The Economics of Owning a Medieval Merchant Ship

⛵ Your ship is carrying merchandise worth more than fifty expensive Marseille properties. But most of the cargo is not yours. In the spring of 1248, the merchant ship Saint Esprit prepared to sail from Marseille to Acre. One hundred and fifty surviving contracts can be tied to that voyage, giving historians an unusually detailed look inside a medieval shipping business. And it does not look like one merchant with one boat. The vessel was associated with Johannes Marinus and his partners. Around 65 travelling merchants were connected with the voyage, in addition to a large crew. Of the 150 surviving contracts, 132 were commenda agreements — arrangements that allowed investors to put money into overseas trade without personally boarding the ship. One travelling merchant alone was connected to 13 commendas from 11 different investors. Meanwhile, the documented cargo in the surviving contracts has been reconstructed at roughly 19,016.5 libra in Marseille money. Cloth and textiles account for more than half of that recorded value. So what did you really own? A wooden ship? A cargo business? Or a floating platform connecting dozens of investors, merchants, passengers and suppliers who all needed the same thing — a way across the Mediterranean? That is where the economics become much more interesting. ⚓📜 RESEARCH AND INFORMATION SOURCES: Rosalind Kent Berlow — The Sailing of the “Saint Esprit”, The Journal of Economic History Stephan Nicolussi-Köhler — Marseille, Montpellier und das Mittelmeer, Heidelberg University Publishing Ron Harris — The Institutional Dynamics of Early Modern Eurasian Trade: The Commenda and the Corporation Annales Mercaturae — reconstruction of the 1248 Marseille cargoes and Saint Esprit voyage The National Archives — Medieval maritime personnel and ships ⚓ SUPPORT MR. OWNER MIDDLE AGES The deeper we go into these businesses, the more the surviving records surprise us — contracts, cargo lists, prices, investors, and risks that make the medieval economy feel far less “primitive” than it looks from a distance. If you enjoy this kind of research and want to help us spend more time verifying the numbers, improving the visuals, and making the next episodes more ambitious, you can buy the project a medieval cup of coffee here ☕❤️ And I want your help choosing where we sail next 👇 What medieval business, profession, workshop, trade network, or unusual way of making money should we investigate? And what would you personally improve about these videos — more maps, more numbers, different pacing, more original documents, more comparisons? Leave it in the comments. Your suggestions genuinely help shape future episodes. DISCLAIMER: This video is created for educational and entertainment purposes. Historical figures, cargo values, contracts, passenger charges and commercial practices are based on surviving medieval records and modern scholarship. The comparison between the recorded Saint Esprit cargo and Marseille property values is a modern calculation using published historical figures. The surviving 150 contracts do not necessarily represent every item or transaction connected with the voyage, so the recorded cargo value should not be treated as a complete manifest. #MedievalHistory #MerchantShip #MedievalTrade #MiddleAges #Marseille #EconomicHistory #BusinessHistory #MaritimeHistory #MedievalBusiness #MrOwnerMiddleAges