Coping with inflation: a fourteenth- century example

In England, between 1305 and 1311, all prices rose significantly. Historians have generally assumed that these high prices led to high profits that enabled landlords to enjoy a period of unparalleled prosperity. A detailed study, however, of the manorial and central accounts of Canterbury Cathedral Priory suggets that this traditional view may not be altogether correct.Inflation did bring with it increased revenues and stimulated extensive investment in agriculture and building. But the priory's regular expenses increased as fast, and, at times, even faster than the extra revenues. Consequently the financial situation of the priory slowly deteriorated. Before the inflation set in, the priory had more than one year's revenue in hand. By 1318 this surplus had been wiped out. Financial equilibrium was finally restored only by the massive sale of relics and the high receipts from oblations. Yet, once prices began to fall after 1326 the priory found that, although its receipts dropped, so did its expenses and it was able to keep within its income.     

Le prieuré de Saint-Zacharie en i403 d'après le Livre de raison de son prieur

Saint-Zacharie is a small township northeast of Marseille, some kilometers from the main Aix-en-Provence-Nice road. In the middle ages it possessed a priory of Benedictine nuns of St Zacharias which was a dependency of the abbey of St Victor at Marseille. This abbey appointed a monk with the title of prior to administer the nunnery at Saint-Zacharie, while the nuns themselves elected a prioress. The Livre de raison drawn up by Jean de Assana, prior in 1402, allows us to establish the convent's budget. It reveals the efforts undertaken to restore a situation which had been severely shaken by the troubles of the fourteenth century, and in particular to develop the domain, which furnished the greater part of the convent's revenues from the production of corn and wine. Only corn provided a cash surplus. The economy of the priory was thus fragile because insufficiently diversified. The house faced other problems too. The development of its spiritual life was no longer a prime aim: the abbey of St Victor on several occasions arbitrarily limited the number of its nuns. There were ninety-eight of them in 1322; twenty-four in 1402; five in 1461. What is more, they were reduced to an income which provided only a bare living so that the convent's possessions appeared to be being exploited mainly as a source of profit for the prior and for the financial benefit of the mother house of St Victor, the archbishop of Aix, and the papal court.     

The farming out of manors: a new look at the evidence from Canterbury cathedral priory

In the mid-thirteenth century the cathedral priory of Christ Church, Canterbury, was still farming out its manors for either a fixed money rent or a composite bundle of goods and money, but using its own monks as farmers. Although Prior Thomas Ringmere stopped this practice at a time of great indebtedness, his main concern was to improve monastic discipline by keeping the monks within the confines of the cloister. The adoption of direct management did not immediately lead to any increase in revenues. After the Black Death, Christ Church, like other monastic houses, was very unsure of what path to take and switched back and forth between farming out its manors and keeping them in hand, before finally moving over to wholesale leasing in the 1390s. As earlier, the form of management, whether direct or leasing, did not make any significant difference to the amount of money available to the central treasurers. What may have finally persuaded the monks of the advantages of leasing was the willingness of some local lords, who served as farmers, to lend the convent money and then repay themselves out of their farm.     

The farming out of manors: a new look at the evidence from Canterbury cathedral priory

In the mid-thirteenth century the cathedral priory of Christ Church, Canterbury, was still farming out its manors for either a fixed money rent or a composite bundle of goods and money, but using its own monks as farmers. Although Prior Thomas Ringmere stopped this practice at a time of great indebtedness, his main concern was to improve monastic discipline by keeping the monks within the confines of the cloister. The adoption of direct management did not immediately lead to any increase in revenues. After the Black Death, Christ Church, like other monastic houses, was very unsure of what path to take and switched back and forth between farming out its manors and keeping them in hand, before finally moving over to wholesale leasing in the 1390s. As earlier, the form of management, whether direct or leasing, did not make any significant difference to the amount of money available to the central treasurers. What may have finally persuaded the monks of the advantages of leasing was the willingness of some local lords, who served as farmers, to lend the convent money and then repay themselves out of their farm.     

