‘Wherever they consider it more profitable, for cash, baratto or credit’. Florentine merchants and the export of silk cloth (15th-16th centuries)

Abstract

This article is centred on baratto, or market exchange, which consisted in making payments in kind even in the context of a monetised economy. Documentary evidence shows how frequently this type of commercial transaction was adopted in late-medieval long-distance trade, and which strategies led to its adoption. Far from being a feature of a ‘primitive’ economy, baratto in international trade implied a network of information, a knowledge of the demand and an ability to connect marketplaces, that only few possessed. Examples are taken mainly from account-books and correspondence of Italian (Florentine) merchants, who we able both to assess the monetary value of each merchandise and to know the market where it would be more profitable to sell it for cash or, again, through baratto.