MONASTIC ECONOMY ACROSS TIME Wealth Management, Patterns, and Trends
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CENTRE FOR ADVANCED STUDY MONASTIC ECONOMY SOFIA ACROSS TIME WEALTH MANAGEMENT, PATTERNS, AND TRENDS The Centre for Advanced Study So a (CAS) Roumen Avramov The book aims at a readership of both econo- EDITED BY is an independent non-pro t institution Aleksandar Fotić mists and historians. Beyond the well-known ROUMEN AVRAMOV with strong international and Elias Kolovos Weberian thesis concerning the role of Protes- ALEKSANDAR FOTIĆ multidisciplinary pro le set up Phokion P. Kotzageorgis tantism in the development of capitalism, mo- ELIAS KOLOVOS for the promotion of freedom Dimitrios Kalpakis nastic economies are studied to assess their PHOKION P. KOTZAGEORGIS of research, scholarly excellence Styliani N. Lepida impact on the religious patterns of economic be- and academic cooperation Preston Perluss havior. Those issues are discussed in the frame in the Humanities Gheorghe Lazăr of key economic concepts such as rationality, and Social Sciences. Konstantinos Giakoumis state intervention, networking, agency, and gov- Wealth Management, Patterns, and Trends Patterns, Management, Wealth Lidia Cotovanu ernance. The book includes essays concerning Andreas Bouroutis Byzantine, Ottoman and modern South-Eastern www.cas.bg Brian Heffernan Europe, and early modern and modern Western Antoine Roullet Europe. Survival and continuity of the monastic Michalis N. Michael wealth is considered as an example of success- Daniela Kalkandjieva ful handling of real estate transactions, ows of Isabelle Depret funds, and contacts with nancial institutions. Isabelle Jonveaux Moreover, the book focuses on the economic im- pact of the privileged relations of monasticism with the secular powers. Finally, the question is raised how the monastic economy (still) matters in the contemporary world. MONASTIC ECONOMY ACROSS TIME ACROSS ECONOMY MONASTIC Centre for Advanced Study Sofia MONASTIC ECONOMY ACROSS TIME WEALTH MANAGEMENT, PATTERNS, AND TRENDS EDITED BY Roumen AvRAmov, AleksAndAR Fotić, ELIAS KOLOVOS, PHOKION P. KOTZAGEORGIS CENTRE FOR ADVANCED STUDY SOFIA MONASTIC ECONOMY ACROSS TIME WEALTH MANAGEMENT, PATTERNS, AND TRENDS Edited by ROUMEN AVRAMOV AleksAndAR Fotić ELIAS KOLOVOS PHOKION P. KOTZAGEORGIS Centre for Advanced Study Sofia 2021 On the cover: Zographou monastery, Mount Athos (Wikipedia, Georgid, 2005) and Recollects Convent, Antwerp (J. Le Roy – J. Neefs, Amsterdam 1678). The drawings in the book are from the second visit of Vasily Grigorovich-Barsky to the Holy Mountain Athos (1744). © Roumen Avramov, Aleksandar Fotić, Elias Kolovos, Phokion P. Kotzageorgis, editors and authors, 2021 © Dimitrios Kalpakis, Styliani N. Lepida, Preston Perluss, Gheorghe Lazăr, Konstantinos Giakoumis, Lidia Cotovanu, Andreas Bouroutis, Brian Heffernan, Antoine Roullet, Michalis N. Michael, Daniela Kalkandjieva, Isabelle Depret, Isabelle Jonveaux, authors, 2021 © Vesselin Pramatarov, graphic design, 2021 © Centre for Advanced Study Sofia, 2021 ISBN 978-619-91841-1-0 TABL E O F C ONT E NTS I NTRODU C TION Does Monastic Economy Matter? 9 Roumen Avramov, Aleksandar Fotić, Elias Kolovos, Phokion P. Kotzageorgis S ECTION I WEALTH MANAGEMENT: REAL ESTATE CHA P TER 1 Beyond the Borders: the Vital Space of Byzantine Athos 27 A GEOGRAPHICAL OVERVIEW OF THE ATHONITE ESTATES UP TO THE OTTOMAN CONQUEST Dimitrios Kalpakis CHA P TER 2 Transactional Activity of Kykkos Monastery (Cyprus) in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 43 REAL ESTATE CONTRACTS Styliani N. Lepida C HA P TER 3 Urban Catholic Monasteries and Urban Growth in Eighteenth-Century European Cities 55 Preston Perluss S ECTION II FLOW OF FUNDS AND GOVERNANCE CHA P TER 4 How to Run a Big Monastic Çiftlik: the Case of Hilandar’s Bulgar Metochion in Karviya (Kalamaria), Sixteenth–Seventeenth Centuries 83 Aleksandar Fotić CHA P TER 5 Crisis and Survival of the Athonite Monasteries during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 98 PRELIMINARY FINDINGS AND THOUGHTS Phokion P. Kotzageorgis 5 CHA P TER 6 Between Piety and Economics 112 NUCET MONASTERY (WALLACHIA) AND ITS REGISTER OF REVENUE AND EXPENSES (1731–1739) Gheorghe Lazăr CHA P TER 7 Monastic Financial Management in the Provinces of the Patriarchate of Constantinople (1867–1873) 130 THE CASE OF THE METROPOLIS OF DRYINOUPOLIS AND GJIROKASTRA Konstantinos Giakoumis S ECTION III DEALING WITH FINANCE CHA P TER 8 Orthodox Monasteries as Banks 155 A COMPARISON WITH CATHOLIC MOUNTS OF PIETY Lidia Cotovanu CHA P TER 9 Assets, Interest and National Preferences 181 THE ATHONITE MONASTERIES AND THE GREEK BANKS IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY Andreas Bouroutis CHA P TER 1 0 Nuns’ Funds 197 THE 1874 AND 1925 ACCOUNTS OF THE CARMEL OF ’S-HERTOGENBOSCH, THE NETHERLANDS Brian Heffernan S ECTION I V VIS-À-VIS THE SECULAR POWER CHA P TER 1 1 Monasteries, Economy, and Politics in the Orthodox World from Medieval to Modern Times 217 Elias Kolovos CHA P TER 1 2 The Economics of Patronage in Western Catholic Nunneries (Sixteenth-Eighteenth Century) 229 Antoine Roullet 6 CHA P TER 1 3 The Church of Cyprus and the Transition from Ottoman Rule to British Modernity 244 CHURCH PROPERTY IN ITS POLITICAL CONTEXT Michalis N. Michael CHA P TER 1 4 The Monastic Economy of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church Between the Two World Wars 261 Daniela Kalkandjieva S ECTION V CONTEMPORARY MONASTICISM CHA P TER 1 5 Female Orthodox Monasticism, Ecology, and Productivist Capitalism 281 THE CASES OF THE MONASTERIES OF ORMYLIA (GREECE) AND SOLAN (FRANCE), LATE TWENTIENTH - EARLY TWENTY FIRST CENTURY Isabelle Depret CHA P TER 1 6 Does Monastic Economy Still Matter? 297 THE ECONOMY OF CATHOLIC MONASTERIES AND THE EXPECTATIONS OF SOCIETY Isabelle Jonveaux A U THORS 311 7 INTRODU C TION Does Monastic Economy Matter? Roumen Avramov, AleksAndar Fotić, eliAs kolovos, Phokion P. kotzAgeoRgis Research Questions and Hypotheses The monastic economy as part of the economics of religion has been a matter of lasting interest for both economists and historians (Iannaconne 1998). The impres- sive amount of descriptive literature accumulated during more than a century sheds light on the economic activities carried out in monasteries, which first arose in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.1 But the contributions in the field have had a much wider impact, as they have helped to test a variety of theoretical hypotheses concerning fundamental aspects of economic behaviour/s in the longue durée. The discussion of Max Weber’s theory about the role of Protestantism in the gestation of capitalism is probably the best-known example (Weber 1904 and 1905). Recent research has shown the incidence of the subject on – often unexpected – contempo- rary economic problems. The economics of medieval monasticism in the West was centred on the abbeys organized according to the Benedictine principles. The time frame of this classi- cal period is closed by the Protestant Reformation (Becker, Pfaff and Rubin 2016). Eastern Christian monasticism, on the contrary, has remained within rigid rules and avoided substantial doctrinal reforms. The geopolitical setting in both parts of Europe was quite dissimilar. If the abbeys in the West existed in realms per- taining to the Christian world, this was not the case for the Orthodox monasteries in the East. While they were located in Christian empires and kingdoms until the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries (Byzantium, Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, the Danubian Principalities), from the Ottoman conquest up to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, monasteries in Southeastern Europe were situated in a polity 1 When it comes to the West, the volume looks occasionally at religious orders and congregations beyond monasticism in the strict sense. 9 MONASTIC ECONOMY ACROSS TIME. W EALTH M ANAGE M ENT , P ATTERNS , AND T RENDS where the state religion was Islam. Research has shown, however, that the monas- teries, like the Orthodox Church in general, survived, and sometimes even thrived, under Muslim rule. Among the outstanding centres of monastic life in this region were the still-functioning monastic commonwealth on Mount Athos, the rock monasteries of Meteora (Greece, Thessaly), the monasteries of Kykkos (Cyprus), Rila and Bachkovo (originally “Petritsoni monastery”) in Bulgaria, Dečani and Mileševa (Serbia) or those in the Ottoman vassal principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (modern-day Romania). The economy of Western and Eastern monasticism and its influence on general eco- nomic behaviour has rarely (if at all) been the subject of systematic comparative study (Kolovos 2011; Van Dijck, De Maeyer, Tyssens, and Koppen 2013). The con- ventional view holds that Southeastern European economies have been historically characterized by a lower degree of economic rationality, less influence of meth- odological (economic) individualism, a greater presence of the state in economic affairs, and economic backwardness (Buss 1995; Djankov, Nikolova and Zilinsky 2016; Makrides 2019). Could these peculiarities and other important features be ascribed to legacies stemming from monastic life, and if so, in what ways, and are some of these traits still important in today’s economic cultures? Alternatively, did the monastic institutions generate tangible positive economic impulses in the re- gion? The book provides and discusses evidence related to these questions. In order to enhance comparison, it brings evidence from both the East and the West, with special attention to the former: the East has been less researched and a monastic revival is currently underway there. Rationality Since Max Weber’s seminal works,