Woven into the Urban Fabric. Cloth Manufacture and Economic Development in the Flemish West-Quarter (1300-1600)

Jim van der Meulen

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Pages: 251 p. NEW. Hardback. Illustrations:15 b/w, 13 tables b/w., 1 maps b/w. Language(s):English. Brepols, Publication Year:2022 - SUMMARY This regional study focuses on the socio-economic development of the so-called West-Quarter of the county of Flanders during the period 1300-1600. Through the expansion of potent textile industries in the countryside from the fourteenth century onwards, this region gradually attained distinctly urban characteristics in terms of production scale, specialisation, product quality, and the aim for external markets. By the middle of the sixteenth century the West-Quarter had even become one of Flanders s main production regions of woolen cloth. This book assesses how and why this economic expansion took place, why it happened at that particular moment, and why in this region. The broader aims of the research are twofold: first, to offer a contribution to the debate on Europe s transition from a feudal to a capitalist or market economy by looking at the influence of specific social structures and institutional frameworks on the economic development of pre-industrial societies. Secondly, this book contributes to the debate about the divide between town and countryside in pre-industrial Europe, combining the outlooks and methods of both urban and rural historians in order to qualify this supposed dichotomy. 1265 SUMMARY Erasmus Schetz, Gaspar Ducci, and Gilbert van Schoonbeke. Contemporaries made it indisputably clear that these three moneymakers were exceptional, from different perspectives and for different reasons, but all commentators implicitly or explicitly referred to their unique economic achievements, and they were right to do so. The exceptional careers of the three protagonists shed light on the potential of the most dynamic economic centre of Europe and the world during early globalization. Precisely because their economic initiatives were far more ambitious than what other businessmen in Antwerp could or would consider or achieve, their careers are ideal vantage points for observing and analysing capital at work . They also provide an opportunity to examine how commercial capitalism changed and/or was transformed, and in what measure the three protagonists extended the frontiers of capitalism. TABLE OF CONTENTS Part 1 Erasmus Schetz, ca. 1480-1550 1.1 How to Trade with Portugal 1.2 The Calamine Monopoly and Brass Production 1.3 Pepper and Sugar 1.4 Diversification and Focus 1.5 Finance as Investment and Speculation 1.6 Wealth and Prestige Part 2 Gaspar Ducci, 1495-1577 2.1 Creative Banking 2.2 New Commercial Taxes and War-Time Monopolies 2.3 The Alum Monopoly 2.4 Networks and Financial Deals 2.5 Among Such Wolves 2.6 The Fall Part 3 Gilbert van Schoonbeke, 1519-1556 3.1 How to Dominate the Real Estate Market 3.2 Creating a Port and a New District 3.3 Monopolizing the Greatest Public Works 3.4 The Beer Production Monopoly 3.5 An Anti-Monopoly Revolt 3.6 Supplying the Army. Seller Inventory # 01264

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Title: Woven into the Urban Fabric. Cloth ...

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