Business Ethics from Antiquity to the 19th Century by David George Surdam

Author:David George Surdam
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030371654
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Overview

Historian Henri Pirenne suggests that there was little trade and few merchants , in Europe with the decline of the Roman Empire. Ports in southern Europe continued to interact with “oriental” merchants, dealing in luxury goods but also, in the case of Marseilles, goods for general consumption. Gaul and Marseilles were major ports during the Merovingian years; Paris had some professional merchants operating in markets or bazaars in 585. Because of the decline in trade from the apogee of Rome’s power, trade became more localized. The great demesnes disposed of their excess produce in the towns and cities (Pirenne [1925] 1974, 20–22, 45).

Traders and merchants in Europe regained importance after the decline of the Roman Empire. Many medieval lords remained contemptuous of trade in the eighth and ninth centuries. The lords were more interested in acquiring land and harvesting produce; they scorned traders and merchants but not the products put on sale. The medieval lords were not keen on economic growth that might have proved disruptive; instead they sought security and stability. The European commercial revolution that transpired after the tenth century resulted from an unanticipated chain of events in some Italian towns.

The Church owned much land throughout Europe. The clergy involved in overseeing these landholdings often became proficient “in collecting real and movable estates as in attracting devoted souls.” They were less willing to engage in commerce. The clergy, too, hesitated to get involved with buying and selling. Society was bifurcated between the clergy and nobility versus the laborers. Merchants fell in between, as most clergy believed it was easier for paupers to enter Heaven than merchants; in fact, wealthy merchants needed paupers as objects of almsgiving to gain Heavenly favor, a weird symbiotic relationship, indeed. People emphasized consumption not production and indulged in largesse. How the small middle group of traders, artisans, and merchants succeeded, if inadvertently, required, “exceptional men in exceptional circumstances to break the spell and make commerce the most rapidly expanding, if not the largest frontier of the medieval West.”

The animus toward commerce and trade held by Christian nobility sometimes took bizarre turns. Emperor Theophilus, ruler of Constantinople in 829, found out that “a beautiful merchant ship entering the port” belonged to his wife. He became angry and criticized her: “God made me an emperor, you would make me a ship captain!” He then commanded that ship and cargo be destroyed. Robert Lopez thought the emperor recalled the Roman law forbidding nobles to own ships for the purpose of commerce; the Byzantine code inherited such an attitude. The Byzantine code provided a rationale: “so that the plebians and merchants may more easily transact their affairs.” Rather than view Theophilus’ action as ridiculous, subsequent Byzantine historians lauded him (Lopez 1971, 56–60, 65–66).

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