Before Banks - The Making of Credit and Debt in Preindustrial France

This innovative work delves into the world of ordinary early modern women and men and their relationship with credit and debt. Elise Dermineur focuses on the rural seigneuries of Delle and Florimont in the south of Alsace, where rich archival documents allow for a fine cross-analysis of credit transactions and the reconstruction of credit networks from c.1650 to 1790. She examines the various credit instruments at ordinary people's disposal, the role of women in credit markets, and the social, legal, and economic experiences of indebtedness. The book's distinctive focus on peer-to-peer lending sheds light on how and why pre-industrial interpersonal exchanges featured flexibility, diversity, fairness, solidarity and reciprocity, and room for negotiation and renegotiation. Before Banks also offers insight into factors informing our present financial system and suggests that we can learn from the past to create a fairer society and economy.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. The setting: mutual arrangements in small communities in the south of Alsace 1650 - 1790; 2. Peer-to-peer lending in non-intermediated credit markets; 3. Intermediated credit: notarial contracts; 4. Women and credit; 5. Insolvency and default; 6. The growing institutionalization of credit; Epilogue: the community of advantage.

About the author

Elise Dermineur is an associate professor of economic history at Stockholms Universitet, Sweden and the author of Gender and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Sweden (2017) and Women and Credit in Preindustrial Europe (2019).

Summary

Elise Dermineur reconstructs the world of ordinary early modern women and men and their relationship with credit and debt. Examining the credit instruments at ordinary people's disposal, the role of women in credit markets and the social, legal and economic experiences of indebtedness, she uncovers lessons for today's financial systems.

Foreword

Explores the making of credit and debt in preindustrial France, focusing on the financial networks of ordinary men and women.

Product details

• Authors: Elise M. Dermineur, Elise M. (Stockholm University) Dermineur
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.11.2024
• EAN: 9781009502641
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0950264-1
• No. of pages: 293
• Series: Cambridge Studies in Economic History - Second Series
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Business > General, dictionaries; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, France, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History, Social & cultural history, Economic history, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, Alsace, Legal History, 17th century, c 1600 to c 1699, Social and cultural history, Gender studies: women, Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700, Gender studies: women and girls, C 1600 To C 1700, C 1700 To C 1800, Credit and credit institutions, Credit & Credit Institutions