Description
Book SynopsisThe Economy of Renaissance Florence offers both a systematic description of the city's major economic activities and a comprehensive overview of its economic development from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance to 1600.
Trade ReviewRenaissance Florence has no more able defender in recent times than Professor Richard Goldthwaite. Washington Post Book World Richard Goldthwaite has served a long apprenticeship. As a dedicated student of the economy of Florence between the 13th and 16th centuries, he has published studies of the city's buildings and banks, its private wealth and the demand for its art. Now he has stood back and produced a magisterial history which brings all the strands of the story together and becomes, among its other virtues, a persuasive account of early capitalism. Economist 2009 Johns Hopkins University Press deserves praise for having so ably edited and published such a big book in this age of contraction and cost-cutting. It and the author have given us one of the most important books in Renaissance history to have appeared in many years: not simply a long-needed synthesis but a stimulating, insightful work that will guide research for a long time to come. -- Robert S. DuPlessis Renaissance Quarterly 2009 This book marks a crowning achievement of a distinguished academic career, and it achieves both authority in its exposition and modesty in its tone. An essential read for scholars interested in the study of Florence, and historical economics. -- Nicola Jones H-Italy, H-Net Reviews 2010 It is hard to do justice to so large, complex, and informative a work. A synthesis of the Florentine economy is a monumental undertaking. Goldthwaite offers a compelling image, which, like all such images, will draw its critics and admirers and set the parameters of the field for decades. -- Thomas Kuehn Journal of Modern History 2010 Masterful. So thorough, so inclusive, and so wide-ranging that its omission from the bibliography of on any future study on the Italian Renaissance will be a noticeable oversight. -- Brian Maxson Canadian Journal of History 2010
Table of ContentsList of Tables, Figures, and Maps
Preface
Introduction: The Commerical Revolution
Economic Growth and Development in Italy to 1300
Trade with the Levant
Links to the North
The Tuscan Towns
Florence
Rise to Predominance
The Dynamics of Growth
Part I: International Merchant Banking
1. The Network
Performance
Dynamics of Change
Periodization
The Era of the Florin
Balance of Payments
Structures
The Firm
The Conduct of Business
Interfirm Relations
The Center
Florence and Regional Trade
Florence as International Emporium
2. The Shifting Geography of Commerce
Northwestern Europe
Naples and Southern Italy
The Western Mediterranean
A Transport Revolution
The Iberian Peninsula
Southern France
The Later Sixteenth Century
Central Italy and Rome
Venice, the Adriatic, and the Levant
Central Europe
3. Banking and Finance
Banking
Deposits and Loans
International Transfer and Exchange
The Bill of Exchange as Credit Instrument
The International Exchange Market
Government Finance
Loans to Rulers
Risks
The Papacy
Competition and Innovation in the Sixteenth Century
Part II: The Urban Economy
4. The Textile Industries
General Performance
The Wool Industry
The Silk Industry
Linen Drapers
Business Organization
The Firm
Operations beyond the Firm
Production
The Shop
The Work Force
Recapitulation: Wool, Silk, and the Economy
5. Artisans, Shop keepers, Workers
The Work Force
Guilds
Artisans
Works on the Margins of the Market
Performance of the Artisan Sector
Demand-Driven Growth
Parameters of the Local Market
6. Banking and Credit
Banking Institutions through the Fifteenth Century
Historiographical Problems
Local Banks
Pawnbrokers
Welfare Institutions
Banks and the Government
Lack of a Banking System
Performance of the Banking Sector
Practices
Economic Functions
Bankruptcies
Banking outside of Banks
Offsetting
The Private Credit Market
New Directions in the Sixteenth Century
A Public Savings- and- Loan Bank
A Central Clearance Bank?
Conclusion
7. Contexts
Government and the Economy
Economic Policy
Fiscal Policy
Business Interests and Government
The Region and the City
Urban Geography
Industrial Resources
Agriculture
Economic Integration
Private Wealth
Social Mobility
A Profile of Wealth Distribution in 1427
Redistribution of Wealth in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
Conclusion
Economic Culture
Attitudes and Behavior
Notions about the Economy
Performance
The Economy in the Short Run
A Final Judgment
Appendix: Changing Values of the Florin
Index
