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Historia económica y social de la Edad Media
Las invasiones musulmanas que durante la Edad Media se posesionaron de una parte de Europa y de gran porción del Mediterráneo no lograron controlar la totalidad del tráfico marítimo. El Mar Adriático y el Mar Egeo, alejados de aquella influencia, continuaron siendo -bajo el poder de Bizancio- los medios de comunicación que intensificaron las transacciones de toda índole e iniciaron a la vez el florecimiento de esa vasta región europea. Asimismo, estas actividades no tuvieron restricciones importantes en el Mar Báltico y en el Mar del Norte, donde se aceleró el comercio en contraste con la economía agrícola de lento desarrollo. Más aún, las invasiones de otros pueblos menos civilizados, que se desplazaban conducidos por un afán de conquista, contribuyeron a intensificar los intercambios y, por lo tanto, a hacer progresar las industrias y a crear nuevas formas de convivencia entre los estratos sociales. Terminada su acción depredadora, los invasores acabaron por convertirse en mercaderes.
La persecución de esas actividades entre los pueblos dio motivo a la creación de mercaderes profesionales, decisivos para efectuar la transformación económica de los siglos XI y XII. Tanto en la Italia del norte como en los Países Bajos, los procedimientos para hacer llegar las mercancías de un sitio a otro sufrieron cambios notables y propiciaron el uso de la moneda de préstamos y créditos. En ello tuvieron un papel principal las especias traídas del Oriente -origen de la riqueza de Venecia y de multitud de comerciantes-, los paños, el vino, la sal y, en general, los productos naturales cultivados en regiones adecuadas y con miras a llevarlos al exterior.
La persecución de esas actividades entre los pueblos dio motivo a la creación de mercaderes profesionales, decisivos para efectuar la transformación económica de los siglos XI y XII. Tanto en la Italia del norte como en los Países Bajos, los procedimientos para hacer llegar las mercancías de un sitio a otro sufrieron cambios notables y propiciaron el uso de la moneda de préstamos y créditos. En ello tuvieron un papel principal las especias traídas del Oriente -origen de la riqueza de Venecia y de multitud de comerciantes-, los paños, el vino, la sal y, en general, los productos naturales cultivados en regiones adecuadas y con miras a llevarlos al exterior.
193 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1933
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About the author
Henri Pirenne
191 books69 followersHenri Pirenne was a leading Belgian historian. He also became prominent in the non-violent resistance to the Germans who occupied Belgium in World War I.
Henri Pirenne's reputation today rests on three contributions to European history. First, what has become known as the Pirenne Thesis, concerning origins of the Middle Ages in reactive state formation and shifts in trade; secondly, for a distinctive view of Belgium's medieval history; and, thirdly, for his model on the development of the medieval city.
Source: Wikipedia
Henri Pirenne's reputation today rests on three contributions to European history. First, what has become known as the Pirenne Thesis, concerning origins of the Middle Ages in reactive state formation and shifts in trade; secondly, for a distinctive view of Belgium's medieval history; and, thirdly, for his model on the development of the medieval city.
Source: Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 15, 2017
The Pirenne thesis is further elaborated in this dense and somewhat antiquated but still valuable and insightful book
First coming to prominence in his monumental Mohammed and Charlemagne, Pirenne here expands and defends his notion of the decline of antiquity and the creation of a Medieval society. No greater summary of the Pirenne thesis can be given than by Henri Pirenne himself in the introduction to this book:
"the barbarian kingdoms, founded in the fifth century in the soil of Western Europe, still preserved the most striking and essential characteristics of ancient civilisation, to wit, its Mediterranean character...
