Are the Roots of the Modern Lex Mercatoria Really Medieval?

Oliver Volckart and Antje Mangels

Southern Economic Journal, 1999, vol. 65, issue 3, 427-450

Abstract: This article analyzes how trade was conducted between the tenth and thirteenth centuries. We claim that, as most exchange was simultaneous, differences between law codes did not pose a substantial problem and that mercantile guilds developed not to provide institutions comparable to the modern lex mercatoria, but rather to supply physical security. The development of nonsimultaneous exchange was made possible predominantly by the emergence of urban autonomy and urban law applicable to all merchants trading within town, so it appears that the importance of universally accepted commercial institutions in the Middle Ages has hitherto been vastly overrated.

Date: 1999
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2325-8012.1999.tb00169.x

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:wly:soecon:v:65:y:1999:i:3:p:427-450

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Southern Economic Journal from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().