# Before the fairs: merchants and moneylenders in late medieval Lyon

Marta Gravela

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Marta Gravela. Before the fairs: merchants and moneylenders in late medieval Lyon. Jean-Louis Gaulin; Susanne Rau. Fairs, Cities and Merchants: Spatiotemporal Analyses (14th–17th century), De Gruyter, pp.315-336, 2025, SpatioTemporality / RaumZeitlichkeit, 9783111620831. 10.1515/9783111621296-012. hal-05127139

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Marta Gravela

# Before the fairs: merchants and moneylenders in late medieval Lyon

## Lyon merchants: a neglected story

Since Richard Gascon's pioneering study published in 1971, the establishment and expansion of fairs in Lyon between the late fifteenth and the mid-sixteenth century has attracted the attention of many scholars.<fnref n="1" /> In the decades that followed, research was devoted to the success of Lyon as a commercial and financial centre as well as to the commercial specialisation of the fairs, merchants' routes and entrepreneurial activities, the development of financial instruments that radically transformed the nature of the fairs, and the economic, social, and political impact of all this on the city itself.<fnref n="2" /> However, the vast majority of these studies focused on the activity of foreign merchants and bankers in Lyon, with special attention paid to Italians and Germans.<fnref n="3" /> Until recently, Italian merchant-bankers, particu-

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

<footnote n="1">1 Richard Gascon. *Grand commerce et vie urbaine au XVIe siècle. Lyon et ses marchands (environs de 1520–environs de 1580)*. Paris: S.E.V.P.E.N., 1971. Before Gascon's work, the most relevant study on these fairs dated back to 1914. See Marc Brésard. *Les foires de Lyon aux XVe et XVIe siècles. Paris: A. Picard, 1914*.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">2 Richard Gascon. *Lyon et l'Europe: hommes et sociétés*. Lyon: Presses universitaires de Lyon, 1980; Henri Hours, Olivier Zeller. *Lyon, l'argent, le commerce et la soie*. Lyon: Archives du Lyon-nais, la Manufacture, 1986; Giuseppe Iacono, Salvatore Ennio Furone. *Les marchands-banquiers florentins et l'architecture à Lyon au XVIe siècle*. Paris: Publisud, 1999. These topics are at the core of various essays in: Jean-Louis Gaulin, Susanne Rau (eds.). *Lyon vu/e d'ailleurs (1245–1800). Échanges, compétitions et perceptions*. Lyon: Presses universitaires de Lyon, 2009; Maria-Anne Privat-Savigny, Dorothée Gillmann, Brigitte Sanvoisin, Anne-Catherine Marin. *Lyon qui compte . . . Banques et finances lyonnaises*. Paris: EMCC, 2011.</footnote>

<footnote n="3">3 Following the first analysis by Raymond de Roover, several economic historians examined the success of Italian bankers. See Raymond de Roover. *The rise and decline of the Medici Bank, 1397–1494*. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1963, 289–311. See especially Michele Cassandro. *Le fiere di Lione e gli uomini d'affari italiani nel Cinquecento*. Florence: Baccini & Chiappi, 1979; Michele Cassandro. I forestieri a Lione nel '400 e '500: la nazione fiorentina. In *Dentro la città. Stranieri e realtà urbane nell'Europa dei secoli XII-XVI*, Gabriella Rossetti (ed.). Naples: Liguori, 1989, 151–162; Jacqueline Boucher. *Présence italienne à Lyon à la Renaissance: du milieu du XVe à la fin du XVIe siècle*. Lyon: Éditions LUGD, 1994. On German merchants and bankers, see Mark Häberlein. Commerce, formation et réseaux de compatriotes: la ville de Lyon vue par des marchands de l'Allemagne du Sud au XVIe et au début du XVIIe siècle. In *Lyon vu/e d'ailleurs, Gaulin, Rau (eds.), 141–159; Heinrich Lang. Wirtschaften als kulturelle Praxis. Die Florentiner Salviati und die Augsburger Welser auf den Märkten in Lyon (1507–1559)*. Stuttgart: Steiner, 2019.</footnote>
larly the Florentine, have undoubtedly dominated the historiographical land-
scape.<fnref n="4" />

Despite the fact that Gascon's work also shed light on the significant role
played by Lyon merchants and French merchants more generally, in relation to
the fairs, scholars have not further explored the features of this group, with the
partial exception of Jacques Rossiaud, who also examined a merchant family in
his studies on Lyon society, Guy de Valous, who traced the structure and charac-
teristics of the Lyon elite, and Michèle Bonnet, who studied the Lyon changers as
a group without devoting a specific analysis to any of them.<fnref n="5" /> Despite their crucial
role as intermediaries between international merchant-bankers and local buyers
or investors, Lyon merchants and financial operators have thus remained in the
background of historical research. Moreover, it is striking that historians have
shown little interest in their activities during the fourteenth and first half of the
fifteenth centuries—the period which laid the foundations for the success of the
fairs.

This essay will thus focus on the group of merchants and moneylenders ac-
tive in the city—and beyond—before the mid-fifteenth century, when four annual
fairs were established in Lyon and the city was granted important new commer-
cial and fiscal privileges (1464), replacing Geneva as the main fair centre of West-
ern Europe.<fnref n="6" /> The aim of this research is to identify the merchants and to examine
their economic and political role by searching for traces of their activities and
networks before the age of fairs and comparing them with the merchants’ situa-

<footnote n="4">4 Angela Orlandi. *Le grand Parti, Fiorentini a Lione e il debito pubblico francese nel XVI secolo.* Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2002; Jacques Bottin. Les foires de Lyon et les Italiens autour de 1600: déclin ou reconfiguration? In *La pratica dello scambio. Sistemi di fiere, mercanti e città in Europa (1400-1700)*, Paola Lanaro (ed.). Venice: Marsilio, 2003, 201-218; Edoardo Demo. Sete e mercanti vicentini alle fiere di Lione nel XVI secolo. In *La pratica dello scambio*, Lanaro (ed.), 177-200; Bruno Dini. I mercanti-banchieri italiani e le fiere di Ginevra e Lione. In *L'Italia alla fine del Medioevo. I caratteri originali nel quadro europeo*, Francesco Salvestrini (ed.). Florence: Firenze University Press, 2005, 433-456; Francesco Guidi Bruscoli. Banchieri senesi nel primo cinquecento tra Roma, Lione, e la penisola iberica. In *L'ultimo secolo della Republica di Siena*, Mario Ascheri, Fabrizio Nevola (eds.). Siena: Accademia Senese degli intronati, 2007, 385-409; Sergio Tognetti. *I Gondi di Lione. Una banca d'affari fiorentina nella Francia del primo Cinquecento*. Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2013; Nadia Matringe. *La Banque en Renaissance. Les Salviati et la Place de Lyon au milieu du XVIe siècle*. Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2016; Agnès Pallini-Martin. *Banque, négoce et politique. Les Florentins à Lyon au moment des guerres d'Italie*. Paris: Garnier, 2018.</footnote>