...It was only the abrupt entry of Islam on the scene, in the course of the seventh century, and the conquest of the eastern, southern and western shores of the great European lake, which altered the position, with consequences which were to influence the whole course of subsequent history. Henceforth...the age old link...became a barrier." (p.1-2)
Pirenne's ever pertinent thesis, which flies in the face of our modern western obsession with self-blame for economic success, and the Marxist notion that all wealth must be ill-gotten, is that the centre of gravity in Europe shifted North to Paris following the Islamic invasions (and the collapse of the Merovingians who were not stagnant dark-aged lords but the last of classical antiquity). This was an economically disasterous shift but gradually European prosperity re-emerged as trade once again expanded, in the new Northern cities following the defeat of the Vikings, and in the Mediterrenean undet the umbrella of the Byzantine and as Europe re-flexed its military might in the Mediterranean with the Crusades and Italian city states (along with the Catalan traders) gradually displaced the Saracene pirates, raiders and slave-traders. Though this threat to European trade would not be eliminated until the Barbary pirates were themselves eliminated centuries later.
This trade would bring about an increase in wealth (and a decrease in slave raiding) allowing the European ecoonomy to support the growing cities, creating a self-perpetuating economic growth and the cities further developed trade and wealth.
It should be noted though that this book, despite the claim to Medieval European history, only briefly mentions the Byzantine Empire and only mentions it in relation to the Western Carolingian Empire.
To gather a sense of the book, the table of contents is helpful:
Chapter 1: The Revival of Commerce
I. The Mediterranean
II. The North Sea and the Baltic
III. The Revival of Commerce
Chapter 2: The Towns
I. The Revival of Urban Life
II. Merchants and the Bourgeoisie
III. Urban Institutions and Law
Chapter 3: Land and the Rural Classes
I. Manorial Organisation and Serfdom
II. Changes in Agriculture from the Beginning of the Twelfth Century
Chapter 4: Commerce to the End of the Thirteenth Century
I. The Movement of Trade
II. The Fairs
III. Money
IV. Credit and the Traffic in Money
Chapter 5: International Trade to the End of the Thirteenth Century
I. Commodities and Directions of International Trade
II. The Capitalistic Character of International Trade
Chapter 6: Urban Economy and the Regulation of Industry
I. The Towns as Economic Centres. The Provisioning of Towns
II. Urban Industry
Chapter 7: The Economic Changes of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
I. Catastrophies and Social Disturbances
II. Protectionism, Capitalism and Mercantilism
Pirenne tries to balance both the role of the Church and Capitalism (if you want to know his bias, I can't tell from the book, they are like the brake and accelerator of the Medieval economy, one protecting the weak, the other rising the general standard of living) and neither are above his often humouristic reproach:
"Thus, the Church was not only the great moral authority of the age, but also the great financial power." (p. 13)
"The Church itself was continually obliged to borrow from the financiers whose actions it reproved." (p. 138.9)
"[Capitalism] corresponds with man's acquisitive instinct." (p. 162)
"these capitalists, for the most part, sprang form the dregs of society, déracinés, who as soon as trade revivedtoo to it with no assets but their energy and intelligence, their love of adventure and no doubt also their lack of scruples." (p. 162)
Overall, it is a great but frequently long and heavy read.
First coming to prominence in his monumental Mohammed and Charlemagne, Pirenne here expands and defends his notion of the decline of antiquity and the creation of a Medieval society. No greater summary of the Pirenne thesis can be given than by Henri Pirenne himself in the introduction to this book:
"the barbarian kingdoms, founded in the fifth century in the soil of Western Europe, still preserved the most striking and essential characteristics of ancient civilisation, to wit, its Mediterranean character...
...It was only the abrupt entry of Islam on the scene, in the course of the seventh century, and the conquest of the eastern, southern and western shores of the great European lake, which altered the position, with consequences which were to influence the whole course of subsequent history. Henceforth...the age old link...became a barrier." (p.1-2)
Pirenne's ever pertinent thesis, which flies in the face of our modern western obsession with self-blame for economic success, and the Marxist notion that all wealth must be ill-gotten, is that the centre of gravity in Europe shifted North to Paris following the Islamic invasions (and the collapse of the Merovingians who were not stagnant dark-aged lords but the last of classical antiquity). This was an economically disasterous shift but gradually European prosperity re-emerged as trade once again expanded, in the new Northern cities following the defeat of the Vikings, and in the Mediterrenean undet the umbrella of the Byzantine and as Europe re-flexed its military might in the Mediterranean with the Crusades and Italian city states (along with the Catalan traders) gradually displaced the Saracene pirates, raiders and slave-traders. Though this threat to European trade would not be eliminated until the Barbary pirates were themselves eliminated centuries later.
