PhD Dissertation: Crédito privado y deuda en Castilla (1480-1521) Universidad de Valladolid, 2013 ...

CRÉDITO PRIVADO Y DEUDA EN CASTILLA

(1480-1521)

ÍNDICE

INTRODUCCIÓN ............................................................................................ 11

CAPÍTULO 1. CIMIENTOS DEL CRÉDITO EN CASTILLA: LA LEY

1. DE LA LEY MEDIEVAL A LA PRÁCTICA MODERNA ............................ 47 1.1. EL CRÉDITO EN LA BASE DEL ORDENAMIENTO CASTELLANO:

LAS PARTIDAS ......................................................................................... 50 1.1.1. EL PRÉSTAMO .................................................................................. 53 1.1.2. EL DEPÓSITO .................................................................................... 57 1.1.3. LA COMPRA-VENTA ...................................................................... 59 1.1.4. EL CAMBIO ....................................................................................... 63 1.1.5. LOS LOGROS Y ARRENDAMIENTOS ......................................... 65 1.1.6. LA COMPAÑÍA ................................................................................ 67 1.1.7. LA OBLIGACIÓN O PROMISIÓN ................................................ 74 1.1.8. LA FIANZA O FIADURÍA .............................................................. 78 1.1.9. LOS PEÑOS ........................................................................................ 81 1.1.10. LAS PAGAS ....................................................................................... 84

1.2. CRÉDITO, DEUDA Y SU DESARROLLO LEGAL HASTA EL

SIGLO XV .................................................................................................. 89 1.3. EL CRÉDITO Y LAS REFORMAS LEGISLATIVAS DEL SIGLO XV

Y PRINCIPIOS DEL XVI ........................................................................ 109

CAPÍTULO 2. SALVAGUARDA DEL CRÉDITO EN CASTILLA: LA JUSTICIA

1. INSTITUCIONES, JUSTICIA Y CRÉDITO .................................................... 129 1.1. LOS FUNDAMENTOS JURÍDICO-LEGALES DE LA DEFENSA DE LOS

DERECHOS DE PROPIEDAD: JUSTICIA Y NOTARIADO EN CASTILLA ............................................................................................... 135

1.2. LOS PROBLEMAS JURISDICCIONALES EN LOS PLEITOS POR DEUDAS ......................................................................................... 154

1.3. ¿UNA INSTITUCIÓN JUDICIAL EFICAZ Y EFICIENTE? .............. 131

2. CRÉDITO Y DEUDA DESDE LA ÓPTICA DEL LITIGIO........................... 171 2.1. EL TIEMPO DE LA JUSTICIA ............................................................... 176 2.2. EL COSTE DE LA JUSTICIA .................................................................. 186

CAPITULO 3. ASPECTOS SOCIALES Y SOCIOLOGÍA DEL CRÉDITO Y LA DEUDA

1. LOS SUJETOS SOCIALES ................................................................................ 219

1.1. UN PERFIL SOCIAL DE LOS SUJETOS FINANCIEROS ................. 220 1.1.1. LOS ACREEDORES ......................................................................... 222 1.1.2. LOS DEUDORES .............................................................................. 242

1.2. CRÉDITO Y HETEROGENEIDAD SOCIAL ....................................... 258 1.2.1. LOS PODEROSOS: HIDALGOS-MERCADERES ....................... 259 1.2.2. LOS DÉBILES: MUJERES Y MENORES ........................................ 269 1.2.3. LOS OTROS: EXTRANJEROS Y MINORIAS RELIGIOSAS ...... 306

2. RELACIONES SOCIALES Y CRÉDITO ....................................................... 336

2.1. LA FAMILIA ........................................................................................... 338 2.2. LA VECINDAD....................................................................................... 348 2.3. EL OFICIO ............................................................................................... 351 2.4. ¿UN FAVOR ENTRE IGUALES? ......................................................... 360 2.5. FIADORES Y MANCOMUNADOS ..................................................... 363

3. CRÉDITO Y CONFIANZA ............................................................................. 379 3.1. LA CONFIANZA Y EL INDIVIDUO: CUALIDADES INTRÍNSECAS

PERSONALES ......................................................................................... 382 3.1.1. LA CONDICIÓN SOCIAL ............................................................. 383 3.1.2. LAS CUALIDADES PERSONALES: FAMA Y HONOR ............ 384

3.2. LA CONFIANZA Y LA SOCIEDAD: CUALIDADES EXTRÍNSECAS ........................................................................................ 392

3.3. EL MARCO INSTITUCIONAL: SOCIEDAD CONTRACTUAL Y JUSTICIA .............................................................................................. 408

CAPITULO 4. CRÉDITO Y DEUDA EN LA ECONOMÍA CASTELLANA

1. OFERTA Y DEMANDA DE CRÉDITO ......................................................... 431 1.1. LA OFERTA ............................................................................................ 433

1.1.1. BENEFICIO, INTERÉS Y USURA ................................................ 450 1.2. LA DEMANDA ....................................................................................... 471

1.2.1. EL CONSUMO ................................................................................ 472 1.2.2. LA INVERSIÓN ............................................................................... 489 1.2.3. EL GASTO INSTITUCIONAL ....................................................... 495

2. ESBOZOS DEL SISTEMA FINANCIERO CASTELLANO ......................... 501

2.1. LOS INSTRUMENTOS .......................................................................... 505 2.1.1. LOS INSTRUMENTOS PRIMITIVOS PÚBLICOS ...................... 514 2.1.2. LOS INSTRUMENTOS PRIMITIVOS PRIVADOS ..................... 537 2.1.3. LOS INSTRUMENTOS RECOGNITIVOS ................................... 543

2.2. FERIAS, MERCADOS Y ESPACIOS DE NEGOCIO ......................... 548 2.3. LOS PLAZOS DEL CRÉDITO ............................................................... 570 2.4. LA EXPANSIÓN GEOGRÁFICA DEL CRÉDITO ............................. 581 2.5. LOS PROFESIONALES DEL CRÉDITO: CAMBIADORES .............. 598 2.6. LA MOVILIDAD DEL CAPITAL: LA INVERSIÓN EN COMPAÑÍAS

MERCANTILES Y EL ARRENDAMIENTO DE RENTAS ............... 623 2.6.1. LAS OPORTUNIDADES: LA INVERSIÓN EN COMPAÑÍAS

MERCANTILES ............................................................................... 623 2.6.2. LOS RIESGOS: EL ARRENDAMIENTO DE RENTAS. ............. 631

3. LA SEGURIDA ECONÓMICA EN TORNO AL CRÉDITO: LOS BIENES MUEBLES, INMUEBLES Y LAS FIANZAS. ................................................. 667

CONCLUSIONES ........................................................................................... 685

ANEXOS ................................................................................................................. 697

BIBLIOGRAFÍA ................................................................................................... 719

INTRODUCCIÓN

INTRODUCTION

I. PRIVATE CREDIT AND DEBT

“For clothing being expensive is particular damage, but not paying one’s

debts on due time is universal damage to the republic as a whole, since

our republic needs, in order to its rule and preservation, credit among

men. It is essential that men trust and rely on each other; given that

money cannot always be found for many businesses, were they not

carried out on the basis of trust, our lives would be short of the necessary

and lacking”1.

Toward the middle of the 16th century Castilian people had assumed in

their daily lives the use of credit as a way to have access to all kind of goods and

services. Probably, when arranging operations such as sales, loans, or leases in

local fairs, markets or in ordinary houses, cash payments were not as common

as we might think. When we reflect on medieval economy, we cannot but

imagine a marketplace where men and women paid with some worn out coins.

However, the words of Tomás de Mercado, O.P., inform us of the role played by

credit and trust in establishing economic relationships and in facing a liquidity

crisis. Therefore, Mercado combines the economic fact and the sociological basis

behind it. In order to make such a statement, the author had in mind the practice

of credit, which probably was already well-established in Castile or at least that

is our belief. The goal of this work is thereby to unearth the evolution and

development of the essential elements that defined private credit in Castile,

allowing the Dominican friar to utter those words.

1 MERCADO, T. de, Suma de Tratos y Contratos, 1569 (edition by N. Sánchez-Albornoz, Madrid, Instituto de Estudios Fiscales, 1977), Libro II, capítulo XV.

