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Configurations des foires européennes. Marchands, objets, itinéraires (v. 1350 – v. 1600) – CoMOR
La crise financière de 2008 a contribué à stimuler les recherches en histoire économique et à raviver, a contrario du temps court de l’événement, l’étude des marchés dans la longue durée. Plus récemment, les coups portés aux instances de régulation du commerce mondial ont mis en difficulté les analyses de type institutionnel et suscité des interrogations sur le devenir même du marché globalisé.
Dans ce contexte de remises en question, le projet CoMOR a l’ambition de reprendre l’histoire des foires européennes sous l’angle de l’intégration des marchés. A la fin du Moyen Age, les foires formaient un système reposant sur des séquences chronologiques cohérentes (le "calendrier des foires") qui permettaient aux marchands de se rencontrer dans des lieux et à des dates connus à l’avance. Les foires réalisaient aussi l’interconnexion entre les marchés locaux (aussi bien ruraux qu’urbains) et régionaux et les circuits commerciaux transrégionaux. Au XVIe siècle, un découplage se produisit entre les foires de marchandises et les foires de change et le passage d’activités de crédit liées au commerce des biens à un pur marché de l’argent. Les bornes chronologiques du projet ont été choisies pour prendre en compte l’ensemble de ces transformations majeures, depuis l’effacement de l’ancien système des foires de Champagne, vers 1320, jusqu’au triomphe des foires de Besançon, vers 1630, qui succédaient elles-mêmes au cycle dominé par les foires de Lyon. Le projet étudiera les dimensions relationnelles (et leurs évolutions) de ces rendez-vous marchands, le rôle et les comportements des différents acteurs. Pour la première fois, les échanges seront cartographiés dans leurs dimensions spatiale et temporelle par l’association d’une base intégrant les données rassemblées (marchands présents sur les foires, objets commercés, itinéraires et temporalités) et d’un SIG. Ce versant numérique du projet, essentiel, s’appuiera sur l’équipe française en matière de Digital Humanities et sur l’équipe allemande en matière de Spatial Humanities. L’enquête sera centrée sur la France, l’Allemagne et l’Italie, aire sur laquelle travaille le noyau central du consortium, avec, on l’espère des extensions en fin de projet en direction de d'autres aires économiques et culturelles.
L’équipe franco-allemande constituée dispose d’atouts spécifiques. D'abord, la complémentarité chronologique entre médiévistes français et modernistes allemands. Ensuite, l’étroite collaboration sur les principaux terrains de l’enquête — l’Allemagne du sud et Lyon —, les deux équipes comptant par ailleurs des spécialistes de l’Italie du nord. Enfin, si chacune des équipes est héritière d’habitus académiques — en France, la tradition forte de l’histoire sociale et de la sociologie de l’économie, en Allemagne, l’histoire du commerce, "Handelsgeschichte" — l’ambition commune est de contribuer à une histoire économique européenne fondée sur l’étude de l’effet intégrateur des foires dans la longue durée.
Configurations of European Fairs. Merchants, Objects, Routes (1350-1600) – CoMOR
The financial crisis of 2008 contributed to re-invigorating research in economic and financial history and revive, despite the relatively brief nature of the crisis, studies of markets over long periods. More recently, attacks against structures which have governed modern international commerce have thrown institutional studies into doubt and provoked questions about the very future of globalized markets.
It is within this context of questions and doubts that the CoMOR project takes up the history of European fairs from the perspective of “market integrations”. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, fairs formed a system resting on a tightly organised schedule (“calendar of fairs”) which permitted merchants to meet in specific places on specific dates, known well in advance. At the same time, these fairs facilitated the interconnection between local and regional markets (rural as much as urban) and the transregional commercial networks. During the sixteenth century, a decoupling occured between merchandise and financial fairs linked to the shift from financing products to pure money markets. The chronological boundaries of the project have as such been chosen in order to best account for these major transformations: from the decline of the old fair systems at Champagne, around 1320, through a cycle dominated by the fairs at Lyon, to the triumph of the fairs at Besançon around 1630. The CoMOR project is particularly attached to studying the relational aspects (and their changes) of these merchant gatherings, the roles and the behaviours of the participants. For the first time, these exchanges will be mapped in their spatial and temporal dimensions through an integrated database and GIS tracing the merchants through their fairs, items, itineraries, and rhythms. This fundamental digital axis of the project will be brought to life by the French team with respect to Digital Humanities and the German team for Spatial Humanities. The investigation centers on France, Germany, and Italy, the specialties of the core consortium researchers, with, we hope and expect, expansions towards other economic and cultural regions near the end of the project.
