Nicolaus Oresme, the De Moneta

Johnson, Charles, trans. The De Moneta of Nicolaus Oresme and The English Mint Documents. Auburn, Alabama: The Ludwig Von Mises Institute, 2009. Print.

Generally speaking, Oresme’s short treatise is concerned with the printing and maintenance of coin currency (De Moneta translates to The Mint after all). Oresme spends a great deal of time ranting about the practice of Seigniorage, or at least the misuse of that practice. As Woods discussed, Seigniorage could be used by governments to generate revenue by forcing subjects to exchange their current currency for new that has a lower percentage of precious metal. Oresme argues that this is particularly unjust in that it disgraces the memories of the monarch’s forebears, by replacing their visages on the coinage, leads to greed by generating wealth at the cost of the citizenry, and that this practice ultimately leads the monarch to act as a tyrant. For Oresme, the misuse of seigniorage is more vile than usury, as it does not simply ask for more than what was borrowed but actually returns less wealth to the citizenry in question. This issue was likely of particular interest to Oresme due to the continual misuse of seigniorage by French monarchs in the 13^th and 14^th centuries.

·         Oresme indicates that currency, in the end, should belong to the common people as it is intended for their use to facilitate exchange. As the ultimate representation of the people, the governmental leader of a country should thus be in charge of minting and maintaining currency.

o   There are certain instances in which Oresme believes that seigniorage is necessary, such as replacing worn currency or combating against counterfeiting, but Oresme sees all too often this practice is used to either generate profit or to feed the pride of a governing figure.

o   Oresme acknowledges that the monarchy/government should be able to recoup costs incurred through minting, but goes through a large logical exercise to in the end argue that this cost should be separate from the actual act of seigniorage as the temptation to turn that practice to injustice is to great.

·         Oresme also has a lot to say about foreign powers minting counterfeit, and containing less precious metal, coinage that in the end lowers the value of the domestic currency. While this is in itself a vile act, Oresme sees the misuse of seigniorage by monarchs as equally bad as this crime is committed against one’s own subjects. 

Barbara Hanawalt, The Wealth of Wives: Women, Law, and Economy in Late Medieval London.

Hanawalt, Barbara. The Wealth of Wives: Women, Law, and Economy in Late Medieval London. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Hanawalt's book is an intriguing study of wives in late medieval London. Hanawalt's approach in this book digresses from other studies on the economic contributions of women which focus on women as laborers and tradeswomen. Instead, Hanawalt argues that the larger economic contributions by women come in their roles as wives and widows, allowing for the horizontal circulation and concentration of wealth. Hanawalt focuses this study in London due to its unique patrilineal conditions. Specifically, the legal conditions of late medieval London ensured the inheritance of wealth to wives and female children to ensure dowry in future marriages. Hanawalt suggests that this comes in part out of concern that, after a husband dies, his inheritance may not properly pass to his children, especially his daughters who need stable dowries to make stable marriage matches. Thus, Hanawalt argues that the legal conditions of late medieval London allows wealth to remain liquid and provides the capital and circulation of wealth that greatly enables the economic growth of London in this period. 

Hanawalt's book already features in my thesis and will likely feature largely in my dissertation, if for slightly different reasons. One aspect that stood out to me on this read through was the necessity of both dower and dowry in London marriages, that it was as important for the husband to bring a presumably equal financial asset to the marriage as the wife. These assets may differ significantly in type, taking the form of real estate instead of liquid assets, but this adds an interesting component to the economic aspects of late medieval English marriage, which I hope to explore in more detail in my dissertation. 

Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales Fragments V and VI

The Squire's Tale:

After the Host requests a tale of love, the Squire launches into what seems to be the beginnings of an extended romance. The tale is unfinished after only two parts, without the clear conflict being introduced, and is quite short. What is present, however, is the marvelous gifts that the knight from Arabia brings to Cambuscan's court, namely a brass horse that can travel at miraculous speeds and fly, a mirror that can reveal who is one's friends and foes, and a ring that allows one to communicate with birds. While the second part spends time with Cambuscan's daughter and the ring, the real focus and attention seems to be on the horse. This mechanical wonder is also the focus of scholarly readings of orientalism in The Canterbury Tales. regardless, Chaucer seems to have intended to finish the tale as the next opens with a compliment of the Squire's tale telling abilities.

The Franklin's Tale:

The Franklin's Tale opens with a brief discussion of mastery in a manner that suggests it will counter The Wife of Bath's Tale. The tale itself involves a knight who promises his wife mastery and his wife, Dorigen, promises to stay true to him. While the knight is away for an extended time, however, she has great sorrow over his absence. During a party intended to raise her spirits, Dorigen is wooed by a squire who is madly in love with her. Upset about the rocks surrounding their shore that could prevent her husband's safe return, Dorigen makes a somewhat rash promise that if the squire can remove all the rocks on every shore around England, she will love him best. Shortly thereafter, her husband returns, and all seems well. In the meantime, however, the squire has made contact with a scholar knowledgeable in astrology who can make the rocks appear to disappear. The squire returns to collect on Dorigen's promise and, distraught, Dorigen presents the dilemma to her husband. The knight decides he'd rather live in misery than have her betray her word, but the squire, seeing their sorrow, releases Dorigen from her promise. This is often tied to the rash boon folk tradition, despite the seeming impossibility of the promise she offered. 

