughout the Middle Ages, the denominations were different in the early period referring to the different freighting routes (sal terrestris / sal aquaticus). The whole process is part of the formation of the salt regale which – similarly to other regions of Europe – probably appeared in the twelfth century, and went through a considerable transformation before it gained its late medieval form.

Впервые в русскоязычной нумизматической литературе публикуется анализ чеканки серебряной монеты в Королевстве Норвегия на протяжении трех столетий – от завершающего этапа эпохи викингов до утери страной государственного суверенитета. Представлен каталог номиналов, рассмотрены два этапа финансовой политики. Первый охватывает переходный период от эпохи викингов к Средневековью (1050-1080). Второй касается суверенных денежных эмиссий в средневековом государстве (1080-1397). Делается вывод о том, что важным стимулом развития денежного дела Норвегии являлся переход от военной экспансии к широкомасштабной международной торговле. Отмечено влияние эпидемии чумы на прекращение работы последнего монетного двора в Осло. Использованы правила письменного перевода имен, принятые в современной Норвегии.
Ключевые слова: пеннинг, полпеннинга, четверть пеннинга, брактеат, эпоха викингов, Кальмарская уния, «норвежская империя», «Закат Норвегии»

For the first time in the Russian-language numismatic literature, an in-depth analysis of the three centuries’ silver coinage in the Kingdom of Norway has been published. It is limited by the political, military and monetary time framework from the final stage of the Viking Age to the loss of Norwegian state sovereignty in 1397 (the Kalmar Union). The catalog of denominations is presented, two stages of a financial policy are considered. The first is the transition period from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages (1050-1080). The second stage is about the sovereign money issues in the medieval state (1080-1397). The author has concluded that an important stimulus for the development of the monetary policies was the transition from the Viking military expansion to a large-scale international trade. The effect of the plague epidemic on the last Norwegian mint’s collapse is underlined. The translations of Norwegian medieval names to Russian are constructed according to modern Norwegian rules. 
Keywords: penning, half penning, quarter of penning, bracteate, Viking Age, Kalmar Union, «Norwegian empire», «Norwegian decline»

Artikkelen tar for seg det norske myntvesenet fra slutten av vikingtiden til Kalmarunionen i 1397. Med dette publiseres for første gang i russiskspråklig numismatisk litteratur norske mynter, utmyntet i regjeringstiden til en rekke norske konger. Den første delen gjelder utmyntinger i overgangsperioden fra vikingtiden til middelalderen (1050-1080). Det andre gjelder utmynting i middelalderstaten (1080-1397). Det konkluderes med at overgangen fra den militære og politiske ekspansjonen på 900- og 1000-tallet til internasjonal handel i stor skala, var en viktig pådriver i utviklingen av pengepolitikken i Norge. Svartedauen var avgjørende for at det siste myntverket i Oslo ble lagt ned. Oversettelsen av norske navn til russisk er gjort i henhold til moderne norsk uttale.
Nøkkelord: penning, halvpenning, kvartpenning, brakteat, vikingtiden, Kalmarunionen, Norgesveldet, «Norges nedgang»

Esta obra colectiva pretende responder a varios de los interrogantes que nos plantean las formas de la vida política, socio-económica y cultural de los puertos del sur de la Europa atlántica desde la segunda mitad del siglo XII, cuando la colaboración entre los diversos agentes económicos, social y políticos articularon las primeras formas de gobernanza para hacer frente a sus retos y desafíos, hasta comienzos del siglo XVI, cuando las estructuras del poder monárquico centralizado intervendrían en esas formas de gobernanza propia de los puertos atlánticos. El principal valor de esta obra sobre los puertos atlánticos medievales radica en que los autores han centrado su mirada en el estudio de las relaciones entre gobernanza y agencia por medio de un somero análisis de la conflictividad, la cooperación, la transferencia tecnológica, los intercambios humanos y mercantiles, así como las alianzas que vincularon a los diversos actores sociales, grupos y organizaciones físicamente presentes en los puertos del Atlántico, del que se destaca la sobresaliente capacidad de agencia de las mujeres y los hombres, vinculada a sus actividades marítimas y portuarias.

