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Recent Trends in the Economic Historiography of the Renaissance1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2019

Wallace K. Ferguson
Wallace K. Ferguson*
Affiliation:
University of Western Ontario
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Extract

First of all, may I express my pleasure at having been invited to participate in this twentieth anniversary of the New England Renaissance Conference. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Professor Bradner and his colleagues on the part they played in originating the idea of a regional conference on the Renaissance—an idea that has since spread from coast to coast and has in no small degree been responsible for the growing interest in Renaissance studies in this country during the past two decades. Few of us who took part in the first conference here could have realized that we were assisting at the birth of a movement with such a brilliant future.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in the Renaissance , Volume 7 , 1960 , pp. 7 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1960

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Footnotes

1

Read at the New England Renaissance Conference at Brown University 17 October 1959.

References

2 A few examples will suffice to demonstrate the variety. One of the earliest economic histories to use the term ‘Renaissance’, Ehrenberg, R., Capital and Finance in the Age of the Renaissance (London, 1928)Google Scholar, dealt with the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Luzzatto, G. in ‘Piccoli e grandi mercanti nella città del Rinascimento’, Studi in onore di G. Prato (Turin, 1931)Google Scholar, was thinking of the period from the late thirteenth to the early sixteenth. A review article by Nussbaum, F. L., ‘The Economic History of Renaissance Europe’, Journal of Modern History XIII (1941), 527–545 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, covered the literature on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. More recently Sapori, A. in Il Rinascimento: significato e limiti: Atti del III Convegno Internationale sul Rinascimento, 1952 (Florence, 1953)Google Scholar; ‘I primi viaggi di Levante e di Ponente delle galere Fiorentine’, Archivio Storico Italiano CXIV (1956), 87 ff.; ‘Medioevo e Rinascimento: spunti per una diversa periodizzazione’, Archivio Storico Italiano CXV (1957), 135-164, and other articles has argued that the economic Renaissance began as early as the beginning of the twelfth century and that it had passed its peak by the time the Burckhardtian Renaissance began. Mollat, M., in ‘Y a-t-il une économie de la Renaissance?’ Actes du Colloque sur la Renaissance, 1956 (Paris, 1958)Google Scholar, argues for an economic Renaissance from the middle of the fifteenth century to the early years of the seventeenth.

3 Nussbaum, op. cit., p. 527.

4 Nussbaum was following the prevailing opinion in making the ‘commercial revolution’ date from the beginning of the sixteenth century; but Lopez, R. in The Cambridge Economic History, II (Cambridge, 1952)Google Scholar, 289, uses the term for the period from the late eleventh to the early fourteenth century, and de Roover, R., Money, Banking and Credit in Medieval Bruges (Cambridge, Mass., 1948), p. 11 Google Scholar, speaks of a ‘Commercial Revolution’ around the year 1300.

5 For discussion of this controversy and the relevant literature see the article by Nussbaum cited above and Knight, F. H., ‘Historical and Theoretical Issues in the Problem of Medieval Capitalism’, Journal of Economic and Business History I (1928), 119–136 Google Scholar; Parsons, Talcott, ‘Capitalism in Recent German Literature: Sombart and Weber’, Journal of Political Economy XXXVI (1928), 641–661 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Postan, M. M., ‘Studies in Bibliography: Medieval Capitalism’, Economic History Review IV (1932-1933), 212–227 Google Scholar; Fischoff, E., ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: the History of a Controversy’, Social Research XI (1944), 53–77 Google Scholar; and Robertson, H. M., Aspects of the Rise of Economic Individualism (Cambridge, 1933)Google Scholar.

6 Pirenne, H., Histoire de Belgique, III (Brussels, 1907), 219 Google Scholar.

7 Propyläen Weltgeschichte, IV (Berlin, 1932), 5 f.

8 Thompson, J. W., Rowler, G., Schevill, F., and Sarton, G., The Civilization of the Renaissance (Chicago, 1929), pp. 55 Google Scholar f.

9 Koht, H., ‘Le problème des origines de la Renaissance’, Revue de synthèse historiquc XXXVII (1924), 107–116 Google Scholar.

10 von Martin, A., Soziologie der Renaissance (Tübingen, 1932)Google Scholar.

11 Zilsel, E., ‘The Sociological Roots of Science’, American Journal of Sociology XLVII (1942). 544–560 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Sec, for example, Power, E., The Wool Trade in English Medieval History (London, 1941)Google Scholar; Burwash, D., English Merchant Shipping, 1460-1540 (Toronto, 1947)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ramsey, G. D., The Wiltshire Woollen Industry in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Oxford, 1943)Google Scholar; Sabbe, E., Histoire de l'industrie linière en Belgique (Brussels, 1945)Google Scholar; and Pagel, K., Die Hanse (Brunswick, 1952)Google Scholar.

