Jehan Boinebroke (died 1286 in Douai) was a French merchant from

Douai Douai (, , ,; pcd, Doï; nl, Dowaai; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord département in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some from Lille and from Arras, D ...

. He is described in ''The Cambridge History of Western Textiles'' as 'undoubtedly the most famous merchant-

draper Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. History Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period ...

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...

" to be found in medieval

western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

' and is sometimes depicted as a medieval robber baron.John H. Munro, 'Medieval Woollens: Textiles, Textile Technology and Industrial Organisation, ''c''. 800-1500', in ''The Cambridge History of Western Textiles, Volume 1'', ed. by D. T. Jenkins (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 181-227 (219).

Life

Boinebroke was

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many Jurisdiction, jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council membe ...

(''échevin'') of his city nine times and accumulated in the course of his life a considerable fortune. He had wool imported from England to Douai and had peasant women spin it into yarn. He also developed a

dyeing Dyeing is the application of dyes or pigments on textile materials such as fibers, yarns, and fabrics with the goal of achieving color with desired color fastness. Dyeing is normally done in a special solution containing dyes and particular ...

factory. He made his workers live in its houses at inflated rents, which lead to a riot by artisans and workers in Douai in 1245. A second episode of unrest against his leadership came in 1280, this time extending from

Ypres Ypres ( , ; nl, Ieper ; vls, Yper; german: Ypern ) is a Belgian city and municipality in the province of West Flanders. Though the Dutch name is the official one, the city's French name is most commonly used in English. The municipality co ...

Tournai Tournai or Tournay ( ; ; nl, Doornik ; pcd, Tornai; wa, Tornè ; la, Tornacum) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies southwest of Brussels on the river Scheldt. Tournai is part of Euromet ...

and Douai, with Boinebroke being able to overcome the rebellion in Douai. He was also considered to be merciless to his debtors, which was highly condemned in an era when

usury Usury () is the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes—or in a legal sense, where an interest rate is ch ...

was seen as a major sin. In his will Boinebroke decreed that the executor should first pay his debts and make up for all the wrong caused by him before his property should go to his four children. When he died in 1286 at Douai, numerous individuals submitted their complaints. The compiled grew into a 5.5 m long parchment.

Legacy

Modern historians, in the tradition of

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

, have often viewed Boinebroke's business activity as an early example capitalist exploitation of his workers. However, other historians claim that he was never an

industrialist A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

who owned factories or manufactures, but rather a trader whose reputation was built on over the centuries through, sometimes, deliberate meddling by scholars. In the assessment of John H. Munro, :he was no 'industrial capitalist', a term that is clearly an anachronism for this era. He was instead principally a wool merchant, dealing in English and domestic wools, and his role as a cloth merchant was only secondary ... he owned land, with many properties in Douia itself and a sheep farm outside. As a merchant, he provided wool on credit to industrial drapers, who pledged their cloths, looms and sometimes even their home as security; and some of them also rented their houses from him. But most of his wage-earning employees were those required for the wool trade itself: sorters, beaters, washers and some wool dyers (who worked in his dyehouse). Although Boinebroke did employ a few others in cloth making, chiefly to work some tentering frames that he owned, there is absolutely no evidence that he ever directly supervised the central processes of cloth production.

Key studies

* Georges Espinas: Les origines du capitalisme I: Sire Jehan Boinebroke patricien et drapier douaisien. Bibliothèque de la Société d'histoire du droit des pays flamands, picards et wallons 7. Lille 1933.

References

French businesspeople 13th-century births 1286 deaths French merchants 13th-century French people Medieval French merchants 13th-century merchants {{France-business-bio-stub