<footnote n="5">5 Gascon, *Grand commerce*; Jacques Rossiaud. *Lyon 1250-1550. Réalités et imaginaires d'une métropole*, Jean-Louis Gaulin, Susanne Rau (eds.). Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 2012; Guy de Valous. *Le patriciat lyonnais aux XIIIe et XIVe siècles*. Paris: Picard, 1973; Michèle Bonnet. Les changeurs Lyonnais au Moyen Age (1350-1450). *Revue Historique* 249:2 (1973): 325-52.</footnote>

<footnote n="6">6 Brésard, *Les foires de Lyon*.</footnote>
tion during the golden age of Lyon in order to understand the impact of the city's
growth on this social group. To this end, the following sections will first consider
the sources examined in the study and the methodology applied, followed by the
people identified as Lyon merchants and their socio-political profile, and finally
their fate when far richer foreign companies appeared on the scene.

The lack of interest in fourteenth-century Lyon merchants is not only a side-effect of the greater attention paid to Italian Renaissance merchant-bankers. What has also led scholars to focus on other research topics is the complex and fragmentary landscape of Lyon's fourteenth-century sources. The fourteenth-century records preserved in the city archives actually make it difficult to carry out research on specific socio-economic groups, since the vast majority of them are of a strictly political nature (for example, cartularies with franchises, royal and papal privileges to the city, etc.).<fnref n="7" /> It was not until 1388 and 1416 respectively that lists of taxpayers (known as *nommées* or *Vaillant*) and registers of delibera-tions were kept, although in these sources citizens were not necessarily recorded as merchants.<fnref n="8" /> Similarly, the records of consuls' elections—available with substantial gaps until the mid-fifteenth century—did not specify the consuls' profes-sions on a regular basis.<fnref n="9" /> Identifying merchants and financial operators in local sources thus proves problematic, and external sources have to be consulted in the search for these people.

The geographical proximity of Lyon to the Savoy territories as well as the
connections between the Savoy dynasty and the city actually suggested the need
to examine the presence of Lyon citizens in the Savoy records. My research
therefore focused on a large body of unpublished sources preserved in the ar-
chives of the House of Savoy—namely, the registers of the notaries working for

<footnote n="7">7 Constitutional and political acts of the city, Archives Municipales de Lyon, Lyon, France (hereafter AML), series AA.</footnote>

<footnote n="8">8 *Nommées* of Lyon, 1388. AML, CC 1. The first registers of *nommées* were published in *Le livre du Vaillant des habitants de Lyon en 1388. Estimation des biens meubles et immeubles par servir à l'assiette de la taille*, Edouard Philipon, Charles Perrat (eds.). Lyon: M. Audin, 1927. The delibera-tions can be found in *Deliberations of the city of Lyon, 1416*. AML, BB 1 ff. The first registers of deliberations were published in *Registres consulaires de la ville de Lyon, ou Recueil des délibéra-tions du Conseil de la Commune de 1416 à 1423*. *Publiés d'après les procès verbaux originaux*, vol. I, Marie-Claude Guigue (ed.). Lyon: A. Brun, 1882; *Registres consulaires de la ville de Lyon, ou Re-cueil des délibérations du Conseil de la Commune de 1422 à 1450*. *Publiés d'après les procès ver-baux originaux*, vol. II, Georges Guigue (ed.). Lyon: Archives et bibliothèque de la ville, 1926.</footnote>

<footnote n="9">9 *Syndicats*, 1294–1441, AML, BB 367; *Syndicats*, 1361–1381, AML, BB 368; *Syndicats*, 1442–1499, AML, BB 369; Lists of councillors and other magistrates of Lyon, 1400–1667, AML, BB 375; Lists of councillors and other magistrates of Lyon, 1294–1673, AML, BB 376; Aldermen of Lyon, 1368–1705, AML, BB 379; Aldermen of Lyon, 1382–1593, AML, BB 380.</footnote>
the lords of Savoy and Savoy-Achaea (*protocolli dei notai della corona*), which in-
clude several purchases and loans to the counts or princes, thus offering a picture
of the lords' economic network.<fnref n="10" /> As we will see shortly, the analysis revealed the
participation of Lyon merchants in more than twenty loans, making it possible to
identify a small group of citizens who were certainly active in trade and credit
between the 1320s and the early fifteenth century. Further prosopographical re-
search was then carried out by assessing the presence of these people in Lyon re-
cords and literature, their patrimonial assets, the activities in which they were
involved, and the political and administrative tasks they performed. The outcome
of this cross-check provided the basis for a better understanding of the merchants
of Lyon before the age of fairs.

Cives et mercatores Lugduni

The study of notarial registers revealed a significant number of transactions be-
tween the House of Savoy and Lyon merchants throughout the fourteenth and
early fifteenth centuries: twenty loans granted directly to the lords, to which we
can add guarantees to Lyon merchants, suggesting a prior credit relationship.<fnref n="11" />
Strikingly, in comparison to the reluctance of Lyon sources to mention profes-
sions, all Lyon citizens appearing in these records were defined as cives et merca-
tores Lugduni. The Savoy lords, however, did not turn to them to purchase goods,

<footnote n="10">10 On this source, see Guido Castelnuovo. Les protocoles des comtes de Savoie, moyens et enjeux du pouvoir princier sur l'écrit (première moitié du XIVe siècle). In *L'Enquête en questions. De la réalité à la “vérité” dans les modes de gouvernement (Moyen Âge-Temps modernes)*, Anne Mailloux, Laure Verdon (eds.). Paris: CNRS Editions, 2014, 185-93. On the way in which the Savoy territory was structured in the late medieval period, see Alessandro Barbero. The feudal principalities: the west (Monferrato, Saluzzo, Savoy, Savoy-Acaia). In *The Italian Renaissance State*, Andrea Gamberini, Isabella Lazzarini (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014, 177-96; Paolo Buffo. I principati piemontesi fra reti feudali, poteri pubblici e gerarchie territoriali. In *Reti italiche. Spazi e relazioni politiche da Roma alle Alpi nei tempi di Dante (1260-1330)*, Enrico Faini, Pierluigi Terenzi, Andrea Zorzi (eds.). Rome: Viella, 2023, 233-256.</footnote>

<footnote n="11">11 See, for instance, the guarantee granted by Duke Louis to the merchant Jean Merlet in 1433. Ducal protocols, red series, 1447-1449, Archivio di Stato di Torino (hereafter ASTO), Corte, Materie politiche per rapporto all'interno, Protocolli dei notai della corona, Protocolli ducali (serie rossa), no. 91, f. 30r. See also Marta Gravela. Archivio di Stato di Torino Sezione Corte, Protocolli camerali 91 (COL0037). In *Configurations of European Fairs: Merchants, Objects, Routes (ca. 1350-1600)*, Jean-Louis Gaulin, Susanne Rau (eds.). https://fairs-in-history.huma-num.fr/collection/COL0037 (4 September 2024).</footnote>
but rather to borrow large sums of money.<fnref n="12" /> The frequency of loans varied over time depending on the needs of the counts and princes and on the availability of creditors from different places and social circles (Savoy officers, Lombards, subjects, Italian bankers). The analysis therefore does not provide any statistical evidence; rather, it sheds light on the existence of a group of financial operators from Lyon capable of dealing with the neighbouring principalities. Tab. 1 shows the number of loans granted by Lyon citizens to the various Savoy rulers until the mid-fifteenth century.