15Introduction

Without going into some definitions of the term “credit”, such as those to

be found in legal compilations of the time2, this concept raises, from the very

beginning, some questions we have tried to solve as best as we could. Generally

speaking, when we talk about private credit relationships we include all kinds of

operations taking place between a creditor and a debtor, whether informal

(based on oral agreements) or formal (based on a written document or contract).

For obvious reasons, there is hardly any evidence of the former; yet, we can

attest to their existence thanks to indirect testimonies that show the significance

of daily contacts and social relations, and how informal credit helped develop

the world of Castilian finances.

Another point we must spell out from the very beginning has to do with

the consideration of credit as an operation of a private nature. Although, in

financial terms, the use of the words “public” and “private” responds to a

categorization derived from current approaches, our purpose is to distinguish

between those operations related to private credit and debt and those other

transactions included in a field that has been the object of greater attention on

the part of historians: public debt. Acknowledging that to discern between

public and private in this field is sometimes an arduous task, our focus is on

credit as a relation between individuals, where a priori the “public” nature of

one of the agents is just a social category among many others. For example, a

loan to the Crown or to a town council will be considered as a relationship

between two individuals: the nobleman that makes a loan to the queen, the

merchant that sells wheat to a town council, etc.

2 CELSO, H. de, Reportorio de las leyes de Castilla, Madrid, Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales, 2000 (1st edition 1538).

16 Crédito privado y deuda en Castilla (1480-1521)

The concept “credit” comprises a complex and diverse reality, a reality

that can be viewed as a legal operation, as an economic fact, or as a defining

aspect of social relations. These three perspectives allow us to delve on issues

such as the regulation of credit and debt in Castilian laws from the 13th to the

16th century, its influence on economic growth or its ability to reflect, strengthen,

deteriorate, or even destroy the relationships between the participants.

Moreover, credit, taken as a relation based on trust between creditors and

debtors, played an active role along with an institutional frame able to

consolidate a relationship that, on account of human frailty, could be broken

after a default of payment.

In this work we begin by considering the term “credit” from an economic

viewpoint, insofar as a creditor has a collection right over the debtor. There were

two different procedures by which a person could supply credit to another. On

the one hand, the creditor could delay the collection of a right; on the other

hand, he could hand over some goods or a sum of money for a fixed period of

time. These two facts, the delay of collection and the handing over of certain

goods, constitute the core of the present work, where we will also attempt to

explore the purpose and motivation behind these operations.

The first case is based on a simple idea: a creditor accepted to delay the

collection of a right, whether it had its origin in a sale, in a due salary, in a lease,

or in some other transaction. The creditor, therefore, offered liquidity to the

debtor for a set time in order to finally settle the business. Among the

transactions included in this kind of credit, credit sales had a privileged position.

Credit sales were probably the operation that manifested more clearly the

benefits of the agreement between the creditor or offeror and the debtor or

offeree. In this sense, leases are another operation to be noted. Leases are related

to credit insofar as they were based on the concession for a given time of a right

17Introduction

to use or exploit real estate, personal property, or some other rights (as the right

to collect a rent).

The second way of credit, based on the temporal handing over of a good

or a sum of money, has to do with operations such as loans, which, unlike the

previous cases, were suspicious of usury, regardless of the fact that some

theoreticians defined them as an act of love. Other types of credit, such as

deposits, had a similar sense, although in the case of deposits, these operations

were the chief task of moneychangers, the prime example of financial agents in

late medieval Castile.

Whereas the economic aspect of credit lays the foundation of this work,

we have not ignored social issues related to credit, therefore incorporating a

reflection on personal relationships as the background of economic

transactions3. Our analysis of the social aspects of credit is supported by

documentation on civil lawsuits regarding debts. The information provided by

those records allows us to perceive the beneficial effects of credit from the

perspective of conflict, when debts were not cancelled. This second aspect,

debts, has led us to consider two different aspects, depending on the content

assigned to the concept of debt. On the one hand, we understand debt as the

back side of a created right, and thereby it can be seen as something positive, for

it meant that a certain person (or institution) was trusted by a creditor. On the

other hand, when debts were not satisfied and a default of payment came about,

the term “debt” carried a negative connotation, and it was a reflection of the

3 MULDREW, C., The Economy of Obligation. The Culture of Credit and Social Relations in Early Modern England, Palgrave, 1998.


breaking of the bond, the contract, or the agreement that, based on mutual trust,

had formerly associated creditor and debtor4.

II. A SURVEY ON THE LITERATURE ABOUT CREDIT

Throughout the 16th century Castilian literature regarding economic

questions was to say the least rich and fruitful. Both the School of Salamanca,

represented by the works of Francisco de Vitoria, Tomas de Mercado and others,

and other Scholastic authors are good proof of it, as they dealt with issues such

as prices, interest rates and usury, contracts, inflation and money. In these texts

Castilian theoreticians also offered a first approach to the quantitative theory of

money. In this context, the book of Dominican friar Tomás de Mercado has been

essential in order to understand the positive vision of these authors regarding

credit, always in accordance with their theological perspective, yet reflecting on

the possibility of obtaining some interests or profit, on the benefits granted by

loans, and even on the significance of law and justice in their effort to promote a

just exchange and a normal development of society in peace and harmony.

Scholastics knew perfectly well the essential features of credit; however,

there were some needed qualifications to be introduced in their arguments. For

instance, although Mercado made reference to trust and credit as necessary

elements to compensate the scarcity of cash, these authors did not seem to be

fully aware of the consequences of these financial transactions on the monetary

system and its functioning. It was not until the 17th century that economic theory

assumed credit in its analysis of the monetary and capitalist system5.

4 HOBBES, Th., Leviathan, chapter XIV.

5 SCHUMPETER, J. A., Historia del Análisis Económico, Barcelona, Ariel, 1971, p. 368.

19Introduction

Following the scholastics, most authors concerned with economic

theories have taken into account the role of credit as a factor of growth in

western economy, as it was in medieval and modern times. This complex

phenomenon aroused the interest of economic historians since the 19th century6;

yet, it is at the beginning of the 20th century when we see the presence of the

notion of credit in the work of medievalists and historians of the Modern era

who devoted their efforts to analyze and understand credit from many different

angles, in various dates, and in different geographical areas.

From a historiographic perspective, when we survey how twentieth-

century historians have been interested in the issue of credit, we must admit it

has been a time of both lights and shadows. All in all, nevertheless, the results

are very positive. The analysis of credit at the end of the Middle Ages and the

beginning of the Modern Era has been a constant in the main circles of Europe’s

historiography: England, France, Italy, and the Flemish world. There are as well

some works focused on the Iberian Peninsula, although they have appeared

with a certain delay with respect to other areas of Europe. In this case, the

studies on Aragon and Navarra have experienced an important progress during

the last decades, probably due to the nature and richness of their historical

sources. Lastly, there are some works dealing with this topic in the kingdom of

Castile.

Since the early years of the 20th century scholars such as M. M. Postan, a

reference among the first historians of Europe’s medieval economy, showed

their concern for the study of private credit and the financial mechanisms and

6 K. Marx showed the role of credit inside the Capitalism mode of production and, above all, its capacity to decrease the circulation costs. MARX, K., El Capital, México, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1990, vol. III, pp. 414 y ss.


instruments used in England7. Little by little, Postan’s masterful approach has

been adopted by other studies focused on more concrete aspects, such as the

significance of credit in the evolution of economy and the monetary system, and

the impact of credit on rural and urban environments8. In fact, rural credit has

become one of the most fruitful fields of research among British historians at the

end of the 20th century, as Ph. Schofield and Ch. Briggs prove9. Their works have

been closely attached to the analysis of how credit was used in small places or

regions, where the whole economic structure was based on agriculture, and

financial activities were linked to land possession and produce trade. In 2002 Ph.

Schofield himself –along with N. J. Mayhew– coordinated a volume in which

different authors addressed the issue of credit from different viewpoints (law,

clerics, relationships with Jews…)10. Recent years have also witnessed to the

7 POSTAN, M. M., «Credit in Medieval Trade», in Economic History Review, 1, 1928, pp. 234-261; and «Private Financial Instruments in Medieval England», Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, 23, 1930, pp. 26-75.

