Chaucer’s Merchants and the Foreign Exchange: An Introduction to Medieval Finance

Abstract

Chaucer's Merchants and the Foreign Exchange: An Introduction to Medieval Finance Kenneth S. Cahn EM the financial tmnsattions desniool in Th, Cant,,,.bury Tale,, it is impossible to conclude-as many Chaucer scholars have-that the merchant was a usurer or any type of money lender. 1 Contrary to most opinion, he did not deal profitably in monetary exchange2 by speculat­ ing, or in any other manner, legal3 or illegal.4 That he was in debt is stated in the poem more than once. 5 His activities have been incorrectly 1 The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. F.N.Robinson,2nd ed.(Boston: Houghton, 1957),p.658n; Thomas A.Knott,"Chaucer's Anonymous Merchant," PQ, 1(1922), 12,14; John M.Manly,Some New Light on Chaucer(1926; rpt.Gloucester,Mass.: Peter Smith, 1959), p. 192; Muriel Bowden, A Commentary on the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales(NewYork: Macmillan, 1948), p. 148. 2 Chaucer's Poetry, ed.E.T.Donaldson(NewYork: Ronald,1975),p.14; OscarE. Johnson, "Was Chaucer's Merchant in Debt) A Study in Chaucerian Syntax and Rhetoric," JEGP, 52 (1953), 50. 3 B.A.Park,"The Character ofChaucer's Merchant," ELN, l(1964),169-70; The Complete Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed.W.W.Skeac (Oxford: Clarendon Press,189497 ),V,30; Frederick Tupper,Types ofSociety in Medieval Literature(NewYork: H.Holt, 1926), p. 44. 4 See,in addition to the works cited in footnotes 1 and 2 above,Jill Mann,Chaucer and Medieval Estates Satire(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ.Press,1973),pp.100-01; The Canterbury Tales ofGeoffrey Chaucer, ed.D.Cook(NewYork: Doubleday Anchor,1961), p.21 and Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, ed.D.R.Howard(NewYork: Signet, 1969),p.72; perhaps a position was taken by John K.Crane,"An Honest Debtor): A Note on Chaucer's Merchant,Line A276," ELN, 4(1966),81-85,who writes chat in "a deeperhistoricalcontext...themerchanthas probably committed every money crime in the book." > Only one line has been interpreted co mean chat the merchant was in debt: "Ther wisce no wight chat he was in dette "(I,280),and Johnson,pp.50,57 argues that the correct meaning for that line is "he was emphatically out of debt." See also,Gardiner Stillwell, "Chaucer's Merchant: No Debts?" JEGP, 57(1958), 192, 194; Park, pp. 172-73. 81 STUDIES IN THE AGE OF CHAUCER associated with smuggling gold out ofthe country6 and smuggling false, light, or clipped money into the country. 7 Such operations, for Chaucer's merchant, were not only economically improbable, but in some in­ stances physically impossible. Until recently, many commentators have failed to distinguish be­ tween two different types of medieval monetary exchange8 and have shown themselves confused about such matters as the nature of the "sheeld," which has been described as a French coin9 or a gold coin10 but was, in fact, neither French, nor gold, nor a coin. In the Middle Ages to sell shields meant to borrow sterling. 1. Foreign Exchange: Historical Background The medieval banking systems are not simple, and the foreign exchange is particularly complex. Centuries ago, the foreign exchange was called "the greatest and weightiest mystery to be found on the whole map of trade," and since then major economic historians who discussed exchange have cited this line and echoed the sentiment about the difficulties of the subject matter. Indeed, even those who actively participate in it do not fully understand the modern exchange market, and its structures are certainly not identical to those ofthe market in the Middle Ages. 11 Confusion of aspects of the banking, lending, and exchange systems extant in Europe in Chaucer's time has generated considerable misunderstanding of the actions of Chaucer's merchants. 6 Bowden, p. 150. 7 Knott, pp. 10-11. 8 Bowden, pp. 148-50 and 154n; Knott, pp. 10-12; Ewald Fliigel, "Gower's Mirour de l'omme und Chaucer's Prolog," Anglia, 24 (1901), 474-76; Robinson, p. 658. Park, pp. 169-70, seems to be the first to distinguish manual exchange from foreign exchange. 9 Bowden, p. 150n; Cook, p. 21; Donaldson, p. 14; Park, p. 169: Robinson, p. 658; Skeat, V. 30. 10 Howard, p...