Land and Credit (eBook)

Mortgages in the Medieval and Early Modern European Countryside

Chris Briggs, Jaco Zuijderduijn (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2018 | 1st ed. 2018
XVIII, 339 Seiten
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-319-66209-1 (ISBN)

Infos

This volume investigates the use of mortgages in the European countryside between the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries. A mortgage allowed a loan to be secured with land or other property, and the practice has been linked to the transformation of the agrarian economy that paved the way for modern economic growth.

Historians have viewed the mortgage both positively and negatively: on the one hand, it provided borrowers with opportunities for investment in agriculture; but equally, it exposed them to the risk of losing their mortgaged property. The case studies presented in this volume reveal the variety of forms that the mortgage took, and show how an intricate balance was struck between the interests of the borrower looking for funds, and those of the lender looking for security. It is argued that the character of mortgage law, and the nature of rights in land in operation in any given the place and period, determined the degree to which mortgages were employed. Over time, developments in these factors allowed increasing numbers of peasants to use mortgages more freely, and with a decreasing risk of expropriation. This volume will be appealing to academics and researchers interested in financial history, credit and debt.  

Chris Briggs, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Medieval British Social and Economic History at the University of Cambridge, UK, and affiliated to Selwyn College, Cambridge. Dr Briggs is the author of a number of studies of credit and debt in the medieval economy, including Credit and village society in fourteenth century England (2009).

Jaco Zuijderduijn, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economic History at Lund University, Sweden. He publishes widely on the financial history of the later Middle Ages, with a particular focus on how individuals made use of financial markets. He is the author of Medieval capital markets. Markets for 'renten', state formation and private investment in Holland (1300-1550) (2009). 