8 SPUFFORD, P., «Acces to credit and capital in the commercial centres of Europe», in DAVIDS, K. and LUCASSEN, J. (eds.), A Miracle Mirrored. The Dutch Republic in European Perspective, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 303-337; and How rarely did medieval merchants use coin?, Utrecht, Gerldemuseum, 2008.

9 SCHOFIELD, Ph. «Credit and Debt in the Medieval English Countryside», in Il Mercato della Terra. Secc. XIII-XVIII, Prato, Istituto Internazionale di Storia Economica “F. Datini”, 2004, pp. 785-796; «Dearth, debt and the local land market in a late thirteenth century Suffolk village», in Agricultural History Review, 45, 1997, pp. 1-17; BRIGGS, Ch., Credit and Village Society in Fourteenth-Century England, Oxford, The British Academy–Oxford University Press, 2009.

10 SCHOFIELD P. R. and MAYHEW, N. J. (eds.), Credit and Debt in Medieval England. c. 1180-1350, Oxford, Oxbow books, 2002. About legal aspects on credit in the same book, see BRAND, P., «Aspects of the Law of Debt, 1189-1307», pp. 19-41; on Jewish credit, MUNDILL, R. R., «Christian and Jewish lending patterns and financial dealings during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries», pp. 42-67; about clergymen and credit, see above NIGHTINGALE, P., «The English parochial clergy as investors and creditors in the first half of the fourteenth century», pp. 89-105; on rural credit, SCHOFIELD, P. R., «Access to credit in the early fourteenth-century English countryside», pp. 106-126; and BRIGGS, Ch., «Creditors and debtors and their relationship at Oakington, Cottenham and Dry Drayton (Cambridgeshire), 1291-1350», pp. 127-148.

21Introduction

appearance of new studies, like that of J. Davis, focused on markets, whether

rural or urban11.

The interest in the world of credit in preindustrial societies, particularly

in England, has been masterfully captured by C. Muldrew. His analysis,

centered on the Modern period, has considered the social consequences of credit

and vice versa; he has also explored some essential aspects in the life of

individuals; debt litigation, informal credit, relationships to the market, the

progress of the contractual society... they are all issues that have become a

source of inspiration for his work.

As per French historiography, we ought to point out some studies

focused on credit in some areas outside France. For instance, there is some

research on Jewish minorities in Aragon and its surrounding territories12. As in

the case of British historians, some noteworthy works shed light upon the world

of Italian rural credit, as F. Menant’s books attest (the same author has also done

some important research on the notaries of northern Italy)13. This concern for the

field of public notaries is the driving force behind some other studies,

particularly the book by Ph. Hofman, G. Postel-Visnay and J. L. Rosenthal. Even

though this work does not fit our chronology –dealing with modern and

11 DAVIS, J., Medieval Market Morality. Life, Law and Ethics in the English Marketplace, 1200-1500, Cambridge University Press, 2012.

12 DENJEAN, C., «Crédit et notariat en Cerdagne et Roussillon du XIIIeau XVe siècle», in Collection de l’Ecole française de Rome, 343, 2004, pp. 185-206; and her recent book about lawsuits, usury and Jewish credit: La loi du lucre. L’usure en procès dans la Courounne d’Aragon à la fin du Moyen Âge, Madrid, Casa de Velázquez, 2011.

13 GAULIN, J. L. and MENANT, F., «Credit rural et endettement paysan dans l’Italie communale», in Actes des XVIIes Journées Internationales d’histoire d’abbaye de Flaran, septembre 1995, Toulouse, 1998, pp. 35-68; «Notaires et crédit à Bergame à la époque communale», in MENANT, F. and REDON, O. (dirs.), Notaires et crédit dans l’Occident méditerranéen médiéval, Rome, Ecole française de Rome, 2004, pp. 31-54; «Le notaire médiéval, producteur de texte», in Hermenéutique du texte d’histoire: orientation, interprétation et questions nouvelles, Nagoya, Ed. Sato, 2009, pp. 77-92.


contemporary times–, it endorses the interest aroused by this institution, since,

given the multiple advantages it provided (sanction by a public official,

reduction of the information asymmetry among creditors and debtors, and so

on), it became an important factor in the promotion of private credit14.

If there is a geographic area where credit has been the true backbone of

economic growth in the Middle Ages and the Modern Era, it is Italy. The

literature on Renaissance economy and trade is overwhelming. Therefore, we

will simply mention some benchmarks, a small sample of their rich production.

Approaches to credit in Italian territories are diverse and suggestive, from

trading and finances (researching topics such as operations, instruments,

merchants, companies, pawnbrokers) to other fields of study linked with social

and cultural aspects. Among these, we can note M. G. Muzzarelli’s books on

small consumer credit and the birth of pawnbrokers (Mounts of Piety)15 and L.

Palermo on medieval banking16. There are some outstanding syntheses about

financial instruments and activities, like the ones by M. Cassandro, based on

previous classics (R. de Roover)17. In this perusal we must include the aforesaid

books by Menant on the rural environment and the studies by M. Greilsammer,

14 HOFFMAN, Ph. T., POSTEL-VISNAY, G. and ROSENTHAL, J. L., Priceless Markets. The Political Economy of Credit in Paris. 1660-1870, The University of Chicago Press, 2000.

15 MUZZARELLI, M. G., Il denaro e la salvezza. L’invenzione del Monte di Pietà, Bolonia, Il Mulino, 2008; ID., «Il credito al consumo in Italia: dai banchi ebarici ai Monti di pietà», in FRANCESCHI, F., GOLDTHWAITE, R. A. and MUELLER, R. C. (a cura di), Il Rinascimiento italiano e l’Europa. Commercio e cultura mercantile, Treviso, Fonzacione Cassamarca-Angello Colla Editore, 2007, pp. 567-589.

16 PALERMO, L., La banca e il credito nel Medioevo, Mondadori Bruno, 2008.

17 ROOVER, R. de, The Rise and Decline of Medici Bank. 1397-1494, Cambridge Mass., Harvard University Press, 1963; CASSANDRO. M., «Crédito, banca e instrumentos de pago en la Italia medieval», in Edad Media. Revista de Historia, 2, 1999, pp. 13-33; CASSANDRO, M., «Credito e banca in Italia tra Medioevo e Rinascimiento», in Credito e sviluppo economico in Italia dal Medio Evo all’Età Contemporanea: Atti del primo convegno nazional, 4–6 giugno 1987, Verona, Ed. Società Italiana degli Storici dell’Economia, 1988, pp. 131-145.

23Introduction

R. A. Goldthwaite on the banks from Lombardy or the Medici18, and de Luca

about the milanese banking during the 16th century19. To this brief selection we

must add two other scholars, whose contribution to the study of credit as a

cultural and social phenomenon is essential: G. Todeschini and R. C. Mueller.

On the one hand, Todeschini’s views on the Jewish world and the issue of usury

from a theological perspective and his arguments to relate them to the

Franciscan movement are extremely suggestive proposals20. On the other hand,

R. C. Mueller has considered monetary and banking relationships and the issue

of credit in the intricate urban Venetian world21.

Finally, to complete our survey of Europe’s historiography, it is a must to

mention some recent works that have appeared in the Lower Countries and

provide some very insightful proposals that complete our knowledge of credit.

In these books credit is seen as a major force in the economic growth of the

Lower Countries22, an idea already argued by R. de Roover several decades

18 GREILSAMMER, M., «Il credito al consumo in Europa: dai lombardi ai Monti di pietà», in FRANCESCHI, F., GOLDTHWAITE, R. A. and MUELLER, R. C. (a cura di), Il Rinascimiento italiano e l’Europa. Commercio e cultura mercantile, Treviso, Fonzacione Cassamarca-Angello Colla Editore, 2007, pp. 591-611. GOLDTHWAITE, R. A., «The Medici Bank and the World of Florenitne Capitalism», in Past & Present, 114, 1987, pp. 3-31; and ID., «Local Banking in Renaissance Florence», in The Journal of Eurpean Economic History, 14, 1985, pp. 5-55.

19 LUCA, G. de, «La banca milanese tra XVI e XVII secolo», in ALLORZA APARICIO, Á., FERNÁNDEZ IZQUIERDO, F. and GARCÍA GUERRA, E. (eds.), Comercio, banca y sociedad en los reinos hispánicos (siglos XIV-XVIII), Madrid, Ed. Polifemo, 2012, pp. 109-156.

