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Real estate and mortgage finance in England and the Low Countries, 1300–1800

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

CHRISTIAAN VAN BOCHOVE ,
HEIDI DENEWETH  and
JACO ZUIJDERDUIJN
CHRISTIAAN VAN BOCHOVE*
Affiliation:
Economic, Social and Demographic History Research Group, Radboud University Nijmegen.
HEIDI DENEWETH
Affiliation:
Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), Department of History, Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
JACO ZUIJDERDUIJN
Affiliation:
Social and Economic History Research Group, Leiden University.
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

Mortgage markets in developing economies, both past and present, are often confined to social networks between private individuals. The inadequate registration of ownership of and encumbrances on borrowers’ real estate has been offered as a reason for this, but it is questionable whether such registration provides either a simple or a complete explanation. This paper analyses mortgage markets between 1300 and 1800 in the Low Countries, where such registration was organised well, and England, where such registration was poorly organised. These historical cases show that registration was important for the emergence of broad mortgage markets but in the historical context successful markets took considerable time to appear. The rise of such markets also required changes in the mortgage laws and often depended on intermediaries for matching borrowers and lenders.

Immobilier et financement hypothécaire en angleterre et aux pays-bas, 1300–1800

Au sein des économies en développement, hier comme aujourd'hui, les marchés hypothécaires sont souvent confinés à des réseaux sociaux entre particuliers. L'enregistrement insuffisant de la propriété et des charges sur les biens immobiliers des emprunteurs en a été présenté comme une raison, mais il n'est pas sûr que cette question de l'enregistrement constitue une explication simple ou complète. Cet article analyse les marchés hypothécaires, entre 1300 et 1800, d'un côté aux Pays-Bas où cet enregistrement était bien organisé, et de l'autre en Angleterre, où l'inscription était mal organisée. Ces exemples historiques montrent que l'enregistrement était certes important pour l’émergence de marchés hypothécaires larges, mais, considérés sur la longue durée historique, les marchés fructueux mirent beaucoup de temps à apparaître. Le développement de ces marchés supposait également de changer la législation touchant les hypothèques et dépendait souvent des intermédiaires qui mettaient emprunteurs et prêteurs en relation.

Grundstücke und hypothekenfinanzierung in england und den niederlanden, 1300–1800

In sich entwickelnden Wirtschaften (sowohl früheren als auch heutigen) sind Hypothekenmärkte oft auf soziale Netzwerke zwischen Privatpersonen beschränkt. Als Grund dafür ist die unzulängliche Registrierung des Besitzes und der Belastungen auf dem Grundeigentum von Kreditnehmern angeführt worden, aber es ist fraglich, ob eine solche Registrierung sich wirklich als einfache oder umfassende Erklärung anbietet. Dieser Beitrag analysiert Hypothekenmärkte zwischen 1300 und 1800 in den Niederlanden, wo eine solche Registrierung gut organisiert war, und in England, wo sie schlecht organisiert war. Diese historischen Fälle zeigen, dass eine Registrierung für die Entstehung breit angelegter Hypothekenmärkte durchaus wichtig war, aber im historischen Kontext dauerte es doch ziemlich lange, bis sich erfolgreiche Märkte etablierten. Der Aufstieg solcher Märkte erforderte nämlich auch veränderte Hypothekenrechte und hing von geeigneten Vermittlern zwischen Kreditnehmern und Gläubigern ab.

Type
Research Article
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , May 2015 , pp. 9 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

ENDNOTES

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2 See, for instance, Zuijderduijn, C. J., Medieval capital markets: markets for renten, state formation and private investment in Holland (1300–1550) (Leiden, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Platt, H. L., ‘Exploding cities: housing the masses in Paris, Chicago, and Mexico City, 1850–2000’, Journal of Urban History 36, 5 (2010), 575–93CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. See also Gilbert, A., ‘De Soto's The mystery of capital: reflections on the book's public impact’, International Development Planning Review 34, 3 (2012), v–xviiCrossRefGoogle Scholar, for a summary of the critiques.

3 Our focus on borrowers who used real estate as collateral for loans has two implications. First, we can only analyse details of those in full ownership of a piece of real estate. Such individuals were very common in the Low Countries, but less so in England where a distinction between freehold and copyhold land existed. Second, we have had to restrict our study to that part of the credit market where loans were sufficiently large and long term for collateral to be required as security. Smaller loans and alternative financial instruments were also used in the Low Countries and in England, however. See Briggs, C., Credit and village society in fourteenth-century England (Oxford, 2009), 82–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for those who used non-freehold land in financial markets in England.

