Investment and Saving Opportunities for Different Socio-Economic Groups in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Stephan Nicolussi-Köhler, Marco Conti and Kirsten Wandschneider

https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jbwg-2025-0002/html

This special issue focuses on the financial behaviour of different participants in European medieval and early modern financial markets. It extends our knowledge of the financial strategies employed by households, merchants, charities, city governments and corporations by asking what investment opportunities, ways of saving money and maintaining cash flow were available to different socio-economic groups in premodern societies. Borrowing and lending activities were not limited to formal capital markets, but also included informal financial transactions within social networks. In many cases, people did not rely on a single financial institution, but used a variety of financial intermediaries and strategies, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Medieval and early modern capital markets often involved different institutions that complemented each other. The current issue contributes to our understanding of early financial behaviour by highlighting specific historical markets and actors, ranging from institutional actors (governments, charitable institutions) to merchants, craftsmen, and peasants, including many women.

International Congress: “Fiscal Systems, Powers and Economic Development in Western Europe (14th-17th Centuries)”. Valencia, April 7th-9th, 2025

The congress aims to assess the relationship between public finance, policies, and economic performance from the beginning of the Late Middle Ages to the end of the Early Modern Period in Western Europe with the following thematic strands: 1. To analyse the impact of fiscal systems on the dynamics of market integration and economic growth, in connection with institutional developments and the consolidation of state tools for management public finances and economic policies. 2. The study of the relationship between public finances and economic growth and decline 3. To deepen our understanding of the relationships between inequality, economic structures, gender gap and political change.

Le droit de compter. Les livres de gestion et de mémoires des femmes (Florence, XVe-XVIe siècles)

Serena Galasso

La famille et la société florentines de la fin du Moyen Âge sont sans doute parmi les plus rigoureusement patrilinéaires de l’Italie du centre-nord. Les femmes, écartées de la succession paternelle et maternelle, et asservies aux stratégies matrimoniales des familles, disposent d’une capacité d’agir assez limitée. Cet ouvrage revient sur cette interprétation pour la nuancer et l’enrichir d’une perspective nouvelle grâce à l’analyse d’une documentation jusqu’à présent totalement inexplorée : les livres de gestion et de ricordanze tenus par les femmes des élites de la cité. Au cours de leur vie d’épouse et, plus souvent, durant leur veuvage, ces Florentines pouvaient en effet entreprendre la rédaction de registres personnels pour gérer non seulement des biens de famille mais également leur propre patrimoine et consigner tous les actes utiles à leur administration. Par le biais de l’écrit, elles négociaient leurs capacités de gestionnaire et leur rôle au sein de la parenté, et protégeaient leurs intérêts en déjouant les normes de la succession patrilinéaire ; enfin, elles contribuaient activement à la production de la mémoire familiale. La découverte et l’exploitation minutieuse de plus de deux cents livres de comptes révèlent que cette pratique d’enregistrement et de mise en mémoire n’était pas un monopole masculin, contribuant ainsi au renouvellement de l’historiographie sur les rapports de genre dans la famille et la société de la Renaissance.

The Florentine florin

The politics and culture of money in the Middle Ages

By Stefano Locatelli

Minted in Florence around November 1252, the florin became one of the leading gold currencies of the Middle Ages. Historians agree that its success was mainly due to the need for a stable means of payment in the networks of international trade. The Florentine Florin investigates the florin as a medium with hitherto neglected political, social, and cultural dimensions. By bringing human agents and political institutions more prominently into the history of the coin, this book enhances our understanding of money and its nature from a historical perspective, and provides an original framework for the integrated study of material culture and economic practices.

Accountability in Late Medieval Europe

Households, Communities, and Institutions

Ionut Epurescu-Pascovici (ed)

This volume brings together studies of late medieval accountability in both the domestic and the public realms. It traces practices of accountability across the social spectrum, from households to small businesses to communal and regnal administrations, highlighting the intersections between competing conceptions of personal and institutional responsibility. Focusing on France and Italy from the thirteenth to the early sixteenth centuries, the case studies follow territorial officers, consular agents, and town notables co-opted into local governance from Avignon and Marseille to Tuscany and the Venetian and Genoese overseas territories. The studies explore both personal and institutional accounting registers, as well as records of a textual nature, such as rulebooks and inquests, in an effort to reflect the range of records and procedures relied on to achieve a measure of accountability in late medieval Europe

VII MARTÍN DE AZPILICUETA DOCTORAL SEMINAR

ARCA COMUNIS NETWORK

POWER, FISCAL SYSTEMS AND FINANCES IN THE MIDDLE AND MODERN AGES: TOWARDS NEW PERSPECTIVES

DATES: 22nd and 23rd May 2025.

VENUE: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Brescia (Italy).

DIRECTORS: Ángel Galán Sánchez (University of Málaga), Benoît Maréchaux (Complutense University of Madrid) and Esther Tello Hernández (Milá y Fontanals Institution for Humanities Research, CSIC, Barcelona).

ORGANISERS: Inocencia Perea (University of Málaga) and Andrés Requena (University of Málaga).

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE: Ángel Galán Sánchez (Universidad de Málaga), Elena García Guerra (CCHS, CSIC, Madrid), Giovanni Gregorini (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano), Benoît Maréchaux (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Giuseppe de Luca (Università degli Studi di Milano Statale), Riccardo Semeraro (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Brescia), Esther Tello Hernández (Institución Milá y Fontanals de Investigación en Humanidades, CSIC. Barcelona) y José Manuel Triano Milán (Universidad de Málaga).

GENERAL OUTLINES:

The Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Brescia and the Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca in Storia Economica (ARISE) are hosting the VII Martín de Azpilicueta Seminar, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Innovation and Science (RED2022-134575-T network project). This event, now a consolidated and periodic activity, is promoted by Arca Comunis, a Network of Research Projects on the history of Medieval and Moderns Fiscal Systems coordinated by the University of Málaga.

