商人的機構の「原型」 : 中世ヨーロッパの為替契約と商人銀行家

概要

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This paper reviews the institutions of trade and finance that unfolded on Genoa-Champagne axis in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The changes in the methods of doing business, the relationship between merchants, and the specialization among them in this period reached “the commercial revolution of the end of the thirteenth century”. From the late twelfth century, exchange transactions by the instrumentum ex causa cambii was conducted between “the caravan merchants” who bought the cloth at the fairs of Champagne and took it over land routes to Genoa, and bought Mediterraneanmerchandise in Genoa for sale at the fairs. They could get financing from their fellow merchants in Genoa through instruments calling for repayment in Champagne. These transactions facilitated their specialization for export or import. Furthermore, some merchants, what is called “merchant-bankers”, acted as financier by exchange dealings. The Lucchese merchant-bankers, for example, purchased instruments upon the fairs from merchants who exported silk cloth to the fairs of Champagne. In Genoa the merchant-bankers accepted funds through instruments drawing upon the fairs of Champagne, and advanced the funds to Lucchese merchants visiting Genoa to secure rawsilk and dyes for export to Lucca. Merchantbankerscould liquidize their credit by drawing instruments upon the fairs instead of rediscount of the bill of exchange.