Demography, Trade and Urbanisation in Medieval Central Europe

Schedule

Week 1: Introduction, sources, handbooks, literature

The first class introduces the main concepts and methods used throughout the course, such as production, trade, consumption, centrality and hinterlands, provisioning, population movements, etc. It will discuss the main textual and non-textual source types that can be used for the study of commercial, demographic and urban development, alongside with the methods, approaches they require and the limitations and challenges they pose. The main handbooks and genres of historiography on the subject will also be presented.

Mandatory reading

• Verhulst, Adriaan, “Medieval socio-economic historiography in Western Europe: Towards an integrated approach,” Journal of Medieval History, 23 (1997): 1. 89–101.

Week 2: Demography, tendencies in population history

This class explores the methodology of medieval demography and outlines the basic changes of medieval population, discussing the general characteristics of medieval demographical patterns, the main trends of demographical change, and the turning points of human life (birth, marriage, and death). The effects of medieval epidemics will be also discussed.

Mandatory reading

• Russell, Josiah Cox, “Population in Europe, 500–1500,” in Carlo Cipolla, ed., Fontana Economic History of Europe, vol. I: Middle Ages. (London: Collins, 1973), 25–70.

Optional readings

• Russell, Josiah Cox, Late ancient and medieval population (Philadelphia: American Historical Association, 1958) (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society; N 48:3).
• Fügedi, Erik, “The demographic landscape of East-Central Europe." in: Maczak, Antoni, Henryk Samsonowicz and Peter Burke (eds.) East-Central Europe in Transition, 1300–1700 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 47–58.

Week 3: Communication and transport

The third class will give a survey of methods of medieval spatial mobility. It includes different ways of communication, (overland, fluvial and maritime) and will put a special emphasis on the crossing of rivers (bridges, passing-places) and crossing mountains (esp. Alps). Since the efficiency of communication was a major factor determining commercial connections, the focus will be put on this approach.

Mandatory reading

• Verdon, Jean, Travel in the Middle Ages. (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003) 15–54, 97–126.

Optional reading

• Ohler, Norbert, The medieval traveller (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1989).

Week 4: Mediterranean commerce

This class will focus on the early phase of the Mediterranean commerce, and investigate not only the typical commercial goods in this region, but especially the commercial techniques dominating the activity of Italian merchants and businessmen.

Mandatory reading

• Lopez, Robert S., “The Trade of Medieval Europe: the South,” in Cambridge Economic History of Europe. Vol. 2. Trade and industry in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 379–401.

Optional reading: 

• Lopez, Robert S., Raymond, I., Medieval trade in the Mediterranean world (Records of Western Civilization) (Columbia University Press: 1990).

Week 5: The role of the South German commercial centres in the later Middle Ages

This class will explore the formation of the South German commercial metropolises. Regensburg, Augsburg, Ravensburg, Nuremberg and others played a special role in the central European commercial network not only because of their own commercial goods, but through their intermediary activity and through the migration of their citizens to the major towns of the region.

Mandatory readings

• Stromer, Wolfgang von, “Nuremberg in the International Economics of the Middle Ages,” Business History Review (1970): 210–225.
• Stromer, Wolfgang von, “Commercial policy and economic conjuncture in Nuremberg at the close of the Middle Ages: a model of economic policy,” The Journal of European economic history, 1 (1981): 119–129.

Optional reading

• Stromer, Wolfgang von, Oberdeutsche Hochfinanz, 1350-1450, I-III (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1970).

Week 6: Trade of East Central Europe

This class will discuss the changing roles of East Central Europe (Bohemia, Silesia, Poland and Hungary) in the international trade of the later Middle Ages.

Mandatory readings

• Marian Małowist, “The Problem of the Inequality of Economic Development in Europe in the Later Middle Ages,” Economic History Review, (1966): 15–28.
• Marian Małowist, “Problems of the Growth of the National Economy of Central-Eastern Europe in the Late Middle Ages,” Journal of European Economic History, (1974): 318–357.