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11 The registers of the palatine counties of Lancaster and Durham were kept in the towns of Preston and Durham, respectively. See Melton, F. T., Sir Robert Clayton and the origins of English deposit banking, 1658–1685 (Cambridge, 1986), 22, 92Google Scholar; Smith, Edmund, An elementary view of the practice of conveyancing in solicitor's offices […] (London, 1863), 47–8Google Scholar; Sheppard and Belcher, ‘Deeds registries’, 274, 276.

12 2 & 3 Anne, c. 4 (1703; register for the West Riding of Yorkshire); 6 Anne, c. 20 (1706; amendment West Riding); 6 Anne, c. 62 (1707; register for the East Riding of Yorkshire) (also origin of quotation).

13 In addition to this service, scrivener Robert Clayton introduced a unique, but time-consuming, service around the middle of the seventeenth century. Clayton's meticulous inspections and land assessments gave him a competitive edge over his colleagues, as was readily acknowledged by his contemporary, banker Francis Child. Through his elaborate process Clayton was able to accurately assess crucial characteristics of real estate. This not only ensured lenders that their money was sufficiently covered, but also that borrowers would not mortgage too large a share of a piece of real estate. See Melton, Robert Clayton. The ability to accurately price real estate is another aspect not addressed by de Soto. See Baer, William C., ‘The institution of residential investment in seventeenth-century London’, Business History Review 76, 3 (2002), 515–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar, on how pattern books helped people evaluate real estate themselves.

14 Melton, Robert Clayton; Coleman, D. C., ‘London scriveners and the estate market in the later seventeenth century’, Economic History Review 4, 2 (1951), 221–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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16 Registration systems already existed in Southern Europe during the twelfth century, but, as the Florentine catasto famously shows, primarily served as a basis for taxes. In contrast to Northern Europe, moreover, notaries in the south could substitute for public officials when transactions were being recorded. By collaborating, however, these notaries effectively turned a decentralised registration system into a centralised one akin to that which existed in the Low Countries. See Rigaudière, A. ed., De l'estime au cadastre en Europe. Le moyen âge. Colloque des 11, 12 et 13 juin 2003 (Paris, 2006)Google Scholar; Peña, J. L. Moreno, ‘Los registros de la propiedad como fuente de información geográfica’, Ería 30 (1993), 5–20Google Scholar; Ezquiete, C. Idoate, ‘Los libros de Registro de las antiguas Contadurias de hipotecas’, Principe de Viana 49 (1988), 235–46Google Scholar; Bonnefon, A. F., Etude historique sur l'impôt et l'administration de l'enregistrement depuis leurs origines les plus réculées jusqu’à nos jours: introduction au droit fiscal suivie d'une bibliographie de l'enregistrement (Paris, 1882)Google Scholar; Béaur, G., Le marché foncier à la veille de la révolution. Les mouvements de propriété beaucerons dans les régions de Maintenon et de Janville de 1761 à 1790 (Paris, 1984)Google Scholar; Hoffman, P. T., Postel-Vinay, G. and Rosenthal, J.-L., Priceless markets: the political economy of credit in Paris, 1660–1870 (Chicago, 2000)Google Scholar. A registration system similar to that in the Low Countries existed in parts of Germany. See Baum, H.-P., ‘Annuities in late medieval Hanse towns’, Business History Review 59, 1 (1985), 24–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar; J. Zuijderduijn, ‘The early development of financial instruments and financial markets in medieval Hansa towns’ (working paper; available at http://leidenuniv.academia.edu/JacoZuijderduijn/Financial-history).

17 Yarranton, Improvement, 10–11. See Brooks, C. W., Pettyfoggers and vipers of the Commonwealth: the ‘lower branch’ of the legal profession in early modern England (Cambridge, 1986), 109CrossRefGoogle Scholar, on shared jurisdictions.