This trade would bring about an increase in wealth (and a decrease in slave raiding) allowing the European ecoonomy to support the growing cities, creating a self-perpetuating economic growth and the cities further developed trade and wealth.
It should be noted though that this book, despite the claim to Medieval European history, only briefly mentions the Byzantine Empire and only mentions it in relation to the Western Carolingian Empire.
To gather a sense of the book, the table of contents is helpful:
Chapter 1: The Revival of Commerce
I. The Mediterranean
II. The North Sea and the Baltic
III. The Revival of Commerce
Chapter 2: The Towns
I. The Revival of Urban Life
II. Merchants and the Bourgeoisie
III. Urban Institutions and Law
Chapter 3: Land and the Rural Classes
I. Manorial Organisation and Serfdom
II. Changes in Agriculture from the Beginning of the Twelfth Century
Chapter 4: Commerce to the End of the Thirteenth Century
I. The Movement of Trade
II. The Fairs
III. Money
IV. Credit and the Traffic in Money
Chapter 5: International Trade to the End of the Thirteenth Century
I. Commodities and Directions of International Trade
II. The Capitalistic Character of International Trade
Chapter 6: Urban Economy and the Regulation of Industry
I. The Towns as Economic Centres. The Provisioning of Towns
II. Urban Industry
Chapter 7: The Economic Changes of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries
I. Catastrophies and Social Disturbances
II. Protectionism, Capitalism and Mercantilism
Pirenne tries to balance both the role of the Church and Capitalism (if you want to know his bias, I can't tell from the book, they are like the brake and accelerator of the Medieval economy, one protecting the weak, the other rising the general standard of living) and neither are above his often humouristic reproach:
"Thus, the Church was not only the great moral authority of the age, but also the great financial power." (p. 13)
"The Church itself was continually obliged to borrow from the financiers whose actions it reproved." (p. 138.9)
"[Capitalism] corresponds with man's acquisitive instinct." (p. 162)
"these capitalists, for the most part, sprang form the dregs of society, déracinés, who as soon as trade revivedtoo to it with no assets but their energy and intelligence, their love of adventure and no doubt also their lack of scruples." (p. 162)
Overall, it is a great but frequently long and heavy read.
December 4, 2014
Ah, those great French intellectuals of the 20th Century, so clear, so concise, so to the point... what?? I hear you say - no, I'm not here to discuss the Sartres, Foucaults, Derridas and Kristevas of the World, but the other great intellectual gift to us from France - the French historians of the 20th Century - Bloch, Le Roy Ladurie, and the author discussed here, Pirenne (although Pirenne was actually Belgian).
These three men between them changed the way we think about Medieval History, by thinking about the underlying causes for the change in society from the end of the Roman Empire to 15th century. In some ways they pre-figured the postmodern approach to the study of history, being quite interdisciplinary - Le Roy Ladurie in particular looking at the effects of climate and other natural phenomena on the course of history.
The book under review is a translation of part of a bigger (uncompleted) work, which Pirenne wrote while imprisoned by the Germans during World War I. The main part of the work looks into the development of commerce and cities from the Dark Ages. Pirenne explains that geo-political changes drove the expansion of trade - the re-opening of the Mediterranean owing to the waning of Islamic control of the coasts of Africa, Spain and the Middle East which allowed more sea traffic, and the decline of the Byzantine remnant of Rome freed the cities of Italy such as Venice and Genoa to develop as trading centres.
This combined with changes in the North of Europe - the Scandanavians were moving from a raiding to a trading culture across the northern seas, and a population explosion was straining the historical manorial base of society to breaking point. Too many people meant that peasants could not stay on their historical plots - leading some to move to other parts, farming reclaimed land not as serfs, but as free tenant farmers, while others took to trade as a way to make a living. These freemen were the base of the rapid expansion of trade in the early centuries of the new Millennium.
Pirenne's thesis shows that the growth of towns and trade was not begotten by the Nobility, but by the people themselves. His theory that traders started as small co-operatives and built wealth on their own terms makes sense - the Nobles gained without having to get their hands dirty, as they gathered rents from townsmen, and sold their surplus agricultural produce to the same people.
He goes on to describe in some detail how the increase in trade moved in conjunction with developments in credit, as the ability to circumvent the ban on usury by the Church was key to the continuing growth of the Mercantile class. This class also worked hard to limit their own numbers by creating Guilds and other trade organisations, as well as limiting competition by developing tariffs and other official forms of control over trade.
Pirenne closes his account of these developments by showing how, just as geo-political matters began the rise of cities and trade, they also led to it's decline. The combination of Plague and the Hundred Years War led to a reduced population, reduced mobility by the Merchant Class, and a lack of capital.
These theories are backed with much evidence, succinctly and clearly laid out. This bare-bones translation gives little insight into Pirenne's style, and is a little dry, but is serviceable. Much historiography of Medieval times is based on Pirenne's insights - his foundations now have some quite imposing structures placed upon them. However, for a clear introduction to the issues, this book is a great place to start.
Check out my other reviews at http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/
These three men between them changed the way we think about Medieval History, by thinking about the underlying causes for the change in society from the end of the Roman Empire to 15th century. In some ways they pre-figured the postmodern approach to the study of history, being quite interdisciplinary - Le Roy Ladurie in particular looking at the effects of climate and other natural phenomena on the course of history.
The book under review is a translation of part of a bigger (uncompleted) work, which Pirenne wrote while imprisoned by the Germans during World War I. The main part of the work looks into the development of commerce and cities from the Dark Ages. Pirenne explains that geo-political changes drove the expansion of trade - the re-opening of the Mediterranean owing to the waning of Islamic control of the coasts of Africa, Spain and the Middle East which allowed more sea traffic, and the decline of the Byzantine remnant of Rome freed the cities of Italy such as Venice and Genoa to develop as trading centres.
This combined with changes in the North of Europe - the Scandanavians were moving from a raiding to a trading culture across the northern seas, and a population explosion was straining the historical manorial base of society to breaking point. Too many people meant that peasants could not stay on their historical plots - leading some to move to other parts, farming reclaimed land not as serfs, but as free tenant farmers, while others took to trade as a way to make a living. These freemen were the base of the rapid expansion of trade in the early centuries of the new Millennium.
Pirenne's thesis shows that the growth of towns and trade was not begotten by the Nobility, but by the people themselves. His theory that traders started as small co-operatives and built wealth on their own terms makes sense - the Nobles gained without having to get their hands dirty, as they gathered rents from townsmen, and sold their surplus agricultural produce to the same people.
He goes on to describe in some detail how the increase in trade moved in conjunction with developments in credit, as the ability to circumvent the ban on usury by the Church was key to the continuing growth of the Mercantile class. This class also worked hard to limit their own numbers by creating Guilds and other trade organisations, as well as limiting competition by developing tariffs and other official forms of control over trade.
Pirenne closes his account of these developments by showing how, just as geo-political matters began the rise of cities and trade, they also led to it's decline. The combination of Plague and the Hundred Years War led to a reduced population, reduced mobility by the Merchant Class, and a lack of capital.
These theories are backed with much evidence, succinctly and clearly laid out. This bare-bones translation gives little insight into Pirenne's style, and is a little dry, but is serviceable. Much historiography of Medieval times is based on Pirenne's insights - his foundations now have some quite imposing structures placed upon them. However, for a clear introduction to the issues, this book is a great place to start.
