Abstract
Thinking about Cities of Commerce – A Rejoinder
Highlights
This article responds to four reviews of Cities of Commerce
How could commerce thrive in a politically and legally extremely fragmented world? Historians traditionally argue that merchants solved this fundamental problem of exchange by operating in close-knit networks.[1]
How could these rulers enforce the contracts of merchants who were not their legal subjects? And, far more importantly, what kept powerful princes from using their political and military might to prey on international traders? Avner Greif answered these questions by demonstrating that medieval merchants could organize guilds to withstand aggressive rulers and that they were able to enforce cross-cultural transactions through the formation of coalitions sharing information on the merchants’ past performance.[3]
Summary
This article responds to four reviews of Cities of Commerce. The Institutional Foundations of International Trade in the Low Countries, 1250-1650 (Princeton University Press 2013). The book analyzes the organization of international trade in three ports, Bruges, Antwerp, and Amsterdam, documenting which combinations of private, corporate and public institutions foreign and local merchants used to deal with violence and opportunism.
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Schedule a callMore From: Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis/ The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History
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