18 van Bavel, B. J. P. and van Zanden, J. L., ‘The jump-start of the Holland economy during the late-medieval crisis, c. 1350–c.1500’, Economic History Review 57, 3 (2004), 503–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bavel, B. van, Dijkman, J., Kuijpers, E. and Zuijderduijn, J., ‘The organisation of markets as a key factor in the rise of Holland from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century: a test case for an institutional approach’, Continuity and Change 27, 3 (2012), 347–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hoppenbrouwers, P. C. M., ‘Op zoek naar de “kerels”: De dorpsgemeente in de dagen van graaf Floris V’, in de Boer, D. E. H., Cordfunke, E. H. P. and Sarfatij, H. eds., Wi Florens… : De Hollandse graaf Floris V in de samenleving van de dertiende eeuw (Utrecht, 1996), 224–42Google Scholar, here 226, 231; van der Linden, H., ‘Het platteland in het Noordwesten met nadruk op de occupatie circa 1000–1300’, in Blok, D. P., Prevenier, W. and Roorda, D. J. eds., Algemene Geschiedenis der Nederlanden II (Haarlem, 1982), 48–82Google Scholar, here 73–8.

19 Zuijderduijn, Medieval capital markets, 184–90.

20 Gosses, I. H., Welgeborenen en huislieden: Onderzoekingen over standen en staat in het graafschap Holland (Groningen and The Hague, 1926), 82Google Scholar; van Dalen, J. L. ed., ‘Oorkonden en regesten betreffende de stad Dordrecht en hare naaste omgeving tijdens het grafelijke huis van Holland, 1006–1299’, Bijdragen en mededeelingen van het Historisch Genootschap 33 (1912), 115–278Google Scholar, here 150–1; Dijkhof, E. C. ed., Oorkondenboek van Holland en Zeeland tot 1299 V: 1291 tot 1299 (The Hague, 2005), 310, 490Google Scholar; Kruisheer, J. G. ed., Oorkondenboek van Holland en Zeeland tot 1299 III: 1256 tot 1278 (Assen, 1992), 243–4Google Scholar.

21 van Mieris, F. ed., Handvesten, privilegiën, octroyen, rechten en vryheden… (Leiden, 1759), 617Google Scholar.

22 This was prescribed by the customs of Kennemerland, for instance. See Allan, A. J., Het Kennemer landrecht van 1274 tot het begin van de Republiek: Tekst van het handvest van 1292 met hertaling en toelichting (The Hague, 2005), 228–9Google Scholar.

23 Zuijderduijn, Medieval capital markets, 65–7.

24 Ibid.

25 Rollin Couquerque, L. M. and Meerkamp van Embden, A., Rechtsbronnen der stad Gouda (The Hague, 1917), 470Google Scholar; Zuijderduijn, C. J., ‘Conjunctuur in laatmiddeleeuws Haarlem: Schepenregisters als bron voor de ontwikkeling van een Hollandse stad’, Holland Historisch Tijdschrift 40 (2008), 3–17Google Scholar.

26 Also, in 1530 the town government of Schiedam warned contracting parties to have transactions officially ratified and registered within two weeks or face a penalty fine. See Heeringa, K., ‘Het oudste keurboek van Schiedam’, Verslagen en Mededeelingen van de vereniging tot uitgave der bronnen van het Oude Vaderlandsche Recht 6 (1915), 139–74Google Scholar, here 164–5; Heeringa, K., ‘Bladen uit het oudste keurboek en het stadboek van Schiedam’, Verslagen en Mededeelingen van de vereniging tot uitgave der bronnen van het Oude Vaderlandsche Recht 5 (1909), 229–58Google Scholar, here 250–1, 257.

27 Pols, M. S., ‘Oudste rechten van het Land van Putten’, Verslagen en Mededeelingen van de vereniging tot uitgave der bronnen van het Oude Vaderlandsche Recht 1 (1885), 122–61Google Scholar, here 158–9.

28 Zuijderduijn, ‘Conjunctuur’. This process of diversification was already visible at a much earlier stage in the North of Germany, such as in Lübeck, where magistrates kept a liber civitatis for debts and a liber hereditatum for ownership of real estate. See Kossmann-Putto, J. A., Kamper schepenacten, 1316–1354 (Zwolle, 1955), 17Google Scholar.

29 ‘[…] so werdt het den voorschreven Ministers serieuselyk gerecommandeert, en ook van hare naersticheid en vigilantie verwacht, dat sy hare vacante uiren, soo nu en dan, tot het formeren van tafels, en registers van de voorschreve boeken, en volumina willen besteden’ (Van Mieris, Handvesten, 241). Improvements to registration in Leiden are discussed in van der Vlist, E. T., ‘De bonboeken te Leiden’, in van Synghel, G. A. M. ed., Bronnen betreffende de registratie van onroerend goed in Middeleeuwen en Ancien Régime (The Hague, 2001), 82–107Google Scholar.

