Ethan Buchman

This is probably true everywhere

If you're into 15th century Florentine bankers, pivot to 13th century Sienese

24. I feel modern scholars discount the importance of the stars in ancient lives because we cannot see them through our own light pollution.

what if the Melle mines hadn't run out and they had as much silver as the Merovingians?

There was plenty of innovation in the Middle Ages, we just don’t notice many of it and a lot of it was societal and economic and not purely technological.

but were they "pretty cool and often very capable"?

So many interesting questions about the monetary revolutions of the 12th-13th c!

Silver declared at toll stations on the way? Other letters or evidence? I've read Spufford and know about Roman provisini but I'm wondering if these were brought to Rome by pilgrims or if they were brought everywhere and just reminted in Genoa etc.

If you've seen any evidence for Italians at the fairs pre 1180s or for them carting silver home from the fairs would appreciate you sharing!

#medievalsky #history #econsky

My thesis is the Italians were drawn to the fairs for silver, and they carted it back to Italy (at least until ~1250s). Possibly this only makes sense once the Freiberg silver mines opened in ~1160s and started flooding into Champagne.

Looking for more clues!

Best I can tell the Italians start frequenting the fairs by like ~1180s. What brought them there? Any relation with the Templars? Any evidence for Italians in Champagne pre 1180?

It seems by mid 12th century they were running long-distance credit/transfer operations.

Could they have been responsible for popularizing the fairs more broadly, and ultimately attracting the Italians?

They got their legitimacy at the Council of Troyes in 1129 (just after the fair there?). A few years earlier the Count of Champagne pledged himself to the Templars.

They were granted tolls for Troyes/Provins.

They were responsible for guarding and maintaining the weights used at the fairs

Were the Knights Templar responsible for the international growth of the Champagne Fairs?

They seem to have been involved in Champagne and to have played some key roles before the fairs grew to intl importance and the Italians started coming in the late 12th c 👇

Chasing a lead that 15th c Italian bankers quoted rates to englishmen differently from everyone else

Possibly relevant to rise of London as financial centre and sterling as a dominant money

Ethan Buchman (🐝,🦇) on X: "No kings, no standing armies, no shared treasury. Just a cooperative decentralized network of merchants and towns with common interests in trade. One like, one tweet about the German Hansa, the mysterious medieval non-institution." / X No kings, no standing armies, no shared treasury. Just a cooperative decentralized network of merchants and towns with common interests in trade. One like, one tweet about the German Hansa, the mysterious medieval non-institution.

Alternatively, just read my thread :) x.com/buchmanster/...

Join us this Sunday at 1pm ET to discuss Dollinger's The German Hansa

Subscribe to @themimbresschool.bsky.social to attend or watch the recording after

Reminds of the this homie from the back of "English Fairs and Markets"

And thou mayest aske thyself, 'How do Ich werke thys?'
And thou mayest aske thyself, 'Wher ys that large destrier?'
And thou mayest telle thyself, 'Thys nys not my beautiful castle!'
And thou mayest telle thyself, 'Thys nys not my swift goshawk!'

Laudabiliter - Wikipedia

lol obviously the one englishman to have ever been pope issues a bull granting Ireland to the English

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laudabi...

From: Farrell, The Irish and the economy of plantation Ulster

So the English stole a bunch of Irish land and gave it to English landowners. Plan was for them to recruit English tenants to farm.

But the new owners realized they could charge much higher rents to the Irish who wanted to stay on their land than to new English recruits.

King James was pissed.

not to mention it was almost immediately annulled and followed by civil war ...

tfw you're trying to understand the origin of british capitalism and so now you're reading a book about oats

The Ides of March denarius, issued by Marcus Junius Brutus, is one of the most famous and historic coins ever minted. It commemorates the assassination of Julius Caesar on March 15, 44 BCE, an event that later inspired many works of art, literature, opera, and film. Caesar had declared himself "perpetual dictator" at the beginning of that year, thereby directly prompting the assassination plot by Brutus and a group of other senators who feared for the survival of the Republic under his tyrannical rule. The reverse of the coin shown here not only bears the inscription naming the day of the murder but also depicts two daggers representing the weapons used to stab Caesar to death, as well as a cap usually worn by slaves who had earned their freedom, symbolizing here the liberation of Rome. Inscription: BRVT IMP L PLAET CEST (Brutus, Imperator, Lucius Plaetorius Cestianus), head of Brutus, EID MAR (Ides of March), pilleus (felt cap), and two daggers. Rome, 43-42 BCE. Met Museum (L.2012.74, (ANS 1001.1.24742 Private collection, on loan to the American Numismatic Society)

For the #IdesofMarch, here's one of the most famous coins to ever be minted: the silver denarius of M. Junius Brutus commemorating the assassination of Julius Caesar. It depicts two daggers, a slave's cap of freedom (pileus), and the inscription EID MAR. 🏺 #ancientbluesky

43-42 CE. #MetMuseum
📸 me

Working on a theory that the origin of British capitalism simply boils down to the propensity for growing oats.

> The Irish grew lots of oats
> The British colonized the Irish
> The oats fed the horses
> The horses plowed the fields
> Boom: Agricultural Capitalism

And a more dense one with many of the Hansa towns.

cc @hotgpod.bsky.social

Map of Hansa geography.

Hansa regions in red, neighbours in green, rivers in blue, mountains in brown.

Hansa territory basically defined by the rivers Rhine, Weser, Elbe, Oder, Vistula and southern Baltic coast. Bordered in south by the Main and the Ore/Giant/Carpathian mountains

#medievalsky

From Kerridge's Trade and Banking in Early Modern England

Why yes, I would like to see a calculation of how much more credit there is than coin in early modern England based on analysis of probate inventories