Merchants

The Merchant’s presentation

• ostensibly corrupt: a member of the new mercantile that was threatening the power of the dominant aristocracy

• Superficial: dressed in fancy clothing without real class (aping aristocracy)

• Demonised: forked beard

• Anxious: wants safe passage due to virtually destroyed wool exportation

• High self opinion: tells a tale of a knight (higher status), but says January should be as concerned about ‘chevissaunce’ as he is

• Delusional: chose to tell a tale partially about courtly love and the courtly concept of ‘gentilesse’ to hope that he is seen as ‘gentil’ himself

• Ironic: has a grand entrance (introduced as dressed to impress sitting ‘hye’ on horse) that is immediately undermined (secretly lives on credit and is a moneylender). The adjective ‘worthy’ is used twice to emphasise irony

• Mysterious: nameless so establishes him as unreliable narrator

The merchant class and finance

• the merchant class prospered in the 14th century

• There was little distinction between prosperous merchants and banks- merchants frequently loaned large amounts to clients

• Lombardy was a city-state well known for its large number of merchants, bankers and money-lenders

• Many merchant’s of chaucer’s day were wealthier than some nobility

January ‘buying’ May

• “a cautionary tale of the dangers of quantifying relationships in monetary terms”- Sam Brunner

• She is bought a livestock to fulfil a specific sexual or procreative purpose and behave as instructed

Social change in C14th

• the upwards movement of craftsmen, traders and merchants disrupted the traditional class system and created the first middle class

• The system was still feudal but there were now merchants

• Created a mercantile attitude, placing a special emphasis on monetary wealth, as merchants with enough money could buy himself, or his heirs, into nobility

• Lombardy was both a medieval centre of commerce and notorious for brothels. Combines temporal and financial wealth with moral and spiritual poverty