Land and Credit
Mortgages in the Medieval and Early Modern European Countryside
Editors: Briggs, Chris, Zuijderduijn, Jaco (Eds.)
Free Preview- Provides a comparative overview of mortgages in pre-modern Europe (c.1200-c.1800)
- Focuses on the similarities and differences in mortgage systems during this period
- Features new original research presented in a number of case studies
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- About this book
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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, rural credit and debt, and the economic history of agrarian communities.
- About the authors
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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).
- Table of contents (12 chapters)
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Introduction: Mortgages and Annuities in Historical Perspective
Pages 1-16
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Mortgages and the English Peasantry c.1250–c.1350
Pages 17-45
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Mortgages Raised by Rural English Copyhold Tenants 1605–1735
Pages 47-80
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Mortgages and the Kentish Yeoman in the Seventeenth Century
Pages 81-115
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Why the Equity of Redemption?
Pages 117-148
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Table of contents (12 chapters)
Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- Land and Credit
- Book Subtitle
- Mortgages in the Medieval and Early Modern European Countryside
- Editors
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- Chris Briggs
- Jaco Zuijderduijn
- Series Title
- Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance
- Copyright
- 2018
- Publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- Copyright Holder
- The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)
- eBook ISBN
- 978-3-319-66209-1
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-319-66209-1
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-3-319-66208-4
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-3-030-09763-9
- Series ISSN
- 2662-5164
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- XVIII, 339
- Number of Illustrations
- 23 b/w illustrations
- Topics
