La Monnaie de Rodez (IIème partie) : l'organisation et le personnel de l'atelier (XIIIe-XIVe siècle)

At Rodez as elsewhere, written sources of the 13th and 14th centuries provide information mostly concerning the men involved in the organisation of the mint. The Mint of the counts of Rodez was the preserve of the merchants of Cahors and their relations in Montpellier, most often money-changers and members of the urban nobility. The role played by the inhabitants of Rodez hardly ever exceeded that of associates or servitors of the counts in the control of manufacture. Sociological study suggests a relatively close network based on commercial relations and family ties which united inhabitants of Cahors and the Rouergue, and reveals the participation of this «  milieu  » in all financial activities (credit, change, farming of public revenue) and regional commerce. The location of the mint, at the end of the 13th century, in the main market centre of Rodez, in the immediate vicinity of the houses of families who took part in its functioning, symbolises both the placing of monetary activity at the heart of the exchange economy and the intermarriage amongst the elite of this small city.