Medieval market making brokerage regulations in Central Western Europe, ca. 1250-1700

Lars Boerner

Economic History Working Papers from London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History

Abstract: This paper examines brokerage regulations in Central and Western Europe from approximately 1250 to 1700. Based on a sample of 70 cities with more than 1609 sets of regulations, we find that brokerage was a multifunctional institution, which served matchmaking, quality certification, and tax collection functions, mainly in product wholesale markets but also in finance and real estate markets. We argue that the implementation of regulations for matchmaking and certification solved incentive problems related to asymmetric information between buyers and sellers, consequently improving the allocation process and fostering trade. In line with these results, we find that most brokerage regulations occur along trade routes and in merchant towns.

Keywords: Brokerage; urban economic policy; allocation mechanisms; pre-modern trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N23 N43 N73 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 55 pages
Date: 2016-03
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/66834/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:wpaper:66834

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Economic History Working Papers from London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History LSE, Dept. of Economic History Houghton Street London, WC2A 2AE, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager on behalf of EH Dept. ().