This article is a pioneering first study of the effects of the Great Famine of 1315-22 in Wales, examining, as a case study, the Medieval Marcher Lordship of Dyffryn Clwyd (now central Denbighshire). It concludes that the famine may have been more acute in relatively poor, sparsely populated areas such as Northeast Wales.

The idea that, from the end of the thirteenth century, Pisa underwent a process of inexorable economic decline and progressive subordination to the interests of the Florentines has already been contested by Federigo Melis, Marco Tangheroni, Giuseppe Petralia. On these bases, this article propose a definitely « optimistic » view of the economy of Pisa at the end of the fourteenth century, by taking into consideration the activities of two categories of operators, integrated, in various forms, into the networks of international commerce : merchant-bankers and ritagliatori, i. e. merchants specialized in the trade of wool clothes. The evolution of the city’s economy is put into connection with wider transformations in the circuits of international commerce and finance in the second half of the fourteenth century. This phase was characterised by a structure of markets and commercial networks which seems to be much more fragmented, fluid and acentric than that of the first half of the century. This change favoured the integration, at various points of the system, of merchant groups of different origin and with a different background ; between them the Pisans played an important role.

As is known, after the Council of Constance, Popes endeavoured to increase the Papal State’s temporal revenues as much as possible through a reorganization of the financial administration, both central and local, at the expense of the remaining powers of the municipalities in the papal lands. An example of this may be seen in the customs duties on pastures in the Patrimony of Saint Peter in Tuscia, of increasing importance due to the considerable growth of livestock, and especially transhumant livestock, during the fifteenth century. Customs officers (and, at a higher level, Popes) also tried to restrict the Municipality of Orvieto’s rights to the pastures in its territory, over which Orvieto had always enjoyed significant autonomy. Some measures, especially by Pius II and Paul II from 1460 to 1466, can be seen in this perspective, concerning both papal lands in general and Orvieto pastures in particular. But the effects of these measures during the following decades, as regards Orvieto’s autonomy in this matter, are unclear and require further study: if indeed under Innocent VIII this process of progressive control by the Church over Orvieto’s pastures appears to have been complete, during the pontificate of Alexander VI, however, Orvieto seems to have recovered its traditional autonomy in this sphere.

RISK AND MEDIEVAL ‘NEGOTIUM’ presents how the concepts of risk and responsibility in economic life were described in the medieval texts. The analysed sources belong to the early phase of the medieval reflection on business and entrepreneurship, in the framework of the 'theologia practica'. The research concerns confessional summas by Peter the Chanter, Robert Courson, Thomas Chobhamand Raymond of Penyafort, "Summa aurea" by William of Auxerre, "Summa Halensis", and the unedited "Casus fratris Clari". The selected Clarus’ casus are enclosed in the Appendix. Moreover, the later medieval authors – such as Thomas Aquinas, Giles of Lessines, Peter Olivi and Matthew of Krakow – are referred to in the comparative perspective. The book deals with the crucial references to canons and to the Bible which constituted the background of the examined sources. The author analyses the meanings of the terms PERICULUM and DUBIUM in the papal decretals "In civitate" and "Naviganti" with regard to the comments of the 13th century theologians and canonists. After the analyses of the texts, the different contexts of terms 'periculm' and 'dubium' in the medieval ‘economic language’ are collated. The issue of interconnection between these terms and the concepts of just price and usury is also discussed.
The book is dedicated IN MEMORIAM OVIDII CAPITANI MAGISTRI MEI CARI. It belogns to the results of the author's project ETHICA-NEGOTIUM, at Bologna University, supervised by prof. O. Capitani

This lecture attempted an overview over the area of the present-day states of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland, highlighting the testimony of the Byzantine coins (hoards and stray finds) found there and dated from Anastasios I (491-518) to Leon VI (886-912). Based on an assessment of numismatic evidence, the presentation aimed at a synthesis combining economic matters and historical events, with the main focus turned on certain ‘players’ (Gepids, Avars, Great Moravia, Lesser Poland) and on what remains of times past in memory from half-forgotten peoples and realms.

