A History of Business in Medieval Europe 1200 1550

A History of Business in Medieval Europe 1200-1550 demolishes the widely held view that the phrase medieval business is an oxymoron. The authors review the entire range of business in medieval western Europe probing its Roman and Christian heritage to discover the economic and political forces that shaped the organization of agriculture manufacturing construction mining transportation and marketing. Then they deal with the responses of businessmen to the devastating plagues famines and warfare that beset Europe in the late Middle Ages. Medieval businessmen's remarkable success in coping with this hostile new environment prepared the way for the economic expansion of the sixteenth century.