Medieval France
. Definitions of ethical wrongdoing in medieval France varied according to the legal system, canon, civil, or customary law, or royal legislation under consideration. As a rule in matters of trade, town governments and guilds policed weights and measures and ensured quality control of merchandise for export and local sale. There was concerted effort to protect consumers from fraud. In the south of France, where Roman law formulae, such as sine dolo and sine ulla fraude, appeared in 12th-century documents, a theory of fraud developed, giving rise to various remedies of justice including restitution and disbarment from the practice of a particular trade.
While Jehan Boinbroke defrauded his employees in northern Douai, in the south of France, Catalan and local merchants occasionally ran afoul of inspection procedures in spice imports. Several instances of saffron fraud can be reconstructed from 14th-century documents. Adulteration of the spice to increase its weight, through wetting or the admixture of extraneous material, was recorded.
Municipal officials often chose to make an example of offenders. In France, as elsewhere in medieval Europe, the maintenance of high ethical standards in business was essential to the medieval system of commerce, which was based on mutual faith and trust.
Kathryn L.Reyerson
Cheyette, Fredric L. “The Sovereign and the Pirates, 1332.” Speculum 45(1970):40–68.
Fransen, Gérard. Le dol dans la conclusion des actes juridiques: évolution des doctrines et système du code canonique. Gembloux: Duculot, 1946.
Meynial, Edmond. “Note sur l’histoire du dol et de la violence dans les contrats dans notre ancien droit français.” In Mélanges Paul Fournier. Paris: Sirey, 1929.
Reyerson, Kathryn L. “Commercial Fraud in the Middle Ages: The Case of the Dissembling Pepperer.” Journal of Medieval History 8(1982):63–73.
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