Medieval Economics 2: If you can't modify Aristotle go ahead and fake him

So, more of a gap between this and last post than I wanted, but that's parenthood for you. In this post I'm going to plot out the rest of my base approach to medieval economics - involving the Oeconomica and Joel Kaye's look at Aristotelian scholasticism in addition to a brief discussion of Oresme's De Moneta. Later today (ideally) I'll put together a brief discussion of how I'm starting to look at marriage with an eye on economics.

As I discussed in my previous post, much of how medieval thinkers considered economics is based on Aristotle's work, predominantly from the Nichomachean Ethics. Moving forward, the large concern is how to determine just exchange and/or fair market value in exchange. As I previously mentioned, Aristotle suggests  both an arithmetical dynamic (where factors outside the value of the commodity do not affect the justness of exchange) and a geometrical one (where context and outside factors do matter). As Joel Kaye plots out in Economy and Nature in the Fourteenth Century, the thirteenth and fourteenth century scholastics took Aristotle's economic models and modified them. Aristotle's approach as lined out in the Ethics was often interpreted as merely finding the proper point of just price and then determining where an exchange falls in relation to that point, an arithmetical approach to exchange. This approach is of course limiting as it does not take into consideration the dynamics of the market or the respective positions of the buyer and seller in exchange. The same seller could offer two entirely different prices for a commodity at different times depending on the scarcity of the commodity; for Aristotle, this would be an unjust approach as the commodity should only have one value.

As Kaye indicates, medieval scholars such as Jean Buridan and Walter Brumley modified Aristotle's models, depicting fair market value less as a fixed point for a commodity and more like a range within which just price could be achieved. In this, the need of the buyer and seller are what fuel value. Each participant of exchange brings with them their own respective need/desire for that exchange, and that need drives how they perceive fair market value. Shortly after harvest, a seller of fruit may expect a moderately high price in exchange for his goods due to their freshness and quality. A few weeks later, however, that seller, noting the impending expiration of his produce, may be willing to sell that fruit at a lower price as his need to recoup some profit from it affects his selling position. Likewise, a well fed person has an entirely different estimation of value for a piece of fruit than one who is starving. While it may not seem significant at first glance, the acknowledgment that factors outside the quality of the commodity itself can affect fair market value demonstrate a marked shift on how medieval thinkers perceived economic exchange.  

Taking a step back then, it's important to also consider the historical context of how trade and mercantilism is received in late medieval England. There isn't a quick, easy answer to this question, but I find two books go a long way to helping: Roger Ladd's Antimercantilsm in Late Medieval English Literature and Diana Wood's Medieval Economic Thought. Bracing these two against one another nets the following: mercantilism was a source of great concern and distrust in late medieval England, primarily from the 12th century on, with a number of texts railing against he societal ills that could result in societal breakdown where cupidity overrides caritas; however, there is also a trend, notably from the thirteenth through early fifteenth centuries, of amelioration for trade and mercantilism, with other texts demonstrating beneficial exchange and even casting merchants as heroes. Wood, who takes the latter track, suggests that this stems from the greater role that mercantilism plays in the everyday life of urban London in addition to the growing political and social power from a mercantile class. In sum, it seems that trade and mercantilism had a tenuous reception in late medieval England, where it may both be a socially disruptive force and one that allows new individuals to participate in social avenues previously denied them. Some key texts to mention here are Wynnere and Wastoure  and Sir Amadace, both of which provide a mixed presentation of mercantilism. All of this brings me to the pseudo-Aristotelian Oeconomica and where my project has focused: marriage and economics. 

I put the above gif here (with the very problematic relationship it suggests) to demonstrate how, in some ways, medieval marriage was seen as its antithesis as can be demonstrated with the Oeconomica. The Oeconomica, or Le livre de Yconomique d‘Aristote in Oresme's translation of it, is a text mistakenly attributed to Aristotle that advises on the ideal method for establishing and running a household. This of course goes back to the Greek origins of the term economics: the oikos in Greek is the household, the Greek household operating as its own unit of taking in and producing commodities that could be traded for other goods. At its root, Economics is thus the study of the household. The Oeconomica thus has extensive suggestions for how to operate trade in the household for best sustainability. The text also, however, has a large section instructing how to best choose a wife to run one's household, lining out the virtues of an ideal wife along these lines. While this does treat the wife as something of a commodity that one needs to purchase for his business' success, as well as potential children with said wife as future investments, the text at large presents an interesting connection between economics and marriage.

As my project has proceeded, I've become more and more interested in this connection, especially as I've seen it lining up in Middle English texts. In my next post, I'll start talking about medieval marriage and how I've become oriented on this topic more specifically. 

