Credit and parochial charity in fifteenth-century Bruges

In late medieval Bruges, the poor tables, lay-run parochial charitable institutions that fed the resident paupers of the parish, obtained regular income by investing gifts and surplus funds in annuity rents, low-interest loans secured by property. The market in annuity rents provided an important source of inexpensive long-term credit that the merchant bankers, deposit bankers, and pawnbrokers of Bruges did not or could not supply, allowing the property owners of Bruges to draw upon the value of their immovable property without alienating it. Charitable gifts thus not only fed the poor but also kept capital circulating within the urban economy.     

The English trade at Bruges in the last years of Edward III

Records of confiscations of English property undertaken by the Flemish authorities in 1371 provide invaluable information on the mechanics of the English trade at Bruges, the ‘marketplace of the medieval world’, in the years immediately after the removal of the wool staple to Calais. Bruges continued to be the midpoint for the reconsignment of sizeable quantities of English wool, a trade in which Italian entrepreneurs played a considerable role. English broadcloths, although technically forbidden in Flanders as infringements of native textile monopolies, also found a ready market. The chief business of the English community in Bruges, however, was importing, through the brokers of Bruges and by direct contact with other foreigners, luxury items from Italy and Castile and bulk commodities from Germany and the eastern Low Countries.     

The English trade at Bruges in the last years of Edward III

Records of confiscations of English property undertaken by the Flemish authorities in 1371 provide invaluable information on the mechanics of the English trade at Bruges, the ‘marketplace of the medieval world’, in the years immediately after the removal of the wool staple to Calais. Bruges continued to be the midpoint for the reconsignment of sizeable quantities of English wool, a trade in which Italian entrepreneurs played a considerable role. English broadcloths, although technically forbidden in Flanders as infringements of native textile monopolies, also found a ready market. The chief business of the English community in Bruges, however, was importing, through the brokers of Bruges and by direct contact with other foreigners, luxury items from Italy and Castile and bulk commodities from Germany and the eastern Low Countries.     

Failure of corporation: notaries public in medieval Bruges

The puzzling absence of guilds of notaries public in northern Europe has long taxed the explanatory powers of historians. Differences in social and economic conditions between the south and north seem insufficient explanations, particularly in fourteenth-century Bruges, a commercial center quite analogous to southern European cities. Using two Bruges notaries as case studies, it is clear that differences in the nature of notarial work were also important in the failure of notarial corporation. Notaries drew upon a wide clientele including both church and state institutions, and by the very breadth of their activities, notaries in Bruges guaranteed their individual independence.     

Uxores,ancillae and dominae: women in thirteenth-century Hungary in the Register of Várad

Women’s history for Árpád-era Hungary (1000–1301) has generally been restricted to legal issues and the royal court. This study addresses these deficiencies by examining women in the Register of Várad in regard to three areas of investigation: marriage practices and the involvement of the Church, access women had to property and the access women had to authority. Evidence from the register indicates that by the thirteenth century, ecclesiastical ideas regarding marriage were barely making themselves felt. Ideas of consent and even the indissolubility of marriage were at times unimportant. Though priests were occasionally present at marriages, their role was not decisive. Women had three primary means of obtaining property. They could receive gifts or dower on the event of their wedding, and they could receive a portion of the patrimony. This inheritance was termed the quarta filialis as it amounted to no more than one-quarter of the father’s property. These gifts came under the control of the woman’s husband, and she could not access them until his death. Widowhood combined with guardianship of a minor son could allow women to exert considerable power and, just as elsewhere in Latin Europe, women’s access to public and private authority most approximated that of men’s as a widow. Not all women, of course, had access to such power. The Register of Várad shows numerous instances of women slaves who were under the complete control of their master.     