30 1 guilder = 20 stivers = 40 groats; 1 pound Flemish = 6 guilders. de Blécourt, A. S. and Japikse, N., Klein plakkaatboek van Nederland: verzameling van ordonnantiën en plakkaten betreffende regeeringsvorm, kerk en rechtspraak (14e eeuw tot 1749) (Groningen, 1919), 132–3Google Scholar.

31 ‘Ende alsoe men omme alle frauden te verhoeden een register soude houden van alle certificatiën, die besegelt souden werden omme tot allen tyden regies daertoe te hebben, zouden zy hebben voir ‘t registreeren van dien een stuver boven ‘t ordinaris loon.’ Becker, B. ed., Bronnen tot de kennis van het leven en de werken van D.V. Coornhert (The Hague, 1928), 17–18Google Scholar.

32 In Haarlem, in the fifteenth to early seventeenth centuries the average purchase price of an annuity was over 210 guilders; the tariffs for registration were only a fraction of such a sum. Zuijderduijn, ‘Conjunctuur’, 8.

33 Spierings, M. H. M., Het schepenprotocol van ‘s-Hertogenbosch 1367–1400 (Tilburg, 1984), 82, 139Google Scholar. The latter only cost one groat in the town of Geervliet. See Pols, M. S., ‘Oudste rechten van de stad Geervliet’, Verslagen en Mededeelingen van de vereniging tot uitgave der bronnen van het Oude Vaderlandsche Recht 2 (1886), 78–108Google Scholar. In Land van Putten registers were already accessible to the public in 1479; see Pols, ‘Oudste rechten van het Land van Putten’, 158–9.

34 ‘Dat voorts tot het voorsz. register ten overstaen van den secretaris daer toe gedeputeert een yder die daer aen gelegen sal mogen zijn sal hebben vrij acces om te mogen besien de registratie van het gene daer aen hem soude mogen gelegen zijn.’ Noordkerk, H., Handvesten; ofte privilegien ende octroyen; mitsgaders willekeuren, costuimen, ordonnantien en handelingen der stad Amstelredam II (Amsterdam, 1748), 556Google Scholar.

35 ‘Voor ’t openen en opsoeken in de prothocollen, weesboeken en andere registers, na eenige rente, opdracht, custing-brieven, schepen-kennissen of diergelijke, en die te extraheeren 1 gulden 4 stuyvers’ (Reglement, waar na den officier, secretaris en andere bedienden in de heerlykheid van Amsterveen, haar in't stuk van hare vacatien en salarissen voortaan zullen hebben te reguleeren (Amsterdam, 1700), 21).

36 ‘Voor ’t openen en soeken een prothocolle na eenige belastingen 6 stuyvers’ (Reglement, 21).

37 Nationaal Archief (hereafter NA), The Hague, Archief van de familie Van der Staal van Piershil, 1636–1904 (hereafter Van der Staal) (entry number 3.20.54), inv. nr. 353, letters dated 27 February 1765 (‘[…] mij verseikert werdt ik zulks met veel gerustheijdt op de eerste grondt brief kan doen […]’) and 5 September 1766.

38 Stadsarchief Amsterdam (hereafter SAA), Archief van de Notarissen ter Standplaats Amsterdam (hereafter Notarissen) (entry number 5075), inv. nr. 9954, deed 671 (29 September 1740): ‘[…] te Consenteren dat ten behoeve van den voorn: Heer Professor Röell, tot desselfs meerder Securitijt, de Belastingboeken, die soo ter Secretarije als ter Weeskamer deeser Stad daar van gehouden werden, ten Costen van hun Constituanten mogen werden opgeslagen en nagesien, of hetselve Huijs en Erve aldaar ook belast ofte beswaart staat […]’.

39 ‘[…] omme te verstrecken ende te ligten copije of extract authenticq van de voorzeyde opdragt en transport […]’. Het Utrechts Archief, Notarissen in de stad Utrecht 1560–1905 (entry number 34–4), inv. nr. U205a030, deed 15 (30 August 1778).

40 Pitlo, A., De zeventiende en achttiende eeuwsche notarisboeken en wat zij ons omtrent ons oude notariaat leeren (Haarlem, 1948), 103Google Scholar.

41 Schoolhouder, J., Oeffenschoole des beamptschrijvers (Amsterdam, 1722), 376Google Scholar (‘[…] nagezien en doorzogt te hebben, het Quohier der Hypothecatien van de vaste Goederen binnen onzen Plaatze, en niet bevonden nog kennisse te hebben, dat zeker stuk Land (of Huys en Erf) […] toebehorende aan […] met eenige speciaale belastingen, of Hypothecatien, ten iemands behoeve is beswaart, of belast.’) This textbook was reprinted in 1727, 1750, 1765 and 1785 as Oeffenschoole der notarissen.

42 Zuijderduijn, Medieval capital markets, 208–14.

43 Nélis, H., ‘Etude diplomatique sur la juridiction gracieuse des échevins en Belgique (1150–1300)’, Annales de la Société d’émulation de Bruges 80 (1937), 1–57Google Scholar, here 3.

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53 This distinction still exists today. Another difference was that owners of real estate in Antwerp held deeds containing information about ownership and encumbrances on their reverse side (en dorso). The latter information was added by the aldermen when a real estate transaction was registered. De Longé, G., Coutumes de la ville d'Anvers. Coutumes du Pays et Duché de Brabant. Quartier d'Anvers II (Brussels, 1871)Google Scholar, charter of 1582, title 57, article 20; appendix to this charter, procedure before the secretaries, articles 4 and 5.

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55 See Huygens, J. P. B., Notarius Belgicus oft ampt der notarissen (Brussels, 1704)Google Scholar for an example of a textbook for notaries. For guidelines for urban administrators, see L. Gilliodts-van Severen, Coutumes de la ville de Bruges I, 431 (for searching the registers and making copies: 4 groat in 1579); De Longé, Coutumes II, 662 (on copies of ratified contracts). We found no record showing the numbers of certifications produced. It was not necessary for urban administrators to record this, as the original contracts, which would already have been registered, always had priority over certificates or attestations.

56 Lambrecht, T., Krediet en de rurale economie in Vlaanderen tijdens de achttiende eeuw (unpublished Ph.D.; Ghent, 2007)Google Scholar, chapter 2.

57 2 & 3 Anne, c. 4 (1703).

58 8 Geo II, c. 6 (1734). Only one more register was established in England during this period: that for the Bedford Level (1663), which dealt with reclaimed land where no previous ownership and encumbrances existed, a situation not unlike that in medieval Holland. Sheppard and Belcher, ‘Deeds registries’, 275–7; Tate, W. E., ‘The five English district statutory registries of deeds’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 20 (1944), 97–105CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Howell, J., ‘Deeds registration in England: a complete failure?’, Cambridge Law Journal 58 (1999), 366–98CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See Brooks, Pettyfoggers, 15, 122 on vested interests.

59 2 & 3 Anne, c. 4 (1703). Identical terms were found in the 1707 and 1735 Acts for the East Riding and North Riding of Yorkshire, respectively. The register for the East Riding was held centrally in Beverley and that for the North Riding was also located centrally, in Northallerton.

60 Woodward, D., Men at work: labourers and building craftsmen in the towns of northern England, 1450–1750 (Cambridge, 1995), 275CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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63 Allen, R. C., Enclosure and the yeoman (Oxford, 1992), 102–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sugarman, D. and Warrington, R., ‘Land law, citizenship, and the invention of “Englishness”: the strange world of the equity of redemption’, in Brewer, J. and Staves, S. eds., Early modern conceptions of property (London, 1995), 111–43Google Scholar; Brooks, Pettyfoggers, 68, 72, 93; Brooks, Christopher W., Lawyers, litigation and English society since 1450 (London, 1998), 53–4Google Scholar; Baer, ‘Residential investment’, 518 n. 10; Fisher, L. M., ‘Renegotiation in the common law mortgage and the impact of equitable redemption’, Journal of Real Estate and Economics 32, 1 (2006), 61–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Briggs, Credit, 82–3.

