The New World Merchants of Rouen
An excellent study of 144 merchant-entrepreneurs in the French city of Rouen during and after the Wars of Religion.
About the book
This book is the study of 144 merchants in Rouen who invested in trade or shipping to the Americas in the sixty years before Cardinal Richelieu began to regulate their activities for the benefit of church and state. Rouen, during the time studied in this book, was the largest French seaport and in direct connection andcompetition with various Dutch and English ports. The author focuses on how the French merchants and their investments and how their economic fortunes affected their rise and fall in French society.
What are people saying?
“Bref Gayle K. Brunelle a parfaitement attaint son objectif en comblant une lacune de l’histoire des marchands français au XIVe siècle.”
Michel Cassan
The Sixteenth Century Journal
“Brunelle offers a sensitive—and significant—new understanding of the evolving nature of urban society and entrepreneurialism in Old Regime France.”
Michael Wolfe
The Historian
“[T]his book, with its important qualifications to generalities about fortune and social mobility, proves that once again an American scholar has made a fine strategic choice when confronted with the archives of the Old Regime.”
Perry Viles
The American Historical Review
Where to buy
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