True story: I keep waiting for the right time to drop this reference in a conference paper. Soon...

Medieval Economics: A little bit of Aristotle goes a long way

Before going much further, I should set up some of my methodology, both as an exercise for myself and to explain where I'm coming from with my research. A few years ago I had a nice chat with a friend, Kate, at Kzoo about my work. Interested in better understanding economic theory, she asked me who my go to economic theorists. My answer was...well...lacking.

It's not that I hadn't read economic theorists. I'd read Marx, Benjamin, and Jameson to name a few, but ultimately I wouldn't really call any of them my go to theorist or even really work with their approaches directly (although my methodology has certainly been impacted by them). As with all great responses to questions you can't effectively answer on the spot, I have a better answer now that I've had a couple of years to ruminate on it: my go to "theorists" are more akin to Aristotle, Oresme, and Jean Buridan; I'm less interested in modern economic theory than I am in the "economic" theories held and considered by medieval thinkers. In fact, I'm outright concerned with being anachronistic with economic concepts when discussing medieval texts; I do employ some modern economic terms to describe aspects of a text, but I try to temper them firmly with appropriately contextual concepts. It's much more important for me to understand how medieval thinkers conceived of economics and how that applies to literature than to shoe horn modern concepts into medieval packaging. To do the latter doesn't really help us understand the text in question better and only really uses economics as ornamentation rather than an evaluative tool.

So, trying to focus on medieval economic thought, I've looked primarily at Aristotelian Scholasticism, how Aristotle's discussion of economics was understood and applied. Well, at least what he was interpreted as saying about economics. 

I won't wax on poetically about Aristotle as I've already had a blog post about the Ethics, but I'll quickly recap a few things here. First, the Nichomachean Ethics is where most of what Aristotle has to say on economics is located, primarily under the sections on the Golden Mean and Justice. For the former, the Golden Mean's geometrical concept of the best approach is that which is "equidistant from scarcity and excess" was interpreted in diatribes against avarice, that both having too little and having too much could leave to sinful behavior. The geometrical aspect of this is interesting to me, but I'll get to that later. 

For the section on Justice, the issue at hand is determining what is and is not a just exchange, better enabling judges to rule properly on disputes. Here, the Ethics suggest that there is a nearly platonic determination of fair market value, that the price of a commodity at market is relatively fixed and one nearly has to parse out where the actual value lies and then can make a proper judgement. The assumption of fixed fair market value, of course, ignores aspects such as need for the commodity, supply/demand, and even labor and transport costs. This, of course, runs against the geometrical aspect of the Golden Mean, in which the Ethics emphasize that the balance point of the Golden Mean should vary depending on the needs of the individual, scarcity/excess of food looking very different for a runner than a wrestler. It's worthwhile to note that potential inconsistencies such as the incongruent relationship between arithmetical and geometrical concepts could be due to the nature of how the Ethics were put together, namely a collection of student notes from some of Aristotle's students. I'd really hate to try and reconstruct my research based on what my students have to say about it; it'd probably be some mix of "The Boondocks is hilarious," "DTFW," and "blah blah Medieval blah blah economic blah blah Chaucer."

Still with me? Okay, a few more points before we cut this post off and move to the next one.

The only other thing we really have from Aristotle on economic matters is a discussion on money as a medium of exchange rather than a measure (again, somewhat incongruous with other parts of the section on Justice, but see above). What's interesting here is that the only value currency functionally has is the value we attribute it, and that ultimately its purpose is to facilitate exchange between commodities and trade goods that are otherwise difficult to equate. If one is a fisherman, for example, exactly how many fish does it take to buy a chair? How many loaves of bread to a head of cattle? The introduction of currency helps alleviate this issue by giving the  buyer and seller in exchange a medium to measure their own goods against and then more easily purchase goods from others accordingly.

What's strange looking over these points is how little there seems to be on the matter of economics from Aristotle, especially when he is the go to source and foundation for so much of what constitutes discussion of trade and exchange in the middle ages. For the next post I'll talk more about how his influence moves forward and how that impacts my own method for looking at economics in medieval literature.

Back in the saddle

It's been quite a while since my last post on this blog, which in large part is due to two main factors. The first factor is that I accomplished this blog's initial purpose: I passed my candidacy exams. It was rough and the oral portion definitely nerve wracking, but the important part is I passed. I must place a large part of the credit for my passing on this blog, which kept me honest in my progress and provided a good place for me to hash out ideas and connections. I've generally found that I'm the type of learner that best succeeds in an environment of discussion, which is part of why I miss not being in coursework any more. Posting my ideas here was a good way to simulate some of this process.

