Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Arnade, Peter J.
Bruges: Cradle of Capitalism (review)
Journal of Interdisciplinary History - Volume 37, Number 1, Summer 2006, pp. 115-117

The MIT Press

Peter J. Arnade - Bruges: Cradle of Capitalism (review) - Journal of Interdisciplinary History 37:1 Journal of Interdisciplinary History 37.1 (2006) 115-117 Bruges: Cradle of Capitalism. By James M. Murray (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2005) 409 pp. $100.00 Before Antwerp, Amsterdam, and London became, in Braudel's view, anchors of the early-modern world economy, Bruges was the trade center of northern Europe, and the economic midwife to these heirs. For all its economic complexity and cultural richness, fourteenth-century Bruges is surprisingly understudied, especially outside of Belgium. Murray's new book is a fresh, deeply researched social portrait of the city and its economic life from the late thirteenth to the late fourteenth century that goes a long way to fill this scholarly lacuna. The book bristles with important social data about Bruges' financial world and its wider civic realm, offering a compelling, impressively researched case study of early capitalism in a mercantile society. For this reason alone, Murray's...