Given that the protocols could cover different types of transactions, such as loans, repayments, or obligations towards creditors, it should be stressed that the exact sums of money originally borrowed by the Savoy rulers were not always recorded in the sources, thus making the totals in Tab. 1 only indicative of the moneylenders' potential. For example, Léonard Caille received the repayment of a loan from Count Amédée VIII in 1398, but the contract does not specify the amount repaid or that of the original loan.<fnref n="13" /> On the contrary, the 19,300 florins borrowed by Jacques of Savoy-Achaea corresponded to three subsequent loans granted in 1362 by the same group of creditors (Gilles de Cuysel, Henri Chevrier, and Jacques de Varey): 7,700 florins in July, another 1,600 in September, and finally, 10,000 in December.<fnref n="14" />

While the number of loans and financial interactions with Lyon citizens was limited in the early and late fourteenth century, it dramatically increased in the middle decades of the century under the government of Count Amédée VI in Savoy and Prince Jacques of Savoy-Achaea in Piedmont. In addition to the above-mentioned loans to Jacques, Lyon merchants lent Amédée VI huge amounts of money: nine loans in less than thirty years, for a total sum of at least 50,000 flo-

<footnote n="12">12 However, the same creditors were recorded in the protocols as selling cloth and a horse (*cor-serius bayus brunus*) to the nobleman Antoine de la Tour for 2,300 florins. See Ducal protocols, red series, 1367–1369, ASTO, Corte, Materie politiche per rapporto all'interno, Protocolli dei notai della corona, Protocolli ducali (serie rossa), no. 47, ff. 69r–70v; Marta Gravela. Archivio di Stato di Torino Sezione Corte, Protocolli ducali 47 (COL0017). In *Configurations*, Gaulin, Rau (eds.). https://fairs-in-history.huma-num.fr/collection/COL0017 (4 September 2024).</footnote>

<footnote n="13">13 Ducal protocols, red series, 1390–1400, ASTO, Corte, Materie politiche per rapporto all'interno, Protocolli dei notai della corona, Protocolli ducali (serie rossa), no. 67, ff. 156r–157r; Marta Gravela. Archivio di Stato di Torino Sezione Corte, Protocolli ducali 67 (COL0013). In *Configurations*, Gaulin, Rau (eds.). https://fairs-in-history.huma-num.fr/collection/COL0013 (4 September 2024).</footnote>

<footnote n="14">14 Ducal protocols, black series, 1362, ASTO, Corte, Materie politiche per rapporto all'interno, Protocolli dei notai della corona, Protocolli camerali (serie nera), no. 20, ff. 33v–35r, 45r–46r, 49r–51r; Marta Gravela. Archivio di Stato di Torino Sezione Corte, Protocolli camerali 20 (COL0008). In *Configurations*, Gaulin, Rau (eds.). https://fairs-in-history.huma-num.fr/collection/COL0008 (4 September 2024).</footnote>
<table><caption>**Tab. 1:** Loans granted by Lyon citizens and their partners to the House of Savoy.</caption><thead><tr><th>Savoy ruler</th><th>Period of rule</th><th>No. of loans</th><th>Approximate total sum</th><th>Creditors</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Édouard</td><td>1323–1329</td><td>2</td><td>200 florins</td><td>Aymon de Durche<br>Pierre de Chaponay</td></tr><tr><td>Aymon</td><td>1329–1343</td><td>1</td><td>200 florins</td><td>Aymon de Durche<br>Pierre de Chaponay</td></tr><tr><td>Jacques (Savoy-Achaea)</td><td>1334–1367</td><td>3</td><td>19,300 florins</td><td>Gilles de Cuysel<br>Henri Chevrier<br>Jacques de Varey</td></tr><tr><td>Amédée VI</td><td>1343–1383</td><td>10</td><td>17,200 florins +<br>17,000 francs</td><td>Jehan Oddonet<br>André Beronde<br>Aymon Nyeurs<br>Henri Chevrier<br>Jacques de Varey<br>Amblard Gerbaix*<br>Poncet Cristin<br>Barthelemy du Princin**<br>Etienne Bouchon<br>Gilles de Cuysel<br>Mathieu de Chaponay<br>Lantelmino Papa</td></tr><tr><td>Amédée VII</td><td>1383–1391</td><td>1</td><td>2,000 scudi</td><td>Poncet Cristin</td></tr><tr><td>Amédée VIII</td><td>1391–1440</td><td>3</td><td></td><td>Léonard Caille</td></tr></tbody></table>

rins, mostly between 1358 and 1372 when Amédée was engaged in a long and costly war, first against his cousin Jacques of Savoy-Achaea and then against the Visconti, lords of Milan. The insubordination of Jacques, who was trying to free himself from the feudal control of Amédée, prompted both Savoy cousins to search for new sources of credit and thus resort to Lyon moneylenders.<fnref n="15" /> Such a political and military conjuncture proved to be profitable for Lyon merchants

<footnote>* *civis* of Belley</footnote>

<footnote>** *de Cluny*</footnote>

<footnote n="15">15 Buffo, I principati piemontesi; Paolo Buffo. Savoia Acaia, Giacomo di. In *Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani*, vol. 91. Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 2018. Further research on Amédée and Jacques' loans can be found in Marta Gravela. A 'feudalized' public debt? Loans, fiefs, and debt control in the Savoy state (fourteenth-fifteenth centuries). In *The Origins of Public Debt in Europe (13th-17th centuries)*, Armand Jamme, Pere Verdes-Pijuan (eds.). Publication forthcoming.</footnote>
who could lend money to both competitors without suffering political consequences, unlike most other creditors of the House of Savoy who were the direct subjects of the count or the prince.<fnref n="16" />

