![]() ![]() ![]() Much of modern research and writing has concentrated either on the study of individual banking companies or on individual international money markets, such as Bruges or Venice. Bills of exchange brought about the ‘commercial revolution’ of the thirteenth century, according to de Roover, who coined the phrase some 30 years before Lopez used it. Modern scholars have left us in little doubt of the bills’ importance in stimulating local, regional, and international trade in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and Munro called them ‘the most important achievement in the history of economics’. Investigating fifteenth-century exchange operations does require a clear head and a thorough knowledge of the subject, and as much paper and ink has probably been expended on discussing the functions of bills of exchange as was used in the writing of the hundreds of thousands of these brief documents in the later middle ages. Writing in Naples in 1458, Benedetto Cotrugli, a humanist and merchant from Ragusa (now Dubrovnik, Croatia), had it right. As at the Lyon fairs 100 years later, the ‘flexible friend’ helped make the world of international, regional, and local trade and finance go round. We also confirm the arguments of other historians that the main purpose of this instrument was the transfer of capital back and forth across western Europe, usually along well-known axes such as London to Venice or Bruges to Barcelona, with exchange and re-change playing only a minimal role in the Borromei's operations. In practice, exchange rates varied from day to day and within the day itself, while bills were offered as sureties for the fulfilment of other contracts. The maturity of bills could be changed by agreement rather than necessarily using the standard usance periods, and payment by instalments occurred, extending the length of the ‘loan’ considerably. Using the evidence of nearly 2,000 bills of exchange, protested bills of exchange, and letters of advice recorded in the ledgers of Filippo Borromei & Partners of Bruges and London, 1436–8, we argue that it was a far more flexible instrument than has previously been thought. The bill of exchange was the most important written instrument in the international financial world of the later middle ages. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |