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Zacour, N. P.; Hazard, H. W. (ed.) / Volume VI: The impact of the Crusades on Europe
(1989)
IV: Financing the Crusades, pp. 116-149
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Page 116
Iv FINANCING THE CRUSADES estern Europe never wholly succumbed to those disruptive forces which threatened it with a moneyless economy. At the end of the eleventh century money was a common, but not a cheap, commodity. In the succeeding centuries the supply of money increased and money consequently cheapened; credit instruments were developed and banking practices established. During the first two crusades the scarcity of money made it rise in value as the crusaders competed with one another to obtain it by selling their goods.' In the thirteenth century the The primary sources for this chapter are too scattered to permit of a comprehensive bibliography. Many chronicles of the crusades as well as a number of others have proved useful. Charters of value have been found in many cartularies and collections, both published and unpublished. Papal and royal letters and accounts have been among the most valuable sources and will be cited in the notes. No comprehensive study of the financing of the crusades has been published, although Giles Constable has recently surveyed "The Financing of the Crusades in the Twelfth Century," in Outremer: Studies in the History of the Crusading Kingdom of Jerusalem, ed. Benjamin Z. Kedar et al. (Jerusalem, 1982), pp. 64—88. Most secondary work has been in the field of ecclesiastical support, where William E. Lunt's works are preeminent: The Valuation of Norwich (Oxford, 1926), Papal Reven ues in the Middle Ages (2 vols., New York, 1934), Financial Relations of the Papacy with England to 1327 (Cambridge, Mass., 1939), and Financial Relations of the Papacy with England, 1327—1534 (Cambridge, Mass., 1962). His bibliographies provide the best introduction to the materials relating to the subject. Adolf Gottlob, Die papstlichen Kreuzzugssteuern des 13. Jahrhunderts (Heiligenstadt, 1892), is the fullest account of papal taxes but is subject to correction. Sydney K. Mitchell, Taxation in Medieval England (New Haven, 1951), is also of special usefulness. On the role of the military orders the classic work is Leopold v. Delisle, Mémoire sur les operations financieres des Templiers (Mémoires de l'Institut national de France, Académie des inscriptions Ct belles-lettres, XXXIII; Paris, 1889), to which may be added Jules Piquet, Des Banquiers au moyen age: les Templiers (Paris, [1939]). Robert Génestal, Role des monastères comme établissements du credit (Paris, 1901), is still fundamental on the credit transactions of the crusaders. On the privileges of the crusaders see Emile Bridrey, La Condition juridique des croisés et le privilege de croix (Paris, 1900), James A. Brundage, Medieval Canon Law and the Crusader (Madison, Wisc., 1969), and Maureen Purcell, Papal CrusadingPolicy, 1244-1291 (Leyden, 1975). It may be worthwhile to warn that L. Papa-D'Amico, I Titoli de credito: Surrogati della moneta (Catania, 1886), and other works based on the Collection Courtois in the Bibliothèque nationale are unreliable: cf. Alexander Cartellieri, Philipp IL August, Konig von Frankreich (4 vols., Leipzig, 1899—1922), II, 302-324. 1. August C. Krey, The Ffrst Crusade (Princeton, 1921), pp. 17—19. Further, the armies caused a scarcity of goods wherever they went, and the crusaders paid high prices in money which was dearly bought. 116
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