Uxores, ancillae and dominae: women in thirteenth-century Hungary in the Register of Várad

Women’s history for Árpád-era Hungary (1000–1301) has generally been restricted to legal issues and the royal court. This study addresses these deficiencies by examining women in the Register of Várad in regard to three areas of investigation: marriage practices and the involvement of the Church, access women had to property and the access women had to authority. Evidence from the register indicates that by the thirteenth century, ecclesiastical ideas regarding marriage were barely making themselves felt. Ideas of consent and even the indissolubility of marriage were at times unimportant. Though priests were occasionally present at marriages, their role was not decisive. Women had three primary means of obtaining property. They could receive gifts or dower on the event of their wedding, and they could receive a portion of the patrimony. This inheritance was termed the quarta filialis as it amounted to no more than one-quarter of the father’s property. These gifts came under the control of the woman’s husband, and she could not access them until his death. Widowhood combined with guardianship of a minor son could allow women to exert considerable power and, just as elsewhere in Latin Europe, women’s access to public and private authority most approximated that of men’s as a widow. Not all women, of course, had access to such power. The Register of Várad shows numerous instances of women slaves who were under the complete control of their master.     

LOCAL AMENITIES AND RENTS: TIEBOUT TAKES A VACATION*[link]

ABSTRACT This paper considers a two‐community model with free mobility, public expenditures set by majority voting, amenities that differ across communities, and two types of taxpayers sorting across communities according to different preferences. Residents pay local taxes, consume public services, and have the right to vote. Vacationers cannot vote, yet pay local taxes, and consume amenities. Amenities attract vacationers whose tax payments produce rents reducing the costs of public spending for permanent residents. These extractable rents produce stability in otherwise unstable equilibria. Relatively wealthy communities are generally less able than poor communities to extract rents.     

Princely entries and gift exchange in the Burgundian Low Countries: a crucial link in late medieval political culture

This article treats the first entry of a new prince as the start of a series of exchanges between the prince and his subjects. On the occasion of an entry, gifts in all kind of forms, subsistence, luxury and symbolic goods, were exchanged with the intention of establishing a bond between the new ruler and the subjects. These gifts were not standardised in the Burgundian Low Countries. There was a wide range of gifts, from wine to silverware and from money to horses. Some gifts can be linked to the princely right of lodging in places he passed on his itinerary, whereas others refer to marks of honour offered by the host. However, not all gifts were given spontaneously, but were the result of a negotiating process between the town and the prince's officials on the one hand and between the different towns of a principality on the other. Those officials benefited as well from entry gifts that trickled down to lower levels in the official hierarchy. Therefore, the gifts can be considered as personalised items in a bigger process of exchange and as a confirmation of the outcome of political negotiations.     

布鲁日：欧洲中世纪城市的缩影

比利时的布鲁日城被称作“沉睡的美女”,它是欧洲保留最完整的中世纪城市,2000年被联合国教科文化组织列入世界遗产名录。然而,在国内似乎鲜为人知。通常到欧洲旅游的中国游客,到首都布鲁塞尔市中心广场转一圈、与著名的“尿童”小于连的铜像合个影,或再看一眼“原子球”便上车走人,就算是游过比利时了。但仅仅如此,是远远不够的,在我看来,到了比利时如若不游布鲁日,就如同没去过比利时。     

Honour, community and hierarchy in the feasts of the archery and crossbow guilds of Bruges, 1445-81

Archery and crossbow guilds first appeared in the fourteenth century in response to the needs of town defence and princely calls for troops. By the fifteenth century these guilds existed across northern Europe. Despite this they have not received the attention they deserve, and have even been dismissed as little more than militias. An analysis of the uniquely detailed account books of the two Bruges guilds, the archers of St Sebastian and the crossbowmen of St George, reveals much about their social activities, and especially their annual meals. Feasts were important to the guilds in three main ways. Firstly, they demonstrated the guild's status and wealth. Secondly, meals helped to strengthen the bonds of the community. The guild's community could include not just members resident in Bruges, but also shooters from other towns and even leading noblemen. Thirdly, and in contrast to this, communal meals were an occasion to exhibit the hierarchy present within these guilds. Hierarchy is shown through the range of foods purchased, and through the seating plans preserved in the St Sebastian's guild accounts.     

