false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177532930m/711269.jpg 711269 2 The earliest surviving check was drawn in 1365 by two Florentines to pay a draper for black cloth for a family funeral.... In 1477 a confidence man persuaded a citizen of Cologne to buy shares in a nonexistent silver mine.... From a thousand tiny facts like these, the fruit of nearly thirty years' research in the municipal archives, commercial records, account books, and letters of a dozen countries, Peter Spufford creates a revealing picture of the medieval business world. <P>The book opens with the emergence of a European entrepreneurial class and the origins of modern banking, insurance, and borrowing. The wealth that generated these changes came largely from the royal courts and their demands for luxuries, demands that were met at the great international fairs. Practical problems&#151;primitive transport, bad roads, dangerous Alpine passes, and the threat of robbery&#151;were impressively surmounted. Key elements in the story are provided by the connection between cheap raw materials and expensive manufactured goods, and the role of centers of power and wealth such as Paris, London, Bruges, Venice, and Florence. Professor Spufford concludes by examining the balance of trade between countries, both within Europe and far beyond its boundaries, assessing their relative wealth on the threshold of what we now call the capitalist world. <P>Virtually every aspect of medieval society is illuminated in this wide-ranging and immensely detailed study, which includes stories of individual merchants whose fortunes and misfortunes bring the subject vividly to life. The illustrations have been chosen largely from unpublished material, and there are over a dozen specially drawn maps. 265 illustrations, 29 in color. 697534 4 2003 Power and Profit: The Merchant in Medieval Europe total:1|4:1| 1 4 10 0 0 0 false false Sun May 17 09:42:29 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 09:42:29 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Mar 28 20:11:59 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 28 20:28:27 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Feb 24 13:51:43 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 13:51:43 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Mon Feb 09 19:45:08 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 09 19:45:15 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Feb 08 12:57:56 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 08 12:58:03 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Dec 21 08:49:05 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 21 08:49:05 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Sun Dec 14 10:53:51 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 14 10:53:59 -0800 2008 0 0 false false Tue Dec 09 16:09:45 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 09 16:09:48 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Fri Aug 01 04:27:13 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 01 04:27:16 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Apr 25 13:28:56 -0700 2007 Wed Apr 25 13:29:05 -0700 2007 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=711269