What Lessons for Economic Development Can We Draw from the Champagne Fairs?

Jeremy Edwards and Sheilagh Ogilvie

No 3438, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: The medieval Champagne fairs are widely used to draw lessons about the institutional basis for long-distance impersonal exchange. This paper re-examines the causes of the outstanding success of the Champagne fairs in mediating international trade, the timing and causes of the fairs’ decline, and the institutions for securing property rights and enforcing contracts at the fairs. It finds that contract enforcement at the fairs did not take the form of private-order or corporative mechanisms, but was provided by public institutions. More generally, the success and decline of the Champagne fairs depended crucially on the policies adopted by the public authorities.

Keywords: legal system; medieval Europe; trade; private-order institutions; community responsibility system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N43 N73 O17 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Journal Article: What lessons for economic development can we draw from the Champagne fairs? (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_3438

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