The Franco-German team in charge of CoMOR brings a number of specific advantages to the project. Most importantly, a complementary specialisation in different eras: French medievalists and early modernist Germans. This is followed by the shared closed focus on the project's main terrain, Southern Germany to Lyon, with both teams also counting among their members specialists in Northern Italy. Finally, while each team brings with it certain academic dispositions – in France, the strong emphasis on social history and sociology of economy, in Germany, a tradition of Handelsgeschichte, the history of finance and exchange – they share an ambition to contribute to the history of the European economy, rooted in the study of the integrating effects of fairs on economic and social patterns over the "longue durée".
Configurations of European Fairs. Merchants, Objects, Routes (1350-1600) – CoMOR
The financial crisis of 2008 contributed to re-invigorating research in economic and financial history and revive, despite the relatively brief nature of the crisis, studies of markets over long periods. More recently, attacks against structures which have governed modern international commerce have thrown institutional studies into doubt and provoked questions about the very future of globalized markets.
It is within this context of questions and doubts that the CoMOR project takes up the history of European fairs from the perspective of “market integrations”. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, fairs formed a system resting on a tightly organised schedule (“calendar of fairs”) which permitted merchants to meet in specific places on specific dates, known well in advance. At the same time, these fairs facilitated the interconnection between local and regional markets (rural as much as urban) and the transregional commercial networks. During the sixteenth century, a decoupling occured between merchandise and financial fairs linked to the shift from financing products to pure money markets. The chronological boundaries of the project have as such been chosen in order to best account for these major transformations: from the decline of the old fair systems at Champagne, around 1320, through a cycle dominated by the fairs at Lyon, to the triumph of the fairs at Besançon around 1630. The CoMOR project is particularly attached to studying the relational aspects (and their changes) of these merchant gatherings, the roles and the behaviours of the participants. For the first time, these exchanges will be mapped in their spatial and temporal dimensions through an integrated database and GIS tracing the merchants through their fairs, items, itineraries, and rhythms. This fundamental digital axis of the project will be brought to life by the French team with respect to Digital Humanities and the German team for Spatial Humanities. The investigation centers on France, Germany, and Italy, the specialties of the core consortium researchers, with, we hope and expect, expansions towards other economic and cultural regions near the end of the project.
The Franco-German team in charge of CoMOR brings a number of specific advantages to the project. Most importantly, a complementary specialisation in different eras: French medievalists and early modernist Germans. This is followed by the shared closed focus on the project's main terrain, Southern Germany to Lyon, with both teams also counting among their members specialists in Northern Italy. Finally, while each team brings with it certain academic dispositions – in France, the strong emphasis on social history and sociology of economy, in Germany, a tradition of Handelsgeschichte, the history of finance and exchange – they share an ambition to contribute to the history of the European economy, rooted in the study of the integrating effects of fairs on economic and social patterns over the "longue durée".
Configurations of European Fairs. Merchants, Objects, Routes (1350-1600) – CoMOR
The financial crisis of 2008 contributed to re-invigorating research in economic and financial history and revive, despite the relatively brief nature of the crisis, studies of markets over long periods. More recently, attacks against structures which have governed modern international commerce have thrown institutional studies into doubt and provoked questions about the very future of globalized markets.
It is within this context of questions and doubts that the CoMOR project takes up the history of European fairs from the perspective of “market integrations”. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, fairs formed a system resting on a tightly organised schedule (“calendar of fairs”) which permitted merchants to meet in specific places on specific dates, known well in advance. At the same time, these fairs facilitated the interconnection between local and regional markets (rural as much as urban) and the transregional commercial networks. During the sixteenth century, a decoupling occured between merchandise and financial fairs linked to the shift from financing products to pure money markets. The chronological boundaries of the project have as such been chosen in order to best account for these major transformations: from the decline of the old fair systems at Champagne, around 1320, through a cycle dominated by the fairs at Lyon, to the triumph of the fairs at Besançon around 1630. The CoMOR project is particularly attached to studying the relational aspects (and their changes) of these merchant gatherings, the roles and the behaviours of the participants. For the first time, these exchanges will be mapped in their spatial and temporal dimensions through an integrated database and GIS tracing the merchants through their fairs, items, itineraries, and rhythms. This fundamental digital axis of the project will be brought to life by the French team with respect to Digital Humanities and the German team for Spatial Humanities. The investigation centers on France, Germany, and Italy, the specialties of the core consortium researchers, with, we hope and expect, expansions towards other economic and cultural regions near the end of the project.
The Franco-German team in charge of CoMOR brings a number of specific advantages to the project. Most importantly, a complementary specialisation in different eras: French medievalists and early modernist Germans. This is followed by the shared closed focus on the project's main terrain, Southern Germany to Lyon, with both teams also counting among their members specialists in Northern Italy. Finally, while each team brings with it certain academic dispositions – in France, the strong emphasis on social history and sociology of economy, in Germany, a tradition of Handelsgeschichte, the history of finance and exchange – they share an ambition to contribute to the history of the European economy, rooted in the study of the integrating effects of fairs on economic and social patterns over the "longue durée".
