Power and Profit: The Merchant in Medieval Europe [Hardcover]

Peter Spufford (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2003

The years between 1200 and 1500 saw the economy of Europe transformed from being rural, feudal and localized to being urban, capitalist and expansionist. Professor Spufford, who has made a lifelong study of these changes, here brings together a vast amount of material from archives all over the world - letters, account books, legal documents, civil records - to build up a comprehensive general picture. He has also personally travelled many of the roads, rivers and mountain passes that were the arteries of medieval trade, bringing the whole subject to vivid life. The eight chapters of the book cover the financial revolutions of the 13th century that led to the rise of modern banking, borrowing and insurance; the market in luxuries and the role of the great courts; international fairs; trade routes and the hazards of transport; raw materials; manufactured goods; the wealth of cities and nations; and the balance of trade between countries.

Editorial Reviews

From The New Yorker

This accessible study charts the so-called "commercial revolution" of the thirteenth century, a period of rapid expansion which created much of the economic landscape we know today: holding companies, corporate shares, insurance, personal checks, and double-entry bookkeeping. Concentrations of wealth in aristocratic courts and capital cities stimulated a spectacular trade in luxury goods, and Spufford traverses Europe along the ancient trade routes by which Asian spices and Venetian glass, furs from Russia and falcons from Iceland, wines from Bordeaux and tapestries from the Netherlands were distributed. Appropriately, the book itself is opulently produced, illustrated with details from the backgrounds of altarpieces and the margins of illuminated manuscripts, depicting bankers, goldsmiths, tailors, dyers, farmers, or chandlers. Visually as well as verbally, Spufford conveys the irrepressible energy of medieval trade.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

Review

Spufford has written the definitive history of commerce in the Middle Ages. -- Atlantic Monthly, June 2003

Spufford...Lays out in a clear yet expert manner the quotidian dimensions of [the commercial] revolution. -- Choice, D. Mitch, July 2003

[Among] the most beautiful and intelligently designed works of scholarship I've encountered in recent years. -- Atlantic Monthly, June 2003

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson; 1st Ed. edition (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500251185
• ISBN-13: 978-0500251188
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #996,159 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A PROFITABLE ENTERPRISE, January 1, 2012

By 

Stephen Cooper (South Yorkshire, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Power and Profit: The Merchant in Medieval Europe (Hardcover)

Peter Spufford is an Emeritus Professor in Cambridge, and has been the leading authority on medieval monetary history for a generation; but this book is a labour of love as well as of scholarship. It has a wealth of beautiful illustrations and the text is full of information, much of it new to me.

The Preface is different from most. Instead of merely paying tribute to those who helped, it tells us about the author's trials and tribulations, experienced during the many journeys he made by way of research, during a period of some 30 years. This introductory section is written in a delightfully engaging and personal way, which makes it clear that Spufford sacrificed many family holidays, except that for him it was clearly no sacrifice at all.

The journeys were his library; and during that time, Spufford learned to `read' all over again, not just by looking at places, but by studying the background detail in paintings, to discover the economic realities behind what the artist was commissioned to paint. It is this deep understanding which gives the book such power and authority.

It may even cause the reader to alter his view of medieval Europe. Traditionally, we were taught that England and France became the most powerful and progressive countries of the early modern age because they were politically united in the High Middle Ages. By comparison, Italy and Germany were `late developers'; but if we switch the focus of attention from politics to economics and commerce, as this book does, Italy and Germany emerge as the dominant powers of the Late Middle Ages, long before they were politically united.

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars In Search of Seekers of Ducats, July 16, 2008

By 

Jason S. Taylor "Marco's Realto" (Portland Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Power and Profit: The Merchant in Medieval Europe (Hardcover)

The distribution business as it was of old still hangs on in some places. In out of the way places like the Karakoram Highway and the old Silk Road, traders are still small nomad-like businessmen struggling to survive in a dangerous world. But that world has gone away for the most part.
This book gives an informative glance at the life of the trader in Europe during the Middle Ages when there was no law, no dependable travel or communications, and every merchant had to live by his wits and sometimes by his sword. It is a collection of facts rather then of entertaining anecdotes and would be an aquired taste. For those that desire to learn however, it is well worth the effort.
As a by the way, one amusing anecdote the author gives is that in Eastern Europe security often looked suspiciously at him taking pictures of bridges. To be fair, that was of course their job, bridges are important for military traffic as well as commercial and if they were a bit more paranoid then Western security would be, it would have been a fine cover. Of course the author might really have been working for the CIA, heh, heh, heh.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Commerce in the middle ages, December 6, 2008

By 

Jackal (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Power and Profit: The Merchant in Medieval Europe (Hardcover)

This is a history about European commerce in the Middle Ages. It is serious but not scholarly, i.e. not many references provided. However, the book is well written and I can really recommend it. However, the illustrations are maybe the best part of the book. They are very well chosen and makes the reading much more pleasurable. I wish there had been more and all of them in colour. (A side thought: Why don't we have history books that are overloaded with pictures?)