Household Debt in Early Modern Germany

Evidence from Personal Inventories

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4885441
AutoresSheilagh Ogilvie (0000-0001-8807-3826, University of Cambridge, autor de correspondencia), Markus Küpker (University of Cambridge, autor de correspondencia), Janine Maegraith (0000-0002-3944-8940, University of Cambridge, autor de correspondencia)
Año2012
Volumen72
Número1
Páginas134-167
Fecha de publicación2012-03-12
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaThe Journal of Economic History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0022-0507 • E-ISSN: 1471-6372
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022050711002464
OpenAlexW2144141166
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas24
Referencias citadas27

The "less-developed" interior of early modern Europe, especially the rural economy, is often regarded as financially comatose. This article investigates this view using a rich data set of marriage and death inventories for seventeenth-century Germany. It first analyzes the characteristics of debts, examining borrowing purposes, familial links, communal ties, and documentary instruments. It then explores how borrowing varied with gender, age, marital status, occupation, date, and asset portfolio. It finds that ordinary people, even in a "less-developed" economy in rural central Europe, sought to invest profitably, smooth consumption, bridge low liquidity, and hold savings in financial form

Asset (computer security) · Business · Consumption (sociology) · Debt · Economics · Economy · Market liquidity · Monetary economics · Political science · Portfolio · Rural area · Rural economy · Sociology · Finance · Historical Economic and Social Studies