Optional readings

• Gieysztor, Aleksander. “Trade and Industry in Eastern Europe before 1200,” in Cambridge Economic History of Europe. Vol. 2. Trade and Industry in the Middle Ages, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 474–502.
• Małowist, Marian, “The Trade of Eastern Europe in the Later Middle Ages,” in Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Vol. 2. Trade and industry in the Middle Ages, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 525–63 

Week 7: Towns as centers of craft production and industry

The seventh class presents the main commodities produced in the towns of high and late medieval Europe, concentrating first and foremost on textiles, metalwork and pottery. It discusses the social and economic organisation of the production; the criteria for selecting particular towns as production centres, and the impact of the various crafts and production sites on the topography of the individual towns. Issues of provisioning and consumption of these wares will also be pointed out.

Mandatory reading

• Spufford, Peter, Power and Profit: the Merchant in Medieval Europe, (London: Thames & Hudson, 2003), Chapter 5: Trade in manufactured goods, 228–269.

Optional readings

• Baart, Jan M. “Ceramic Consumption and Supply in Early Modern Amsterdam: Local Production and Long-Distance Trade. In Work in Towns 850–1850. Ed. Penelope J. Corfield and Derek Keene. (Leicester: Leicester University Press, 1990), 74–85.
• Carus-Wilson, E.M. “The Woollen Industry”,' in M.M. Postan and E.E. Rich, eds., Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Vol. II: Trade and Industry in the Middle Ages, 2ndrev. edn. (Cambridge, 1987), 614–90.
• Schofield, John and Vince, Alan. Medieval Towns, 2nd edn. Chapter 4: “Crafts and industries” (London, New York: Continuum, 2003), 121–150.

Week 8: Mining towns and the production and trade in metals

The eighth class will be devoted to mining, an activity that was bound to the occurrence of minerals; therefore its spatial distribution in Europe was different from that of other industrial centres. Mining gave rise to highly specialised urban centres in places usually unsuitable for agricultural production. Thus their dependence on their provisioning networks was much stronger and their society, relying heavily on the expertise of immigrants, differed significantly from other urban societies. Special attention will be given to the role of East-Central European mining towns and their role in gold and silver production on the Continent.

Mandatory reading

• John U. Nef, “Mining and Metallurgy in medieval civilisation,” in M.M. Postan and E.E. Rich, eds., Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Vol. II: Trade and Industry in the Middle Ages, 2^nd rev. edn. (Cambridge, 1987), Parts IV-VIII, 715–746.

Optional readings

• Spufford, Peter, Money and its Use in Medieval Europe (Cambridge: CUP, 1989), Chapter 5: “New Silver, c. 1160-c. 1330,” 109–132.
• Halaga, Ondrej R., “The Woodland and Field Demesnes of the Towns of Eastern Slovakia as Basis of their Mineral Trade,” in Ekkehard Westermann (ed.), Bergbaureviere als Verbraucherzentren (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, VSWG-Beiheft, 130. 1996).

Week 9: Merchant towns, markets and fairs

The ninth class concentrates on the most common function of all towns: their mediatory role in the exchange of commodities. It discusses the various forms of trade (wholesale and retail, constant and seasonal/periodical) and their role in the emergence and growth of towns. It also highlights the shapes and sites of selling (fairgrounds, marketplaces, stalls, shops, etc.) and the ways trade shaped the topography of the individual settlements.

Mandatory readings

• Buyers and Sellers. Retail Circuits and Practices in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Bruno Blondé et al., eds., (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006) (Studies in European Urban History, 9), Chapter 1, “Retail circuits and practices in medieval and early modern Europe: an introduction,” 7–21.
• Schofield, John and Vince, Alan. Medieval Towns, 2nd edn. (London, New York: Continuum, 2003), Chapter 5 “Trade and Commerce,” 151–174.

