Professor (Emeritus) John H. Munro
Department of Economics,
University of Toronto
150 St. George Street
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
M5S 3G7
Phone: (1-)416-978-4552; and 416-978-6713 (fax)
Updated: Wednesday, 28 December 2011
John Munro's Working Papers published online from 1998:
My working papers produced since 1998 : in pdf format only, can be found in one or the other (or both) of the following websites:
Copyright restrictions on the Department of Economics' Working Papers:
"Copyright to each paper in the archive remains with the authors or their assignees. Users of this Archive may download papers and produce them for their own personal use; but downloading of papers for any other activity, including re-posting to other electronic bulletin boards or archives, may not be done without the written consent of the authors."
Published as: ‘A Maze of Medieval Monetary Metrology: Determining Mint Weights in Flanders, France and England from the Economics of Counterfeiting, 1388 - 1469’, The Journal of European Economic History, 29:1 (Spring 2000), 173-99.
Published as: ‘The “Industrial Crisis” of the English Textile Towns, 1290 - 1330’, Thirteenth-Century England: VII, ed. Michael Prestwich, Richard Britnell, and Robin Frame (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Academic Press, 1999), pp. 103-41.
Published as: 'The Symbiosis of Towns and Textiles: Urban Institutions and the Changing Fortunes of Cloth Manufacturing in the Low Countries and England, 1270 - 1570', The Journal of Early Modern History: Contacts, Comparisons, Contrasts, 3:1 (February 1999), 1-74.
It has also been made available, by the publisher, as a pdf file, an exact reproduction of the printed essay.
This publication in PDF format is also available on-line from MPRA: Munich Personal RePEc Archive: RePEc = Research Papers in Economics
‘Textiles as Articles of Consumption in Flemish Towns, 1330 - 1575’, Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis, 81:1-3 (1998), 275-88. With a Dutch summary
This is a special festschrift issue of this journal, with the title: ‘Proeve ‘t al, ‘t is prysselyck’:
Verbruik in Europese steden (13de - 18de eeuw)/Consumption in the West European City (13th - 18th Century): Liber Amicorum Raymond Van Uytven.
see the revised verion of this paper, below, as Working Paper no. 20.
Published as: ‘English “Backwardness” and Financial Innovations in Commerce with the Low Countries, 14th to 16th centuries’, in
Peter Stabel, Bruno Blondé, and Anke Greve, eds., International Trade in the Low Countries (14th - 16th Centuries): Merchants, Organisation,
Infrastructure, Studies in Urban, Social, Economic, and
Political History of the Medieval and Early Modern Low Countries (Marc Boone, general editor), no. 10 (Leuven-Apeldoorn: Garant, 2000), pp. 105-67.
Revised version of this working paper: List of References added (19 June 2009)
Published as: 'The Low Countries’ Export Trade in Textiles with the Mediterranean Basin, 1200-1600: A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Comparative Advantages in
Overland and Maritime Trade Routes', The International Journal of Maritime History, 11:2 (Dec. 1999), 1 - 30.
It has been made available, by the publisher, as a pdf file, an exact reproduction of the printed essay.
Published as: ‘The Monetary Origins of the “Price Revolution:” South German Silver Mining, Merchant-Banking, and Venetian Commerce, 1
470-1540’, in Dennis Flynn, Arturo Giráldez, and Richard von Glahn, eds., Global Connections and Monetary History, 1470 - 1800
(Aldershot and Brookfield, Vt: Ashgate Publishing, 2003), pp. 1-34.
Published as: ‘The “New Institutional Economics” and the Changing Fortunes of Fairs in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: the Textile
Trades, Warfare, and Transaction Costs’, Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 88:1 (2001), 1 - 47.
A somewhat different version (with a different conclusion) has been published by the Datini Institute of Prato, Italy; and it is freely available
in this PDF file, an exact copy of the publication.
This publication in PDF format is also available on-line from MPRA: Munich Personal RePEc Archive: RePEc = Research Papers in Economics
Unpublished paper fully revised as Working Paper no. 33, below (2007)
Published as: ‘Wage Stickiness, Monetary Changes, and Real Incomes in Late-Medieval England and the Low Countries, 1300 - 1500:
Did Money Matter?’ Research in Economic History, 21 (2003), 185 - 297.
