Women and Credit in Pre-Industrial Europe: An Overview

Abstract

A cross Europe and throughout various periods, women have played a significant role in formal and informal financial exchange. They borrowed money to make ends meet and provide for their households, or to invest in their shops, businesses, or farms. They placed their capital and savings in credit markets to overcome the death of a husband, secure a decent retirement pension, or to provide for a dowry. We also often find them acting as intermediaries and giving pledges, key roles in the circulation of credit. Here and there, women were active agents in credit exchanges and credit networks.To date, however, their role in these markets has been under-examined and underestimated. We still know very little regarding the extent of their participation, its significance and impact on their households and communities. What was the role of women in pre-industrial credit markets? What was the extent of female credit capacity in terms of lending and borrowing? How did women participate in credit exchange in practice? This collection of essays, therefore, sets out to answer these questions and examine the significance of women in pre-industrial European

Peer-to-peer lending in pre-industrial France

“…Women represented 10.46 per cent of the lenders in the non-notarised credit market. This proportion is lower than what has been observed in the notarial credit market, as we shall see in the final section (Dermineur 2014, 2018b). Several widows and unmarried women were active lenders although they were not the biggest lenders in the network.…”

“…It seems that the officers preferred to list the names of the household's head rather than the individual at the origin of the transactions. Therefore, the women listed in the probates as lenders or borrowers tend to be widows or unmarried woman rather than married women (Dermineur 2018b).…”

“…It is interesting to note that women were more inclined to lend money through the official channel, perhaps to secure their assets more effectively (see Dermineur 2018b). Widows and unmarried women were also more numerous as debtors.…”

Entre el hogar, el matrimonio y los negocios. Mujeres, préstamos y deudas en una economía de Antiguo Régimen. Salta, fines del siglo XVIII

“…Unas pocas se encontraban en una buena posición económica, en control de su dote y de los bienes gananciales (o sea los adquiridos durante la vigencia de la sociedad conyugal) luego de la muerte del esposo, la viuda de cualquier edad era considerada una mujer independiente. Dermineur (2018) sí bien reconoce que las mujeres prestamistas pueden hallarse en todos los niveles de la sociedad, las mujeres viudas a menudo fueron acreedoras prominentes, responsables de sus propios activos, con capacidad legal total recuperada sobre su patrimonio. Según la opinión de la autora, las viudas, por lo general, invirtieron en el préstamo como manera de asegurarse su pensión en la vejez.…”