Unfortunately, the past year has found my productivity not meeting its previous levels, in large part due to the other main event that's happened in my life: on June 20 of last year, my wife gave birth to our daughter. The time since then has been crazy and wonderful, but I've also been the primary stay at home caregiver due to a more flexible schedule. That has been fantastic, but it also means that my previous work methodology of holing away in a room for hours on end doesn't quite work (and admittedly said method also involved more time staring at a screen/facebook/reddit trying to motivate myself than it should've). I've been slowly improving and finding ways to squeeze time and productivity out of areas I hadn't been exploiting, but I need to do more to stay on track.

In light of the above, I'm coming back to this blog as a way to keep my work output consistent, my thoughts down somewhere that I can consult from anywhere, and once again take on the completely fabricated idea that if I'm not posting enough I'm shaming myself in front of a faceless and judgmental readership. The last in particular almost sounds like academia in general, sans the facelessness.

In this light, I'm going back to handling this blog in a similar fashion to when I was doing exams, albeit with a more reasonable schedule. By the time I was actually able to start reading for my exams I was already at the point where I had to cover an average of more than one text per day. With some Middle English poems this was no big deal, but when we're talking academic monographs the challenge was pretty intense. My goal going to forward is to average around 5 entries per week, which seems enough to both be feasible and make me feel great when I can surpass it. This will include both posts reflecting on what I'm reading and general comments about where aspects of my research are going. In some ways this will be a bit easier with monographs as I'm less under pressure to read them cover to cover and can focus on what's relevant to my interests (unlike reading for my exams because OMG WHAT IF THEY ASK ME ABOUT THAT THING IN ONE FOOTNOTE). Before launching into this, I should briefly describe where my project  is going now for better context of what's coming.

My thesis focused predominantly on sexual commodification and Aristotelian economics in Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Prologue and the Lady Mede section of The Vision of Piers the Plowman. Since then, my research interests have become more refined and (I think) less obvious. I'm still employing Aristotelian economics, following from Joel Kaye's Economy and Nature in the Fourteenth Century, and am very much interested in how economic language and metaphor applies to gender issues. But my project has focused more specifically on how economic metaphor plays out in discussions and depictions of marriage in Middle English poetry. My thesis project, while rather obvious in retrospect, was starting to touch on this trend, a tendency for Middle English poets to employ economic language and metaphor when touching on matters of marriage. Clearly this is at work with the Wife of Bath, who blatantly discusses taking her "Bele Chose" to market, and Lady Mede, who is the allegorical personification of money (or at least the exchange of reward, usually monetary, in exchange for goods or service), but this same trend is at play in Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, Capgrave's Life of St. Katherine, Hoccleve's Regiment of Princes, Sir Amadace, King Horn, and Gower's Confessio Amantis to name a few. 

The latter in particular was the focus of the paper I gave at the John Gower Society Congress last week, a great conference with fantastic scholars and wonderful collegiality. My paper was sadly scheduled against a very popular panel with very big names (or perhaps luckily due to my nervousness), but it seemed to be well received and I got some good comments and questions about the paper. In fact, it is this conference that has pushed me to restart this blog and get to work; interacting with many excellent scholars made me realize where my own work could be, and it's past time I saw that happen.

Meta Notes Part 5: "Project of the Text" for everything else

The Paston Letters: a primary document of letters from a gentry family, this text generally demonstrates the daily life and economic realities for such a family in late medieval England, specifically demonstrating the this role for women. 

Confessio Amantis: with a prologue and eight books, this text covers a heck of a lot. In sum, each book treats a different sin or topic, but each of these is filtered through the text's larger interest in love. As Gower's intended role is to be the satirist pointing his bow at the world, love seems to be the common denominator that allows him to cover all of this topics across society. (more could be said for each particular book as well).

"Traitie": this text is interested in married lovers, in that Gower promotes this state as the ideal rather than virginal marriage.

Mirour de L'Omme: opens with a focus on untrue lovers, but at large is interested in the genealogies of sins and virtues, producing a system of causation.

Visio Anglie: the disruption is primarily related to the socially transgressive acts of the peasantry, depicted as beasts, who stop acting as the peasantry is supposed to act causing chaos all around them. (read: Gower hates poor people).

The Book of Margery Kempe: material mysticism; Margery is interested in self-consciously promoting her own mysticism, but does so through a clear understanding of the material world utilizing much of her own experience in the process. 

The Vision of Piers Plowman: honestly, I feel this text intentionally defies any attempts to apply teleological readings to it. Each stage of the text tears down what has been constructed in the previous, almost suggesting the impossibility of obtaining a universal methodology for "do well, do bet, and do best." This could relate to a mystic/dream vision approach, where at each stage of understanding everything that has led to that point becomes valueless.

Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur: this text is generally all over the place, but as a whole I would argue that the text is about the attempt to ameliorate the martial and social roles of the knight, to temper the former with the Pentecostal Oath and later the Grail Quest, all while these attempts are foiled and challenged by the destabilization caused by war and the absence of Arthur and his court from Camelot. 

The Middle English Emare: many critics suggest this text is about passivity, but I would argue that it is about acting within the bounds of one's power to illicit change, which Emare does through her mastery of the domestic labor of silk working. 

The Middle English Sir Degare: this text focuses on matters of exogamy, with an unbeknownst Degare righting the socially disruptive and incestuous acts of his grandfather.   

The Middle English Sir Orfeo: this text deals with the moves from chaos to order, with chaos incited by Orfeo's wife being taken and order eventually restored through his music, often seen as a mathematical concept of order in medieval and classical writing. 

The Middle English Sir Launfal: as the Marie de France's lay of similar title, this text is even more interested in the proper roles of feudal responsibilities, outlining in some detail the manner in which Arthur fails to uphold this role with his knight. 

 

Meta Notes 4: "Project of the Text" from April posts

 Maistre Nicole Oresme: Le livre de Yconomique d‘Aristote: this text deals with the proper management of the household, but often does so through modern economic methods. Oresme's marginalia about the investment a wife represents is particularly interesting in this regard.

The Shewings of Julian of Norwich: this text deals with proximity and the mystic, shown in the sense of physical proximity and description provided by Julian. In this proximity comes Julian's mantra: "Synne is behovabil, but al shal be wel, and al shal be wel, and al manner of thyng shal be wele" (938-939).

Canterbury Tales Fragment I: the General Prologue and first few tales demonstrate Chaucer's project of dealing with a cross-section of society that fails to fit within the specific categories of the estates model. The Knight's Tale is a play on romance and the problems of courtly love, and the Millers and Reeve's tales are the first bit of quitying we recieve, with the Miller telling a ribald story involving a clerk and the Reeve one that has the Miller getting the best of him. 

Canterbury Tales Fragments II-V: these tales involve more quyting. The Man of Law's Tale is a lesson on proper faith and constancy, The Wife of Bath and Clerk's Tale are dialogues of the proper role of wives and authority, and the Friar and Summoner work hard to take pot shots at each other. 

Book of the Duchess: likely a commission piece for a recently deceased lady, this dream vision deals with the elusiveness of courtly love followed properly (this feels like a cop out, as there's probably something more poignant at work here). 

Parliament of Fowles: involving a larger discussion between the various hierarchies of birds, this text is concerned with the problems of both an estates model/greater chain of being paradigm and the (in)efficiency of parliamentary procedure, requiring a monarch to step in and make order from chaos.

House of Fame: this is Chaucer's text that seems most interested in writing itself, dealing with matters of renown and fickle nature of fame that acts irrelevant of talent or merit. 

Canterbury Tales Fragment VI: the Squire's tale is more interested in the marvelous than the narrative, the Franklin's and Physician's Tales are interested in female authority and purity in somewhat diametrically opposed perspectives, and the Pardoner's Tale focuses on the matters of corruption in the clergy, specifically surrounding spiritual commodification.

De moneta: while set as advice for monarch's proper maintenance of currency, Oresme is mostly concerned with the stability of currency, which is particularly poignant considering that the currency was changed or revalued over 80 times in France during Oresme's lifetime. 

Canterbury Tales Fragment VII: The Shipman's Tale is interested in the correlation between sex and economics, the Prioress with the couching of xenophobic approaches couched in religious arguments, Sir Thopas critiques shallow romances, Melibee is concerned with matters of wifely authority, the Monk with tragedy and exempla, and the Nun's Priest Tale with matters of pride and social hierarchy. 

The Pearl Poet: as a whole, the Pearl Poet seems to be concerned with the disparity between words and deeds, between spiritual understanding and worldly obsession, and between feudal obligation and loyalty. 

The Consolation of Philosophy: this text argues that Fortune is fickle and that one should depend upon the grace of God to better one's lot. Worldly goods and fame are transient and thus are poor sources of faith. 

The Nichomachean Ethics: The Golden Mean is pretty much applicable to everything; what is best is that which is equidistant between disparity and surplus. 

Meta Notes 3: "Project of the Text" for March posts

Capgrave's Life of St. Katherine: this text is largely interested in agency and identity in the story of the virigin martyr, in her attempts first to prevent being subsumed in a husband's identity and later to promote her new identity as a Christian. 

