Introduction to Medieval Europe 300-1500 by Blockmans Wim; Hoppenbrouwers Peter;

Author:Blockmans, Wim; Hoppenbrouwers, Peter;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

A negative balance of payments

The fact that the Italians controlled the contacts with the Levant meant that they were the sole distributors of Mediterranean and eastern products throughout the rest of Europe. South Germans collected the products themselves directly from Venice or Milan. Italians took them to the fairs in Champagne, and from the last quarter of the thirteenth century shipped them to Bruges, where the spice trade was one of the most important activities, just as it was in the fairs of Antwerp. What could they offer their trading partners in the East in exchange? For many centuries far less than they bought, and this led to a continuous outflow of precious metals. In 1983 Eliyahu Ashtor calculated that the balance of payments between the Levant and the West showed a deficit of 56 per cent in the fifteenth century. Expressed in pure gold, this was an annual outflow of 1,317 kilos. The West imported goods from the East to a total value of 630,000 ducats, and could barely sell 260,000 ducats worth of their own products, mostly woollen goods, linen, weapons and wood. The difference (370,000 ducats) had to be made up in liquid assets.

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