Credit Finance in the Middle Ages (workshop at U of Reading)

This just in from Adrian Bell, at the University of Reading:
(more details can be found here.

Medieval Credit Finance/Sowing the Seeds II

ICMA Centre, University of Reading, 30 March 2010

The Middle Ages are popularly seen as a period of economic stagnation. In fact, historians have long been aware that there is ample evidence for innovative economic and financial developments. For example, bills of exchange and the growth of pan-European merchant societies contributed to an expansion of long-distance trade, while governments consolidated their authority and increased their revenues by establishing systems of direct and indirect taxation. At the same time, tools developed for modern financial and economic analysis have the potential to expand our understanding of the medieval economy, where it is possible to reconstruct appropriate data sets from the surviving medieval sources. There is thus considerable scope for collaboration between medieval historians and economists and this one day seminar will showcase recent research, with the aim of encouraging future projects.

The seminar is presented in two parts, and participants are welcome to attend the morning, the afternoon, or all day - just let us know your preference. There is no registration fee (and lunch and dinner is provided for delegates) but please note that places at the morning session ('Sowing the Seeds II') and the conference dinner may be limited; lunch and dinner will only be provided for those who have registered in advance. Anyone interested in attending should contact Dr Tony Moore (t.moore@icmacentre.ac.uk) as soon as possible.