MONEY, BANKING AND CREDIT IN MEDIAEVAL BRUGES Italian
Merchant-Bankers Lombards and Money-C hangers A Study in the
Origins of Banking by RAYMOND DE ROOVER, Ph. D. Associate Professor
of Economics Wells College THE MEDIAEVAL ACADEMY OF AMERICA
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 1948 was dc possible by grants of funds to
the from the Carnegie Corporation of New Yor and the Business
History Foundation f Inc. COPYRIGHT BY THE MEDIAEVAL ACADEMY OF
AMERICA 1948 PRINTED IN U. S. A. A MONSIEUR REMI A. PARMENTIER
CONSERVATEUR DES ARCHIVES COMMUNALES DE BRUGES qui, pendant pres de
vmgt ans, na cesse dc suwrc ct dencourager cc travail sur Vhistoire
de la banque a Bruges Preface THIS book is the outcome of my
finding a casual reference to the existence of several account
books of mediaeval merchants in the Bruges Municipal Archives. For
some time I had been interested in the history of accounting and I
had delved in the archives of Antwerp, my native city. Antwerp is
rich in business records of the sixteenth and later centuries but I
had seen no earlier ac count books. Upon learning of their
existence in Bruges I immediately wrote a letter of inquiry to the
Curator of the Bruges Archives. The reply was courteous but not
encouraging. Yes, there were some mediaeval account books in the
Bruges Archives, but the script was nearly illegible and the
interpretation of those documents, I was tactfully given to
understand, would require the combined talents of a palaeographer,
a bookkeeper, and a financier. At that time I knew some bookkeeping
and I had worked in a bank, but I could qualify neither as a
financier nor as a palaeographer. Nevertheless, undaunted by the
difficulties, I made arrangements with theArchivist, Monsieur Remi
A. Parmentier, to visit the Bruges Archives and to examine those
mysterious and alluring account books. The first visit took place
in May 1929. It was followed by many others because Monsieur
Parmentier had not exaggerated the difficulties. Several of my
short vacations I was then working in a business office were spent
bending over the huge ledgers of Collard de Marke and Guillaume
Ruyelle in the salle du public, where only the carillon interrupted
from time to time the archival silence. As the years passed my
acquaintance with Monsieur Parmentier grew into a warm and enduring
friendship. Not only did he grant me unusual privileges and
facilities for research but he introduced me to Professor Egide
Strubbe and thus enabled me to publish the preliminary results of
my investigation in the Annales de la Societe dEmulation de Bruges.
My last visit to the Bruges Archives was in 1938. By that time I
had completed my research and had conceived the general scheme of
this book. Its completion was prevented for a long time by other
duties and when it was finally completed publication was delayed by
the War. During all these years Monsieur Parmentier never lost
hope. It is only fitting that this book for which he has waited so
long be dedicated to him. Before leaving Bruges, I must also thank
Monsieur Albert Schouteet, the Assistant Archivist. He has helped
me in many ways by answering repeated queries and by sending me
transcripts of various documents. He was also generous enough to
communicate to me the text of a hitherto unknown document, which he
had discovered, and which established beyond doubt that Guillaume
Ruyelle, one of the two money-changers whose accountbooks are
preserved in Bruges, VII viii Preface actually failed in 1370. This
bit of evidence, which confirmed my suspicions, was particularly
welcome to me, and due credit should, therefore, be given to the
finder. This work would have been impossible without the financial
aid of the Belgian Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique
which enabled me to spend a sum mer in Italy and to photograph a
great many mediaeval business papers in the Datini Archives, Prato
Tuscany...
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