64 Allen, Enclosure and the yeoman, 86.

65 Deneweth, Huizen en mensen, 781–1046; Zuijderduijn, Medieval capital markets, 199–223.

66 Allen, Enclosure and the yeoman, 102–4; Sugarman and Warrington, ‘Land law’; Fisher, ‘Equitable redemption’.

67 Allen, Enclosure and the yeoman, 102–4.

68 Taking the size and growth of the populations of Yorkshire and Middlesex into account – by expressing Figure 1 on a per 1,000 inhabitants basis – yields virtually identical results. Wrigley, E. A., ‘English county populations in the later eighteenth century’, Economic History Review 60, 1 (2007), 35–69CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 54–5 (for 1761, 1771, 1781, 1791 and 1801); Wrigley, E. A., ‘Rickman revisited: the population growth rates of English counties in the early modern period’, Economic History Review 62, 3 (2009), 711–35CrossRefGoogle Scholar, here 721 (for 1700 and 1750). Wrigley's benchmark year estimates of the population size of each county were interpolated by means of constant growth rates.

69 Sheppard and Belcher, ‘Deeds registries’, 281.

70 Allen, Enclosure and the yeoman, 102–4; Brooks, ‘The agrarian problem’, 197–8; Sugarman and Warrington, ‘Land law’, 125.

71 English common law did not require officially sanctioned specialists such as the notary to draw up legal deeds. See Brooks, C. W., Helmholz, R. H. and Stein, P. G., Notaries public in England since the Reformation (Norwich, 1991)Google Scholar.

72 Schmidt, A. J., ‘The country attorney in late eighteenth-century England: Benjamin Smith of Horbling’, Law and History Review 8 (1990), 237–71CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Anderson, B. L., ‘Provincial aspects of the financial revolution of the eighteenth century’, Business History 11, 1 (1969), 11–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Anderson, B. L., ‘The attorney and the early capital market in Lancashire’, in Crouzet, F. ed., Capital formation in the industrial revolution (London, 1972), 223–55Google Scholar; Miles, M., ‘The money market in the early industrial revolution: the evidence from West Riding attorneys’, Business History 23, 2 (1981), 127–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mathias, P., ‘The lawyer as businessman in eighteenth-century England’, in Coleman, D. C. and Mathias, P. eds., Enterprise and history: essays in honour of Charles Wilson (Cambridge, 1984), 151–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

73 Zuijderduijn, Medieval capital markets, 212; le Moine de l'Espine, J., De koophandel van Amsterdam (Rotterdam, 1753), 319Google Scholar.

74 NA, The Hague, Van der Staal, inv. nr. 353, letter dated 27 February 1765 (‘[…] mijn is gepresenteert een Hijpotheecq op een huijs t welk la faille de lakenkoper voor seeventien duijsent guldens gekogt heeft […]’).

75 NA, The Hague, Van der Staal, inv. nr. 353.

76 T. Lambrecht, ‘Village elites and rural credit markets in the southern Low Countries during the eighteenth century’ (unpublished paper, 2011); T. Lambrecht, ‘Rural credit and the market for annuities in eighteenth-century Flanders’, in Schofield and Lambrecht, Credit and the rural economy, 75–98.

77 Noordkerk, Handvesten II (Amsterdam, 1748), 1065; ibidem, III, 1684; idem, Vervolg van de Handvesten […] (Amsterdam, 1755), 57.

78 Database of publicly registered and notarized loans (Utrecht University, 2012)Google Scholar. This database contains information about around 350 loans: a 20 per cent sample of all loans recorded before the aldermen in the benchmark years 1700, 1740 and 1780. As the occupations of those individuals acting as proxies were not always included in the database, the archival sources themselves were consulted. In all this resulted in 22 loans in which the occupation of the proxy was explicitly stated to have been that of a broker and 4 loans for which additional sources (such as local newspaper Amsterdamse Courant) suggest that this occupation was likely. This not only means that brokers were involved in about 1 in every 14 loans, but also suggests that lenders and borrowers were quite regularly brought together in other ways, and suggests that they recorded the loans with the aldermen themselves, without the intervention of an intermediary. See SAA, Archief van de Schepenen: register van schepenkennissen (entry number 5063), inv. nrs. 72, 73, 102, 103, 131, 132; SAA, Archief van de Schepenen: register van rentebrieven en van transporten van los- en lijfrenten (entry number 5065), inv. nr. 34.

79 See, for instance, SAA, Notarissen, inv. nrs. 8148 (deed 441, 27 August 1740), 8542 (deed 523, 26 September 1740), 9954 (deed 671, 29 September 1740).

80 Once a system of public registers was established in Paris people commonly paid notaries to consult them on their behalf. See Hoffman, Postel-Vinay and Rosenthal, Priceless markets.

81 Lambrecht, ‘Village elites’, and Lambrecht, ‘Rural credit’, suggest that in rural villages shopkeepers often acted as intermediaries.