European University Institute Library

Medieval market morality, life, law and ethics in the English marketplace, 1200-1500, James Davis

eng

index present

non fiction

Medieval market morality

electronic resource

dictionaries

774385257

James Davis

Cambridge Social Sciences eBooks

life, law and ethics in the English marketplace, 1200-1500

This important study examines the market trade of medieval England by providing a wide-ranging critique of the moral and legal imperatives that underpinned retail trade. James Davis shows how market-goers were influenced not only by practical and economic considerations of price, quality, supply and demand, but also by the moral and cultural environment within which such deals were conducted. This book draws on a broad range of cross-disciplinary evidence, from the literary works of William Langland and the sermons of medieval preachers, to state, civic and guild laws, Davis scrutinises everyday market behaviour through case studies of small and large towns, using the evidence of manor and borough courts. From these varied sources, Davis teases out the complex relationship between morality, law and practice and demonstrates that even the influence of contemporary Christian ideology was not necessarily incompatible with efficient and profitable everyday commerce.--, Provided by publisher

Introduction : Market trade and traders ; The commercialisation of English society ; The transition from feudalism to capitalism ; Morality in the pre-industrial marketplace -- Images of market trade : History and literature ; Sources of morality ; Medieval social theory ; Avarice and trade ; Price and profit ; Usury ; Bargaining and oaths ; False words and false wares ; False weight and measures ; Customers and 'lyther bargaining' ; The merchant ; Market traders, hawkers and victuallers ; Middlemen and hoarding ; Livelihood and credit ; Repentance and punishment -- Regulation of the market : Part I. The forums of regulation : National legislation ; Seigneurial markets ; Chartered boroughs ; Lot and scot ; Strangers and foreigners ; Borough government ; Craft guilds -- Part II. The public marketplace : Regulating the public marketplace ; Sunday trading ; Order and sanitation ; Weights and measures ; Coinage ; Bargaining and sale ; Consumer protection ; Credit, debt and trust ; Merchant law ; Femme sole ; Usury ; Quality and fraud ; Price and profit ; The assizes of bread, ale and wine ; Administering the assizes ; Middlemen ; Punishment -- The behaviour of market traders : The markets of Suffolk : Part I. The small town markets of Newmarket and Clare : Newmarket and its marketing hinterland ; Clare and its marketing hinterland ; Sources, courts and officials ; The assizes of bread and ale ; Regrating and forestalling ; Weights and measures ; Innkeepers and cooks ; Quality and the consumer ; Credit and debt ; Administering the marketplace ; Enterprise and the efficiency ; Piety and morality -- Part II. The borough market of Ipswich : The government and courts of Ipswich ; The assizes of bread and ale ; Regraters ; Innkeepers ; Butchers, cooks and fishmongers ; Forestallers ; The market environment -- An evolving market morality : Profit and the commonweal in the early modern economy ; Early modern retailers ; Middlemen and dearth ; Thompson's moral economy -- Conclusion