Henri Chevrier and Jacques de Varey formed the core of the moneylenders' group. Already mentioned three times as creditors of Jacques of Savoy-Achaea, they also lent 14,000 florins to Amédée VI in 1366, receiving the income from the tithes of the Count's bishoprics for two years as repayment of the first 10,000 florins.<fnref n="17" /> Two years later, they granted the Count another loan of 3,000 florins in association with one of the most prominent creditors of the House of Savoy, Amblard Gerbaix of Belley, and his brother Pierre, who had become the Count's treasurer.<fnref n="18" /> Henri Chevrier appears in the sources again in 1372, granting the Count another loan (6,000 francs), this time with other financial partners from Lyon—Gilles de Cuysel (his father-in-law, as we will see in the next section), Mathieu de Chaponay, and Lantermino Papa.<fnref n="19" /> Gilles de Cuysel was not new to these collaborations as he had contributed to the three loans to Jacques of Savoy-Achaea ten years earlier, while Mathieu de Chaponay was most likely linked to Pierre de Chaponay, a creditor of Édouard and Aymon of Savoy some decades earlier.<fnref n="20" />

<footnote n="16">16 See, for instance, the political overthrow of the Provana family group in Marta Gravela. Provana. In *La signoria rurale nell'Italia del tardo medioevo*. Vol. 5. *Censimento e quadri regionali*, Federico Del Tredici (ed.). Rome: Universitalia, 2021, 139–143.</footnote>

<footnote n="17">17 Ducal protocols, black series, 1366, ASTo, Corte, Materie politiche per rapporto all'interno, Protocolli dei notai della corona, Protocolli camerali (serie nera), no. 70, ff. 12r–13v, 14r–14v; Marta Gravela. Archivio di Stato di Torino Sezione Corte, Protocolli camerali 70 (COL0009). In *Configurations*, Gaulin, Rau (eds.). https://fairs-in-history.huma-num.fr/collection/COL0009 (4 September 2024).</footnote>

<footnote n="18">18 Ducal protocols, red series, 1368–1370, ASTo, Corte, Materie politiche per rapporto all'interno, Protocolli dei notai della corona, Protocolli ducali (serie rossa), no. 57, ff. 7r–8r; Marta Gravela. Archivio di Stato di Torino Sezione Corte, Protocolli ducali 57 (COL0012). In *Configurations*, Gaulin, Rau (eds.). https://fairs-in-history.huma-num.fr/collection/COL0012 (4 September 2024). On Pierre de Gerbaix and his brother Amblard, see Bruno Galland. Gerbaix, Pierre. In *Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani*, vol. 53. Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana, 2000.</footnote>

<footnote n="19">19 Ducal protocols, black series, 1372, ASTo, Corte, Materie politiche per rapporto all'interno, Protocolli dei notai della corona, Protocolli camerali (serie nera), no. 71, f. 32v; Marta Gravela. Archivio di Stato di Torino Sezione Corte, Protocolli camerali 71 (COL0060). In *Configurations*, Gaulin, Rau (eds.). https://fairs-in-history.huma-num.fr/collection/COL0060 (4 September 2024).</footnote>

<footnote n="20">20 Ducal protocols, black series, 1329, ASTo, Corte, Materie politiche per rapporto all'interno, Protocolli dei notai della corona, Protocolli camerali (serie nera), no. 128, f. 4v; no. 155, ff. 3v–3bis r; Marta Gravela. Archivio di Stato di Torino Sezione Corte, Protocolli camerali 128 (COL0047). In *Configurations*, Gaulin, Rau (eds.). https://fairs-in-history.huma-num.fr/collection/COL0047 (4 September 2024); Marta Gravela. Archivio di Stato di Torino Sezione Corte, Protocolli camerali 155 (COL0048). In *Configurations*, Gaulin, Rau (eds.). https://fairs-in-history.huma-num.fr/collection/COL0048 (4 September 2024).</footnote>
Lantermino Papa, on the other hand, was a changer, textile and salt merchant of Turinese origin who had settled permanently in Lyon, although he was not formally a civis.<fnref n="21" /> Lantermino was still a citizen of Turin (as evidenced by the fact that he was entered in the Turin tax lists in 1363), although he probably spent most of his time in Lyon (given that his tax declaration was written in Lyon).<fnref n="22" />

It is therefore possible to infer that a small group of Lyon citizens or families —such as the Chevrier, de Varey, de Cuysel, and de Chaponay—were active in trade and finance and occasionally joined forces with less prominent merchants (Papa) or financial partners well connected with the House of Savoy (Gerbaix). Other partnerships involved Lyon citizens and partners from neighbouring regions. In 1372, for instance, Poncet Cristin, Etienne Bouchon, and other Lyon citizens lent Amédée VI 10,000 francs in association with Barthelemy du Pricin from Cluny.<fnref n="23" /> It is virtually impossible to establish whether these groups of merchants and moneylenders formed proper companies. However, it seems unlikely that they were permanent business partnerships, as the combinations of creditors in each contract seem to vary rapidly and no other evidence of joint business can be found in surviving records. As we will see shortly, other links between the moneylenders can be assumed, such as family relationships and alliances within the urban elite.

From the late fourteenth century onwards, members of the House of Savoy turned to a wider circle of creditors from elsewhere (under Amédée VIII, especially from Paris).<fnref n="24" /> Meanwhile, the increasing presence of foreign merchants and bankers in Lyon also affected the success of local merchants. An example of this gradual replacement is provided by another transaction between the Count of Savoy and merchants residing in Lyon. In the 1390s, Amédée VIII borrowed 1,800 scudi from merchants in Lyon. However, these were not locals, but Lombards

<footnote n="21">21 De Valous, *Le patriciat lyonnais*, 415–17 and Bonnet, *Les changeurs Lyonnais*, 334. In the 1380s, Jean Papa must also have settled in Lyon, as suggested by the city’s accounting records. See City accounting, 1380–1388, AML, CC 376.</footnote>

<footnote n="22">22 On this merchant's family's origin from Turin and activity in Lyon, see Alessandro Barbero. *Un'oligarchia urbana. Politica ed economia a Torino fra Tre e Quattrocento*. Rome: Viella, 1995, 80, 154.</footnote>

<footnote n="23">23 Ducal protocols, black series, 1372, ASTO, Corte, Materie politiche per rapporto all'interno, Protocollo dei notai della corona, Protocollo camerali (serie nera), no. 71, ff. 30r–32v; Marta Gravela. Archivio di Stato di Torino Sezione Corte, Protocollo camerali 71 (COL0060). In *Configurations*, Gaulin, Rau (eds.). https://fairs-in-history.huma-num.fr/collection/COL0060 (4 September 2024).</footnote>

<footnote n="24">24 Christian Guilleré. Les finances d'Amédée VIII (1391–1416). In *La naissance du duché de Savoie (1416)*, Laurent Ripart, Pascal Vuillemin, Christian Guilleré (eds.). Chambery: Université de Savoie Mont Blanc, 2020, 243–98.</footnote>
from Chieri in Piedmont who had settled in the city with part of their company (a
*consortium* of various families from Chieri—the Dodoli, de Villa, de Cordia, and
de Frassinello). The rubric “*contra Lombardos Lugduni*” in the source suggests
that they were publicly identified as moneylenders and thus the primary source
available to both private citizens and political authorities in need of money.<fnref n="25" /> In
the following decades, other foreign merchant-bankers moved to Lyon, and the
arrival of several Florentine and Tuscan companies in Lyon after 1464 was only
the final step in this process. Lyon merchants nonetheless continued to play an
essential—if less evident—role. Before focusing on this stage, the next section will
look into the socio-political profiles of the Lyon merchants who have been iden-
tified.