20 TODESCHINI, G., «Credito localizzato, finanza internazionale e diaspora degli ebrei fra XIV e XV secolo», in MIRANDA GARCÍA, F. (ed.), Movimientos migratorios y expulsiones en la diáspora occidental, Pamplona, Universidad Pública de Navarra, 2000, pp. 199-211; QUAGLIONI, D., TODESCHINI, G. and VARANINI, G. M. (a cura di), Credito e usura fra teologia, diritto e amministrazione (sec. XII-XVI), Roma, École française de Rome, 2005.

21 MUELLER, R. C., The Procuratoria di San Marco and the Venetian Credit Market: A Study of the Development of Credit and Banking in the Trecento, New York, Arno, 1977.

22 VAN BAVEL, B., Manors and Markets. Economy and Society in the Low Countries. 500-1600, Chippenham, Oxford University Press, 2010.


before23. Recent research has focused on credit markets, credit instruments, and

the urban and rural environment.24 Scholars have also paid attention to an

aspect that, as in the case of England, is intimately connected with this work:

debt litigation25.

Concerning the Iberian Peninsula, historiography varies according to the

different territories. The three areas we are most interested in –Castile, Aragon,

and Navarra– offer diverse yet complementary views on credit. In the case of

Aragon, J. V. García Marsilla has undertaken some important research in the last

few decades, particularly on the city of Valencia26. There are some noteworthy

studies that have highlighted the connection between the financial world and

the rural environment, especially by A. Furió, who is also interested in the

Jewish world27. Likewise, in Catalonia there has been some successful

investigations: P. Ortí has coordinated a group of scholars in their study about

the area of Girona28; P. Ortí himself is an expert on Barcelona’s banking and

financial activities; the flow of credit at Barcelona’s Taula de Canvis and

23 ROOVER, R. de, «Money, Banking and Credit in Mediaeval Bruges», in The Journal of Economic History, 2, 1942, pp. 52-65.

24 VAN ZANDEN, J. L., ZUIJDERDUIJN, J. and de MOOR, T., «Small is beautiful: the efficiency of credit markets in the late medieval Holland», in European Review of Economic History, 16, 2012, pp. 3-22.

25 DIJKMAN, J., «Debt Litigation in Medieval Holland, 1200-1350», in VAN ZANDEN, J. L. and MA, D. (eds.), Law and Long-Term Economic Change: A Eurasian Perspective, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2011, pp. 221-243.

26 GARCÍA MARSILLA, V., Vivir a crédito en la Valencia medieval. De los orígenes del sistema censal al endeudamiento del municipio, Valencia, Universitat de València, 2002.

27 FURIÓ, J. A., «Crédito y endeudamiento: el censal en la sociedad rural valenciana (siglos XIV-XV)», in SARASA, E. and SERRANO, E. (eds.), Señorío y feudalismo en la Península Ibérica, Zaragoza, Institución Fernando el Católico, 1993, pp. 501-514; «Diners i crèdit. Els jueus d’Alzira en la segona meitat del segle XIV», in Revista d’Hitòria Medieval, 4, 1993, pp. 127-160.

28 SALES I FAVÁ, Ll. «Crédito y redes urbanas: el caso de Girona y las pequeñas ciudades de su entorno en el siglo XIV», in CARVAJAL DE LA VEGA, D., AÑÍBARRO RODRÍGUEZ, J. and VÍTORES CASADO, I. (eds.), Redes sociales y económicas en el mundo bajomedieval, Valladolid, Castilla Ed., 2011, pp. 135-154.

25Introduction

Catalonia’s fiscal world have been explored by M. Sánchez and P. Verdés29.

Regarding Navarra, the second area in the Iberian Peninsula we mentioned

before, we must cite J. Carrasco’s research on credit, mainly focused on how the

Jewish community had an impact on its development30.

In the case of Castile, studies on credit are far more recent. Their

diversity31 has nonetheless become a good starting-point for the present

research. Among the early works, we must point out the important contribution

of Ladero Quesada concerning credit and loans in medieval Castile32. The

interest of several credit historians has revolved around three main topics: trade,

the rural and urban environment, and, as it cannot be otherwise, the Jewish

world. Scholars such as H. Casado and F. A. al-Hussein have devoted their

efforts to know how credit was used in trading activities in the fairs of Medina

del Campo and to investigate the links between credit and textile consumption,

or the investment in trading and financial companies, etc.33. Alternatively, some

29 SÁNCHEZ MARTÍNEZ, M., «Algunas consideraciones sobre el crédito en la Catañuña medieval», in SÁNCHEZ MARTÍNEZ, M. (coord.), El món del crèdit a la Barcelona medieval. Quaderns d’Història, 13, Barcelona, Arxiu Històric de Barcelona, 2007, pp. 9-26; and «El mundo del crédito en la Corona de Aragón», in PÉREZ JIMÉNEZ, A. y CRUZ ANDREOTTI (eds.), Hijos de Mercurio. Banqueros, prestamistas, usureros y transacciones comerciales en el mundo mediterráneo, Madrid-Málaga, Ediciones Clásicas - Charta Antigua Dist. Editorial, 2006, pp. 343-374; VERDÉS PIJUAN, P., «La consolidació del sistema fiscal i financier municipal a mitjan s. XIV», en SÁNCHEZ MARTÍNEZ, M. (ed.), Fiscalidad real y finanzas urbanas en la Cataluña medieval, Barcelona, CSIC, 1999, pp. 185-217.

30 CARRASCO PÉREZ, J., Sinagoga y mercado. Estudios y textos sobre judíos del Reino de Navarra, Pamplona, Gobierno de Navarra, 1993; and «Crédito y fiscalidad en el reino de Navarra bajo el gobierno de la cara de Francia (1280-1328», in Príncipe de Viana, 243, 2008, pp. 37-68.

31 CARANDE, R., Carlos V y sus banqueros. La vida económica en Castilla (1516-1556), Madrid, Soc. de Estudios y Publicaciones, 1965.

32 LADERO QUESADA, M. Á., «Crédito y comercio de dinero en la Castilla medieval», in Acta historica et archaeologica medievalia, 11-12, 1990-91, pp. 145-159.

33 AL-HUSSEIN, F. H. A., «El crédito popular: los censos», in LORENZO SANZ, E. (coord.), Historia de Medina del Campo y su Tierra, Valladolid, Excmo. Ayto. Medina del Campo-Junta de Castilla and León-Excma. Diputación Provincial de Valladolid, 1986, Vol. II: Auge de las Ferias. Decadencia de Medina, pp. 125-142; CASADO ALONSO, H., «Comercio, crédito y finanzas


of M. Borrero’s studies have analyzed the impact of credit, particularly of

consignative rents (censos) in Andalusia’s rural areas34. Medina del Campo and

Seville are the two centers that, on account of their economic potential, have

been privileged by economic historians examining the evolution of credit and its

instruments in major markets35. Similarly, other works have considered the

urban environment; in this sense, A. García Sanz’s study has allowed us to get a

better grasp of the social and economic aspects of credit in places like Segovia36.

Finally, as we said, the Jewish world has also been the object of abundant

inquiry. Along with their expulsion and the role they played in the development

of the fiscal system, their connection to the world of credit and loans in Castile

has been one of the topics treated in a more extensive and thoughtful way37.

públicas en Castilla en la época de los Reyes Católicos», in BERNAL, A. M. (ed.), Dinero, moneda y crédito en la monarquía hispánica, Madrid, ICO – Marcial Pons Historia, 2000, pp. 135-156; CASADO ALONSO, H., «Crédito y comercio en las ferias de Medina del Campo en la primera mitad del siglo XVI», in GARCÍA GUERRA, E. Mª. and DE LUCA, G. (a cura di), Il mercato del crédito in Età Moderna. Reti e operatori finanziari dello spazio europeo, Milano, Franco Angeli, 2009, pp. 21-48.