Le prieuré de Saint-Zacharie en i403 d'après le Livre de raison de son prieur

Saint-Zacharie is a small township northeast of Marseille, some kilometers from the main Aix-en-Provence-Nice road. In the middle ages it possessed a priory of Benedictine nuns of St Zacharias which was a dependency of the abbey of St Victor at Marseille. This abbey appointed a monk with the title of prior to administer the nunnery at Saint-Zacharie, while the nuns themselves elected a prioress. The Livre de raison drawn up by Jean de Assana, prior in 1402, allows us to establish the convent's budget. It reveals the efforts undertaken to restore a situation which had been severely shaken by the troubles of the fourteenth century, and in particular to develop the domain, which furnished the greater part of the convent's revenues from the production of corn and wine. Only corn provided a cash surplus. The economy of the priory was thus fragile because insufficiently diversified. The house faced other problems too. The development of its spiritual life was no longer a prime aim: the abbey of St Victor on several occasions arbitrarily limited the number of its nuns. There were ninety-eight of them in 1322; twenty-four in 1402; five in 1461. What is more, they were reduced to an income which provided only a bare living so that the convent's possessions appeared to be being exploited mainly as a source of profit for the prior and for the financial benefit of the mother house of St Victor, the archbishop of Aix, and the papal court.     

The Russian Stabilization Fund and Its Successor: Implications for Inflation

A senior Japanese specialist on Russia's economy and its oil- and gas-producing sectors analyzes the functions and performance of the Stabilization Fund of the Russian Federation and the new system replacing it in 2008. The Fund, created to diminish the effects of possible future decreases in oil prices on federal budget revenues and to absorb excess liquidity in the economy, was expected to exert a major curb on inflation. The author investigates the extent to which the latter, inflation-fighting role of the Fund has been fulfilled, given increases in the country's money supply and in state-regulated prices within the natural monopolies. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: E50, E62, H20, H60. 4 figures, 5 tables, 25 references.     

The Albigensian twentieth of 1221–3: an early chapter in the history of papal taxation

In June 1221 Pope Honorius III gave legatine powers to three French archbishops, with a mandate to do what was necessary to promote the second Albigensian Crusade. Above all, what the Church's champion in Languedoc, Amalric de Montfort, needed was money so that he could hire mercenaries to fight against the successfully resurgent Provencal nobility. Accordingly, each of the archbishop-legates conferred with the bishops of his legation (in councils unnoticed by Mansi and the other conciliar collectors), and imposed a twentieth on ecclesiastical revenues for the three years 1221–1223. Papal taxes had not yet become a routine matter; hence the Albigensian tax was necessarily an experiment in which the Roman curia learned important lessons for the future, notably the value of using curial personnel rather than local clergy as tax collectors. This paper assembles what is known of the tax, and attempts to assess its significance in the history of papal taxation.     

From pear maiden to tower princes: towards a new history of medieval childhood

Twenty years ago, Philippe Arie`s presented a negative view of childhood, characterized by abuse and neglect. The thesis was persuasive, but evidence from England from the twelfth to fifteenth centuries contradicts its tenets. The neglected material suggests that medieval society placed a high value on its children's lives and safety, and condemned harshly those who ignored it. Neglect still existed, but honored as a cultural ideal was a caring commitment towards children. Sermons and medical treatises increasingly described childhood innocence and parental devotion. Narrative literature such asPearl used the image of a grieving parent to underline philosophical themes. The most public of medieval literature, the Corpus Christi plays, directly addressed the parents in the audience on their responsibilities to their children. Richard III's political career was irrevocably affected by his society's beliefs about children. The disappearance of his nephews from public view sparked rumors about his abuse and murder of them. Even mere rumor about an attack on innocents inspired rebellion during Richard's reign and literary condemnation by contemporary chronicles. By the sixteenth century, Richard had become the prime example of the monster shunned by society because of his disregard for its most basic ideal.     

