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Jaco Zuijderduijn

Senior lecturer

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Prison bound? : Merchants, Loan Guarantees, and Reprisals in Medieval Dordrecht (c. 1300)

Author

  • Jaco Zuijderduijn

Summary, in English

The article provides empirical evidence on the use of two types of security in medieval finance: conditional hostageship and the community responsibility system. Both exposed guarantors to imprisonment or confiscation. Evidence from Dordrecht shows the former was frequently applied but was not very disruptive. However, the latter community responsibility system did lead to reprisals against merchants. It was used to provide the ruler with loan guarantees: Dordrecht's travelling citizens acted as collateral, and thus played a crucial role in enabling the ruler to create sovereign debt. The city's willingness to provide this financial service for many centuries, while exposing its merchants to reprisals in the process, must be seen in the context of Charles Tilly's model of an ongoing exchange where cities provided financial services and rulers compensated them with political and economic privileges.

Department/s

  • Department of Economic History

Publishing year

2019

Language

English

Pages

10-28

Publication/Series

Vierteljahresschrift fur Sozial und Wirtschaftsgeschichte

Volume

106

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article review

Publisher

Franz Steiner Verlag

Topic

  • Economic History

Keywords

  • Economic institutions
  • Finance
  • Middle Ages
  • Trade

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0340-8728