12. Transmitting Knowledge; Politics, Economics, and the Merchant Class
7 items in collection

Beginning in the fourteenth century, increasingly complex systems of international and interregional commerce led to new challenges for merchants and monarchs alike. In response, innovative document types were created. In order to thrive, aspiring traders needed to master not only the basic skills of arithmetic and geometry, but also the application of such concepts to everyday situations. Basic arithmetic operations, especially those involving fractions, are couched in everyday challenges: how to gauge the contents of a barrel, measure the height of a tower, or determine inheritance sums. For more established merchants whose work took them across the Mediterranean basin, comprehensive guides to the goods available in each major city, paired with the relevant measurements and currency denominations, were essential. Alongside the far-flung banking and trade networks epitomized by the Peruzzi, Acciaiuoli, and Medici dynasties, the concurrent centralization of administrative power in expanding nation-states necessitated the establishment of a true fiscal policy. Fragmented systems of taxation, inherited from feudal days, needed to be reformed in the monarchies of England and France in order to pay for costly wars. The administration of state affairs became especially complex in the 1520s for the French king Francis I (1494–1547), so much so that a well-meaning official produced a set of actionable recommendations for reform. By adopting these, the king could limit his reliance on wealthy lords and merchants.