Resumo: Os manuais de mercadores fazem parte de um gênero literário que começa a se difundir no Ocidente europeu, a partir do século XIII. Neste artigo, apresentamos os principais manuais escritos por mercadores vinculados às grandes companhias de comércio na Idade Média. Dos vários manuais apontados, destacamos dois redigidos no século XIV, o Zibaldone da Canal, de autor anônimo e o La Pratica della Mercatura, elaborado por Francesco Balducci Pegolotti. Procuramos efetuar uma análise comparativa de ambos estabelecendo suas diferenças e semelhanças e a finalidade de tais manuais no mundo dos mercadores da Idade Média. Abstract: The merchants' manuals are part of a literary gender that began diffusing in the European Occident, in the Thirteenth-Century. In this article, we introduce the main manuals written by merchants linked to the great trade companies in the Middle Age. Of the several manuals shown, we highlighted two of them written in the Fourteenth-Century, Zibaldone da Canal, by an anonymous author and La Practica della Mercatura, elaborated by Francesco Balducci Pegolotti. We tried to realise a comparative analysis of both establishing its differences and similarities and the purpose of such manuals in the merchants'world of the Middle Ages. Introdução A partir do século XI, observa-se em todo o Ocidente um crescente desenvolvimento econômico. No campo, a afirmação das relações feudais e a exploração racional dos senhorios propiciaram o aumento da área cultivada e um

La fiscalidad extraordinaria, resultado de la negociación entre el monarca y diversos cuerpos políticos, se convirtió en el siglo XV no solo en un elemento clave del sistema hacendístico castellano sino también en uno de los ejes articuladores de sus relaciones políticas. A través del análisis de una de las vías del servicio de Cortes -el pedido regio- y de las contribuciones de la Santa Hermandad (1406-1498) en el ámbito del reino de Sevilla, este libro analiza cómo este tipo de recursos se convirtieron en un mecanismo de integración de los concejos del reino en los resortes del Estado. Un proceso no exento de conflicto, que se convierte en una plataforma privilegiada para comprender este convulso período y la transformación de las relaciones de poder en el seno de las ciudades, donde la recaudación y gestión de estos ingresos permitieron a las élites municipales estabilizar y expandir su dominio. Todo ello sin perder de vista el impacto social y económico que tuvieron estas figuras fiscales sobre la vida diaria de los contribuyentes en la ciudad hispalense, por entonces ya una de las más ricas y dinámicas de la Corona de Castilla.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, the northern Balkans occupied a key position in the copper trade of central and eastern Europe and its distribution to the Mediterranean. Within the territory of the Hungarian Crown, copper was produced at Banska Bystrica in Slovakia and at Rude in Croatia. These two sites were exclusively mined for their copper seams and managed by private companies.
In the Kingdom of Bosnia, the mines at Ostružnica, Srebrenica and Fojnica held poly-metallic lode deposits, whereby copper was mined only on an ancillary basis. These were largely managed by Ragusans. Over this time span, two main routes were used to the take the mined copper from the interior to the seaports and a third route that linked the coastal towns. The western land route which starts in Banska Bystrica takes in Bratislava, Buda, Varaždin, Zagreb and Rude, and, depending on
the political situation of the moment, Bakar, Senj or Rijeka. The eastern land route links the mines in the Balkans to the Dalmatian ports. Setting out from the sites in Bosnia, it first goes to Dubrovnik.
There is one final trans-Adriatic route where trade occurred by way of coastal navigation. These shipping lines cut across the Adriatic to Italy and the Mediterranean as a whole, by way of the Croatian and the Dalmatian coast as far as Dubrovnik. The reasons for setting up copper mining operations and organizing these trade routes were very much a function of the political and economic constellations revolving around the rivalry between Venice and the Kingdom of Hungary-Croatia which evolved into the Hapsburg Empire.