It has been made available, by the publisher, as a pdf file, an exact reproduction of the printed essay.
This publication in PDF format is also available on-line from MPRA: Munich Personal RePEc Archive: RePEc = Research Papers in Economics
Published as: ‘Medieval Woollens: The Western European Woollen Industries and their Struggles
for International Markets, c.1000 - 1500’, in
David Jenkins, ed., The Cambridge History of Western Textiles, 2 vols. (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003),
Vol. I, chapter 5, pp. 228-324, 378-86 (bibliography).
Published in the same volume as: ‘Medieval Woollens: Textiles, Textile Technology, and Industrial Organisation, c. 800 - 1500’, in
David Jenkins, ed., The Cambridge History of Western Textiles, 2 vols. (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003),
Vol. I, chapter 4, pp. 181-227.
Published as: ‘Money, Wages, and Real Incomes in the Age of Erasmus: The Purchasing Power of Coins and of Building
Craftsmen’s Wages in England and the Southern Low Countries, 1500 - 1540’, in Alexander Dalzell and Charles G. Nauert, Jr., eds.,
The Correspondence of Erasmus , Vol. 12: Letters 1658 - 1801, January 1526- March 1527 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
2003), Appendix: pp. 551-699.
Published as: ‘The Medieval Origins of the Financial Revolution: Usury, Rentes, and Negotiablity’,
The International History Review, 25:3 (September 2003), 505-62.
It has also been made available, by the publisher, as a pdf file, an exact reproduction of the printed essay.
This publication in PDF format is also available on-line from MPRA: Munich Personal RePEc Archive: RePEc = Research Papers in Economics
Published as: ‘Industrial Energy from Water-Mills in the European Economy, 5th to 18th Centuries: the Limitations of Power’,
in Simonetta Cavaciocchi, ed., Economia ed energia, seccoli XIII - XVIII, Atti delle ‘Settimane di Studi’ e altrie Convegni,
Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica, ‘Francesco Datini da Prato’, vol. 34 (Florence, Le Monnier: 2003), pp. 223-69.
It has also been made available, by the publisher, as a pdf file, an exact reproduction of the printed essay.
This publication in PDF format is also available on-line from MPRA: Munich Personal RePEc Archive: RePEc = Research Papers in Economics
Never published, this Working Paper has been replaced by a revised version, no. 34 below (2008).
See revised version in Working Paper no. 23, below. That version, no. 23, omits some of the text in this version,
and contains only two of the original 14 tables (and in a different format). Version no. 23 contains, however, additional
evidence and texts not contained in this older version. Those differences explain why both are retained on this site.
Monetary and Price Graphs: contained in an MS-Word file
This still unpublished paper was delivered to the Colloque de Montréal: Postan-Duby: Destin d'un paradigme. Peut-on comprendre les crises économiques de la fin du moyen âge sans le modèle malthusien?
Montréal: Université de Québec à Montréal, on 10 October 2002.
Published as: ‘Gold, Guilds, and Government: The Impact of Monetary and Labour Policies on the Flemish Cloth Industry, 1390-1435’,
Jaarboek voor middeleeuwsche geschiedenis, 5 (2002), 153 - 205.
It has also been made freely available online, by the publisher, as a pdf file, an exact reproduction of the published
article.
This publication in PDF format is also available on-line from MPRA: Munich Personal RePEc Archive: RePEc = Research Papers in Economics
Note: this posted working paper contains two sets of graphs (in colour), contained in two separate pdf files.
Published as: ‘Builders’ Wages in Southern England and the Southern Low Countries, 1346 -1500:
A Comparative Study of Trends in and Levels of Real Incomes’, in Simonetta Caviococchi, ed.,
L’Edilizia prima della rivoluzione industriale, secc. XIII-XVIII, Atti delle “Settimana di Studi” e altri convegni, no. 36,
Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica “Francesco Datini” (Florence, 2005), pp. 1013-76.
This published version is also available online as a pdf file supplied by
the publisher.
This publication in PDF format is also available on-line from MPRA: Munich Personal RePEc Archive: RePEc = Research Papers in Economics
Published as: ‘The Debate About Mandatory Retirement in Ontario Universities: Positive and Personal Choices About Retirement at 65’, in
C.T. (Terry) Gillin, David MacGregor, and Thomas R. Klassen, eds.,Time’s Up: Mandatory Retirement in Canada (Toronto:
Canadian Association of University Teachers and Lorimer Press, 2005), pp. 191-218, 293-302 (notes), 306-320
(volume bibliography).