13 Luzzatto, G., ‘The Study of Medieval Economic History in Italy: Recent Literature and Tendencies’, Journal of Economic and Business History IV (1931-1932), 708–727 Google Scholar.

14 Sec, for example, Boutruche, R., ‘Histoire de France au Moyen Âge: Publications des années 1940-46’, Revue Historique CCVII (1949), 235–272 Google Scholar; ‘Histoire de France au Moyen Âge: Publications des années 1947-53’, ibid, CCVII (1955), 47-80; Ph. Wolff, , ‘List of Books and Articles on Medieval Economic History of France published in France, 1950-52’, Economic History Review, 2nd Series, VI (1953-1954), 339–343.Google Scholar

15 Sapori, A., L'età della Rinascita: secoli XIII-XVI (Milan, 1958), pp. 250 Google Scholar ff.

16 Renouard, Y., Les Homines d'affaires italiens du Moyen Âge (Paris, 1949), p. 246 Google Scholar; and Sapori, A. in Il Rinascimento: significato e limiti, p. 130 Google Scholar.

17 Gras, N. S. B., ‘Business History’, Economic History Review IV (1934), 385–398 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Sapori, A., La crisi delle compagnie mercantili dei Bardi e dei Peruzzi (Florence, 1926)Google Scholar; Una compagnia di Calimala ai primi del Trecento (Florence, 1932). See also the articles collected in his Studi di storia economica medievale (Florence, 1946).

19 Sapori, A., I libri di commercio dei Peruzzi (Milan, 1934)Google Scholar; I libri delta ragione bancaria dei Gianfigliazzi (Milan, 1943); Liber tercius Friscorubaldorum (Florence, 1947); and I libri degli Alberti del Giudice (Milan, 1952).

20 de Roover, R., ‘A Florentine Firm of Cloth Manufacturers: Management and Organization of a Sixteenth-Century Business’, Speculum XVI (1941), 3–33 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also his ‘The Story of the Alberti Company of Florence, 1302-1348, as revealed in its Account Books’, Business History Review XXXIII (1958), 14-59.

21 Lane, F. C., Andrea Barbarigo, Merchant of Venice, 1418-1449 (Baltimore, 1944)Google Scholar; see also his ‘Family Partnerships and Joint Ventures in the Venetian Republic’, Journal of Economic History IV (1944), 178-196.

22 Origo, I., The Merchant of Prato: the Life and Papers of Francesco di Marco Datini (London, 1957)Google Scholar.

23 Usher, A. P., ‘Deposit Banking in Barcelona, 1300-1700’, fournal of Economic and Business History IV (1931), 121–155 Google Scholar; ‘The Origins of Banking: the Primitive Bank of Deposit, 1200-1600’, Economic History Review IV (1934), 399-428; The Early History of Deposit Banking in Mediterranean Europe (Cambridge, Mass., 1943).

24 Lane, F. C., ‘Venetian Bankers, 1496-1533: a Study in the Early Stages of Deposit Banking’, Journal of Political Economy XCV (1937), 187–206 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 de Roover, R., L'Évolution de la lettre de change, XIVe-XVIHe siècles (Paris, 1953)Google Scholar; ‘Appunti sulla storia della cambiale e del contratto di cambio’, Studi in onore di Gino Luzzatto (Milan, 1950), pp. 193-219; ‘Le Contrat de change depuis la fin du treizieme siecle jusqu'au debut du dix-septieme’, Revue beige de philologie et d'histoire xxv (1946-1947), 111-128; ‘Cambium ad Venetias: Contribution to the History of Foreign Exchange’, Studi in onore di Armando Sapori (Milan, 1957), pp. 629-648.

26 Sieveking, H., Die Handlungsbücher der Medici (Vienna, 1905)Google Scholar.

27 See note 4 above.

28 See also Gras, N. S. B., ‘Stages in Business History’, in Studi in onore di Armando Sapori, pp. 5–27 Google Scholar; and Grousset, R., Villes marchandes aux XlVe et XVe siècles (Paris, 1948), pp. 25 Google Scholar ff.

29 The Cambridge Economic History, II, 335.

30 See, for example, H. and Chaunu, P, ‘A la recherche des fluctuations cycliques dans l'économie des XVIe et XVIIe siècles’, in Homage à L. Febvre, II (Paris, 1953), 389–407 Google Scholar.