The Physician's Tale: 

The Physician's Tale runs very much like a virgin martyr tale. Virginius' daughter is spotted by a Roman nobleman who desires her and hatches a plot to obtain her despite her will. This nobleman, Appius, uses bribes to accuse Virginius of stealing his slave, who he says is Virginius' own daughter. Seeing no other way out of the situation, Virginius tells his daughter that he must kill her in order to preserve her chastity. He beheads her, presents the head to the Roman court, and the people rise up to defend the knight and his just cause. So everything ends happily. Except for the little detail of Virginius' daughter. 

The Pardoner's Tale:

Another heavily anthologized text, The Pardoner's Tale has received a substantial amount of critical attention. I've got to say, rereading this text I have the strong desire to play a character based around the Pardoner. His blatant corruption and utter self interest are strangely compelling. 

After an introduction that establishes the Pardoner's complete interest in his own financial gain, the tale itself involves a trio of drunken patrons who decide that they should set out to kill the cause of so much death around town, Death himself. They travel in search of their target and meet up with an old man. Hearing their goal, the old man tells them they can find death at the base of a tree, which is filled with gold. Of course avarice takes over and leads to a triple homicide, each member of the trio killing the others to gain a larger share of the gold for themselves. It is interesting that the Pardoner tells a tale damning the very sin he is most guilty of, or perhaps, considering the Pardoner, not all that surprising at all. 

D. Vance Smith, "Merchants in the Margin."

Vance Smith, D. "Merchants in the Margin: Writing and the National Domestic of Piers Plowman." Arts of Possession: The Middle English Household Imaginary (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003).

Vance Smith's chapter considers the role of economic "imaginary" and merchants in The Vision of Piers the Plowman. Vance Smith argues that the apology added to Passus V represents a larger concern of economics, money, and merchants in the text. Specifically, Vance Smith argues that the role of economic surplus, that which is not needed to sustain the household, creates anxiety over the management of profit. Thus, the debate between Lady Mede and Conscience is also a discussion of how to manage surplus and, despite Mede's statement that the exchange of mede is not trade, merchants. Rather than a solely negative approach, however, Vance Smith suggests that the text is at times supportive of merchants and that, in the long run, the economy of salvation is one that provides merchants a methodology to manage surplus. Rather than suggesting that this is a neatly tied up issue in the text, however, Vance Smith reads the plowing of the half acre and tearing of the pardon as attempts to ameliorate the merchant that ultimately fail. Arguing that the half acre ultimately represents mercantile interests by pulling in Aristotelian perceptions of the oikos, Vance Smith comes to argue that exchange, as with many other near "solutions" in Piers Plowman, ultimately fails and places the reader back at square one. 

While I find Vance Smith's reading of economic thought and history intriguing and very useful, this chapter ultimately balances on whether or not one is willing to consider a positive role of merchants in Piers Plowman. Vance Smith's arguments in that regard are interesting and very much worth considering, but I do not find myself ultimately convinced. Despite my hesitation, however, Vance Smith's scholarship is very elucidating. Edward III's relationship with merchants, for example, is an intriguing section that adds complexity to my other readings on mercantile history. Furthermore, Vance Smith certainly demonstrates his excellent handle on Aristotelian economic thought and how it interacts with the economic history of the fourteenth century. I may not be persuaded by the main thesis, but the data presented throughout this chapter is nonetheless valuable. 

Geoffrey Chaucer, House of Fame

House of Fame:

House of Fame seems to be the Chaucerian text that is most interested in writing and the role of narrative. The poem opens as another dream vision, the narrator first awaking in a temple of glass. On this temple is, roughly, the Aeneid which the narrator recounts. After this long recounting, the narrator is taken in a large eagle's claws, sent from Jupiter, to reward the narrator for his poetic labor for Cupid and Venus. After wondering at the experience of flying and passing on an astrology lesson, the narrator is dropped off in the House of Fame, where all sound, and thus all poetry and song, eventually arrives. The narrator witness Fame herself having court, and is finally taken to a new house by the eagle, where truth and lies leave by window and are intertwined, and the unfinished text ends with the entrance of a new undefined figure. Primarily my interests in this text lie with the digression about Dido and other classical women, the role of Fame as a Fortuna like figure, and the physicality of sounds/words/poetry. 

In the initial dream vision, the narrator recounts Virgil's Aeneid, but digresses to expand for a few hundred lines on Dido, which itself transitions into a discussion of untrue men. On one hand this is part of a text that is heavily embedded in the classical tradition, perhaps as much or more than many other of Chaucer's texts. Yet, in a section that very quickly runs through the events of Virgil's lengthy text, this is a substantial amount of attention to pay to Dido, especially in lamenting her poor treatment. As with the Legend of Goode Women and The Canterbury Tales, this is another text that demonstrates Chaucer's larger interest in women, and in many cases defends their plights.

