The significance of exchanges as a socio-economic phenomenon in rural societies in the Frankish period

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Brigitte Kasten
• Subject Area: Medieval History
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 279454809

This project aims at analyzing the impact of exchange in rural societies during the frankish empire on the basis of selected inventories of charters. There are numerous charters about exchanges of real estate dating from the early medieval Frankish empire. The importance of these transactions for rural societies can be retraced particularly by studying written records of ecclesiastical owners of large estates, because they allow to obtain information both about the evolution of ecclesiastical property and secular people about whom other historical sources remain mostly silent. In this context, the persons involved in exchanges as well as the procedure of these transac-tions are to be analyzed in order to judge its social and economic significance for rural socie-ties. Here, the relation of exchanges to other transactions in use play a major role. Especially the temporary exchange of land was frequently used and requires a precise differentiation in comparison to real exchanges of everlasting validity.The geographical area of this study is the Frankish empire until 900, especially taking account of the charters of churches and abbeys located in its eastern part and in Lotharingia, which dispose of large and continued written records. In this context, it is necessary to pay attention to the policy of the Carolingian rulers who regulated exchanges by measures based on Roman law dating from Late Antiquity. The results shall be published in a monograph. The charters of exchange which will be ana-lyzed shall be gathered in a database in order to be accessible to further scientific purposes.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants