10 - The long perspective
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
The place of the Carolingian age and more particularly of the Carolingian economy in the history of the early Middle Ages, between late Antiquity and the expansion of the European economy from the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, has for a long time been the object of much debate. Since the publication of two books by Alfons Dopsch between 1918 and 1921, respectively on the transition of Antiquity to the Middle Ages and the economy of the Carolingian period, and of two articles by Henri Pirenne, in 1922 and 1923, on the economic contrast between Merovingians and Carolingians, and a posthumous book in 1937, well known under its title Mahomet et Charlemagne, there has been discussion around the question of whether the Carolingian age was a period of economic revival as contrasted with the preceding centuries, as Dopsch contended, or, as Pirenne argued, an economic nadir, a self-sufficient agrarian economy without towns or trade.
Neither author, like many others participating in the debate, paid much attention to possible cyclical movements within the period itself. Understandable though this is, given the scarce indications from the sources in this respect, an enquiry into possible sub-periods is nevertheless a step towards a more nuanced approach of the period as a whole.
Towns and trade probably are the best variables to detect cyclical movements with which other aspects of economic life can be linked.
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- The Carolingian Economy , pp. 132 - 135Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002