Morality and the early medieval marketplace in the decrees of the Council of Paris, 829

In summer 829, a group of bishops met at Paris with instructions from Emperor Louis the Pious to discuss the ailments of the Carolingian Empire. The decrees of this council include a series of chapters on economic abuses that collectively represent one of the most important sources on early medieval commercial relations. They shed light on how inequalities of status and power impinged on transactions in diverse ways. This contribution examines the text and its implications in detail, arguing that the Paris decrees emphasize the importance of markets, but also reveal trading contexts where elites and non-elites mingled, to the detriment of the latter.