Inhalt

Acknowledgements 6
Contents 7
Editors and Contributors 9
Abbreviations 13
List of Figures 14
List of Tables 16
Chapter 1 Introduction: Mortgages and Annuities in Historical Perspective 18
1.1 Mortgage Contracts and Mortgage Law: Security, but for Whom? 20
1.2 Mortgage Credit: Winners and Losers 24
1.3 Beyond Europe: Mortgages and Development 29
1.4 Contents of the Volume 30
Bibliography 32
Chapter 2 Mortgages and the English Peasantry c.1250–c.1350 34
2.1 Introduction 34
2.2 A Wider Search for Mortgages 39
2.3 Why Were Mortgages Rare Overall? 48
2.3.1 Usury 49
2.3.2 Property Rights 50
2.3.3 Were the Mortgage Terms Too Disadvantageous to Borrower/Mortgagor? 52
2.4 Did the Scarcity of the Mortgage Have a Negative Impact on the Rural Credit Market? 54
2.5 Conclusion 57
References 59
Chapter 3 Mortgages Raised by Rural English Copyhold Tenants 1605–1735 63
3.1 Introduction 63
3.2 Dimensions of the Mortgage Borrowing 67
3.3 Profiles of the Copyhold Borrowers and Their Possible Motivation for Using Mortgages 73
3.4 Borrower Case Studies 80
3.4.1 John Moore: Purchase and Refurbishment 80
3.4.2 William Wyatt: Regular Borrowing for Investment 80
3.4.3 Thomas Wyatt: Legacies and Inherited Debt 81
3.4.4 John Collins: Financial Difficulties 81
3.5 The Mortgage Lenders 82
3.6 Relationships Between Borrower and Lender 87
3.7 Lender Case Studies 90
3.7.1 Abigail Rothwell Widow: Lender of £260 to John Godwin of Crawley 90
3.7.2 Susanna Mitchell, Spinster of Hinton Ampner: Lender to Her Brother 91
3.7.3 Simon Hatch, Yeoman of Droxford: Lender to Three Meonstoke Borrowers 92
3.8 Conclusions 92
References 95
Chapter 4 Mortgages and the Kentish Yeoman in the Seventeenth Century 97
4.1 Introduction 97
4.2 The Nature of the Market 100
4.2.1 Growth of the Market 102
4.2.2 Borrowers and Lenders 104
4.2.3 Intermediaries 111
4.3 Terms and Conditions 112
4.3.1 Interest 112
4.3.2 Term 114
4.3.3 Possession 115
4.4 Conveyancing 116
4.4.1 Type of Mortgage Conveyance 116
Mortgage in Fee and Mortgage by Demise 116
Other Types of Mortgage Deed 119
Remortgages and Assignments 119
4.4.2 Enrolment and Registration 120
4.5 Outcomes 121
4.5.1 Forfeiture, Foreclosure and Sale 121
4.5.2 Redemption 123
The Right of Redemption 123
The Equity of Redemption 123
4.5.3 Remedies and Dispute Resolution 124
4.6 Conclusions 125
References 129
Chapter 5 Why the Equity of Redemption? 132
5.1 Introduction 132
5.2 The Purpose of Mortgages 135
5.2.1 Acquisition of Property 135
5.2.2 Obtaining Otherwise Unavailable Credit 138
5.3 Relation of Property and Debt Values 141
5.4 Ancient Inheritance 143
5.5 Relationships Between Mortgagors and Mortgagees 146
5.6 Mortgagees’ Desire for the Property 149
5.7 Variance of Mortgage Terms 150
5.7.1 Continuation upon Interest 150
5.7.2 Late Redemption Beyond Chancery 153
5.8 Conclusion 155
References 161
Chapter 6 Credit and Land: The Jews of Zaragoza 1383–1400 164
6.1 Introduction 164
6.2 Loan Guarantees and Pledges—Theory and Practice 165
6.3 Jewish Lending and Developments in the Credit Market 167
6.3.1 Background—c.1250–1350 167
6.3.2 Previous Studies of Jewish Lending 169
6.3.3 Security 172
6.3.4 Developments in the Credit Markets During the Fourteenth Century 174
6.4 The Jews of Zaragoza, 1383–1400 177
6.4.1 The Lenders 177
6.4.2 Scope of Economic Activities 178
6.4.3 Loan Deeds 179
6.4.4 Analysis of Loans 179
6.4.5 Borrowers 181
6.4.6 Security Underpinning Loans 183
6.4.7 The Terms of Land Pledges 186
6.4.8 Relationship to the Wider Property Business 188
6.5 Conclusions 189
References 192
Chapter 7 Not Only Land: Mortgage Credit in Central-Northern Italy in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 195
7.1 Introduction: The Land Rush in Sixteenth-Century Northern Italy 195
7.2 The New Success of an Old Credit Instrument 200
7.3 The Versatile Nature of Censi Consignativi: From a Defensive Instrument to a Driving Force 205
7.4 Concluding Remarks 211
References 215
Chapter 8 Rural Credit Markets in Eighteenth-Century France: Contracts, Guarantees and Land 219
8.1 Introduction 219
8.2 Rural Credit Markets in Early Modern France 220
8.2.1 Circuits of Credit 220
8.2.2 The Main Credit Instruments 222
8.3 A Rural Credit Market in the Eighteenth-Century France 224
8.3.1 A Local Credit Market 224
8.3.2 Obligations in the Seigneurie of Delle 226
8.3.3 Annuities Versus Obligations? 229
8.3.4 Parish Vestries and Annuities 231
8.4 Changes and Challenges in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century 233
8.4.1 The Ultimate Need for a Guarantee 233
8.4.2 Changes in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century 237
8.5 Conclusion 240
References 242
Chapter 9 The Use of Perpetual Annuities in Rural Brabant in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries 246
9.1 Introduction: The Role of Credit in the Rural Economy of Brabant 246
9.2 The Problem of Sources 250
9.3 The Surroundings of Antwerp 251
9.4 The Campine Area 252
9.5 West of Brussels: The Villages of the Manor of Kruikenburg 253
9.5.1 Land and Credit Markets 254
9.6 Conclusion 260
Appendix 262
References 263
Chapter 10 Proactive Peasants? The Role of Annuities in a Late Medieval Communal Society: The Campine Area, Low Countries 266
10.1 Introduction 266
10.2 The Campine Area: Characteristics of a Communal Peasant Region in the Heart of Urbanity 269
10.3 Annuities: The Institutional Context 272
10.4 General Credit Market Trends 276
10.5 The Role of Factor Markets: The Absence of Accumulation 278
10.6 The Absence of Urban Domination 283
10.7 The Role of Factor Markets: Part of a Peasant Strategy 285
10.8 Conclusion 288
References 290
Chapter 11 The Other Fundamental Problem of Exchange: Mortgages, Defaults and Debtor Protection in Sixteenth-Century Holland 294
11.1 Introduction: The Other Fundamental Problem of Exchange 294
11.2 Borrowing on Collateral 297
11.3 A Fine Balance: Debtor Protection in Holland 301
11.4 Conclusion 313
References 317
Chapter 12 Afterword: Mortgages as Mediation Between Kin and Capital 321
12.1 England 326
12.2 Civil Law Areas 329
References 335
Index 338

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 27.2.2018
• Reihe/Serie: Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance
• Reihe/Serie: Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance
• Zusatzinfo: XVIII, 339 p. 23 illus.
• Verlagsort: Cham
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management
• Schlagworte: Capitalism • debt • Financial History • Investments and Securities • Rural Credit Markets • rural history
• ISBN-10: 3-319-66209-0 / 3319662090
• ISBN-13: 978-3-319-66209-1 / 9783319662091