Businessmen from the urban élite

Once a group of merchants and moneylenders from Lyon had been identified, the
next step in this research was to gain a better understanding of their social and
political profile through the investigation of urban sources and existing literature.
Although these records are late and often fragmentary, they provide valuable in-
formation on citizens of Lyon who were active in public life. If some of them—
such as Jean Oddon or André Beronde—remain in the dark, others clearly emerge
as the longstanding protagonists of Lyon's political administration, some of them
with specific financial and accounting tasks at the service of the city, which fur-
ther suggests their confidence and familiarity with the management of consider-
able amounts of money.

Among the first creditors to appear in the Savoy sources, Aymon de Durche
does not figure prominently in the urban records, which are largely missing for
the period of his life. He was a city councillor in 1336 and belonged to one of the

<footnote n="25">25 Ducal protocols, black series, 1397, ASTo, Corte, Materie politiche per rapporto all'interno, Protocolli dei notai della corona, Protocolli camerali (serie nera), no. 149, ff. 70r-71r; Marta Gravela. Archivio di Stato di Torino Sezione Corte, Protocolli camerali 149 (COL0039). In *Configu-rations*, Gaulin, Rau (eds.). https://fairs-in-history.huma-num.fr/collection/COL0039 (4 Septem-ber 2024). On the Lombards, see Renato Bordone, Franco Spinelli (eds.). *Lombardi in Europa nel Medioevo*. Milan: FrancoAngeli, 2005; Luisa Castellani. Percorsi di affermazione di una famiglia dell'aristocrazia finanziaria astigiana: i Malabaila di Valgorrea e Carantana. *Società e Storia* 63 (1994): 19-47; Luisa Castellani. *Gli uomini d'affari astigiani. Politica e denaro tra il Piemonte e l'Europa, 1270-1312*. Turin: Paravia Scriptorium, 1998; Federico Cannelloni. *Credito e pegno, fami-glie e nazioni: i Lombardi tra Piemonte e Paesi Bassi (ca. 1380-1500)*. PhD diss., Università degli Studi di Padova, KU Leuven, 2015.</footnote>
oldest merchant and consular families in Lyon, whose members took part in the truce between the citizens and the archbishop in 1269, which marked a significant step towards the empowerment of the city.<fnref n="26" /> Aymon also appears—with a relative, Jean—in the account of an archbishop residing in Avignon, whom the Durche family (or de la Dorche) supplied with wine, oats, parchment, and various types of textile for almost 3,000 florins.<fnref n="27" /> Like Aymon and Jean, other members of the family were certainly drapers, while Anselme de Durche—Aymon’s elder brother and councillor at the turn of the century—was a jurist.

The de Durche family continued to play a leading role in the local elite. In the mid-fourteenth century, two members (Jean and Antoine), most probably related to Aymon, were subsequently elected among the city consuls and held the office at the same time.<fnref n="28" /> The lineage of Aymon, Anselme, and their brother Etienne was definitely the most influential, the most prominent member in the second half of the century being Guillaume, councillor and owner of a considerable fortune according to the *Vaillant*, the tax survey of the inhabitants’ properties (4,500 francs, mostly urban buildings).<fnref n="29" /> In the following century, which is better covered by the urban records, the de Durches were still councillors, along with another Jean in 1415 and 1419, who was also a maître de métier of the furriers in 1435, while his cousin Guillaume was a councillor in 1431.<fnref n="30" />

Alongside the de Durches, the most prominent families in the group of fourteenth-century creditors were the de Varey and de Chaponay family. The latter was one of the oldest urban families, mentioned since the late twelfth century as builders and patrons of the chapel where the city consuls met until the city acquired a proper town hall (see below).<fnref n="31" /> Major international merchants since at least the early thirteenth century, the de Chaponays appear in the records not only as wealthy, but also as linked to the most important local religious institutions and as active participants in the citizens’ struggle against the archbishop.<fnref n="32" /> The importance of the family also emerges from a 1308 list of citizens—headed

<footnote n="26">26 De Valous, *Le patriciat lyonnais*, 201–209; Michel Rubellin, *Église et société chrétienne d’Agobard à Valdès*. Lyon: Presses universitaires de Lyon, 2003, 359–422.</footnote>

<footnote n="27">27 Alexis Charansonnet, Jean-Louis Gaulin, Pascale Mounier, Susanne Rau (eds.), *Lyon, entre Empire et Royaume (843–1601): textes et documents*. Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2015, 457–459.</footnote>

<footnote n="28">28 *Syndicats*, 1294–1441.</footnote>

<footnote n="29">29 De Valous, *Le patriciat lyonnais*, 202–3.</footnote>

<footnote n="30">30 Caroline Fargeix. *Les élites lyonnaises du XVe siècle au miroir de leur langage: pratiques et représentations culturelles des conseillers de Lyon, d’après les registres de délibérations consulaires*. Paris: De Boccard, 2007, 588.</footnote>

<footnote n="31">31 Charansonnet, Gaulin, Mounier, Rau (eds.), *Lyon, entre Empire et Royaume*, 204; Rossiaud, *Lyon 1250–1550*, 369.</footnote>

<footnote n="32">32 De Valous, *Le patriciat lyonnais*, 169–183.</footnote>
precisely by Humbert de Chaponay—who acted before the royal procurators at a time when they added to their trade the profession of changers, of which André de Chaponay was also maître de métier in the 1350s.<fnref n="33" /> Given the fragmentary state of early fourteenth-century records, hardly anything is known about the political career of Pierre de Chaponay, the first creditor mentioned in our sources, son of the citizen of the same name who acted as procurator of the city in 1271 and who was certainly dead by 1339. His son Jaquemet, draper and maître de métier in 1356, was elected councillor in 1358 and 1359,<fnref n="34" /> but it was a different son who continued the lineage and increased its wealth—Mathieu, the second creditor on our list. A draper and changer, Mathieu de Chaponay was a member of the team that drew up the taxpayers' records (*Vaillant*). In 1388, his assets—including 34 houses in Lyon—were valued at 3,000 francs.<fnref n="35" /> Mathieu's eldest son, Antoine, consul in 1401 and 1406, inherited the family house which was subsequently bought by the city and transformed into the first town hall; his brother Aynard, who followed in his father's footsteps, owned four houses worth a total of 400 florins and was elected councillor five times between 1417 and 1432.<fnref n="36" />

Other descendants of the de Chaponay family were admitted to the city council: first Jean, a draper; then his son Philibert, also a draper; and his grandson Charles, who became a Doctor of Law but did not give up the family business of trading in textiles. Another member of the family—Antoine, also a lawyer—was instead appointed general fiscal procurator of the Dauphiné.<fnref n="37" /> By the mid-sixteenth century, the de Chaponay family had acquired a seigneurial privilege, a fate common to several Lyon elite families, which thus obtained further income. However, they did not leave the urban environment and opportunities: Nicolas de Chaponay, lord of Feyzin, remained linked to the city, where he still had a patrimony valued at 200 *livres* in 1545, and was consul and conservator of the royal privileges of the Lyon fairs.<fnref n="38" />

The social and political profile of the de Varey family was similar, if not higher; nonetheless, it was certainly more numerous, as several branches appear

<footnote n="33">33 Charansonnet, Gaulin, Mounier, Rau (eds.), *Lyon, entre Empire et Royaume*, 345; De Valous, *Le patriciat lyonnais*, 174.</footnote>

<footnote n="34">34 De Valous, *Le patriciat lyonnais*, 175; Charansonnet, Gaulin, Mounier, Rau (eds.), *Lyon, entre Empire et Royaume*, 451.</footnote>

<footnote n="35">35 *Nommées* of Lyon, 1388; *Nommées* of Lyon, 1380–1423, AML, CC 13; Rossiaud, *Lyon 1250–1550*, 148n, 150n.</footnote>

<footnote n="36">36 De Valous, *Le patriciat lyonnais*, 176; Fargeix, *Les élites lyonnaises*, 585.</footnote>

<footnote n="37">37 De Valous, *Le patriciat lyonnais*, 177; Fargeix, *Les élites lyonnaises*, 585; Charansonnet, Gaulin, Mounier, Rau (eds.), *Lyon, entre Empire et Royaume*, 487–8.</footnote>

<footnote n="38">38 *Nommées* of Lyon, 1545, AML, CC 40; Charansonnet, Gaulin, Mounier, Rau (eds.), *Lyon, entre Empire et Royaume*, 614–5.</footnote>
in the sources from the fourteenth century onwards, making it impossible to iden-
tify and link all the family members who often had the same forenames. Re-
corded in Lyon as early as the late twelfth century with the canon priest of Saint
Paul, Pierre de Varey, the de Vareys rapidly acquired large estates in Lyon and,
like the de Durches and de Chaponays, took part in the crucial deeds of the 1260s
and 1270s.<fnref n="39" /> However, according to the extant sources, they appear to have en-
gaged in trade less than the families previously examined, with Bernard de Varey
first mentioned as a draper in 1270 and elected councillor twice in the 1290s, a
period in which the de Vareys began to regularly occupy the seats of the city
council. In the early fourteenth century, Guillaume de Varey was actually maître
de métier of the terriers, merchants who no longer practiced their trade.

Various members of the family appear as Lyon citizens in the aforementioned
deed of 1308 (Bernard l'Aîné, second in line after Humbert de Chaponay, Bernard
de la Porcherie, Humbert, Gui, and Jean), while others are mentioned as consuls
(Bernard, Guillaume, Jeannin, Humbert, and Mathieu) or maîtres de métier (Bernier,
Jeannin) fifty years later.<fnref n="40" /> The merchant and moneylender Jacques, who ap-
pears in the Savoy records, must have been active in the second half of the century,
although he does not appear in the local sources studied so far.<fnref n="41" /> Humbert must
have been the dominant figure: a consul, he was also in charge of the city accounts
and tax collection, like several other elite members examined here.<fnref n="42" /> The richest
family member, however, seems to have been another Humbert, abbot and provost
of Ainay, whose real estate was valued at 3,400 francs in 1388.<fnref n="43" /> Several heirs of the
de Varey family were elected consuls in the fifteenth century, and some also held
the highest offices in the city—such as Jean, courier between 1416 and 1452, and
Girard, provost in the 1440s and courier in 1458–59—while others pursued careers
in the royal administration—such as Guillaume, royal procurator in 1455, and an-
other Humbert, who climbed the social ladder to the nobility in 1473 and to the title
of maître of the royal hotel.<fnref n="44" />

What is especially interesting in this case is that almost all the members of
the de Varey family gradually ceased to practice their trade and the credit busi-

<footnote n="39">39 De Valous, *Le patriciat lyonnais*, 133–163.</footnote>

<footnote n="40">40 *Syndicats*, 1294–1441; Charansonnet, Gaulin, Mounier, Rau (eds.), *Lyon, entre Empire et Royaume*, 345, 450–1.</footnote>

<footnote n="41">41 He cannot be the *parcheminier* Jaquemin de Varey listed in the tax records. See *Nommées* of Lyon, 1388.</footnote>

<footnote n="42">42 Charansonnet, Gaulin, Mounier, Rau (eds.), *Lyon, entre Empire et Royaume*, 481; *Syndicats*, 1361–1381; City accounting, 1409–1411, AML, CC 389.</footnote>

<footnote n="43">43 *Nommées* of Lyon, 1388.</footnote>

<footnote n="44">44 Fargeix, *Les élites lyonnaises*, 600.</footnote>
ness, at least personally. Most of them are actually mentioned in the sources as drapers, but quit their profession to become landowners—and sometimes even seigneurial lords—in a short period of time, so that the various family branches were identified on the basis of their *seigneurie* (Avauges, Belmont, Rontalon). Of the many members of the family, only Bernard was still active as the *maître de métier* of drapers in the early decades of the fifteenth century, but he eventually became a *terrier* in 1423.

The other Savoy creditors belonged to a group of more recent but politically prominent families: the de Cuysel, Chevrier, and Caille families, whose sociopolitical profile reveals a greater familiarity with credit and accounting activities at the service of the city and external authorities. The de Cuysel family was part of the local elite at the turn of the fourteenth century, entering the urban council in 1320.<fnref n="45" /> Gilles de Cuysel—who granted loans to both Jacques of Savoy-Achaea and Amédée VI of Savoy—was not only a consul in 1340 and 1364–65, but also, significantly, a creditor of the city and the local church. The available sources do not make it possible to establish the nature of the relationship existing with another influential member of the family, Guillaume de Cuysel. Guillaume was a draper and notary, but above all he was procurator and secretary of the city in the 1380s and 1390s, a period in which he also held the post of accountant and tax collector, an appointment that required considerable financial resources (to advance the money subsequently collected) and specific accounting skills.<fnref n="46" /> Despite a considerable patrimony, his assets in the 1388 *Vaillant* (1,347 francs, most of it in movable property) were not comparable to those of the most important members of the de Chaponay or de Varey families previously examined.<fnref n="47" /> Another Guillaume de Cuysel was mentioned in these years as draper, suggesting a large practice of trade and credit in the family.<fnref n="48" /> The family continued to provide the city with consuls in the early fifteenth century, when Pierre de Cuysel eventually took part in the council, although he was actually a Chevrier, as we will see shortly.<fnref n="49" /> A family member of the same name also took part in the municipal government and is mentioned in the accounts of the Savoy treasurer, but he probably died

<footnote n="45">45 De Valous, *Le patriciat lyonnais*, 243–246.</footnote>

<footnote n="46">46 *Syndicats*, 1294–1441; City accounting, 1380–1388; City accounting, 1397–1408, AML, CC 385. Guillaume also worked at the book of the *Vaillant*, the tax records of the city. See Rossiaud, *Lyon 1250–1550*, 133, 147, 151n, 155, 157, 166.</footnote>

<footnote n="47">47 De Valous, *Le patriciat lyonnais*, 244.</footnote>

<footnote n="48">48 It is hard to tell whether Girard de Cuysel—called *Le Masson*, a mason in charge of assessing public works in the city in 1396—was a relative of the most important de Cuysels. See City accounting, 1380–1388; Charansonnet, Gaulin, Mounier, Rau (eds.), *Lyon, entre Empire et Royaume*, 481.</footnote>

<footnote n="49">49 City accounting, 1409–1411.</footnote>
without heirs.<fnref n="50" /> As also proven by Pierre Chevrier/de Cuysel’s will, the patrilinear line died out at the turn of the fifteenth century, his mother Catherine de Cuysel being the last descendant of the family.<fnref n="51" />

The Chevrier family had been active in Lyon at least since the late thirteenth century, although their origins remain uncertain. Barthélemy, a royal officer and draper, was procurator of the city and the family’s first councillor, while Jean Chevrier was a canon priest of the church of Saint-Just.<fnref n="52" /> Of Barthélemy’s sons, at least two—Henri and Pierre—followed their father’s footsteps as drapers. The eldest, Henri, was a leading member of the local elite: he was in charge of the city’s accounts and tax collection at various times in the 1360s, he was elected to the city council at least seven times in the second half of the century, and—in addition to the loans to the House of Savoy—lent considerable amounts of money to the urban government of which he was a member while also taking on military appointments.<fnref n="53" /> He was registered in the *Vaillant* with a total patrimony of 2,400 francs, of which one-third derived from movable property.<fnref n="54" /> The success of the family increased following Henri’s activity, when at least five Chevriers—mostly Henri’s sons—were elected councillors during the fifteenth century: Jean and Pierre (since the late fourteenth century), Henri, Audry, and André, all of whom are mentioned as drapers in the sources, while Jean and André are also mentioned as maîtres de métier, the latter eventually becoming the maître de métier of merchants.<fnref n="55" /> Pierre Chevrier was especially prominent in the lineage, as he was elected councillor fourteen times and, according to the *Vaillant*, owned a total patrimony of almost 5,000 francs.

It should be noted that Pierre was sometimes identified as Pierre de Cuysel from his mother’s family name, another sign of the close links between these elite families as they often formed marriage alliances. Among the oldest consular lineages, marriage bonds were established between the jurist Anselme de Durche and Amphelise de Chaponay, who had no children, and between Mathieu de Chaponay and Marguerite de Varey. However, it was the Chevrier family in particular that forged strong links with several Lyon elite families. Not only did Henri

<footnote n="50">50 The deliberations mention “Pierre de Cuysel l’ainsné [. . .] et le petit Pierre de Cuysel.” See *Registres consulaires de la ville de Lyon*, vol. II, 110.</footnote>

<footnote n="51">51 Marguerite Gonon. *La vie quotidienne en Lyonnais d’après les testaments, XIVe–XVIe siècles*. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1968, 384–385.</footnote>

<footnote n="52">52 De Valous, *Le patriciat lyonnais*, 247–259; Charansonnet, Gaulin, Mounier, Rau (eds.), *Lyon, entre Empire et Royaume*, 292.</footnote>

<footnote n="53">53 *Syndicats*, 1361–1381; City accounting, 1364–1365, AML, CC 373.</footnote>

<footnote n="54">54 *Nommées* of Lyon, 1388.</footnote>

<footnote n="55">55 Fargeix, *Les élites lyonnaises*, 586.</footnote>
Chevrier marry the last heiress of the de Cuysel family, Catherine (thus acquiring a large part of the family economic assets), but their daughter Huguette married Guillaume de Durche; in the next generation, Louis, Pierre Chevrier/de Cuysel's son, married Claude de Varey (Humbert's daughter). The relationship between Henri Chevrier, Gilles de Cuysel, and Jacques de Varey, who formed a rather robust business partnership lending thousands upon thousands of florins to the House of Savoy, was especially strong, as Gilles was Henri's father-in-law and the tutor of Jacques' son, Claude (see Fig. 1).

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 1: Family and social relationships between Lyon merchant-moneylenders.</figcaption></figure>

Such marriages and social alliances completely excluded a more recently established social group within the Lyon elite, which consisted mainly of merchants and royal officers. The last two moneylenders mentioned in the Savoy records belonged to this group. The Cailles perfectly sum up the features of these families. Resident in Lyon since the late thirteenth century, the Cailles did not rise to political office until 1358, when Andrevet Caille, a furrier and maître de métier in the same field, first appears as a councillor.<fnref n="56" /> Léonard Caille, creditor of Amédée VIII of Savoy and councillor more than ten times between 1391 and 1426, was one of the sons of another furrier and councillor, Jacques, probably Andrevet's brother. Léonard continued the family business, becoming maître de métier, but above all he acquired a leading role in the new urban elite, becoming a councillor fourteen times and exercising various financial and accounting functions, not to mention the various diplomatic missions he undertook on behalf of the city government.<fnref n="57" /> With a for-

<footnote n="56">56 De Valous, *Le patriciat lyonnais*, 324–330; Charansonnet, Gaulin, Mounier, Rau (eds.), *Lyon, entre Empire et Royaume*, 450.</footnote>

<footnote n="57">57 Fargeix, *Les élites lyonnaises*, 585; City accounting, 1405–1423, AML, CC 392.</footnote>
tune reaching 3,000 francs in the 1388 *Vaillant*, Léonard definitely placed the family at the top of the social ladder, without ceasing to practice his trade at the highest level (the Cailles' customers included the royal family and members of the high ecclesiastical institutions of Lyon).

