Financing in Europe (eBook)

Marcella Lorenzini is a Post-doc Researcher at the University of Trento, Italy. Her work researches how credit markets develop in the absence of formal institutions. Her recent publications include one monograph and a chapter in a collected volume on Infrastructure Financing in the Early Modern Age.Cinzia Lorandini is an Associate Professor in Economic History at the University of Trento, Italy. Her research mainly focuses on credit markets and trade in the early modern and modern period. She has authored several publications on these topics, including two monographs and one article for the journal Business History.D’Maris Coffman is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Economics and Finance of the Built Environment at UCL Bartlett, UK and Director of the Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management. Prior to this D’Maris was a Leverhulme/Newton Trust Early Career Fellow at the History Faculty of the University of Cambridge, UK, and Fellow and Director of the Centre of Financial History at Newnham College, UK. She works on the relationship between public finance and private capital markets in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe and sits on the Council of the Economic History Society.

Contents 8
Contributors 11
List of Figures 15
List of Tables 18
Introduction 21
Formal and Informal Credit Across Europe: A Long-Run Perspective 21
References 37
Part I: Informal, Non-institutional and Professional Credit in Preindustrial Europe 39
The Rise of London as a Financial Capital in Late Medieval England 40
The Statute Merchant and Staple Certificates of Debt 43
London’s Financial Status in 1290–99 45
Alien Merchants and London’s Credit 46
The Crown’s Influence on London’s Credit 48
The City and the Cloth Trade 53
Falling Coin and Coin 54
Conclusions 58
References 63
When Things Go Wrong: Credit, Defaults and Institutions in Early Modern Venice 65
The Framework of Early Modern Venetian Trade 66
Financing Companies and Business in Early Modern Venice 73
Coping with Conflicts. The Protection of Credit Rights 82
A Tentative Conclusion 85
List of Abbreviations for Archival Sources 87
References 88
Financing Trade Through Limited Partnerships: Evidence from Silk Firms in Eighteenth-Century Trentino 93
Introduction 93
The Limited Partnership in Early Modern Europe 96
The Case of Silk Merchants in Trentino: Sources and Method 100
Single Traders and Family Firms 103
Detecting Limited Partnerships 109
Direct Evidence from Partnership Agreements 109
Indirect Evidence from the ‘Oblatorie’ 113
Concluding Remarks 117
Abbreviations for Archival Sources 119
References 121
Borrowing and Lending Money in Alpine Areas During the Eighteenth Century: Trento and Rovereto Compared 124
Introduction 124
The Notaries as Credit Intermediaries 128
Credit Instruments 130
Risk Mitigation 132
Loan Sizes and the Purpose of Debt 134
Interest Rates 138
Borrowers and Lenders 138
Concluding Remarks 140
Archival References 141
Trento 141
Rovereto 142
References 148
The Social Acceptance of Paper Credit as Currency in Eighteenth-Century England: A Case Study of Glastonbury c. 1720–1742 152
References 176
Public Functions, Private Markets: Credit Registration by Aldermen and Notaries in the Low Countries, 1500–1800 179
Introduction 179
Registering Private Debt 182
Transaction Patterns 188
The Functions of Aldermen and Notaries 195
Risk Pricing 201
Conclusion 205
References 208
Notaries and Domestic Lending in Wartime (Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century France) 211
Borrowing in Critical Times: The War Against Spain (1648–1659) 212
Promissory Notes and Reconstitutions During the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) 214
Forced Loans and Liquidity Insurance: A Combination for Channelling Funds 215
The Other Side of Notaries’ Activities: The Use of Deposits 217
References 222
Private Credit in Spain During the Late Eighteenth and the Early Nineteenth Centuries: Institutions, Crisis and War 223
Introduction 223
Institutional Framework: Problems and Imbalances 226
Private Credit in Valladolid 230
The Urgent Need for Credit: Short-Term Credit 232
Concentration and Stagnation: Long-Term Credit 238
Credit Dynamics During the War 241
Conclusions 247
References 249
Sources 251
Archivo de la Real Chancillería de Valladolid (ARChV): Section Pleitos Civiles 252
Legal Codes 252
Part II: Credit in the Time of the Emergence of Modern Banking 253
Microcredit in the Ottoman Empire: A Review of Cash Waqfs in Transition to Modern Banking 254
Introduction 254
Cash Waqfs: Legal and Administrative Characteristics 256
Cash Waqfs During the Nineteenth Century: An Overview of Endowment Deeds 262
Cash Waqfs and Modern Banking 271
Conclusion 278
References 280
Archival Sources 280
Secondary Sources 280
Challenging the Institutional Revolution of Credit Markets in the Nineteenth Century 284
State of Research 284
Research Design 286
General Conditions 288
Non-corporate Versus Institutional 294
Hybrid Forms 298
Conclusion 299
References 301
Manuscript Sources 301
Landesarchiv des Saarlandes Saarbrücken LAS 301
Archives Départementales de la Moselle Metz AD57 302
Werksarchiv Villeroy & Boch Mettlach Werksarchiv V&
Secondary Sources 302
Relationship-Based Finance in Changing European Banking Scenarios: The Case of Parent Schaken et Compagnie (1835–66) 306
Introduction 306
Sources and Methodology 309
Parent Schaken et Compagnie 311
Railway Works and Small Bankers (1835–50) 313
Business Diversification and Big Railway Companies (1851–58) 316
Global Business and Big Banks (1859–66) 320
Concluding Remarks 326
References 330
Archives 330
Printed Sources 330
Formalising Credit Markets? The Entrance of English Joint-Stock Banks 334
Introduction 334
Organisational Form 336
Ownership 338
Decision-Making Process 340
Lending Activity 346
Assessing Creditworthiness 350
Conclusion 354
References 357
Bank Archives 357
Printed Sources 357
Towards the Institutionalisation of Credit 361
References 365
Erratum 368
Index 369