34 BORRERO FERNÁNDEZ, M., «Efectos del cambio económico en el ámbito rural. Los sistemas de crédito en el campo sevillano (fines del siglo XV y principios del XVI)», in En la España Medieval, 8, 1986, pp. 219-244; «Crédito y mundo rural. La expansión de los préstamos y los endeudamientos en tiempos de los Reyes Católicos», in FERNÁNDEZ GARCÍA, E. M. (ed.), Andalucía y Granada en tiempos de los Reyes Católicos, Sevilla, Universidad de Sevilla–Universidad de Granada, 2006, vol. 1, pp. 25-40.

35 OTTE, E., «Los instrumentos financieros», in AZNAR VALLEJO, E. et alii (eds.), Andalucía 1492: razones de un protagonismo, Sevilla, Algaida Ed., 1992, pp. 157-183; and «Las ferias castellanas y Sevilla en el sistema bancario europeo del siglo XVI», in BERNAL, (ed.), Dinero, moneda y crédito, pp. 31-42.

36 GARCÍA SANZ, A., «El crédito a principios del siglo XVI en una ciudad de Castilla: la nobleza como financiadora del comercio y de la industria en Segovia, 1503-1508», in Stvdia Histórica. Edad Moderna, nº 5, 1987, pp. 77-88.

37 CANTERA MONTENEGRO, E., «Una familia de prestamistas y arrendadores judíos en tiempos de la expulsión: Los Soto de Aranda de Duero», in Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, Serie III, Historia Medieval, 12, 1999, pp. 11-46; CRESPO ÁLVAREZ, M., «Judíos, préstamos y usuras en la Castilla medieval», in Edad Media. Revista de Historia, 5, 2002, pp. 179-215; and PEÑA BARROSO, E. de la, Los judíos de Medina del Campo a finales del siglo XV, Valladolid, Museo de las Ferias – Excma. Diputación de Valladolid, 2008.

27Introduction

III. GOALS AND STRUCTURE OF THE WORK

All attempts to understand credit and debt in a period like the transition

between the Middle Ages and the Modern Era are forced to view and analyze

this reality from different angles. The different approaches offered by the

literature we have just surveyed are the starting-point of this work; we will also

include other proposals deriving from the new institutional economics (North,

Greif, Ogilvie...), sociology (Bourdieu or Coleman), and economic theory. All

these approaches and paradigms will be taken into account with a sole purpose:

to view credit from a social and economic perspective, considering it in the

context of a system of relations where law and justice were its main support.

Therefore, the three key aspects we will deal with –institutional, social, and

economical elements– will provide us with a better and more profound

understanding of credit.

INSTITUTIONS: LAW AND JUSTICE

There is today ample evidence that the development of institutions had

an enormous influence on the economic and social evolution of a given area.

Accordingly, the first part of the work is devoted to study a period in which the

process of recovery of Roman law in Castile, from the 13th century onwards, set

the foundations of the ensuing legislation on credit and debt. Since early on

Castilian legislators were interested in defining the economic facts that

determined the different kinds of credit. With this purpose in mind, we must

analyze the presence of the notion of credit in the main Castilian legal code, Las

Partidas, and its later evolution throughout the final centuries of the Middle

Ages. In this sense, we will try to ascertain which economic facts were defined


by civil laws and how these laws spelt out their content. In light of the definition

of the economic facts provided by the legal ordinances, we attempt to know the

role played by the different Cortes and the subsequent legal dispositions

concerning the regulation of credit and debt. Were substantial the changes

introduced in Alfonso X's code? Which are the most significant social, political

and economic aspects in the legal provisions of the kingdom? Ultimately, the

goal of this revision of the legal elements is to apprehend this reality from a

theoretical and ideal viewpoint, and thus to set the framework in which

creditors, debtors, and guarantors carried out their businesses at the end of the

15th century and the beginning of the 16th century.

On the other hand, we will be unable to see whether laws concerning

credit and debts were operative unless we pay attention to the activity of the

institution in charge of watching over the fulfillment of the law, justice. In the

context of the multiple reforms prompted by the Catholic Monarchs, justice

experienced a notable development, and it had an impact on the field of

finances, thus consolidating the contractual relations between creditor and

debtor. Therefore, we will deal with questions such as the following: Up to what

point the institutional development had an impact on the use and expansion of

credit? Which was the role played by other basic institutions, such as notaries, in

doing contracts? Was justice a real warrant against the default of payment? Was

it effective? Was it efficient? How did problems affecting these institutions

influence the world of finances? These are some of the questions we will try to

solve in order to delimit the two key aspects of credit: the social and the

economic elements.

29Introduction

CREDIT AND SOCIETY IN CASTILE

Credit is intimately linked to social relationships. It has to do with the

bonds that exist among people and with the way those bonds were built and

reinforced. As some works already seem to point out, one of the most prominent

features of credit and debt was its crosswise nature, that is, its presence in all

groups conforming Castile's society at the time. However, this statement can

only be hold true if we get to know who were the creditors, the debtors, and the

guarantors, focusing on the attitudes and behaviors of the different social

groups (noblemen, privileged people, women, Jews, minors, aliens...) when

taking part of credit operations. Moreover, this economic relationship has the

virtue of revealing the existence of shared interests, social ties, and some other

connections beyond the strictly economic realm. Hence one of our main goals is

to delve on the influence of social relationships upon credit supply and demand.

The relation between credit and debt was based on an economic fact

which many times seemed to be derived from a prior understanding between

the parties. This understanding in turn was born out of previous relations, of the

information they handle regarding each other, and of the creation and projection

of a trustworthy image... aspects which had the ability to set in motion the credit

machinery. Our plan is to offer an in-depth study of these theoretical issues,

while at the same time unraveling which social and personal aspects motivated

a person to offer credit to certain individuals or institutions, what was the

connection between economic credit and personal trust, and how the qualities of

some people and their social capital had an impact when asking for a credit,

renegotiating a debt, and so on. We believe these questions have an enormous

significance, for mere economic parameters are not always the best explanation


for some decisions taken by individuals regarding the offer or the demand of

credit.

CREDIT AND ECONOMY IN CASTILE

Classic research regarding credit studies has revolved around the

economic aspects, showing its connection with questions such as hire purchases,

loans, the exploitation of real estate by means of leases, etc. In order to deepen in

our topic along these lines, we will analyze both the origin of the economic

resources that boosted the offer of credit and the origin of the necessities that

stimulated its demand. Credit supply and demand, however, are concepts

whose close connection cannot be fully understood without a financial system

immersed in a process of development and change that made them possible. We

are likewise interested in exploring how credit was imbricated in the financial

system, for credit was the basis and the enhancer of finances, as it can be seen in

the development of instruments and markets or in the prominent role played by

the professionals of credit, the moneychangers.

Finally, to the social expansion of credit we must add an essential

ingredient: the rise of financial flows throughout the Castilian territory. This fact

favored in turn the movement of capital, invested in profitable yet hazardous

businesses, for instance in trading companies or in tax farming. This element,

when taken into account alongside the rest, can provide us with an approximate

idea of the integration of Castile’s economy at the beginning of the Modern Era.

In sum, the study of the institutional, social and economic aspects of

credit aims at defining and understanding a reality, that of credit and debt,

whose complexity and impact on the lives of Castile’s inhabitants are beyond all

doubt.

31Introduction

IV. CHRONOLOGY AND SOURCES

The present work comprises four decades in the history of the Crown of

Castile, a period that favored the transition from medieval to modern structures

and that was characterized, generally speaking, by a time of prosperity in the

territory. Once the kingdom was at peace and the Catholic Monarchs secured

their power, the year 1480 marked the beginning of a process of reinforcement of

political and administrative structures ---throughout this decade the activity of

the Royal Chancellery (Real Chancillería) of Valladolid, a key institution for our

purposes, was consolidated. The Cortes of Toledo, held that same year, served to

update Castilian law (and the Royal Ordinances as well) and were the starting-

point of many dispositions that governed, as best as they could, some key

aspects of the life of the inhabitants of Castile, for example, the administration of

justice and the activity of notaries. Some other provisions, regarding for instance

coinage or the activities of market fairs, were meant to regulate the economic life

as well. This period of consolidation of the political and administrative

structures constitutes our chronological framework during forty years, until

1521, a key moment in the history of Castile, when the administrative reforms

had already begun to show their impact and when the royal power was

reinforced after the victory of Charles V over the Comuneros. The practice of

credit was thus definitively established in Castilian territory during those forty-

one years.

