Description
Book SynopsisCities of Commerce develops a model of institutional change in European commerce based on urban rivalry. Cities continuously competed with each other by adapting commercial, legal, and financial institutions to the evolving needs of merchants. Oscar Gelderblom traces the successive rise of Bruges, Antwerp, and Amsterdam to commercial primacy betwee
Trade Review"[A] rich, nuanced, and convincing account of how adaptively efficient commercial institutions emerged from interactions between merchants and city officials in early modern Europe."--Choice "In this fine book, we get a real sense of the riskiness associated with trade ... And of the efforts urban authorities made to cope with risk."--Paul M Hohenberg, EH.Net "Gelderblom's Cities of Commerce, a work informed by both history and economic theory, should evoke both discussion and further work about the origins of the Western European economy."--James M. Murray, Journal of Interdisciplinary History "What the book does in an exemplary and quite fruitful fashion is to sketch the commercial history of three of Europe's most important entrepots, analyzing the changing patterns of trade and institutional drift, assuming some sort of functional relationship between the two... The book will be a welcome addition to recent debates in growth and development studies."--Journal of Economic Literature "Gelderblom's study is a thought-provoking read and a well-modulated, original voice in the debate on the economic, urban and institutional development of pre-modern Europe."--Justyna Wubs-Mrozewicz, English Historical Review "Gelderblom offers a convincing argument in this well-written book."--Donald ]. Harreld, The Historian
Table of ContentsIllustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Chapter 1 Introduction 1 Chapter 2 Commercial Cities 19 Chapter 3 The Organization of Exchange 42 Chapter 4 Crossing Borders 76 Chapter 5 Conflict Resolution 102 Chapter 6 The Protection of Trade 141 Chapter 7 Dealing with Losses 169 Chapter 8 Conclusion 198 Appendix A: The Incidence of Violence against Foreign Merchants in the Low Countries, 1250-1650 211 Appendix B: The Motivation, Organization, and Outcome of Collective Action by Merchants of the German Hanse in Bruges, 1250-1500 227 Abbreviations 233 Bibliography 235 Index 277