Check out my other reviews at http://aviewoverthebell.blogspot.com.au/
January 28, 2016
I’ve always been a hobby economist and historian, so imagine my pleasure when I found this book at my favorite old-book store. Judging by some of the other reviews here on Goodreads, I’ll be judged just as drab as this book was to some of its readers, but I found a few things inside that renewed my passion for showing the undiscerning masses why our “progressive” economies are failing.
First, this book does well to expose the origins of the guild system that we still see in use today in the world of labor. Here we see in medieval times the rise (again) of three levels of competence with very much the same system of initiation as the Spartan warriors and feudal knights (not to mention modern university elitists). It’s about as close to the number 666 as you can get without pasting it onto the hand or forehead, but I’m sure the large portion of those who read this book didn’t even catch on.
What really caught my attention, however, was the exposition of middle-age censuses using a count of “hearths” to gauge growth and health of their populations. I’ve been working on a way to express this idea in modern economics for about thirty years, so I was surprised to learn that this is something that governments used to practice but, for some dumb “progressive” reason we’ve fallen away from.
To explain the importance of a hearth, one must understand that, in medieval Europe, there was no McDonalds to buy a cheeseburger from. (Duh.) The marketplace sold most food and goods in large quantities only. Sure, there may have been a merchant or two willing to sell one apple for a coin (at quite the profit), but the economy (and coinage) was based on purchases that were bought for the hearth, not the individual. Products were purchased primarily in bulk. As this book explains, cloth was bought by the yard, not by the ready-to-wear article of clothing. The best way to understand the importance of a hearth in economics would be to follow a chicken home. Unlike how it’s done in Minecraft, a chicken isn’t eaten in its entirety by one consumer. It is broken down at the hearth into component parts and distributed to all members of the household. The same can be said of cloth and most other purchases in the marketplace. Modern economics has fallen away from this—with financially devastating consequences.
Another point touched on in this work that is still relevant: the metropolitan majority seems to always be a problem to the rural population when it comes to policy and competition. In this work, the author describes how an industry within a city would wage war against the unprotected individuals in the countryside who were providing small-scale competition in the marketplace. In this manner, “government” by the cities merely represented a larger gang of thieves who imposed their trade policies on the rural population that was unable to defend itself against the armed masses. Our current “democracies” offer no protection of this happening again, as evidenced by increasing metropolitan imperialism manifesting in health-care, environmental policy, and social and public safety issues. A warning, I suppose, from 1937, that seems strangely relevant almost 80 years later… As Confucius might have said: Anarchy amongst gentlemen is better than Democracy amongst thieves.
First, this book does well to expose the origins of the guild system that we still see in use today in the world of labor. Here we see in medieval times the rise (again) of three levels of competence with very much the same system of initiation as the Spartan warriors and feudal knights (not to mention modern university elitists). It’s about as close to the number 666 as you can get without pasting it onto the hand or forehead, but I’m sure the large portion of those who read this book didn’t even catch on.
What really caught my attention, however, was the exposition of middle-age censuses using a count of “hearths” to gauge growth and health of their populations. I’ve been working on a way to express this idea in modern economics for about thirty years, so I was surprised to learn that this is something that governments used to practice but, for some dumb “progressive” reason we’ve fallen away from.
To explain the importance of a hearth, one must understand that, in medieval Europe, there was no McDonalds to buy a cheeseburger from. (Duh.) The marketplace sold most food and goods in large quantities only. Sure, there may have been a merchant or two willing to sell one apple for a coin (at quite the profit), but the economy (and coinage) was based on purchases that were bought for the hearth, not the individual. Products were purchased primarily in bulk. As this book explains, cloth was bought by the yard, not by the ready-to-wear article of clothing. The best way to understand the importance of a hearth in economics would be to follow a chicken home. Unlike how it’s done in Minecraft, a chicken isn’t eaten in its entirety by one consumer. It is broken down at the hearth into component parts and distributed to all members of the household. The same can be said of cloth and most other purchases in the marketplace. Modern economics has fallen away from this—with financially devastating consequences.
