Commercial Activity, Markets and Entrepreneurs in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of Richard Britnell - Tapa dura

A real strength of this festschrift is its masterful editing, and those keen enough to read it from cover to cover will benefit from the clear thematic threads linking all the chapters. HISTORY

These studies are clearly written and analytical in tone. They employ detailed source criticism and local case-studies in order to participate in debates and controversies of wider significance, and open up entirely new subjects for discussion. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW

Should be required reading for all who study late medieval England. CULTURAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY

Should be required reading for all who study late medieval England. JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIES

A fine collection of often thought-provoking essays. THE RICARDIAN

This festschrift is more successful than many in presenting a thematically cohesive body of research, most of which will be of interest to the historian of small towns and their rural hinterlands. [...] A useful volume which contains much of interest to the urban historian. URBAN HISTORY

A more coherent volume than many such collections manage to be. [...] Graduate students would be well advised to regard [the essays] as models of scholarship, not just as sources of information. THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW

There is much in this volume to broaden understanding of medieval society and the editors are to be congratulated on bringing together essays which so deftly illustrate the range of Richard Britnell's own work. JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY

ong dominated by theories of causation involving class conflict and Malthusian crisis, the field of medieval economic history has been transformed in recent years by a better understanding of the process of commercialisation. In recognition of the important work in this area by Richard Britnell, this volume of essays brings together studies by historians from both sides of the Atlantic on fundamental aspects of the medieval commercial economy. From examination of high wages, minimum wages and unemployment, through to innovative studies of consumption and supply, business fraud, economic regulation, small towns, the use of charters, and the role of shipmasters and peasants as entrepreneurs, this collection is essential reading for the student of the medieval economy.