Jean Boinebroke of Douai


Jehan Boinebroke was a French merchant from Douai.
He is described in The Cambridge History of Western Textiles as 'undoubtedly the most famous merchant-draper "capitalist" to be found in medieval western Europe' and is sometimes depicted as a medieval robber baron.

Life

Boinebroke was alderman 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 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 to Tournai 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 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, 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 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,

Key studies