Published as: 'Spanish Merino Wools and the Nouvelles Draperies: an Industrial Transformation in the Late-Medieval Low Countries',
Economic History Review, 2nd ser., 58:3 (August 2005), 431-84.
This published version is also available online as a pdf file, supplied by this journal.
The complete citation information for the final version of this paper, as published in the
print edition of The Economic
History Review, is available on the Blackwell Synergy online delivery service, accessible via the journal's
website, or also at this URL for Blackwell-Synergy.com.
Note that this revised, published, and online version contains only two tables, while
the earlier Working Paper version, no. 18, contains 14 tables, along with other material cut from the final
published verion; and thus Working Paper no. 18, the older version, still remains as a useful document for consultation,
though, as noted above (for no. 18), this final published version contains newer evidence and analysis not found in the
original version.
This publication in PDF format is also available on-line from MPRA: Munich Personal RePEc Archive: RePEc = Research Papers in Economics
Published as: 'Before and After the Black Death: Money, Prices, and Wages in Fourteenth-Century England', in Troels Dahlerup and Per Ingesman, eds.,
New Approaches to the History of Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Selected Proceedings of Two International Conferences at The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters in Copenhagen in 1997 and 1999,
Historisk-filosofiske Meddelelser, no. 104 (Copenhagen: The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, 2009), pp. 335-364.
The Danish publisher has provided a PDF file of this publication (offprint), for public distribution.
This publication in PDF format is also available on-line from MPRA: Munich Personal RePEc Archive: RePEc = Research Papers in Economics
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 201 [2005 - 01; revised 2006]
Attached to this Working Paper is a pdf file containing a colour graph (figure) on: the percentage distribution of colours of
textiles purchased (by value) for the upper echelons of the Bruges civic government, 1301-10 to 1491-96. It is also
accessible here in both an MS-Word file and the
pdf file.
Published as: 'The Anti-Red Shift – to the Dark Side: Changing Colour Patterns of Flemish Luxury Woollens,
1300 - 1550', Medieval Clothing and Textiles, 3 (2007), 55-95: edited by Robin Netherton and Gale R. Owen-Crocker,
and published by Boydell & Brewer (Woodbridge, Suffolk).
This published version is also available online as a pdf file supplied by
the publisher, for public distribution.
This publication in PDF format is also available on-line from MPRA: Munich Personal RePEc Archive: RePEc = Research Papers in Economics
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 224 [2006 - 01]
This paper was delivered to 38th annual Datini Conference (Prato) on 6 May 2006. It has now been published as:
‘South German Silver, European Textiles, and Venetian Trade with the Levant and Ottoman Empire, c. 1370 to c. 1720:
A Non-mercantilist Approach to the Balance of Payments Problem’, in Simonetta Cavaciocchi, ed.,
Relazione economiche tra Europa e mondo islamico, seccoli XIII - XVIII, Atti delle “Settimana di Studi”
e altri convegni, no. 38,
Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica “Francesco Datini” (Florence: Le Monnier, 2007), pp. 907-62.
This published version is also available online as a pdf file supplied by
the publisher, for public distribution.
This publication in PDF format is also available on-line from MPRA: Munich Personal RePEc Archive: RePEc = Research Papers in Economics
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 225 [2006 - 02]
This paper was delivered to the Second Dutch-Flemish Conference on The Economy and Society of the
Low Countries in the Pre-Industrial Period, at the Universiteit Antwerp, on 20 April 2006.
Attached to this Working Paper is a pdf file containing four colour graphs (figures) on comparative real
wage trends (in index numbers and in terms of the nominal values of 'baskets' of consumables). It is
also available here as an MS-Word file.
