Diagnostic Test 20 Practice Test
•18 QuestionsA historian argues that in late-medieval Mediterranean trade, formal verification tools—wax seals, countersealed letters, and merchant notaries—reduced fraud in cross-regional exchanges more effectively than kin-based guarantees. The claim holds that when merchants moved beyond their home networks, standardized documents and third-party witnesses lowered default rates by making contracts portable and enforceable across jurisdictions. While family ties could sustain trust locally, their credibility weakened when disputes crossed city-states with differing customs and courts. The historian proposes that ports adopting documentary requirements should show fewer unpaid debts and disputes among nonlocal traders compared with ports relying on familial sureties.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support the scholar's claim?
A historian argues that in late-medieval Mediterranean trade, formal verification tools—wax seals, countersealed letters, and merchant notaries—reduced fraud in cross-regional exchanges more effectively than kin-based guarantees. The claim holds that when merchants moved beyond their home networks, standardized documents and third-party witnesses lowered default rates by making contracts portable and enforceable across jurisdictions. While family ties could sustain trust locally, their credibility weakened when disputes crossed city-states with differing customs and courts. The historian proposes that ports adopting documentary requirements should show fewer unpaid debts and disputes among nonlocal traders compared with ports relying on familial sureties.
Which finding, if true, would most directly support the scholar's claim?