The Merchant, the Monkeys and the Lure of Money

The image of the merchant or pedlar robbed by apes is common in late medieval art, appearing in manuscripts, on misericords, and in a number of prints. Whilst this image is often considered to be merely frivolous or, at most, a warning to merchants to be vigilant in their business dealings, the present paper argues that it may well originate in a warning against the corrupting influence of money in the increasingly mercantile culture of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Europe.