This paper also appears on the website
of the The N.W. Posthumus Institute for The Economy and Society of the Low Countries in the Pre-Industrial Period (University of Utrecht)
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 243 [2006 - 03]
This paper was first presented at the 14th International Economic History Congress in Helsinki, Finland,
on 25 August 2006, for Session 25: Luxury Production, Consumption, and the Art Market in Early Modern Europe;
and then also at the Conference (Seminar) on Medieval Textile History in Northern Europe: in Copenhagen, Denmark,
on 26 August 2006 (The Danish National Research Foundation's Centre for Textile Research, in association with the
Saxo Institute, both at the University of Copenhagen). Included in this on-line
version of Working Paper 28 is an additional pdf file containing six colour graphs (figures) on Ghent cloth prices,
which are also accessible in both this pdf file and in
an MS-Word file.
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 244 [2006 - 04]
This Working Paper no. 29 (no. 244 in the departmental series) has now been published, in
condensed form (and with no tables, etc.), in Italian translation, as the following: John Munro, ‘I panni di lana’,
in Angelo Colla (editor in chief), Il Rinascimento italiano et l’Europa, vol. IV: Commercio e cultura mercantile, ed. by Franco Franceschi,
Richard Goldthwaite, and Reinhold Mueller (Fondazione Cassamarca: Treviso, 2007), pp. 105-41.
It has also been made freely available, by the publisher, as a pdf file, an exact reproduction of the printed essay.
This publication in PDF format is also available on-line from MPRA: Munich Personal RePEc Archive: RePEc = Research Papers in Economics
The final part of this study, on the Venetian cloth industry, has also been incorporated in Working Paper no. 26 (224)
[2006-01]:
'South German Silver, European Textiles, and Venetian Trade with the Levant and Ottoman Empire, c. 1370 to c. 1720:
A non-mercantilist Approach to the ‘Balance of Payments Problem’. In fact, the research for and the
composition of each paper
influenced the composition of the other paper.
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 257 [2006 - 05].
The pdf file for the latest revised version of this paper is available via this
web link. Note that, as of 16 October 2006, we are no longer permitted to edit
working papers, after they have been posted on line.
Presented to the 'History of Entrepreneurship Conference' (organized by Professors William Baumol,
David Landes, and Joel Mokyr), sponsored by the Ewing
Marion Kauffman Foundation and New York University: 19 - 21 October 2006.
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 288 [2007 - 01]
A revised pdf file for this paper is now available, but no revised versions may be posted on this Working Papers web-site, for the reasons explained above.
This working paper no. 31 has now been published as follows:
John Munro, 'The Usury Doctrine and Urban Public Finances in Late-Medieval Flanders (1220 - 1550): Rentes (Annuities), Excise Taxes, and
Income Transfers from the Poor to the Rich', in Simonetta Cavaciocchi, ed., La fiscalità nell'economia Europea, secc. XIII - XVIII/
Fiscal Systems in the European Economy from the 13th to the 18th Centuries, Atti della ‘Trentanovesima Settimana di Studi', 22 - 26 aprile 2007,
Fondazione Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica "F. Datini", Prato, Serie II: Atti delle "Settimane de Studi" et altri Convegni 39
(Florence: Firenze University Press, 2008), pp. 973-1026.
It has also been made available, by the publisher, as a pdf file, an exact reproduction of the printed essay.
This publication in PDF format is also available on-line from MPRA: Munich Personal RePEc Archive: RePEc = Research Papers in Economics
See the also the PowerPoint presentation for this paper.
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 295 [2007 -02]
This is a much revised version of Working Paper no. 30 (257) above, and basically the actual paper presented to the 'History of Entrepreneurship' Conference at New York University, 19-21 October 2006.
Much reduced in scope, compared to WP no. 30, some sections have also been much revised and expanded from the draft version given at the conference.
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 303 [2007 - 03]
This is a much revised version of Working Paper no. 10 above (Flemish Woollens and German Commerce during the Later Middle Ages): expanded
to include English textiles, and with a new set of tables and six graphs.
This paper has now been published, but with fewer tables, and without the graphs, as follows: John H. Munro, 'Hanseatic Commerce in Textiles from the Low Countries and England during the Later Middle Ages:
Changing Trends in Textiles, Markets, Prices, and Values, 1290 - 1570', in Marie-Luise Heckmann and Jens Röhrkasten, eds.,
Von Nowgorod bis London: Studien zu Handel, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft im mittelalterlichen Europa: Festschrift für Stuart Jenks zum 60. Geburtstag, Nova Mediaevalia. Quellen und
Studien zum europäischen Mittelalter (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008), pp. 97-181.
