Wirtschaft, Krieg und Seelenheil : Papst Martin V., Kaiser Sigismund und das Handelsverbot gegen die Hussiten in Böhmen

Abstract

The monograph deals with the embargo, which was imposed by the papacy and the Catholic lay powers upon all trade and commerce with the Czech Hussites between 1420 and 1436. The author explores this anti-Hussite embargo by showing how it was enforced and how the political agents involved used it as a tool of governance and propaganda. The book presents a new, holistic view of the anti-Hussite trade embargo as a complex historical phenomenon, thus contributing to the political, economic and cultural history as much as to the history of everyday life in early 15th century Central Europe.

The use of economic leverage is not only part of a conflict in our world today. There were also numerous embargoes in the Middle Ages, such as the Catholic ban on all trade with the Bohemian Hussites. The book undertakes an analysis of this trade ban, its propagation and legitimation, its practical implementation as well as its motives and goals. (Non-) trade is released from the narrow economic and historical framework and made tangible as social action and "cultural practice". This results in new insights for the political as well as for the economic, everyday and cultural history of the Central European region, which demonstrate the potential of an economic history informed by cultural history.