Optional readings

• Keene, Derek J., “Sites of Desire: shops, selds and wardrobes in London and other English cities, 1100-1550,” in Buyers and Sellers. Retail Circuits and Practices in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Bruno Blondé et al., eds., Turnhout: Brepols, 2006. 125–154.
• Gläser, Manfred, “The Development of the Harbours and Market Places of Lübeck,” In Maritime Topography and the Medieval Town, Ed. Jan Bill and Birthe L. Clausen. (Copenhagen: The National Museum, 1999), 79–86.

Week 10: Small towns – agrarian towns – market tows

The tenth class will deal with the most numerous, but often neglected kinds of towns: small towns, agrarian towns and market towns, which constituted between 60 and 90% of all urban settlements in different regions of Europe. It will discuss the question whether “small” means a quantitative or a qualitative difference, and to what extent specialised agrarian production can stimulate the growth of towns. Special attention will be paid to the emergence and role of small towns in Eastern and Central Europe.

Mandatory reading

• Dyer, Christopher, “Small towns, 1270-1540,” in The Cambridge Urban History of Britain: 600-1540, ed. D.M. Palliser. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 505–541.

Optional readings

• Bogucka, Maria, “The towns of East Central Europe from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century,” in East Central Europe in Transition, ed. Antoni Mączak, Henryk Samsonowicz, Peter Burke (Cambridge: CUP, 1985), 97–108.
• Fügedi, Erik, Die Ausbreitung der städtischen Lebensform – Ungarns oppida im 14. Jahrhundert. In Stadt und Stadtherr im 14. Jahrhundert, ed. Wilhelm Rausch. (Linz: Österr. Arbeitskreis für Stadtgeschichtsforschung, 1972), 165–192.
• Scott, Tom, Kleine Städte, keine Städte. Das so genannte “urbane Netz” in Südwestdeutschland im ausgehenden Mittelalter. In Minderstädte, Kümmerformen, gefreite Dörfer. Stufen zur Urbanität und das Märkteproblem. Ed. Herbert Knittler (Linz: Österr. Arbeitskreis für Stadtgeschichtsforschung, 2006), 180–200.

Week 11: Towns as centers of consumption, provisioning, towns and hinterlands

The penultimate class concentrates on the cities’ economic relations with their hinterlands by surveying the zones of centrality around them: their immediate marketing area, the wider market area, and the outer sphere of influence. It also discusses the provisioning of towns with the most basic agricultural commodities: grain and meat, as well as with fuel and salt and other less essential commodities.

Mandatory reading

• Epstein, Steven R. Town and Country in Europe, 1300–1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Chapter 1: Introduction. Town and Country in Europe, 1300–1800. 1–29.

Optional readings

• Campbell, M.S. Bruce, James A. Galloway and Derek Keene, A Medieval Capital and its Grain Supply: agrarian production and distribution in the London region c. 1300 (London: Centre for Metropolitan History, 1993), Chapter IX: Conclusion, 171–183.
• Hammel-Kiesow, Rolf, Grain, Fish and Salt. Written sources and architectural evidence for the trade with bulk commodities in Lübeck harbour.” In Maritime Topography and the Medieval Town, Ed. Jan Bill and Birthe L. Clausen. (Copenhagen: The National Museum, 1999), 79–86.

Week 12: Summing up: Patterns of rise and decline

The last class sums up the most important themes tackled and observations made during the course by looking at factors and reasons that contributed to the rise or decline of various regions in Europe and examines the same features in case of individual towns. The relationship of urban and regional economies will also be discussed, as well as the impact of these processes on social stratification and popular movements.

Mandatory reading

• Munro, John H., Patterns of Trade, Money and Credit, in: Handbook of European history, 1400-1600 : late Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation, ed. by Thomas A. Brady Jr., Heiko A. Oberman, James D. Tracy (Leiden: Brill, 1995), 147–196.

Optional readings

• Brenner, Robert, “Economic backwardness in Eastern Europe in the Lights of Developments in the West,” in The Origins of Backwardness in Eastern Europe, ed. Daniel Chirot (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), 15–52. 
• Towns in Decline AD 100–1600. ed. Terry R. Slater. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000). Chapter 1 “What is urban decline: desolation, decay and destruction, or an opportunity?” 1–22.