Throughout this period, despite some isolated moments of political

uneasiness and economic hardships, the Crown of Castile undertook some

decisive changes in its administrative and economic system, strengthening the

foundations of a growth that let the Habsburg monarchs undertake some of

their political projects and let many Castilians to expand their businesses in their


daily lives. It was regarding this last aspect where changes were far more

noticeable, for Castilians began to participate in an unceasing trading and

financial activity, backed up by different elements such as the existence of trade

fairs, the rise of international trade, the increase of alien residents, and the

improvement of economic activities derived from a more dynamic inner market.

In this context, due both to the necessities on the part of many inhabitants of

Castile and to the growing availability of credit, private credit could flow

intensely throughout all Castilian society. This fact in turn reinforced the

integration of an economic system that, based upon four decades of institutional

consolidation and growth, fostered the use of credit and the development of a

modern financial system, able to overcome different kinds of problems (whether

caused by monetary or political reasons or by the economic circumstances).

Between 1480 and 1521, when considering the different regions that made

up the territories of the Crown of Castile, its economic and financial structure

was at best disparate. The southern part, dominated by the financial and trading

activity of Seville, did not resemble the northern area, whose economy revolved

around the great trade fairs like Medina del Campo, an issue we will tackle later

on in the course of our study. While this aspect has been significant at the

moment of delimiting the geographical context of our work, it has remained

somehow in the background. The chief argument in defining our geographical

framework derives from our sources, particularly from the documentation used

as the foundation of our study: debt lawsuits litigated in the Royal Chancellery

in Valladolid, whose jurisdiction, since 1494, reached the territories north of the

Tagus River. Therefore, although we have some early cases related to the

southern area of the country, we have decided to focus on this territory, north of

the Tagus River, for it offers some homogeneity in its social and economic

33Introduction

structure. And since our geographic framework is determined by our sources,

let us turn now to spell them out.

When choosing documentary sources for the study of credit at the end of

the Middle Ages, we must first take into account the existence of abundant

information about this economic reality derived from multiple sources.

Possibilities of research are plentiful, as the documentation coming from

accounting books and administration records –where there is information

regarding income and expenses, rights and debts– show. In this sense, an initial

approach to this topic can be done by reviewing the papers kept in the archives

of noble families. This information also allows us to obtain particular data on the

financial activities of some members of a particular household. The world of

private credit in the sphere of religious institutions and nobility can be studied

in the documentation kept in the National Historical Archive, both in the Regular

and Secular Clergy section and in the Nobility section. These collections provide us

with the opportunity to study credit within the most prominent noble families

and analyze aspects such as the financial support offered by noble groups to the

Crown38.

Another possibility to study private credit is based on the documentation

derived from the private archives of agents who had a very active involvement

in credit activities, such as merchants. Although records of this kind are rather

scarce in Castile for those years, there are archives like the one belonging to

Hernando Daza Medina, a merchant from the middle of the 16th century, whose

38 For example, the duque de Béjar lent 40.000 ducats to the Emperor Charles V, whose objective was to finance the army in charge of the defense Italy against the Turkish fleet. Sección Nobleza Archivo Histórico Nacional (en adelante, SNAHN), OSUNA, C.219, D.62-65; or as we can see throgh the loans received by the Condestable to pay the Emperor’s Army during the armed uprising of “las Comunidades”, SNAHN, FRIAS, C.22, D.5


trading and financial documentation witness to the significance of credit in the

business of the Daza Medina family39.

After considering other options, the two most viable possibilities, as the

recent literature on the topic has shown us, are the study of notarial registries

and the examination of judicial documentation. In light of research carried out in

other regions of the Iberian Peninsula and in some areas of Europe, notarial

sources have proved to be an important way to access those people who took

part in a contract and to explore the financial instruments subscribed in the

presence of a public official. In Castile, Historical Provincial Archives, where

most of these records are kept40, offer abundant and varied information on this

issue. There are, however, some problems that have forced us to reconsider a

systematic use of their documents. Unlike some areas, like the Crown of

Aragon41, and some cities, like Seville, notarial registries are meager in Castile’s

northern plateau. Yet, nowadays we know that some archives, like the Historical

Provincial Archive of Valladolid, watch over hundreds of notarial books,

particularly from the first decades of the 16th century, coming from places such

as Medina del Campo and Medina de Rioseco, home to important trade fairs

whose constant activity has left behind a significant record of their past. Other

places, like Segovia, have also preserved some notarial registries, the focus of

some recent studies that have shown us both the potential of this documentation

and its limits42.

39 HERRERO JIMÉNEZ, M. and DÍAZ BLANCO, M. E., El archivo del mercader Hernando Daza Medina ([1505]-1566), Valladolid, Fundación Museo de las Ferias – Exma. Dip. Provincial de Valladolid, 2009.

40 We can consult this type of notary registries in other archives, for example in the Archivo de la Real Chancillería de Valladolid, and its section: Protocolos y Padrones.

41 A good example about the use of these documentary sources in GARCÍA MARSILLA, Vivir a crédito en la Valencia.

42 GARCÍA SANZ, «El crédito a principios del siglo XVI en una ciudad de Castilla».

35Introduction

On account of the diverse types of documents, a notarial register gives us

significant information concerning the recorded business. For instance, the most

representative type of record, the bond,43 includes data about the debtor, the

creditor, the total sum of the business, and the installment due dates. In some

extraordinary cases, this instrument may incorporate information about the

profession of the parties, the existence of guarantors, the kind of goods they

trade, or the type of services offered by the creditor. There are nonetheless

important blanks that cannot be filled; for instance, we know nothing about the

end of the transaction and the business settlement, and there is virtually no

information about the relationship between creditor, debtor, and guarantor. For

this reason, while we believe that the study of notarial registries is extremely

valuable, there are some sources that might provide a better answer to our

inquiry.

The proposal of exploring the legal, institutional, social, and economic

aspects of credit and debt is related to the use of legal and judicial

documentation as the chief basis of our research. Therefore, we had to resort first

to Castile’s key legal ordinances (Las Partidas, Fuero Real, and the Cuadernos de

Cortes) that have given us a valuable starting point for our analysis of the chief

documentary sources of this study: debt lawsuits and their resolution (Reales

Ejecutorias).

Judicial sources, particularly lawsuits, are a documentary source

underexploited by historians of Castile’s economy, unlike what happens in other

European regions44. Their proximity to the real life of Castile’s inhabitants, their

43 ROJO VEGA, A., Guía de mercaderes y mercaderías en las ferias de Medina del Campo. Siglo XVI, Valladolid, Fundación Museo de las Ferias – Exma. Dip. Provincial de Valladolid, 2004.

44 SCHOFIELD and MAYHEW, Credit and Debt in Medieval England; BRIGGS, Credit and Village Society; DIJKMAN, «Debt Litigation in Medieval Holland; or MULDREW, The Economy of Obligation.


capacity to display the social network connecting debtors, creditors, and

guarantors, and the richness of their information regarding contracts, current

legislation, and its application are reasons strong enough for us to choose

judicial sources, an option already taken by some historians in other

geographical areas that have contributed with some benchmarks in the literature

about credit45.

The lawsuits we have used in our research come from the Archive of the

Royal Chancellery of Valladolid, the supreme justice court in Castile, where

most cases arrived after appeals were made following a local trial. Given its

nature of supreme justice court, its documentation has preserved some

exceedingly interesting pieces, such as of the records of the courts of first

instance, whose originals have disappeared for the most part, and some papers

like contracts, accounting books, private letters, and all kinds of written records

presented as proof during the trial. All these documents provide us with a

global perspective on private credit and debt, a view we could not attain with

the aforementioned sources. Besides, the litigation process grants us access to

another type of document, whose significance and richness of information

cannot be overstated: the probanzas, that is, the testimony of the different

witnesses presented by the parties while the lawsuit was being argued. This

evidence allows researchers to enter into a more subjective world, where we can

also assess the opinion and judgment of neighbors, friends, or associates

regarding the disputed facts, thus notably enriching our historical discourse.

45 BRITNETT, R. H., Growth and Decline in Colchester, 1300-1525, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986, chapters 7 y 14; KOWALESKI, M., Local Markets and Regional Trade in Medieval Exeter, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 335-340; BRIGGS, Credit and Village Society and MULDREW, The Economy of Obligation.

