Credit and finance in commercial practice. Europe – the Czech Lands – Prague: directions and perspectives of research.

Abstract

This study deals with the theme of commercial practice in the pre-industrial period and presents some of the contemporary directions of the German, Austrian and Italian historiographies. Simultaneously, the study attempts to evaluate the potential application of these methodological approaches for researching the Czech environment.

Its text presents some recent results of research in the environs of merchants in Early Modern Age Prague. Namely, recent findings related to commodity and finance credit; book-keeping and accounting, as well as managing customer-supplier relations are dealt with.

At the same time further fields of research themes are defined and potential directions and perspectives of future research are proposed.

Keywords

• credit
• account ledgers
• Prague
• methodology
• merchants
• the Early Modern Age
• commercial practice
• commerce