The urban cheese market in late medieval Prato. Supply networks, retail structures, and consumption patterns

This article examines the cheese market in the Italian town of Prato between 1380 and 1410. Through the quantitative analysis of a rare set of account-books kept by key retail actors – cheesemongers and innkeepers, merchants and brokers – it shows how dairy products became increasingly affordable to common households, demonstrating that the consolidation of retail structures enabled the diversification of supply, the reduction of prices, and the systematic use of credit beyond close personal networks. Nevertheless, the findings also indicate that informal exchanges persisted, confirming that the complementarity of different commercial outlets remained essential to the provisioning of everyday goods.