MARKETPLACE
- Italians, Jews, money -
Beside the many examples of vivid commercial activities, there are other indications that Zoutleeuw was an important trading centre in the thirteenth century. For example, Jewish and North-Italian merchants regularly visited the city, who were known as the most active group of medieval long-distance traders. Also a money broker resided in the city, who helped merchants to find their way in the hundreds of currencies used in the middle ages. Uniform, national monetary units did not yet come to the surface, let alone that the euro had already seen the light. If the monks of the abbey of St-Trudo (in the neighbouring city of St-Trudo, only few kilometres east of Zoutleeuw)) needed cash, for instance, they turned to a certain ‘Otto, cambitor of Zoutleeuw’. Because Zoutleeuw was situated on the extreme border of the duchy of Brabant, levies made on the changing of money were notably lower than cities in a central position like Brussels or Louvain. The market place of Zoutleeuw therefore was the hub of local economy.