Land and Credit - Mortgages in the Medieval and Early Modern European Countryside

Acknowledgements

Contents

Editors and Contributors

Abbreviations

List of Figures

List of Tables

Chapter 1 Introduction: Mortgages and Annuities in Historical Perspective

1.1 Mortgage Contracts and Mortgage Law: Security, but for Whom?

1.2 Mortgage Credit: Winners and Losers

1.3 Beyond Europe: Mortgages and Development

1.4 Contents of the Volume

Bibliography

Chapter 2 Mortgages and the English Peasantry c.1250–c.1350

2.1 Introduction

2.2 A Wider Search for Mortgages

2.3 Why Were Mortgages Rare Overall?

2.3.1 Usury

2.3.2 Property Rights

2.3.3 Were the Mortgage Terms Too Disadvantageous to Borrower/Mortgagor?

2.4 Did the Scarcity of the Mortgage Have a Negative Impact on the Rural Credit Market?

2.5 Conclusion

References

Chapter 3 Mortgages Raised by Rural English Copyhold Tenants 1605–1735

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Dimensions of the Mortgage Borrowing

3.3 Profiles of the Copyhold Borrowers and Their Possible Motivation for Using Mortgages

3.4 Borrower Case Studies

3.4.1 John Moore: Purchase and Refurbishment

3.4.2 William Wyatt: Regular Borrowing for Investment

3.4.3 Thomas Wyatt: Legacies and Inherited Debt

3.4.4 John Collins: Financial Difficulties

3.5 The Mortgage Lenders

3.6 Relationships Between Borrower and Lender

3.7 Lender Case Studies

3.7.1 Abigail Rothwell Widow: Lender of £260 to John Godwin of Crawley

3.7.2 Susanna Mitchell, Spinster of Hinton Ampner: Lender to Her Brother

3.7.3 Simon Hatch, Yeoman of Droxford: Lender to Three Meonstoke Borrowers

3.8 Conclusions

References

Chapter 4 Mortgages and the Kentish Yeoman in the Seventeenth Century

4.1 Introduction

4.2 The Nature of the Market

4.2.1 Growth of the Market

4.2.2 Borrowers and Lenders

4.2.3 Intermediaries

4.3 Terms and Conditions

4.3.1 Interest

4.3.2 Term

4.3.3 Possession

4.4 Conveyancing

4.4.1 Type of Mortgage Conveyance

Mortgage in Fee and Mortgage by Demise

Other Types of Mortgage Deed

Remortgages and Assignments

4.4.2 Enrolment and Registration

4.5 Outcomes

4.5.1 Forfeiture, Foreclosure and Sale

4.5.2 Redemption

The Right of Redemption

The Equity of Redemption

4.5.3 Remedies and Dispute Resolution

4.6 Conclusions

References

Chapter 5 Why the Equity of Redemption?

5.1 Introduction

5.2 The Purpose of Mortgages

5.2.1 Acquisition of Property

5.2.2 Obtaining Otherwise Unavailable Credit

5.3 Relation of Property and Debt Values

5.4 Ancient Inheritance

5.5 Relationships Between Mortgagors and Mortgagees

5.6 Mortgagees’ Desire for the Property

5.7 Variance of Mortgage Terms

5.7.1 Continuation upon Interest

5.7.2 Late Redemption Beyond Chancery

5.8 Conclusion

References

Chapter 6 Credit and Land: The Jews of Zaragoza 1383–1400

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Loan Guarantees and Pledges—Theory and Practice

6.3 Jewish Lending and Developments in the Credit Market

6.3.1 Background—c.1250–1350

6.3.2 Previous Studies of Jewish Lending

6.3.3 Security

6.3.4 Developments in the Credit Markets During the Fourteenth Century

6.4 The Jews of Zaragoza, 1383–1400

6.4.1 The Lenders

6.4.2 Scope of Economic Activities

6.4.3 Loan Deeds

6.4.4 Analysis of Loans

6.4.5 Borrowers

6.4.6 Security Underpinning Loans

6.4.7 The Terms of Land Pledges

6.4.8 Relationship to the Wider Property Business

6.5 Conclusions

References

Chapter 7 Not Only Land: Mortgage Credit in Central-Northern Italy in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

7.1 Introduction: The Land Rush in Sixteenth-Century Northern Italy

7.2 The New Success of an Old Credit Instrument

7.3 The Versatile Nature of Censi Consignativi: From a Defensive Instrument to a Driving Force

7.4 Concluding Remarks

References

Chapter 8 Rural Credit Markets in Eighteenth-Century France: Contracts, Guarantees and Land

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Rural Credit Markets in Early Modern France

8.2.1 Circuits of Credit

8.2.2 The Main Credit Instruments

8.3 A Rural Credit Market in the Eighteenth-Century France

8.3.1 A Local Credit Market

8.3.2 Obligations in the Seigneurie of Delle

8.3.3 Annuities Versus Obligations?

8.3.4 Parish Vestries and Annuities

8.4 Changes and Challenges in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century

8.4.1 The Ultimate Need for a Guarantee

8.4.2 Changes in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century

8.5 Conclusion

References

Chapter 9 The Use of Perpetual Annuities in Rural Brabant in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

9.1 Introduction: The Role of Credit in the Rural Economy of Brabant

9.2 The Problem of Sources

9.3 The Surroundings of Antwerp

9.4 The Campine Area

9.5 West of Brussels: The Villages of the Manor of Kruikenburg

9.5.1 Land and Credit Markets

9.6 Conclusion

Appendix

References

Chapter 10 Proactive Peasants? The Role of Annuities in a Late Medieval Communal Society: The Campine Area, Low Countries

10.1 Introduction

10.2 The Campine Area: Characteristics of a Communal Peasant Region in the Heart of Urbanity

10.3 Annuities: The Institutional Context

10.4 General Credit Market Trends

10.5 The Role of Factor Markets: The Absence of Accumulation

10.6 The Absence of Urban Domination

10.7 The Role of Factor Markets: Part of a Peasant Strategy

10.8 Conclusion

References

Chapter 11 The Other Fundamental Problem of Exchange: Mortgages, Defaults and Debtor Protection in Sixteenth-Century Holland

11.1 Introduction: The Other Fundamental Problem of Exchange

11.2 Borrowing on Collateral

11.3 A Fine Balance: Debtor Protection in Holland

11.4 Conclusion

References

Chapter 12 Afterword: Mortgages as Mediation Between Kin and Capital

12.1 England

12.2 Civil Law Areas

References

Index