An offprint is available as a PDF file, which may be downloaded and printed.
This publication in PDF format is also available on-line from MPRA: Munich Personal RePEc Archive: RePEc = Research Papers in Economics
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 320 [2008 - 01]
This is a much revised and expanded version of Working Paper no. 17 (2002) above.
Click this web link for the most recent, revised version of this working paper no. 34 (in pdf
format): whose revisions chiefly involve correction of typographical and spelling
errors, table titles and headings, and some statistical figures.
This paper now been published in the journal História e Economia: Revista Interdisciplinar, 4:1 (2008), 13-71.
An offprint is available as a
PDF file, which may be downloaded and printed.
This publication in PDF format is also available on-line from MPRA: Munich Personal RePEc Archive: RePEc = Research Papers in Economics
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 323 [2008 - 02]
This Working Paper is related to yet substantially different from no. 28 (Economics-Tecipa no. 243) above.
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 331 [2008 - 03]
This Working Paper is related to yet substantially different from nos. 28 and 35 (Economics-Tecipa nos. 243, 323) above.
Now in press, with a different title:
'Three Centuries of Luxury Textile Consumption in the Low Countries and England, 1330 - 1570: Trends and Comparisons of Real Values of Woollen Broadcloth (Then and Now)',
in Kathrine Vestergård and Marie Louise Nosch, eds., The Medieval Broadcloth: Changing Trends in Fashions, Manufacturing, and Consumption, Ancient Textile Series, vol. 5 (Oxford: Oxbow Books, forthcoming).
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 355 [2009 - 01]
See the also the PowerPoint presentation for this paper.
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 361 [2009 - 02]
This is a much revised and considerably shortened version of Working Paper no. 355 [Munro no. 37], with some major changes and some corrections. It has the same set of tables, but a new set of graphs (figures).
A recently revised version of this paper (which cannot be posted on the departmental Working Papers web site).
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 417 [2010 - 01]
Also available as a PDF File
Now published as: 'The Coinages and Monetary Policies of Henry VIII (r 1509-47)', in Charles Fantazzi (translator) and James Estes, eds.,
The Collected Works of Erasmus: The Correspondence of Erasmus, Vol. 14: Available as a PDF file offprint
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 424 [2011 - 01].
Also available separately as a PDF file
Graphs for this paper (already included in the above PDF file and the departmental Working Paper 424): in PDF format and in MS-Word format.
Power Point presentation. Please note that the graphs that appear in this 2010 Power Point presentation have been superseded by updated graphs that appear in
the Working Paper version of this essay, as indicated above.
Paper delivered to: "England in the Age of the Black Death: in Honour of John Hatcher": a conference held at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 8-10 August 2009.
This paper is to be published, in somewhat reduced form (and without the graphs), as: ‘The Late-Medieval Decline of English Demesne Agriculture: Demographic, Monetary, and Political-Fiscal Factors',
in Stephen Rigby and Mark Bailey, eds., Town and Countryside in the Age of the Black Death: Essays in Honour of John Hatcher, The Medieval Countryside, vol. 12 (Turnhout: Brepols): in press.
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 439 [2011 - 02]:
Also available as a PDF file.
To be published as: John Munro, ‘Usury, Calvinism and Credit in Protestant England: from the Sixteenth Century to the Industrial Revolution', in Francesco Ammannati, ed.,
Religione e istituzioni religiose nell'economia europea, 1000 - 1800/ Religion and Religious Institutions in the European Economy, 1000 - 1800, Fondazione Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica ‘F. Datini',
Prato, Serie II: Atti delle ‘Settimane de Studi' e altri Convegni no. 43 (Florence: Firenze University Press, 2012), forthcoming.
Department of Economics Working Paper no. 440 [2011 - 03]:
This is an extensive revision and major expansion of my earlier Working Paper no. 29: Economics Department Working Paper no. 244 [2006 - 04], based on extensive new research in both primary and
secondary sources, with the addition of many new tables.
Also available as a PDF file: with some corrections of the online version in the departmental Working Paper series.
To be published as: John Munro, 'The Rise, Expansion, and Decline of the Italian Wool-Based Textile Industries, 1100 - 1730: A study in international competition, transaction costs, and comparative
advantage', Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 3rd ser., 9 (2012): in press.