This article examines the use of wool as an alternative currency in Dubrovnik in the first half of the 15th century. The actors of this practice were Catalan merchants who advanced wool to local weavers. In return, the weavers had to refund the credit by transforming the wool into fabrics. The quantity of fabrics returned was always greater than the quantity that could be produced from the wool received. This use of wool as an alternative currency corresponded to the mining prosperity in the Balkans. Silver, a precious metal, was exported by the Catalans, rather than being used to finance local wool production, which therefore had to resort to a local financing circuit, where wool, in the absence of silver currency, served as an alternative currency.
University of the French West Indies and Guiana, France
Titolo del capitolo
An apparent paradox: wool as an alternative currency for merchants and weavers in Dubrovnik (Ragusa) in the 15th century
Autori
Nenad Fejic
Lingua
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0347-0.20
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2024
Copyright
© 2024 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Titolo del libro
Mezzi di scambio non monetari. Merci e servizi come monete alternative nelle economie dei secoli XIII-XVIII / Alternative currencies. Commodities and services as exchange currencies in the monetarized economies of the 13th to 18th centuries
Curatori
Angela Orlandi
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
592
Anno di pubblicazione
2024
Copyright
© 2024 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0347-0
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0346-3
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0347-0
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0348-7
Collana
Datini Studies in Economic History
ISSN della collana
2975-1241
e-ISSN della collana
2975-1195