Creditors and debtors: Christian and Jewish money and capital markets in late medieval German towns

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Gerhard Fouquet
• Subject Area: Medieval History
• Term: from 2015 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 277647152

Credit penetrated the medieval economic life all-around, as Bruno Kuske and many after him ascertained. Even semi-urban rural credit markets, which were largely based on orality, were of great economic significance at least on a local level, as e.g. the credit markets in the Ingelheim region of the late 15th century shows. This conclusion can be drawn from the fact that according conflicts were put into writing before court. In addition to the comprehensive research regarding annuity loans and the urban bond markets of the late Middle Ages, the interest loan, sanctioned by the aggravated usury debate of the 13th century, indeed gained its specific importance by the extensive research on the Jewish credit system, the Lombards and Cahorsins, and the business practices of Christian merchants, especially of the so-called merchant-bankers. However, the important observation of the substitution of Jewish credits since the late 14th century was mainly substantiated ex negativo, since there was only sporadic research that turned attention to the loans granted by Christian moneylenders and thus by the Jews' direct competitors. Therefore, in research literature the Jewish loan is still perceived almost synonymously with the entire loan system of the Middle Ages. Hence, the proposed project's primary question is based on the assumption that at least since 1320 loan markets were always affected by Christian and Jewish financiers alike. Due to the instruments of the extortionate credits that had apparently been cogitated and proven by Christians at first, there even had to be a functional connection between the Christian and the Jewish credit. Exemplarily, the differing functions of the Christian and the Jewish loan markets between 1356 and 1485 will be explored on the basis of an examination of relevant sources from the cities of Vienna, Constance and Babenhausen (near Darmstadt). These cities varied significantly in their urban development and are likely to represent loan markets with differing patterns. Additionally, they also offer, with all due caution, possibilities of comparative analysis. Through the combination of statistic and prosopographic methods, debt holders and debtors, men and women alike, will be taken into consideration as well as the credit volumes and their respectively arranged usances of loan agreements. Thereby, an economic history and a personal history of the Late Medieval loan may be written.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants