A valued product within reach of all: the supply and uses of wax in the Late Middle Ages. The case of Mallorca

Abstract

To date, historians —both those specializing in trade and in the religious practices of the Late Middle Ages— have tended to underestimate the significance of wax. This study connects with recent approaches by researchers from different countries who have focused on the role played in the market by "secondary" commodities. Some, like wax, had a high added value, and were also massively consumed in the Christian West. Through an extensive collection of data from the accounting ledgers of the Sacristy of the Cathedral of Mallorca, as well as from other fiscal sources (Mallorcan, Catalan and Italian), the article presents Mallorca as a useful example to interpret the marketing and consumption of wax in the fifteenth century. Mallorca was a privileged space: it became a redistribution hub to Europe of a product that mainly arrived from North African ports. The liturgical uses of wax in the Cathedral of Mallorca are also analysed, emphasizing some re-use strategies (necessary given its high prices). Finally, the article describes a specific form of wax consumption, namely votive images. The article provides a novel image of the trade and use of a product that had become ubiquitous in the material reality of the Late Middle Ages.