Honour,community and hierarchy in the feasts of the archery and crossbow guilds of Bruges, 1445–81

Archery and crossbow guilds first appeared in the fourteenth century in response to the needs of town defence and princely calls for troops. By the fifteenth century these guilds existed across northern Europe. Despite this they have not received the attention they deserve, and have even been dismissed as little more than militias. An analysis of the uniquely detailed account books of the two Bruges guilds, the archers of St Sebastian and the crossbowmen of St George, reveals much about their social activities, and especially their annual meals. Feasts were important to the guilds in three main ways. Firstly, they demonstrated the guild's status and wealth. Secondly, meals helped to strengthen the bonds of the community. The guild's community could include not just members resident in Bruges, but also shooters from other towns and even leading noblemen. Thirdly, and in contrast to this, communal meals were an occasion to exhibit the hierarchy present within these guilds. Hierarchy is shown through the range of foods purchased, and through the seating plans preserved in the St Sebastian's guild accounts.     

The Gender Dynamics of Dress Gifts from Elizabethan Men at the Court of Elizabeth I

This article explores the gender dynamics of giving dress gifts at the Elizabethan court (1558–1603). Current scholarship considers the role of elite women and the ‘favourite’ in giving dress gifts. In contrast, this article seeks to understand the significant but largely overlooked role of merchant and courtier men as both givers of dress to Elizabeth I and holders of vital information that others relied upon in giving dress gifts to her. Drawing on New Year's gift lists, correspondence and records of progresses this article shows how an approach informed by material culture and situated in a gendered framework actually complicates our understanding of the Elizabethan court's culture of dress gifts. A gendered analysis highlights that merchant and courtier male subjects, sometimes in tandem with their wives, played a vital role in shaping the fashion and economy of early modern England by providing innovative and tasteful offerings to their queen. Dress gifts from male subjects strongly influenced Elizabeth's image of magnificence and made the English court one of the most fashionable in Europe.     

Merchants on the margins: fifteenth-century Bruges and the informal market

During the late medieval period, Bruges acted as the prime hub of international trade in north-western Europe, with the town of Sluys as its outport. Trade along the Zwin, the waterway connecting the city to the sea, was subject to a series of tolls and a set of stringent and comprehensive staple restrictions, stipulating that all goods imported had to be sold on the Bruges market. The concentration of commercial activities which resulted from these rules allowed merchants with the necessary capital to trade more cheaply than elsewhere. For those with more modest means and ambitions, the trip along tollbooths to the heavily regulated and institutionalised staple market only jeopardised the profitability of their endeavours. Throughout the fifteenth century, local traders, international shipping crews, commercial staff and professional smugglers cut transaction costs by evading the restrictions of the staple and commercial taxation in Sluys. This article discusses the size of this informal market on the margins of Bruges' jurisdiction, analyses the backgrounds and motivations of its visitors and reconstructs the strategies they used to evade punishment.     

Holy Blood devotion in later medieval Scotland

Of the Christocentric devotions which achieved widespread popularity in later medieval Scotland, the cult of the Holy Blood gained the greatest prominence. Strong Scottish connections with the blood-relic centres at Bruges and, to a lesser extent, Wilsnack, primarily established by Scotland’s urban merchant class, provided the conduit for the development of the cult in the east coast burghs from the second quarter of the fifteenth century. The cult remained principally an urban phenomenon and was associated closely with the guildry of those burghs in which Holy Blood altars were founded. Holy Blood devotion, while by no means exclusively associated with members of the merchant community, provided a vehicle for expression of guild identity and, as in Bruges, a mechanism for the regulation and control of guild members’ public behaviour. That regulatory function, however, was secondary to the cult’s soteriological significance, its popularity in urban Scotland reflecting the wider late medieval European lay quest for closer and more direct personal connections with God.     

Networks of Concern,Boundaries of Compassion: British Relief in the South African War

In the South African War and its aftermath, wounded combatants and interned Boer civilians were the subjects of extensive transnational relief efforts. Focusing on the aid proffered by the British Red Cross Society, the pro-imperialist Victoria League and the rival Boer Home Industries scheme, this paper explores how gifts of time and material were invested with competing hopes and aspirations for Britain's role in South Africa. In this context food and hand-made textiles represented more than mere commodities. It also meant that, though expressing genuine sympathy and concern, benefactors did not share a ‘humanitarian’ ideal. These gifts brought undoubted comfort and saved life. They also provided new imaginative vistas on empire and war, and galvanised domestic political networks. But the implication of these numerous benevolent impositions was a lack of co-ordination and the privileging of relief workers’ ethical commitments with little thought as to how these gifts would be received.     

