Raymond de Roover

Raymond Adrien de Roover (1904–1972), was a noted economic historian of medieval Europe,^[1] whose scholarship explained why Scholastic economic thought is best understood as a precursor of, and wholly compatible with, Classical economic thought.^[2] In his day, many economists such as R.H. Tawney taught that Karl Marx was the last of, and culmination of, the Scholastic economists.^[3] De Roover taught at Harvard University, University of Chicago, Boston College, and Brooklyn College in The City University of New York, in addition to various European universities,^[4] and was also a Guggenheim Fellow in 1949.^[5]

De Roover and his wife appear as minor characters in The Sinking of the Odradek Stadium, a novel by the American Novelist Harry Mathews. (The novel is in part concerned with the Medici.)

Publications

• (1948). Money, Banking and Credit in Medieval Bruges. Cambridge: Mediaeval Academy of America. Routledge, 2000.
• (1948). The Medici Bank: its Organization, Management, Operations and Decline. New York University Press.
  • The Rise and Decline of the Medici Bank, 1397–1494. Harvard University Press, 1963; W.W. Norton, 1966; Beard Books (August 1999), ISBN 1-59740-373-3
• (1949). Gresham on Foreign Exchange; an Essay on Early English Mercantilism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
• (1953). L'Évolution de la Lettre de Change: XIVe-XVIIIe Siècles. Paris: Armand Colin.
• (1958). "The Concept of the Just Price: Theory and Economic Policy", in: The Journal of Economic History 18 (4), 418-434.
• (1971). La Pensée Économique des Scolastiques: Doctrines et Méthodes. Montréal: Institut d'Études Médiévales.
• (1974). Business, Banking, and Economic Thought in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Selected Studies of Raymond de Roover. University of Chicago Press.

Sources

1. Bruges, Cradle of Capitalism, 1280-1390. By James M. Murray. Reviewed by Kathryn Reyerson. Business History Review, Winter 2006, Volume 80, Issue 4 .
2. David Herlihy (1972). "Raymond de Roover, Historian of Mercantile Capitalism", in: Journal of European Economic History 1, 755-762.
3. David A. Martin, R. H. Tawney as Economist, Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Sep., 1982), pp. 829-853
4. Journal of Markets & Morality Volume 10, Number 1 (Spring 2007): 1–3 Raymond de Roover’s Enduring Contribution to Economic History.
5. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

Further reading

• Blomquist, T. W. (1975). "De Roover on Business, Banking, and Economic Thought", in: Journal of Economic History 35, 821-830.

External links

• Works by Raymond de Roover, at Hathi Trust
• Works by Raymond de Roover, at JSTOR