Medieval socio-economic historiography in Western Europe: towards an integrated approach

The revival of interest in the economic history of the Middle Ages after World War II has benefitted first to the study of the fourteenth and fifteenth century through the introduction to historical practice of the theories and methods of modern economic science. Secondly the discussion on the early medieval economy launched by Pirenne's posthumous book on Mohammed and Charlemange (1937) resulted in a more dynamic and economic interpretation of the Carolingian renaissance and in a vivid discussion about its end around the year one thousand. On the contrary the centuries between these two periods, i.e. the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries, although they witnessed the biggest demographic expansion since Neolithic times, the movement of the great clearances and the growth of big cities, have been neglected. The author argues for a renewed interest in the economic history of these centuries through a more integrated approach now that the quantitative approach has passed its zenith and interest in individual people is reviving, especially the common people and their behaviour and habits. Archeology, demography and anthropology can be used for this purpose in the context of a more integrated social history of the period, no longer dominated by historians of law and institutions.