His brother Jean pursued his profession as both a furrier and *maître de métier*, becoming a councillor in the early fifteenth century, although political fractures in the urban elite made his career less brilliant than Léonard's. Consequently, only two of Jean's sons—François and Jacques—were admitted to the local council in the 1440s–1450s and 1450s–1470s respectively, while two others entered the clergy and one had a successful career in the council of the Dauphiné and then the Parliament of Paris.<fnref n="58" /> However, within two generations, the Caille brothers had also left the furrier trade to become first apothecaries and then professional money-changers, with François also acting as the *maître de métier* of money-changers in 1449, 1452, and 1455. Jacques and his wife also commissioned the building of a hospital for plague sufferers.<fnref n="59" /> The social ascent was completed by Jacques' son, Jean, a Doctor of Law and councillor of the city in the 1480s and 1490s, recorded as a judge in 1501.<fnref n="60" />

Finally, little is known about the Cristin family, resident in Lyon since at least the early fourteenth century, but not admitted to the urban elite until the 1370s. At this time, the draper Poncet Cristin was a creditor of Amédée VII of Savoy for more than 2,000 *scudi*, showing once again how political and financial business were strongly linked.<fnref n="61" /> The treasurer of the Archbishop of Lyon in the 1380s, Poncet was also elected councillor three times.<fnref n="62" /> His remarkable assets (2,274 francs in the *Vaillant*) explain the social rise of a merchant and entrepreneur, but were not enough to guarantee the Cristin family a political succession.

## The age of fairs

The final question of this research concerns the impact of the establishment of the Lyon fairs on this group of merchants who largely corresponded to the late medieval ruling elite of Lyon. How did these families cope with the massive settlement of foreign merchant-bankers' companies between the late fifteenth and the

<footnote n="58">58 City accounting, 1409–1411; De Valous, *Le patriciat lyonnais*, 328; Fargeix, *Les élites lyonnaises*, 585.</footnote>

<footnote n="59">59 Deliberations of consuls, 1477–1478, AML, BB 350.</footnote>

<footnote n="60">60 Fargeix, *Les élites lyonnaises*, 585.</footnote>

<footnote n="61">61 De Valous, *Le patriciat lyonnais*, 401–2.</footnote>

<footnote n="62">62 City accounting, 1382–1383, AML, CC 377.</footnote>
early sixteenth centuries? Did they continue their trading and moneylending activities? Did they form new business partnerships with the newcomers? Or had they already moved their interests elsewhere? In order to address these questions, I will approach the topic from two different points of view: on the one hand, by outlining the changes in the urban elite in the fifteenth century; on the other hand, by comparing the data emerging from this research with those in Richard Gascon's study of the sixteenth century.

First, the research presented in this essay has helped to better identify the financial core of the Lyon elite while also showing that this group of families was far from unchangeable. A gradual turnover of this political and financial ruling class began as early as in the mid-fourteenth century, when new figures—such as the Chevrier or, later, the Caille—appeared on the scene. The rise of these people was directly linked to trade, credit, and royal offices, rather than to long-term membership of the urban community. Despite their rapid social rise, these lineages sometimes did not last more than a century—as was the case with the de Cuysels, who died out in the early fifteenth century. We can thus see that the Lyon elite was always open to new members capable of contributing to the management of the city and at the same time exposed to the physiological risks of lineage extinction, which led to a less dramatic but nevertheless intense turnover in the urban merchant group.

Moreover, several successful Lyon merchants gave up—or at least greatly reduced—their involvement in trade during the fifteenth century. It was precisely their remarkable achievements in trade and finance that provided them with the resources to acquire considerable amounts of land and often also feudal titles, and to retire as rentiers or, alternatively, to pursue careers in law and offices in the service of the King of France or the Dauphin. Among the families studied here, the de Vareys shifted their economic interests to land early on, acquiring various feudal estates, as did the de Chaponays, who added land to their significant careers by becoming jurists.<fnref n="63" /> Legal professions were the main alternative to acquiring a rural estate, like the Caille family also shows.<fnref n="64" />

However, this did not imply a total withdrawal from trading activities. As we have seen, quite a few heirs of the families examined here stopped practising their trade personally, but continued their activity by investing in other people's companies, with a profile officially recognised as *terrier*. Consequently, their disappearance from the sources as merchants coincides with the peak of their economic success, since most of these former merchants became *terriers* and land-

<footnote n="63">63 See also Gascon, *Grand commerce*, 504–506, 813–814.</footnote>

<footnote n="64">64 Gascon, *Grand commerce*, 823.</footnote>
owners after they had reached this position, in a process which took place before
the great success of the Lyon fairs. We can therefore infer that these families
were not marginalised and excluded from trade and finance by the new foreign
companies arriving after 1464; rather, they had already moved on, often diversi-
fying their activities, leaving their place to others.

This seems to be confirmed if we look at Lyon merchants from a sixteenth-
century perspective. Gascon's investigation actually uncovered quite a number of
Lyon companies active during the golden age of fairs, showing that they were
the second-most important group of merchants after the Italians.<fnref n="65" /> Far from
being excluded by foreign operators, the Lyon merchants played a crucial role in
the import sector, with ten companies between the ninth and thirty-second in the
ranking of importers, although the volume of commodities traded was un-
questionably lower than that of the Italians. However, what is most significant is
that none of the families of merchant-moneylenders examined in this essay ap-
peared among those ten companies of drapers and apothecaries. Some had disap-
peared by then—like the Chevriers, who died out in the early sixteenth century;
on the contrary, others—such as the Caille or de Varey families—were still active
on the local political scene and in the royal administration. It is impossible to in-
vestigate their role as “external” investors on the basis of the surviving sources,
but we can assume that they continued to finance other companies as terriers
while no longer actively engaging in trade. The place of the late medieval Lyon
merchants was thus not taken by foreigners, who occupied a completely new eco-
nomic sphere; rather, a regular turnover of the local merchant elite led to the re-
placement of the previous merchants, who were now serving as lords and royal
officers.

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Lists of councillors and other magistrates of Lyon, 1294–1673. AML, BB 376.

Nommées of Lyon, 1388. AML, CC 1.

Nommées of Lyon, 1380–1423. AML, CC 13.

Nommées of Lyon, 1545. AML, CC 40.

Syndicats, 1294–1441. AML, BB 367.

Syndicats, 1361–1381. AML, BB 368.

Syndicats, 1442–1499. AML, BB 369.

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