Weert: a Scheldt polder village in the fourteenth century

St Bavo's abbey of Ghent reclaimed considerable land during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries on its estate at Weert, along the Scheldt in northeastern Flanders. Other lords, notably Jacques van Artevelde, also had interests in the polder, but their presence caused such hostility that two peasants with Weert connections were involved in the assassination of Artevelde's son in 1370. Poor soil and natural disasters forced St Bavo's to abandon the project in the late fourteenth century, after a final vigorous effort in the 1350s. The work of the monks and of the counts of Flanders had nonetheless separated Weert topographically from Flanders and diverted the Scheldt westward into its present course by the early fourteenth century. Despite a subsistence economy and a high incidence of poverty, conditions which might be expected to foster rapid turnover among the settlers, peasant society at Weert demonstrated remarkable stability.     

Spatial Analysis of Residential Prices in Istanbul

The purpose of this paper is to examine the spatial distribution of housing prices at the metropolitan and at the district level of Istanbul. At the metropolitan level, the most important factors which affect housing prices are sub-market, floor area and sea view. At the district level, housing prices vary from district to district according to locational, socio-economic and property characteristics. High-income sub-markets have higher coefficient of determinations and more significant variables than low-income sub-markets. Furthermore, the results suggest that planned districts have higher housing prices; thus, restructuring squatter areas and revitalizing inner city areas provide not only benefits to individuals but also higher tax revenues to the city.     

Reconstructing Kilmainham: the topography and architecture of the chief priory of the Knights Hospitaller in Ireland,c.1170–1349

ABSTRACT

For almost 400 years the Knights of St John of Jerusalem – the Knights Hospitaller – maintained a priory in Kilmainham, Co. Dublin, as their principal residence in Ireland. Nothing survives of it above ground. The priory's early history and topography are mainly shrouded in mystery, but a fourteenth-century registrum illuminates the workings of its community and the character of its members, and provides valuable evidence relating to the appearance of its architecture and layout when it was at the peak of its prosperity. Yet the registrum has never been subjected to detailed scrutiny. Recent research on the Hospitallers in Ireland on the one hand, and on the organisation of domestic space in medieval contexts in Ireland on the other, has prompted this comprehensive appraisal of the evidence in Kilmainham's registrum.     

Infallibilists in the curia of Pope John XXII

In 1324 the idea of papal infallibility was saved from condemnation at the hands of Pope John XXII through the influence of a small group of infallibilists in John's curia. Founded about 1314 by Peter de la Palu, this group developed the idea of the absolute infallibility of the local Roman church first to defend the privileges of the mendicant orders, then to defend the whole church against heresy. Its members included Guido Terreni, who from 1318 seems to have taken the lead in the development of the idea, and John Regina of Naples, whose argument in 1324 that infallibility was an “ancient teaching of the church” appears to have been decisive in averting Pope John's condemnation. The existence of this group of ‘curial infallibilists’ before 1324 revises the suggestion of recent research that the Franciscan, anti-papal conception of papal infallibility which surfaced in the early 1320's served as the inspiration for the development of a curial, pro-papal conception in the late 1320's. The curial conception was not a response to the Franciscan conception, but an independent, parallel development. Peter de la Palu and Guido Terreni in 1318 were not even aware that Peter Olivi, the formulator of the Franciscan conception, had taught a theory of infallibility. In fact, they condemned him for not doing so. If Olivi's theory had any influence on Palu's initial conception, it was through the very simplified version of an intermediary.     

The world picture of Philip the fair

During the arrest and early months of the trial of the Templars in 1307 and 1308, a number of documents emanated from Philip IV's chancery which are not only valuable evidence of the regime's administrative concerns during the trial, but also, in the language used, convey a sense of contemporary concepts of the medieval world order as seen either by the king himself or by his chief advisers. Royal motivation for the arrests is still a matter of controversy, but it does not seem inconsistent to believe that Philip both sought the Templars' wealth to alleviate immediate financial problems and came to convince himself that the Templars had transgressed the laws upon which the whole ordering of society was based. It is upon this second aspect of Philip's mental outlook that this discussion concentrates. This paper aims to examine these concepts and to relate them to other contemporary polemical views on the trial.     

