MERCHANTS OF DOOM
“The year 1348 was the great death for all the world, and this was so severe in Bordeaux that La Rousselle, the Pont Saint-Jean and the Rue Poitevine were burned.” So reports the Petite Chronique de Guyenne on the cataclysmic pandemic now known as the “Black Death”.
The plague was a human catastrophe, killing between one-third and a half of the population of Europe between 1346 and 1353. But, as was evident during my research into the mercantile history of this period, it was also an economic disaster, triggering one of the toughest periods in history to conduct trade. The example of Bordeaux, the commercial hub of Aquitaine in today’s south-west France, captures the cost to both lives and livelihoods perfectly. Here, the people were so desperate that they set fire to their own city in an effort to stop the spread of the pandemic. It was a futile effort. They were not spared the disease – and the act destroyed large parts of their mercantile district.
Historians have written much about the consequences of the Black Death: not just the misery, but also the relative prosperity of some survivors. Long-distance commerce illustrates both of these trends. Many merchants and their agents suffered ruin or death just like the rest. However, for those who endured, it could be a time of great possibility. While scant