This seminar is aimed at doctoral students and young doctors interested in the history of taxation and finance in a broad sense. Its purpose is to foster the exchange of ideas on the latest historiographical trends, stimulate scientific debate, and create dialogues around ongoing work. Participants will briefly present their research topics, followed by discussions moderated by researchers from the Arca Comunis Network and experts in the thematic areas addressed.

RESEARCH FOCUS:

The seminar seeks to examine the interactions between political and fiscal systems across Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period—formative eras in the development of modern state structures. Through a comprehensive approach, it will explore how fiscal dynamics not only shaped the consolidation of political power but also influenced the political strategies. Somewhat gauge their impact on decisions that designed the scope and effectiveness of fiscal institutions in these historical contexts.

The central objectives are:

  1. To examine the impact of fiscal systems on market integration and economic growth, considering their connection with institutional developments and the consolidation of centralized state structures.
  2. To investigate the interrelations between public finance and economic growth and decline. Including the exploration of policies’ impact on behavioural economics and the birth of institutional mechanisms for economic and financial regulation.
  3. To analyse the constraints public finance imposed on the development of productive activities, property structures, and financial systems.
  4. To explore the relationship between inequality, economic structures, gender differences, and political change. Inequality provides a valuable avenue for research through the analysis of fiscal sources. In addition, the seminar will consider how political mechanisms for tax extraction and distribution, economic systems of wealth distribution and transmission, and social structures across different scales interact within a unified framework of study.

We encourage candidates, within these objectives, to explore topics such as:

  • The legitimacy of taxation.
  • The relationship between tax collection and political stability.
  • Economic inequality and the role of gender differences.
  • The impact of economic crises on policies and public administration.
  • Relationship between tax justification, taxpayer acceptance and actual powers.

The seminar will also include:

  • Research on the role of private finance, examining how businesspeople participated in supplying credit to rulers and mobilizing fiscal and monetary resources.
  • The evolution of fiscal and political theories, exploring how ideas of fiscal justice and governmental responsibility have changed over time in response to social, economic, and cultural transformations in medieval and early modern history.

Finally, specific attention will be paid to regional and temporal differences. Comparative perspective on fiscal systems as instruments of control and development in various contexts will warmly welcome. We also encourage the use of documentary sources and contemporary methodologies, such as Digital Humanities and statistical systems, to reinterpret historical data from new angles. This multifaceted approach will not only deepen our understanding of historical dynamics but also offer fresh perspectives on contemporary challenges related to taxation and political power.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION:

Proposals should be sent to etello@imf.csic.es by 10th January 2025. The proposal must be sent in a single PDF document containing a brief Curriculum Vitae (maximum two pages) and a summary of the research (3,000 to 5,000 characters). Proposals written in Italian, Spanish, French, English, or Portuguese will be accepted. Candidates will receive a response by 30th January 2025.

  • The seminar will be exclusively in-person.
    • Presentations will last between 20 and 30 minutes. The languages considered are: Italian, Spanish, French, English, or Portuguese. The accompanying PowerPoint should be in a different language, preferably English.
    • The Arca Comunis network will finance between one and two nights of accommodation for the selected participants.
    • The Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Brescia will offer one lunch to the participants.
    • The participants will bear travel expenses.

Prix Joseph Colleye 2025 d’histoire de la comptabilité Appel à candidatures

Le sixième prix Joseph Colleye d’histoire de la comptabilité sera remis dans le cadre des 30èmes Journées d’histoire du management et des organisations (JHMO) qui se dérouleront à La Rochelle du 26 au 28 mars 2025.

Ce prix porte le nom du président fondateur de l’Ordre des experts comptables et comptables brevetés de Belgique, créé en 1959 : Joseph Colleye (1908-2001). Acteur majeur de la reconnaissance légale de la profession comptable en Belgique et de son développement, Joseph Colleye a également signé une trentaine d’ouvrages et une multitude d’articles, notamment sur la normalisation comptable et l’informatisation des comptabilités. En tant que directeur des Éditions Comptabilité et productivité, il a dirigé en 1975 la publication de la première traduction en langue française du célèbre Tractatus de computis et scripturis de la Summa de Luca Pacioli, réalisée par Robert Haulotte et Ernest Stevelinck, deux experts-comptables belges passionnés par l’histoire de la comptabilité.

Ce prix est financé par le Fonds Joseph Colleye, une association sans but lucratif qui a également décidé d’apporter son concours à la réalisation d’une série d’actions de valorisation du fonds d’histoire de la comptabilité de la Bibliothèque universitaire de Nantes. Ceci afin de rendre hommage à l’un des historiens de la comptabilité que l’on vient d’évoquer : Ernest Stevelinck (1909-2001), dont la collection d’ouvrages est à l’origine de la constitution de ce fonds et qui fut, en 1970 à Bruxelles, l’organisateur du premier Congrès international des historiens de la comptabilité.

D’un montant de 1500 , le prix sera attribué à l’auteur(e) ou aux auteur(e)s d’un article portant sur l’histoire de la comptabilité, ses techniques et leurs usages. La sélection sera effectuée par un jury international. Pour être éligible à ce prix, l’article, rédigé en français ou en anglais, devra avoir été publié en 2023 ou en 2024 dans une revue académique classée (attention, les pré-publications ne seront pas prises en compte). En outre, son auteur(e) ou l’un(e) de ses auteur(e)s devra parallèlement proposer et présenter une communication aux JHMO 2025.

  • Date limite de dépôt des candidatures : 9 décembre 2024
  • L’article accompagné d’un bref CV sera envoyé à : prixcolleye@ahmo.fr