The Low Countries' Export Trade in Textiles with the Mediterranean Basin, 1200–1600: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Comparative Advantages in Overland and Maritime Trade Routes

Though there is a consensus that transport plays a central role in economic development, for the period before the eighteenth century there is a lack of strategic information for assessing the importance of road transport productivity changes in economic development. Transport prices in particular are crucial missing pieces of the puzzle. Sources rarely reveal information that meets the standards of reliable price history. However, it is possible to create a reliable transport price series on the basis of the transport of millstones to ducal mills in Brabant. Assessing the impact of the ‘transport productivity changes’ that can be inferred from this transport price series is a hazardous exercise. Moreover, as Masschaele has observed, land transport prices closely match general agricultural price trends. Land transport was essentially an agricultural service, determined both by cost (especially horse provender) and income effects. Transport price inflation was not demand‐led. However, while transport did not impede urbanization and economic growth, conversely, in sixteenth‐century Brabant—a highly urbanized region that experienced considerable growth in the volume of land transport—no significant land transport productivity gains were achieved.

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“…Brulez, De firma Della Faille ; Munro, ‘“New Institutional Economics”’; idem, ‘Low Countries’ export trade’; van der Wee, Growth , ch. 2, p. 328.…”

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confidence: 99%

Road transport productivity in the sixteenth‐century Low Countries: the case of Brabant, 1450–1650†

Ballaux

Blondé

2017

The Economic History Review

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“…Other historical sources, besides the ones already mentioned, that I have consulted include Bourquelot (1865), Bautier (1970), Gelderblom (2005), Munro (1999Munro ( , 2003, Volckart and Mangels (1999), Reyerson (1999), Keene and Rumble (1985), Halphen (1964) and Dobson (2000). I refer to these in the relevant portions of my model.…”

Section: In Relation To the Literaturementioning

confidence: 97%

“…However, had the Champagne fairs really been so vulnerable to collusion, they would have broken down extremely quickly. Instead, they survived for several centuries -at least from the beginning of the 12th century (Face, 1958) till well into the 14th, when they eventually declined, in part due to exogenous increases in transport costs (Munro, 1999). I therefore focus on developing a model of the Champagne fairs with a collusion-proof equilibrium.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who will monitor the monitors? Informal law enforcement and collusion at Champagne

Guha

2012

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

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Informal monitors can sometimes substitute for formal law enforcement. Monitors hired to minimize cheating, however, are themselves vulnerable to collusion and extortion. I focus on one such informal monitor -the fair authorities at the trade fairs at Champagne -asking why the fairs survived for centuries instead of instantly crumbling in the face of the authorities' overwhelming incentives to collude. Milgrom, North and Weingast's (1990) seminal model of the Champagne fairs is not equipped to deal with collusion, though it does deal with extortion. Ishow that there is a collusion-proof equilibrium in an alternative model with a competing fair and merchant guilds/self-governed merchant communities and show how these institutions interact with the Champagne fair authorities' incentives. This is invulnerable to collusion, extortion and "reverse extortion" (unscrupulous clients threatening to smear a monitor's reputation unless bribed). I highlight the crucial roles of competition among monitors, the existence of a collective body to organize coordinated punishment of monitors caught colluding, and network effects among the monitor's customers that exacerbate any punishment.

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“…1–47; Munro, ‘Industrial crisis’, pp. 103–41; Munro, ‘Low Countries’ export trade’, pp. 1–30; North and Thomas, Rise of the western world pp.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…119–83; Munro, ‘Changing fortunes of fairs’, pp. 1–47; Munro, ‘Low Countries’ export trade’, pp. 1–30; Mertens, ‘Mechelen cloth’, pp.…”

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confidence: 99%

Spanish merino wools and the nouvelles draperies: an industrial transformation in the late medieval Low Countries¹

Munro

2005

The Economic History Review

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From the seventeenth century, the world's finest wools have been those produced by descendants of the Spanish merino. During the middle ages, however, England produced Europe's finest wools. Not until the fourteenth century does a distinct merino breed appear in Spain; and, before then, 'Spanish' wools were amongst the very worst in Europe, used in the production of only the very cheapest fabrics. By the late fourteenth century, some merino wools were being used in some Italian draperies; but, in the north, long‐held historic prejudices against 'Spanish' wools hindered their introduction, especially into the Low Countries' draperies, which, because of structural changes in international trade, had become re‐oriented to manufacturing luxury woollens, most woven from the finest English wools. From the 1420s, however, disastrous changes in England's fiscal policies so increased the cost of these exported wools that many of the younger Flemish draperies, the so‐called nouvelles draperies, producing imitations of the finer woollens from the older established draperies, decided to switch to Spanish merino wools (often mixed with English wools). By the mid‐fifteenth century, the merinos had indeed improved enough in quality to rival at least the mid‐range English wools. Most of the traditional draperies, however, did not adopt merino wools until much too late, and thus, by the early sixteenth century found themselves displaced by the nouvelle draperies as the leading cloth manufacturers in the Low Countries.

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The Low Countries' Export Trade in Textiles with the Mediterranean Basin, 1200–1600: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Comparative Advantages in Overland and Maritime Trade Routes

Cited by 24 publications

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Road transport productivity in the sixteenth‐century Low Countries: the case of Brabant, 1450–1650†

Road transport productivity in the sixteenth‐century Low Countries: the case of Brabant, 1450–1650†

Who will monitor the monitors? Informal law enforcement and collusion at Champagne

Spanish merino wools and the nouvelles draperies: an industrial transformation in the late medieval Low Countries¹

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The Low Countries' Export Trade in Textiles with the Mediterranean Basin, 1200–1600: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Comparative Advantages in Overland and Maritime Trade Routes

Cited by 24 publications

References 3 publications

Road transport productivity in the sixteenth‐century Low Countries: the case of Brabant, 1450–1650†

Road transport productivity in the sixteenth‐century Low Countries: the case of Brabant, 1450–1650†

Who will monitor the monitors? Informal law enforcement and collusion at Champagne

Spanish merino wools and the nouvelles draperies: an industrial transformation in the late medieval Low Countries1

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Spanish merino wools and the nouvelles draperies: an industrial transformation in the late medieval Low Countries¹