How China Navigated the Dilemma of Trade Liberalization and Government Revenues

Many economists believe that in the long run, the aggregate performance of open economies is better than that of closed ones, and that open policies contribute significantly to economic development. At the same time, many political scientists and policy makers fear that, in the short run, one of the steps towards openness — trade liberalization — may harm government revenues. However, in the 1990s, China successfully navigated the dilemma of trade liberalization and government revenues. In this period, China decreased tariff and non‐tariff barriers for WTO accession, but has achieved dramatically increased tariff revenues since 1999. This study explores how China implemented trade liberalization and simultaneously increased tariff revenues in the 1990s. It demonstrates that a series of institutional arrangements, including a reform of Criminal Law, rigorous anti‐smuggling activities and a de facto tax imposed on the export sector, successfully curbed smuggling activities through the processing trade, and made foreign‐invested manufacturing enterprises the major contributors to the stability of customs revenue. China's case shows that a prosperous, export‐oriented and foreign‐invested manufacturing sector could potentially provide a developing country with a source of customs revenue.     

Robert,earl of Gloucester,and the daughter of Zelophehad

Robert, earl of Gloucester, the leader of Mathilda's party in England during Stephen's reign, has a good press because the main source for his activities is his admirer, William of Malmesbury. This article re-assesses Robert's role and character by concentrating on chroniclers other than Malmesbury and on charter evidence. It finds, by these methods, that Earl Robert may have been in some ways an attractive man, but that he was also a practised curialist, a ruthless factionalist, a plunderer of church lands, and a man who made acquisition of his neighbours' lands one of his main objects. New evidence is presented to account for his behaviour in the crucial months at the end of 1135 and beginning of 1136 when Stephen made himself king. Robert is found to have had little choice but to cross to England because his lands in the southern Marches were under threat from a Welsh rising. His alienation from Stephen in the next few years is traced to a failure at court against his rivals, the Beaumont group. His subsequent private war against the Beaumonts in Dorset and Worcestershire is further evidence against Malmesbury 's portrayal of him as a man of pure principle. conduct of the war against Stephen after 1139 can be shown to have had serious flaws. The result was a rebellion against him by his own sons and the repudiation of his methods (if not his acquisitions) by his successor Earl William. Evidence is presented that Earl William sparked off the movement amongst the magnates to draw up private treaties to contain the Anarchy. In view of all this, it is not surprising to find indications that Earl Robert lacked any real commitment to the claims of his half-sister, the empress.     

Nigerian Oil and Exchange Rates: Indicators of ‘Dutch Disease’

This article assesses the impact of expanding oil revenues on non-oil sectors of the Nigerian economy from 1960 to 1985/6. Emphasis is placed on the effects of exchange rate appreciation during the 1970s on the agricultural, manufacturing and non-traded goods sectors. The analysis is conducted within a Dutch disease context. Two main conclusions are that the decline of Nigerian agriculture during these years can be attributed to a combination of low real producer prices and insufficient government investment, as well as the overvalued Nigerian naira; and that the high real exchange rate may have benefited the manufacturing sector.     

English towns in the late middle ages: the case of Great Yarmouth

Historians are divided over the economic fortunes of English towns in the late middle ages. Many argue for a ‘general crisis’ while others emphasize the variety of urban experience. Great Yarmouth is a striking example of a town facing protracted difficulties. Its decline in relation to other English towns between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries is particularly marked. Fourth among provincial towns in the 1334 tax return, Yarmouth ranked eighteenth in 1377 and twentieth in the subsidies of the 1520s.Yarmouth's problems become apparent soon after 1350, but while the Black Death may have killed one-third of its inhabitants, it is not the main cause of the town's misfortunes. Yarmouth depended heavily on two industries: shipping and fishing. The former was undermined by the early stages of the Hundred Years War, and the latter by competition from the Low Countries. A silting harbour which drove away trade and the high cost of building and repairing the town walls added to Yarmouth's difficulties.Whether economic decline is measured in terms of totals, for example total volume of trade, or in terms of individual production or wealth, Yarmouth fared badly. In the second half of the fourteenth century, Yarmouth's trade was much reduced and the town's leading burgesses seem much poorer than their counterparts before 1350. While Yarmouth clearly was in decline from about 1350 onwards, the town's experiences cannot be used to prove the case for a ‘general crisis’. They have to be seen in the context of the continuing prosperity of Norwich and the revival of Ipswich.     

Charles the bold and the crusade: politics and propaganda

The pressures on Charles the Bold (duke of Burgundy from 1467 to his death in 1477) to lead, or lend his support to, a crusade were many. His Italian allies and the papacy all pleaded for his help and participation; and these appeals were augmented by the exhortation contained in much of the literature popular at the Burgundian court and by the presence there of refugees from the East.Charles's response was mixed. Political and moral pressures made it impossible for him to ignore the question of the crusade, but, even if his attitude should be characterized as cautious rather than as indifferent, he never did go on crusade. Equally, however, he repeatedly justified his comparative inaction and, at the same time, made propaganda against his enemies by suggesting that their hostility alone prevented him from embarking on an expedition to drive back the infidel.This response, since it was not untypical of the princes of his generation, helps explain the West's failure to unite against the Turks. From the point of view of Burgundian history, Charles's cautious attitude towards the crusade tends to support the revisionists who argue that he was far less ‘rash’ than the traditional historical view allows.     

St Anselm and the English investiture controversy reconsidered

The Investiture Controversy in England has generally been viewed as a two-sided contest between king and pope. But in reality the struggle was between three parties — king, pope, and primate. St Anselm, devoted to his duties as God's steward of his office and its privileges, worked against both King Henry I and Pope Paschal II to bring into reality his idea of the proper status of the primate of all Britain. Anselm had a vision of a political model which he conceived as God's ‘right order’ in England, and all his efforts were directed toward fulfilling this vision.The Investiture Contest may be divided into two parts. The first phase began when Anselm was thwarted by Henry I's duplicity in the archbishop's attempt to force the king to accept the decrees of Rome at the height of a political crisis. Anselm may have seen these decrees as beneficial to the Canterbury primacy. From 1101 to 1103, Anselm wavered between supporting either party completely, meanwhile securing from Paschal all the most important privileges for the primacy of Canterbury. Each time Paschal refused to grant a dispensation for Henry, as Anselm requested, he granted Anselm a privilege for the primacy. Thus Anselm's vision of the primate as almost a patriarch of another world, nearly independent of the pope, was fulfilled by 1103.At this point, Anselm abandoned his vacillation between king and pope, and worked seemingly on behalf of Paschal, but in reality on behalf of the Canterbury primacy. During this second phase, Anselm's political adroitness becomes clear by a correlation, never before made, between the church-state controversy and Henry's campaign to conquer Normandy. By careful maneuvering and skilful propaganda, Anselm forced Henry to choose between submitting to the investiture decree or failing in his attempt to conquer Normandy. At the settlement, a compromise was worked out, Henry conceding on investitures, and Paschal conceding on homage. But investiture was only secondary to Anselm. He ended the dispute not when Henry submitted on investitures, but only when he had gained from Henry concessions which made the primate almost a co-ruler with the king, as his political vision demanded. Only after a public reconcilliation with his archbishop did Henry feel free to complete the Norman campaign.Thus the Investiture Controversy was a three-way struggle. Both king and pope compromised, each giving up some of their goals. But Anselm emerged from the contest having won nearly all his political objectives.