Urban patricians and ‘bourgeois’ society: A study of wealthy elites in Florence, 1862–1904

This case study presents the results of research carried out on the principal wealthy families in Florence between 1862 and 1904. It shows that while Tuscany was in many ways a particular case, it offers an important opportunity for studying those distinctions between ‘modernity’ and ‘tradition’ that are implicit in debates on the social history of this period. From the 30,000 declarations of inheritance resulting from deaths registered in these years, the author examines 300 estates that were valued at over half a million lire and 146 ‘millionaires’, reconstructing the balance between fixed and liquid assets in the overall composition of the estates. The data show that estates based mainly on landed property of a type which was aristocratic in origin remained common throughout the period, and this finding is confirmed by the importance that farms in the case of rural property, and noble houses in the case of urban property, retained as forms of immovable property. A comparison of the structure of the wealth of the nobility (theoretically a more ‘traditional’ group) and that of Jewish bankers (in theory a more ‘modern’ group) indicates that all sections of the elite followed the same tendencies. The author argues that the elite was characterized by a ‘Renaissance paradigm’ in which forms of rural and urban seigneurial power were combined in a mixture of both relatively modern and relatively conservative features, and that this same combination was evident over the longer period in many other northern and central Italian urban elites. The statistical data offered by the sources are insufficient, however, to carry the analysis further without taking account of institutional structures and individual behaviour. In the final section of the article the author discusses several examples of inheritance settlements that confirm the complementary nature of family strategies aimed at perpetuating the integrity of the property through the male line and forms of management that sought to develop a variety of forms of economic enterprise and activity.     

張之洞的别敬、禮物與貢品

本文全面介紹"張之洞檔案"中有關别敬、禮單與貢摺等材料,具體說明張之洞支付别敬、贈送禮物與進呈貢品的情況,並由此觀察晚清上層社會的日常生活,觀察晚清上層社會的腐敗速度與程度。本文以極大的篇幅介紹張之洞向慈禧太后進貢,尤其是慈禧太后、光緒帝逃亡西安時期的情況。張之洞雖是清流出身,但到了此時,仍不免須花費很大精力和財力來辦理送禮與進貢;而他的禮物與貢品中,竟有相當部分是書籍與文具,依舊顯露出其書生本色。     

Christmas in the Workhouse: Staging Philanthropy in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical

This article provides an overview of the representation of workhouse philanthropy in the nineteenth-century periodical. In the 1830s and 40s, the popular representation of the workhouse was of a cruel institution in which paupers were systematically beaten and starved. However, the ideological significance of the workhouse shifts in the depictions of privately funded philanthropy that proliferated in magazines and newspapers during the Christmas publishing season. In representations of the workhouse at Christmas, paupers are shown receiving gifts and enjoying entertainments against a festively decorated backdrop. Middle-class benevolence is at the heart of these Christmas performances: these treats are not funded by the poor rates, but by individuals, who are frequently depicted in attendance at the workhouse Christmas. The institution, now redolent with ideas of care, charity and goodwill, functions in these texts as a stage for the projection of a bourgeois philanthropic self; the reader, the audience of this ideological performance, is encouraged to self-identify with the middle-class values that overlay these workhouse scenes. Entwined with these depictions of private philanthropy are underlying ideas of discipline and control. Just as the middle-class guests enact an idealized identity, so too do the paupers enact the role of the indebted and grateful poor. This article examines how the nineteenth-century periodical constructs the workhouse as a performance space for the middle classes; it explores the various agendas of these constructions and analyses the ideological messages they convey.     

LAND USE IN THE PRESENCE OF AN ATMOSPHERE EXTERNALITY,WITH AND WITHOUT CORRECTIVE TAXES*

ABSTRACT. Total cleared area in a von Thünen land-use model drives an atmosphere externality which depresses agricultural productivity uniformly throughout the region. Exogenous events that encourage clearance and use of a larger cultivated area (output price or population increase) exacerbate the externality. Imposition of a simple, corrective tax on land rents does not reverse these patterns but does mitigate the increase in the externality and leaves cultivators with higher incomes than they would obtain without the tax. We examine an optimal tax on land rents, designed to maximize the social value of land rents in the region, and an output tax.