Debt Litigation and the Performance of Law Courts in Eighteenth-Century Portugal

Bibliographic Data

ID4010328
AuthorsLisbeth Rodrigues (0000-0002-2434-8349, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume50
Issue2
Pages237-264
Publication date2019-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Interdisciplinary History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-1953 • E-ISSN: 1530-9169
PublisherMIT Press - Journals (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1162/jinh_a_01411
OpenAlexW2970359405
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited19

Theoretically, the extent to which the eighteenth-century Portuguese legal system was able to enforce loan contracts should be evident from the duration of the court proceedings and the execution of the collateral that secured the loans. Yet, data from a newly assembled data set that includes the contracts established by the Lisbon Misericórdia-the major lay brotherhood in Portugal and a leading creditor in the city-as well as 990 lawsuits from its private court of law (exclusive jurisdiction) have a different story to tell about the complex mechanisms behind the lending activities of the institution. Notwithstanding the reasonably rapid resolution of its cases and its routinely successful execution of collateral, the Misericórdia's law court was powerless to solve the problem of default or to safeguard lenders' property rights. The membership of creditors and debtors in the Misericórdia tended to undermine cooperation rather than enhance it, challenging the assumption that cohesive groups hold high levels of social capital

Capital (architecture · Default · Institution · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Culture, Economy, and Development Studies · Historical Economic and Social Studies

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