Another point touched on in this work that is still relevant: the metropolitan majority seems to always be a problem to the rural population when it comes to policy and competition. In this work, the author describes how an industry within a city would wage war against the unprotected individuals in the countryside who were providing small-scale competition in the marketplace. In this manner, “government” by the cities merely represented a larger gang of thieves who imposed their trade policies on the rural population that was unable to defend itself against the armed masses. Our current “democracies” offer no protection of this happening again, as evidenced by increasing metropolitan imperialism manifesting in health-care, environmental policy, and social and public safety issues. A warning, I suppose, from 1937, that seems strangely relevant almost 80 years later… As Confucius might have said: Anarchy amongst gentlemen is better than Democracy amongst thieves.
June 1, 2012
This is one of the most boring and beautifully soporific pieces I've come across. Ever. Only my interest in the subject matter kept it from getting the lowest rating.
I have been interested in Medieval Europe since reading Roselynde by Roberta Gellis over 35 years ago, and find historical fiction much more to my taste than history. I am, however, interested in learning more about the background of the settings of these stories I so love. This is not the way in which to do so.
For over a year now, this has been my go-to book when sleep is difficult. A page, a few paragraphs, and boom I'm out like a light. It contains such gems as:
"The bases of Hanseatic trade in Western Europe were the London Steelyard, established in the middle of the twelfth century, and above all the kontor at Bruges. In the East, they possessed another at Novgorod, by which they drained the trade of Russia. By the Weser, the Elbe and the Oder their trade penetrated into continental Germany and by the Vistula they dominated Poland and pushed their operations to the confines of the Balkans. On the other hand, the great commercial road, by which in the past the Baltic had communicated with Constantinople and Baghdad via Russia, had been closed since the establishment of the Patzinaks on the shores of the Black Sea and the Caspian in the twelfth century, thus giving the Mediterranean the monopoly of relations with the Byzantine and Moslem East."
There are no maps for reference, no explanation of who the heck the Patzinaks were. It is assumed we know. There are no illustrations or line drawings or charts. Just the same horrid prose page after page after page.
I inherited the book from my boss's wife, who must have been assigned it as reading for a course when she attended some college class or other during the Great Depression. Her pencilled underlines and margin notes are on every page. It surely does not appear to have been opened since.
The most frightening part is the note above the publication date: "First appeared in 1933 in volume 8 ... of 'Histoire du Moyen Age'." How many volumes were there?
I hope nobody nowadays is assigned to read it.
I have been interested in Medieval Europe since reading Roselynde by Roberta Gellis over 35 years ago, and find historical fiction much more to my taste than history. I am, however, interested in learning more about the background of the settings of these stories I so love. This is not the way in which to do so.
For over a year now, this has been my go-to book when sleep is difficult. A page, a few paragraphs, and boom I'm out like a light. It contains such gems as:
"The bases of Hanseatic trade in Western Europe were the London Steelyard, established in the middle of the twelfth century, and above all the kontor at Bruges. In the East, they possessed another at Novgorod, by which they drained the trade of Russia. By the Weser, the Elbe and the Oder their trade penetrated into continental Germany and by the Vistula they dominated Poland and pushed their operations to the confines of the Balkans. On the other hand, the great commercial road, by which in the past the Baltic had communicated with Constantinople and Baghdad via Russia, had been closed since the establishment of the Patzinaks on the shores of the Black Sea and the Caspian in the twelfth century, thus giving the Mediterranean the monopoly of relations with the Byzantine and Moslem East."
There are no maps for reference, no explanation of who the heck the Patzinaks were. It is assumed we know. There are no illustrations or line drawings or charts. Just the same horrid prose page after page after page.
I inherited the book from my boss's wife, who must have been assigned it as reading for a course when she attended some college class or other during the Great Depression. Her pencilled underlines and margin notes are on every page. It surely does not appear to have been opened since.
