This article is centred on baratto, or market exchange, which consisted in making payments in kind even in the context of a monetised economy. Documentary evidence shows how frequently this type of commercial transaction was adopted in late-medieval long-distance trade, and which strategies led to its adoption. Far from being a feature of a ‘primitive’ economy, baratto in international trade implied a network of information, a knowledge of the demand and an ability to connect marketplaces, that only few possessed. Examples are taken mainly from account-books and correspondence of Italian (Florentine) merchants, who we able both to assess the monetary value of each merchandise and to know the market where it would be more profitable to sell it for cash or, again, through baratto.
University of Florence, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-8389-0613
Titolo del capitolo
‘Wherever they consider it more profitable, for cash, baratto or credit’. Florentine merchants and the export of silk cloth (15th-16th centuries)
Autori
Francesco Guidi Bruscoli
Lingua
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0347-0.14
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