The Journal of Economic History

Table of Contents - March 2012 - Volume 72, Issue 01  

ARTICLES

Household Debt in Early Modern Germany: Evidence from Personal Inventories

SHEILAGH OGILVIEa1, MARKUS KÜPKERa2 and JANINE MAEGRAITHa3

a1 Professor of Economic History, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DD, United Kingdom. E-mail: sco2@econ.cam.ac.uk.

a2 Research Associate, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DD, United Kingdom. E-mail: mk485@cam.ac.uk.

a3 Research Associate, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DD, United Kingdom. E-mail: cjm80@cam.ac.uk.

Abstract

The “less-developed” interior of early modern Europe, especially the rural economy, is often regarded as financially comatose. This article investigates this view using a rich data set of marriage and death inventories for seventeenth-century Germany. It first analyzes the characteristics of debts, examining borrowing purposes, familial links, communal ties, and documentary instruments. It then explores how borrowing varied with gender, age, marital status, occupation, date, and asset portfolio. It finds that ordinary people, even in a “less-developed” economy in rural central Europe, sought to invest profitably, smooth consumption, bridge low liquidity, and hold savings in financial form.

Footnotes

We are grateful to John Broad, D'Maris Coffman, Roland Deigendesch, Tracy Dennison, Jeremy Edwards, Sara Horrell, Jim Livesey, Anne Mauch, Craig Muldrew, Michelle O'Malley, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, Tom Safley, Kenneth Sneath, James Thomson, Allan Tulchin, Martin Uebele, Frank Westermann, three anonymous referees, and participants at seminars at the University of Cambridge and the University of Sussex, for stimulating comments on earlier versions of this article. We also gratefully acknowledge the generous financial support of an ESRC Large Research Grant (RES-062-23-0759).