Journal of Political Economy Vol. 23 No. 4 1915
The Technique of Mediaeval and Modern Produce Markets
Abstract
Mediaeval ordinances prohibited speculative transactions and were particularly severe against resale without displacement of the goods. It was supposed that gains made by conveying goods from one place to another were legitimate and that gains entirely attributable to changes in value were not. The function of the middleman was supposed to consist entirely in the movement of commodities from one place to another. According to the letter of the law, speculation was illegal, but the prohibitions could not be enforced and the arbitrage transactions between different places were not free from speculation as was supposed. Under the prevailing conditions of trade, changes in value in a period of time could not be separated from the differences in value in different markets. The purchase and sale in the distant markets were not simultaneous. Purchase in the low markets of a producing region preceded by a considerable period the eventual sale in the consuming center. The interval of time that must needs elapse introduced a definitely speculative element into a transaction that was officially tolerated because it was supposed to be free from the taint of speculative gain. There were some communities where life was so distinctly self-centered that trade with distant markets was relatively unimportant, but such extreme localism was not characteristic of the late mediaeval period. For the most part, trading relations were elaborately developed. The changes in the technique of market organization in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have made it possible to distinguish sharply between the truly speculative time transactions and the essentially non-speculative transactions between different places. The accomplishment of this result turns upon the full recognition of the essential interdependence of the markets that constitute a market system, and upon the development of contracts
- DOI
- 10.1086/252637
- Volume
- 23
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 365-388
- Language
- en
- Sources
- semanticscholar openalex crossref