Regiment of Princes: this text deals with the rival forces of economic and spiritual need coupled with the loyalty to one's employer, specifically flavored by the changing state of Hoccleve's employment. The Boethian dialogue promotes the ameliorative aspects of poverty, but Hoccleve also lays out the economic realities of late medieval urban English life. 

"My Compleinte": this text is largely interested with the interior versus exterior psychology, summed up in the well known image of Hoccleve leaping in front of a mirror to try and catch his outer state.

"La Male Regle de T. Hoccleue": as with much of Hoccleve's texts, this poem deals with the psychology of regret for a sinful youth that is coupled with, and may have partially caused, a current economically and spiritually destitute state. 

The Legend of Good Women: generally, this text is more about the legend of bad men, focusing largely on the inability of several classical male figures to adhere to agreements, contracts, or just be outright loyal.

Ywain and Gawain: this text is mostly concerned with warring responsibilities, the contradictary obligations of domestic and feudal sources. This also ties into a common thread in Arthurian texts of the knight spending too much time at home becoming weakened, but too much time abroad leading to instability at home. 

Sir Perceval: this text emphasizes the necessity for young nobility to remain active in the world, specifically that his young knight not be denied his role in the Arthurian world. 

Troilus and Criseyde: this text is about the tension between public and private, both in relationships and information. If Troilus and Criseyde had been more public with their relationship things would likely have gone differently.

Alliterative Morte Arthure: this text is about the prominence of England over foreign powers, establishing the right of England as a nation separate from connections to Rome. It also deals with matters of primogeniture and, as with many Arthurian texts, the issues of a king waging foreign wars for domestic stability. 

Marie de France's "Equitan": this text is another anti-feminist text that constructs the seneschal's wife as a socially disruptive figure who ruins an otherwise virtuous king. 

Marie de France's "Le Fresne": also somewhat anti-feminist, this text provides dual examples of the bad woman, Le Fresne's mother, and the good one, Le Fresne herself, based on the criteria of proper submissiveness.

Marie de France's "Bisclavret": this text is about proper faithfulness, a fairy tale version of Samson and Delilah that ends with a wolf biting off the unfaithful wife's nose, a condition which then becomes genetic. 

Marie de France's "Lanval": this text is about the necessity to maintain feudal agreements. Much of the initial trouble is that Lanval feels slighted for Arthur failing to do so, and his mistake is breaking his own contract with his fairy sponsor. 

Meta Notes Part 2: "Project of the Text" for January posts

The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle: predominantly, this text is interested in the tension between public and private roles of the domestic sphere; if Gawain has this loathly lady by day he will have improved sexual access, but if he reverses it he will personally suffer while increasing his social standing.

Stanzaic Life of Margaret: this text is largely interested in the maintenance of purity in the face of temptation; Olibrus makes offers to Margaret in a series of logical negotiations, but Margaret remains firm.

Stanzaic Life of Katherine: this text is about the preeminence of Christian theology over pagan philosophy, emphasized by the lack of physical consequences Katherine suffers until the end. This could be a bit of push back against the rediscovery and use of classical philosophy by Christian theologians. 

"The Simonie": this text is convinced that, stemming from the practice of simony, the Church has itself become a commodified institution more concerned with its bottom line than the salvation of men's souls. 

"Above All Thing Thow Arte a Kyng": this text is concerned with the socially transgressive aspect of money, that it crosses social barriers and supersedes the proper goals of each estate.

"In Erth It Es a Litill Thing": through its allegorical figure of "Sir Penny," this text is about the social inconsistency of money, which can be used for the aims of whomever happens to currently have access to it. 

"London Lickpenny": this poem identifies that as sources of lay and clerical authority have become commodified they deny access and justice to the poor, creating a system that protects only the wealthy and ignores the existence of the poor.

Lydgate's Siege of Thebes: I'm not sure if I've yet wrapped my head around this one, but if I had to guess I would say that this text is about loyalty and the inevitable tragedy caused by breaking loyalty. Many agents attempt to end the conflict between these brothers peacefully, but at each stage peaceful solutions break down to lead to the eventual tragic ending.

Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle: this text is a bit tricky, but I'd have to say that overall the "project" here is focused on the necessity of properly following social etiquette, even with those that are technically lower in estate than you. 

The Dicts and Sayings of the Philosophers: these short texts are often interested most in using various famous figures as the mouthpieces of a spit fire of gnomic phrases. Some themes can be pieced together from these, however, such as in the Aristotle section where the philosopher's advice to a young Alexander promotes a society that is utterly interdependent upon each group in that society, suggesting not hierarchy but separate and necessary roles for each estate.