31 Journal of Political Economy XL (1932), 186-209.

32 For a recent survey of the literature on this subject, see Braudel, F. and Spooner, F. C., ‘Les métaux monétaires et l’économie du XVIe siècle’, in Relazioni del X Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche, 1955, IV (Florence, 1957), 233–264 Google Scholar.

33 The general accuracy of Hamilton's statistical curves has recently been confirmed by H. and Chaunu, P., Séville et l'Atlantique, 1504-1650 (Paris, 1955-1957)Google Scholar.

34 Sapori, A., ‘I beni del commercio internazionale nel medioevo’, Archivio Storico Italiano CXIII (1955), 3 Google Scholar.

35 Cf. Sapori, , ibid., pp. 4–11 Google Scholar; and Luzzatto, G., ‘Tendenze nuove negli studi di storia economica’,Nuova Revista Storica XXXV (1951), fasc. 3-4, p. 13 Google Scholar.

36 Braudel, F., La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à I'epoque de Philippe II (Paris, 1949)Google Scholar.

37 Cantimori, D., ‘Il problema rinascimentale proposto da Armando Sapori’, in Studi in onore di A. Sapori, pp. 935–947 Google Scholar.

38 (New York, 1936), p. 2.

39 Ferguson, W. K., The Renaissance (New York, 1940), p. 46 Google Scholar.

40 Pirenne, H., Economic and Social History of Medieval Europe (New York, 1937), p. 192 Google Scholar f.

41 See, for example, Postan, M. M., ‘Revisions in Economic History: the Fifteenth Century’, Economic History Review IX (1938-1939), 160–167 Google Scholar; Nef, J. U., ‘Industrial Europe on the Eve of the Reformation’, Journal of Political Economy XLIX (1941), 1–40, 183-224CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Saltmarsh, J., ‘Plague and Economic Decline in the Later Middle Ages’, Cambridge Historical Journal VII (1940), 23–40 Google Scholar.

42 Postan, M. M., ‘Rapport: Histoire économique: Moyen Âge’, in IXe Congrès International des Sciences Historiques, Paris, 1950, I (Paris, 1950), 225–241 Google Scholar; and discussion, II, 110-114; Mollat, M., Johansen, P., Postan, M., Sapori, A. and Verlinden, C., ‘L'économie européen aux deux derniers siècles du Moyen Âge’, Relazioni del X Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche, Roma, 1955, in (Florence, 1957), 655–811 Google Scholar.

43 See Kosminsky, E. A., ‘Peut-on considérer le XlVe et le XVe siècles comme l’époque de la décadence de l'économie européen?’ Studi in onore di A. Sapori, pp. 551–570 Google Scholar; and Baron, H. in American Historical Review LXI (1956), 1087 Google Scholar ff.

44 Cipolla, C. M., ‘The Trends in Italian Economic History in the Later Middle Ages’, Economic History Review, 2nd Series, 11 (1949), 181–184 Google Scholar

45 Lopez, R., ‘Hard Times and Investment in Culture’, in The Renaissance: a Symposium (New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1953), pp. 19–34 Google Scholar.

46 See Russell, J. C., Late Ancient and Medieval Populations (Philadelphia, 1958), pp. 99 Google Scholar ff., 113 ff.

47 Lewis, A. R., ‘The Closing of the Medieval Frontier, 1250-1350’, Speculum XXXIII (1958). 475–483 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

48 Ferguson, W. K., ‘The Interpretation of the Renaissance: Suggestions for a Synthesis’, Journal of the History of Ideas XII (1951), 483–495 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

49 Lopez, ‘Hard Times’, p. 22 f.

50 Cf. Braudel, and Spooner, , op. cit., pp. 245 Google Scholar f.; and Mollat, , op. cit., pp. 45 Google Scholar f.

51 The Cambridge Economic History, II, 343 ff.

52 Sapori, ‘I beni del commercio’, Archivio Storico Italiano CXIII, 6 f.

53 Some important work has been done recently on the subject of usury as one aspect of the relation between religion and business ethics. See, for example, Nelson, B., The Idea of Usury (Princeton, 1949)Google Scholar; Roover, Florence Edler de, ‘Restitution in Renaissance Florence’, Studi in onore di Armando Sapori (Milan, 1947), pp. 773–789 Google Scholar; de Roover, R., ‘Cambium ad Venetias’, ibid., pp. 632 Google Scholar ff.

54 Origo, , op. cit., p. 114 Google Scholar.