Once in the House of Fame, the lady of the house is a somewhat frightening figure, who easily grants either fame or banishment/death to her petitioners without any consistency. Some who have toiled justly are dismissed, and others who have produced no labor are granted great amounts of fame. Fame, then, functions like the Fortuna in Boethius, a flippant figure who is marked by her inconsistency (it is also worth noting that Chaucer specifically invokes Boethius earlier in the text). When given the chance to present himself to Fame, the narrator declines out of apparent fear, something that I could not blame him for. 

In an interesting initial discussion between the narrator and the eagle, sound is treated as a physical substance that can be marred by pipes but, eventually, finds its way to the House of Fame. Once there, however, the sound itself seems to have a physical aspect as the eagle tells the narrator that each sound becomes a representation of the one who produced it, as if that person were himself presented to Fame. Thus, when Fame pronounces a petitioner either lauded or banished to obscurity, she is advancing or destroying a physical copy of the person who produced the sound. Even some of the language used to describe banishment is that of death, making an interesting point about how sound, words, and poetry are treated. Does good poetry rise to its proper place and bad poetry fall to the depths?

Kate Crassons, The Claims of Poverty: Literature, Culture, and Ideology in Late Medieval England.

Crassons, Kate. The Claims of Poverty: Literature, Culture, and Ideology in Late Medieval England. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010. Print.

Crassons' text considers the representational aspect of poverty in late medieval England, specifically in how various groups appropriate the "claims to poverty" for their respective ideological purposes. According to Crassons, "this book does not argue that poverty falls from a virtue to a vice so much as it shows how that decline occurs in a variety of discursive arenas" (12). Over the course of this period, poverty shifts from being seen as a theological virtue to a state of vice that is only lived out by those choosing not to engage in wholesome labor. The emphasis from Crassons' text is on the "claim," or the representational aspect of poverty. The Franciscans' willing taking on of poverty, early in the period, is a move towards solidarity with the poor that allows for separation from the trappings of the material world. However, the later moves to control the agency and wages of laborers in post-plague England shifts the rhetoric in the other direction, suggesting that poverty is simply the state of those too lazy to engage in honest labor, as is seen in the Labor Statutes and in various fourteenth century sermons. In either case, the rhetoric seems to leave the actually impoverished in the lurch, either by having alms money that would normally have supported charitable purposes going to support a willingly poor clergy or to having those in the state of poverty under scrutiny of fraud. Crassons considers this role of the claims of poverty in a range of Middle English texts, using them as guideposts to plot the ideological shift.

While Crassons' readings of Piers Plowman and the Book of Margery Kempe are interesting in and of themselves, what strikes me in this reading is how similarly the rhetoric she considers mirrors current political discussion in the U.S.A. Over the past fifty years rhetoric has shifted from provided the poor with aid to get back on their feet to blaming them, suggesting that the impoverished are in their states purely due to their own poor decision making. Much as how talking points from politicians and pundits alike push these rhetorical positions, Crassons reads how similar ideology is pushed in the York plays, both modern and medieval instances backed by business interests. I'd rather not make a huge political rant here, but this does suggest an interesting comparative nature between Crassons' points and current events.

Odd Langholm, Economics in the Medieval Schools.

Langholm, Odd. Economics in the Medieval Schools. New York, NY: Brill, 1992. Print.

Langholm's text considers the shift in medieval economic thought as expressed among scholastics at the University of Paris in, roughly, the thirteenth century. Taken a somewhat unpopular perspective that views "history as anticipation" (5), Langholm argues that this period of scholastic writing represents an evolution in economic thought that sets up the economic developments that would follow in the fourteenth century. The majority of Langholm's text is thus a survey of individuals in this period at the University of Paris, or closely connected thereto, who write on what would be, in a modern context, called economics. Langholm focuses on five genres for this survey, namely the confessional manual, the quodlibet, the summa, the commentary and the economic treatise.

Langholm's "anticipatory" perspective is somewhat problematic given contemporary perspectives on scholarship as the argument of an evolutionary economic perspective falls rather fully in the construction of grand historical narratives that John Watt castigates. However, the depth of Langholm's consideration of these texts, especially several that are otherwise unconsidered in scholarship, are invaluable for studies in medieval economic thought. Much of what Langholm's overall narrative plots out follows some of what Diana Wood sets up as the changing perception to economics in late medieval Europe, but the focus on the University of Paris is both a positive and negative aspect, as it allows for in depth consideration but possibly runs the risk of being intellectually isolated from other possible influences.

As a final note, the "scholastic frame of literary reference" that Langholm constructs as a triangle is instructive. (25). Langholm sets the corners of the triangles as the Bible/Church Fathers, Aristotle (the Ethics and Poetics), and Roman law. Diana Wood makes much of the necessity to consider the theological alongside the Aristotelian when considering medieval economic thought, but Langholm's point about Roman law are also vital, especially in a setting where Roman law was often seen as a necessary source of precedence. Some of Langholm's larger points may be slightly problematic, but the research is impeccable and vital.