Pawned Horses: Risk and Liability in Fourteenth Century German Small-Credit Market
Many Jewish-Christian credit transactions relied on pawns as collateral, which presumably eliminated the risk in the case of debtors’ default. However, keeping and maintaining certain pawns involved particular risks that further complicated these transactions. This paper focuses on live pawns, speci...
| Published in: | Medieval encounters |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
2021
|
| In: |
Medieval encounters
|
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Germany
/ Financial market
/ Personal loan
/ Jews
/ Pawnbrokers
/ Horse
/ Collateral (finance)
/ Risk
/ History 1250-1400
|
| RelBib Classification: | AX Inter-religious relations BH Judaism CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations KBB German language area ZB Sociology ZD Psychology |
| Further subjects: | B
moneylending
B Credit B Ashkenaz B pawns B Jewish-Christian exchange B Horses |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Many Jewish-Christian credit transactions relied on pawns as collateral, which presumably eliminated the risk in the case of debtors’ default. However, keeping and maintaining certain pawns involved particular risks that further complicated these transactions. This paper focuses on live pawns, specifically horses, where the safekeeping of the animal involved far greater difficulties and risks than with other valuable objects that were pawned with Jews. By tracing how legal norms and practices addressed some of the unique risks attached to receiving horses as pawns, this article will outline the expectations both Jews and Christians had when engaging in credit transaction secured by horses. Relying on responsa literature, urban legislation, and court cases from the late thirteenth to mid-fourteenth centuries, this analysis will discuss some of the complications relating to liability over live pawns, with the goal of demonstrating how a specific type of pawn, and its unique risks and benefits, reflects previous assumptions and expectations regarding risk and trust. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1570-0674 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Medieval encounters
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700674-12340113 |