37Introduction

Our sample includes 250 debt lawsuits and a similar number of lawsuit

resolutions. The latter, although the information they provide is not as rich as

the date found in complete lawsuits, have been an important source, for they

have offered us some basic data of transactions performed during the final

decades of the 15th century, a period in which the number of lawsuits preserved

is quite meager. By using lawsuit resolutions, we have been able to document up

to 600 debt and credit transactions, that is, operations where debts were not

satisfied and ended up being litigated in a court of justice. This sum of data

constitutes the backbone of our study; however, the number of credit

transactions documented and mentioned in our work is far greater, thanks to

references obtained both in the lawsuits and in other additional sources we have

incidentally resorted to.

Figure 0.1. Debt lawsuits in the Royal Chancellery of Valladolid (1480-1521)46

46 The data showed in figures 0.1. and 0.2. are illustrative. It has been obtained from the Royal Chancellery’s database using the entry “Debt”. Nowadays, there are three of twelve “notary offices” described. For this reason, we’re sure that the number of debt lawsuits is higher than table 0.1. Anyway, the upward trend is significant. We could consider better representative the data showed in table 0.2.

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

1480-1485

1486-1490

1491-1495

1496-1500

1501-1505

1506-1510

1511-1515

1516-1521

Years


Figure 0.2. Debt lawsuit resolutions in the Royal Chancellery of Valladolid (1480-1521)

Finally, although lawsuits and their resolutions make up the basis of the

present work, with the purpose of providing an image as complete as possible of

the reality of credit, we have consulted and incorporated other news about

credit coming from different sources: lawsuits tried in the Royal Council,

records from the Court Seal Register, documents (cédulas) issued by the

monarchs, and in some cases notarial registries and documentation from private

archives, etc.

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1480-1485

1486-1490

1491-1495

1496-1500

1501-1505

1506-1510

1511-1515

1516-1521

Years

39Introduction

CONCLUSIONES

CONCLUSIONS

The words of Tomás de Mercado remembered the necessity that credit

flowed between Castilians and its benefits. They are undoubtedly the best

reflection of all the ideas presented in this dissertation. His suggestions, under

the influence of the Salmantine scholastic, went beyond the theoretical aspects.

They were based on the observation and comprehension of the multiple

implications of credit in daily life, regardless of the social condition of creditors

and debtors. Credit relations, as an economic and social fact, were present in

society as a whole. Mercado’s conviction shows that credit achieved its

significant position as a useful practice in the life of Castilians in the transition to

the Modern Age because facilitated some economic operations like credit sales,

house and allotment rents, or a simple loan. However, the development of the

institutional, social, and economic structure was a prior requirement to achieve

this level of credit practice.

At the end of 15th century the use of credit between Castilians was

common. The limits of informal credit tested the boundaries of interpersonal

trust. Meanwhile, formal credit was the evidence of the institutionalization of

personal confidence. Even though our sources provide us with information

about informal and formal relations, formal credit is best represented. We have

had the opportunity to consider the origins of the concept of credit and the

development of formal credit taking into account its definition, its regulation,

and its use. These three aspects have allowed us to understand the expansion of

credit and the role played by some institutional elements in its consolidation

between 1480 and 1521.

The development of a solid institutional framework was the base that

supported the general use of credit at all levels. In this sense, we can indicate

four mayor institutional factors which explain how institutions encouraged

685Conclusions

credit, how it was used on a daily basis, and how numerous social and

economic/financial activities developed around it.

First, common law has offered us the starting point to understand how

Castilian legislators, after the incorporation of Roman law, defined some of the

most important concepts about credit. The great legal compilation, Las Partidas,

provided the basis of credit relations which were in full force during the Middle

Ages and the Modern Era. Las Partidas had a clear understanding of the concept

of credit operations and detailed how it could develop, although its

implementation in real life was more difficult. The authors behind the legal

code, and particularly behind the fifth chapter, worked out a logical and self-

contained discourse. It started with a clear definition and regulation of all

operations which resulted in the birth of “credit” (sales, loans, obligations, rents,

changes, deposits, pawns, investments in companies and sureties). The legal

discourse continued with the cancellation or renegotiation of the debt

(payments, renewals, compensations…). Finally, the lawmakers took into

account the nonpayment, when the term “debt” (understood in a positive light)

became something undesired, the sign of the broken agreement.

During two hundred and fifty years, Castilian legislators continued their

labour. They adapted several legal dispositions from Las Partidas according to

the political, social, and economic circumstances. Despite the problems derived

from the slow promulgation and implementation of the law, it was the best

instrument to consider and incorporate the demands of Castilians, who claimed

for clear rules about the duration and the validity of the contracts they signed.

In this way, the updated law gathered in ordinances, court books, and other legal

compilations was a useful tool to regulate problems like Jewish credit. During

the 14th and 15th centuries, the law gave a solution to Christians’ demands on

credit and debt through the legislation about usury and debt payments. Both


issues were also present in all the legal reformations up to the compilations in

the last decades of the 15th century; when the Crown sped up a process of

institutional and legal strengthening. The Courts of Toledo in 1480 and Toro in

1505, and the Royal Ordinances were the last step in the stabilization of the

Castilian credit civil law, whose core remained unchanged for over a century.

Therefore, the pillars of credit and debt were firmly set, taking root in the

medieval legislation and practice: “from medieval law to modern practice”.

The existence of an institution able to defend the creditors’ rights against

debtors was basic when debts were not paid and confidence was broken. The

Catholic Monarchs’ government program reformed the justice administration,

both at the local and high instance level ---the latter through the development of

the Royal Chancellery---. All this made possible that Castilians had, in theory,

the possibility to claim for a debt or defend its legitimate rights in a public

institution. For this reason, we have considered the importance of the

consolidation of an equal and accessible court1. Beyond the problems that we

have showed along the dissertation ---which the governors tried to fix---, the role

of a more professional justice was essential to allow the defence of economic

rights. This meant the improvement of the institutional confidence framework

that covered a vast number of financial and credit operations. Furthermore, the

High Court activity could be described both as effective and quite efficient. Two

indicators give us an idea about it: the time that justice took to finish a lawsuit

and the costs of litigation. Both indicators show us that ideally quite enough

people could afford to appeal a local justice resolution. The time that took to

reach a definitive lawsuit resolution was not excessive considering some

difficulties like the distance from the litigant’s home to Valladolid, where the 1 MULDREW, «Credit and the Courts: Debt Litigation in a Seventeenth-Century Urban Community», in The Economic History Review, 46, 1993, p. 36.

687Conclusions

Royal Chancellery was placed by the Catholic Monarchs, or the slowness of

justice and the bureaucratization of the process.

In addition to law and justice, another two institutional factors, whose

development influenced Castilian credit, must be taken up. On the one hand, the

labour of notaries was essential to guarantee credit operations. Their validation

was the necessary endorsement for any credit or loan in case of litigation. On the

other hand, we have to consider the importance of other institutions, for

instance, mercantile associations that made possible the expansion of credit

relations inside groups like small guilds or the great “consulados”. In Castile, we

have proved that merchant guilds took a decisive role in providing credit and

facilitating its flow between creditors and debtors, whether members of a small

guild in Valladolid, or great merchants focused on the exportation of wool to

Europe. Merchant institutions were the perfect frame and environment to use

confidence and reputation to create new credit relations or renew old ties.

The consolidation of formal institutions (the base of this dissertation) was

essential to increase credit relations and to support economic growth in

sixteenth-century Castile. In this sense, accepting the general approach of

Douglass North and Daron Acemoglu, we have noticed how Castilian

institutions became a basic factor to structure and defend one of the most basic

aspects: private property rights2. This is a fact we have showed using

documentary evidence: lawsuits claiming a private property right. The rise of

Castilian administrative structures and the advance toward the creation of the

2 Acemoglu quotes to North and defines institutions as “the rules of the game in a society or, more formally, are the humanly devised constraints the shape human interaction”, ACEMOGLU, D., «Institutions as a fundamental cause of long-run growth», in AGHION, Ph. and DURLAUF, S. N., Handbook of Economic Growth, Vol. 1, Elsevier, 2005, see above chapter 6, and p. 388.


Modern State ---above all concerning justice--- were a solid ground to support

the social and economic expansion of credit.

The social and economic expansion of credit in Castile reflects some ideas

exposed by Craig Muldrew in the “culture of credit” in Early Modern England

about the influence of credit on the development of social relations in daily life.

Similarly, we tried to delve on this “culture of credit” in Castile, and so better

understand the importance of social relationships and trust as key factors in the

creation of credit relations. To that end, the analysis of creditors, debtors, and

guarantors, their social origins and other defining features have shown the

importance that social position had in the creation of confidence and credit.

Credit and debt were present in all Castilian society, from kings to the most

disadvantaged people, including lords, clergymen, merchants, artisans,

labourers, institutions, and many others. Credit made possible the contact

between different people from diverse worlds; yet, social position proved itself

to be one of the most important factors when a creditor and a debtor were

negotiating. Social status was crucial to define a credit relation. It was not the

same a deal with Queen Elizabeth, with a Christian, or an adult male than an

agreement with a Jewish creditor, a minor, or a woman. Castilian law tended to

protect or limit the participation of minors and women because the legislators

understood they were the weakest members of society. Anyway, both minors

and women took part in everyday economy and in the social world of credit

when they needed to defend their rights. The social condition of the others,

foreigners and Jews, could be, on the one hand, an advantage to operate in

Castile, thanks to their solid financial positions and their social and economic

networks (based on the relationships with members of the same nation ---

Genoese, Milanese...--- or on the strong ties derived from their marriage with

Castilians). On the other hand, social condition, as it happened in the case of

689Conclusions

Jews, could be something negative, since their credit relations were always

called into question.

The development of social and economic relations had an impact on a

new way of “life on credit”3, in accordance with the expansion of the economy.

Some social ties born in contexts like the work environment, the family, or the

neighbourhood proved to be the most significant social ties between creditors,

debtors, and guarantors. The ties derived from these contexts wove several

networks (understood as social capital) that became another pillar for credit,

creating solid bonds which worked as an effective tool to demand and offer

credit. Consequently, social relations allow us to understand economic concepts,

like liquidity, from the viewpoint of social interaction.

In the development of credit, the existence of an institution like the

notary and the improvements in the exercise of justice, which defended

contracting in Castile, were as essential as social relations and trust among

people. Although institutional factors seemed to be the strongest, the

nonpayment revealed the breaking of the social and psychological basis that

strengthened credit relations. The nonpayment involved the break of confidence

that creditors and debtors had invested in the agreement and shed light upon

the relevance of personal ties behind a loan or a credit operation. The trust built

among people and in the institutional framework had a decisive influence on the

development and expansion of credit. It was necessary that the parts relied on

each other; for that reason, creditors and debtors tried to strengthen, maintain,

and care for it. To generate trust, Castilians made an effort to assert their social

condition, as well as to preserve and exhibit the most important personal

virtues: fame and honour. Furthermore, Castilians were interested in

3 GARCÍA MARSILLA, V., Vivir a crédito en la Valencia medieval. De los orígenes del sistema censal al endeudamiento del municipio, Valencia, Universitat de València, 2002.


demonstrating that society (their neighbours, workmates, partners…) trusted

them, and so their best option was to develop their social capital.

After analysing the law, the institutions, and the social ties established

between the signatories of a contract, we have considered the economic

operation that connected the creditors’ interests and the debtors’ demands. In

this sense, we have appreciated that the economic capacity of creditors was

basically founded on securing rents and profits from their respective

professional activities, above all commerce. Moreover, as a booster of credit

demand, we have paid attention to the debtors’ necessities which were based on

several components. One of them was the consumption of goods ---related with

the ostentation and the conspicuous consume--- and the other was the

investment in leases and loans to rent or buy factors of production. Both

elements were the engines that impelled credit demand along with others like

the financial necessities of some institutions, for instance, the crown or the local

councils.

The vast majority of the financial relations between Castilians were part

of a system that made possible the connection between credit supply and

demand, and favoured that capital flowed at a high speed rate. We can assert

that, at the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Modern Era, the

Castilian financial system achieved a significant level of development, both at a

domestic level and in the European context. Thus, markets like Seville and

Medina del Campo were definitively integrated in the international commerce

and financial system. Its progress can be perceived if we pay attention to the

institutional framework that sustained it and particularly to the quotidian

practice of credit operations described in the law. The variety of financial

instruments and the possibilities of using them in an institutional frame are

good examples as well. We might add some other factors like the consolidation

691Conclusions

of regional markets and the great Castilian fairs, maybe the prime example of

the financial system effectiveness. Besides, credit was present in the life of

peasants and in the rural economy, where it worked under the same premises

than in the urban economy.

The analysis of credit in light of two pointers ---its presence in different

geographical contexts (north-south, urban-rural…) and the mobility of capital

throughout the kingdom--- is a good way to demonstrate its relevance. Despite

that Castilians run great risks when they invested in business like rent of taxes

or in local, regional or international companies, it is true that the mobility of

capital seemed one of the best ways to obtain high profits, something accepted

by society, unlike the harshly criticised Jewish usury.

Finally, we want to point out the role played by credit in the Castilian

economic growth. There is no doubt of its capacity to transfer capital between

different economic sectors, but we are mainly interested in its aptness to increase

the currency in circulation. During the 15th and 16th centuries, some notices from

the “Cortes” regarding monetary problems reveal the necessity of money to

support the economic growth4. As we have shown in this work, credit could

cover the necessity of money in daily life transactions. The expansion and use of

credit made possible an endogenous growth5.

4 Felipe Ruiz defended the importance of mint money over credit (especially bank credit), vid. RUIZ MARTÍN, F., «La primitiva banca en los reinos de la Corona de Castilla», en REPRESA, A., El Libro Mayor del «Banquero de Corte» de los Reyes Católicos, Ochoa Pérez de Salinas (1498-1500), Bilbao, Banco de Bilbao, 1980, p. 15.

5 G. de Luca does make some observations in this respect. In the case of Milano, he links economic growth and financial system, LUCA, G. de, «La banca milanese tra XVI e XVII secolo», in ALLORZA APARICIO, Á., FERNÁNDEZ IZQUIERDO, F. y GARCÍA GUERRA, E. (eds.), Comercio, banca y sociedad en los reinos hispánicos (siglos XIV-XVIII), Madrid, Ed. Polifemo, 2012, pp. 109-156, see above pp. 138-140.


Although Shumpeter affirms that the scholastics did not incorporate in

their vision about money the issue of credit, some of them, like Tomás de

Mercado, were fully aware of their impact on economic growth, even though

they paid special attention to the importance of mint money. From our

perspective, the usual presence of credit among Castilians boosted the currency

in circulation in the economic system, thus favouring Castile’s economic growth

during this period. However, the expansion of credit probably had adverse

effects relating to the rise of prices6. The years we study constituted the

beginning of a period that a classic like Earl J. Hamilton defined as “los comienzos

de la revolución de los precios”7, characterised by high rates of inflation. The

authors from the middle of the 16th century knew that the amount of money

available was one of its causes.

Finally, we could affirm that the social and economic expansion of credit

was joint by the institutionalisation of trust8 by means of the consolidation of

institutions and the development of the social capital of individuals. And all this

took place within a process of political change, economic growth and evolution

toward a “contractual society”9.

6 In sixteenth-century England “the reality … was that the credit-driven economy grew faster than the money supply, and population growth created demand-driven inflation which caused prices to increase”, MULDREW, C., «Hard Food for Midas; Cash and its Social Value in Early Modern England», en Past and Present, 170, 2001, pp. 79-120, see above p. 89.

7 HAMILTON, E. J., El tesoro americano y la revolución de los precios en España, 1501-1650, Barcelona, Crítica, 2000 (1st. Edition in 1934), pp. 197 y ss.

8 BRIGGS, Ch., Credit and Village Society in Fourteenth-Century England, Oxford, The British Academy – Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 151.

9 MULDREW, C., The Economy of Obligation. The Culture of Credit and Social Relations in Early Modern England, Palgrave, 1998, pp. 317-333.

693Conclusions

PhD Dissertation: Crédito privado y deuda en Castilla (1480-1521) Universidad de Valladolid, 2013 ...

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