The most frightening part is the note above the publication date: "First appeared in 1933 in volume 8 ... of 'Histoire du Moyen Age'." How many volumes were there?
I hope nobody nowadays is assigned to read it.
March 29, 2009
En la introducción de este libro se puede encontrar un resumen de la famosa (y polémica) Tesis de Pirenne, que luego sería desarrollada en "Mahoma y Carlomagno", obra póstuma. Luego pasa a dar un detallado análisis de las relaciones económicas y sociales de la época, como el título indica: el origen de la burguesía y de las villas, las actividades económicas en los feudos, las ferias, la ocupación de los territorios europeos, las migraciones normandas, etc. Una oportunidad más de acercarse a este gran historiador de la edad media y de disfrutar su gran conocimiento.
March 16, 2017
Um clássico da história medieval européia, que não pode deixar de ser lido por quem se interessa pelo tema. O papel da conquista do Mediterrâneo pelos pelos povos árabes sobre a forma de organização da economia européia - o Feudalismo - é um dos pontos de destaque da abordagem de Pirenne. A formação e o desenvolvimento das cidades e sua relação com o feudalismo é outro tema que até hoje repercute entre os historiadores.
June 21, 2018
Not quite so dry as I was expecting, this handy little text is a well-framed commentary of practices and institutions that undergird modern Europe and its colonial diaspora. The limited perspective makes it an introductory text requiring supplement for specific details.
November 13, 2019
Quanto di meglio si possa immaginare. Esaustivo, chiaro , interessante.
October 18, 2024
A real treat!
One of the most interesting bits: Artisan guilds were meant to protect artisans producing for the local market. Their protection did not extend to producers making for export markets - so the split between labor and capital first came about in export markets
Not long after came the first strikes: In 1245, workers in Douai in France struck. And very quickly, strikes become punishable by death or banishment.
One of the most interesting bits: Artisan guilds were meant to protect artisans producing for the local market. Their protection did not extend to producers making for export markets - so the split between labor and capital first came about in export markets
Not long after came the first strikes: In 1245, workers in Douai in France struck. And very quickly, strikes become punishable by death or banishment.
March 5, 2017
Testo completo per un periodo spesso trascurato
November 5, 2016
Libro clave para entender el desarrollo del comercio en la Edad Media y su impacto en las ciudades, la burguesía y el mundo feudal. Como el mundo feudal se amoldo a las condiciones de un comercio nulo debido al bloqueo de los mares del Norte y Mediterráneo, su consecuencia en la organización social y su eventual desmantelamiento con la apertura de ambos mares al comercio internacional.
El autor también señala las raíces del capitalismo y sus primeras señales en la organización industria rural y urbana así como el papel que banqueros, burgueses y obreros jugaron desde la alta edad media.
El autor también señala las raíces del capitalismo y sus primeras señales en la organización industria rural y urbana así como el papel que banqueros, burgueses y obreros jugaron desde la alta edad media.
March 17, 2008
Right up there with his class on the Medieval city, but still Pirenne falls a little short. He becomes a little too vehement against other authors about mid way through, and this makes the read a little painful. Also, the translation could use a good overhaul and the syntax some brushing up- lots of misspellings.
May 20, 2025
3.5/5
not as dry as I thought it would be! pirenne’s thesis makes you revise your assumptions on middle ages very concisely. also interesting if you’re into understanding how capitalism began and why it occurred when it occurred.
not as dry as I thought it would be! pirenne’s thesis makes you revise your assumptions on middle ages very concisely. also interesting if you’re into understanding how capitalism began and why it occurred when it occurred.
October 26, 2016
This dude has serious beef with Charlemagne.
September 4, 2023
Livro de História Econômica, lembro de ter achado muito velho mas depois muito curioso conforme o curso nos obrigava a ler capítulo por capítulo. Clássico do curso de economia.
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January 11, 2018interesante pero no divertido
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews