Trade wars are not just a modern phenomenon. In their new article in Continuity & Change, Bart Lambert and Louis Sicking show how, between 1384 and 1430, the counts of Holland and Zeeland tried to lure merchants away from neighbouring Flanders. Their attempts failed, despite offering them more attractive institutional conditions. According to the authors, the outcome of these commercial arm-wrestling contests challenges the importance attributed to institutions in recent economic historiography.
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