El sistema financiero a finales de la Edad Media: instrumentos y métodos. AAVV

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To get an impression of the integration of capital markets elsewhere in the Northern Low Countries, we have gathered some evidence from two towns, Groningen, in the Northeast, and Nijmegen in the East (map 1). Groningen had about 12.500 inhabitants in the mid-sixteenth-century. Even though its public debt was quite modest compared to that of Leiden, yet it was geographically diversified. In the city accounts the magistrates distinguished annuities they had to pay out in the province of Groningen and outside. For instance, in the account of 1535-1536 the magistrate paid 36 annuities within Groningen and 34 outside. Foreign creditors came from places like Kampen, Hamburg and Cologne and the same goes by and large for the account of 1548 (42 inside and 37 outside). Also, in both years annuities paid outside Groningen were much more valuable than those paid inside.³⁵

      The public debt of Nijmegen, a town of 10.000-12.000 inhabitants in the mid-sixteenth-century, was less spatially diversified: in 1543 the town paid 60 annuities to inhabitants and 16 to foreigners. Once again, foreign annuities were much more valuable than domestic annuities. Creditors lived in Kampen, Cologne, Duisburg and Venlo among others. These two examples indicate that the credit networks of Nijmegen and Groningen may have been less elaborate than those of towns in Holland. Yet, these towns did rely on foreign capital markets, particularly those in the Northwest and West of the German Empire.

      IV

      The development of the public debt of Leiden, Groningen and Nijmegen suggests that financial markets helped to redistribute money, from savers looking for investment opportunities, to towns looking for foreign funding. They did this on a local, regional, and interregional level. This finding begs the question to what degree late-medieval financial markets contributed to a more or less efficient reallocation of savings. Although difficult to answer, the question of efficiency is crucial for understanding markets, since these are supposed to bring together supply in demand in such a way that prices converge, and «pockets» where prices are either relatively high or low disappear. To get an impression of «efficiency» we will use a dataset based on a large government survey taken in Holland in 1514, inquiring amongst other things into the public debt towns and villages had created.

In 1514³⁶ Maximilian I (regent 1482-1494, 1506-1515) ordered government agents to investigate into the wealth of towns and villages, in order to come up with a new distribution code for taxation. In Holland the provincial government was not entitled to tax its subjects individually. Instead, the central government ordered each community to pay its share, based on a distribution code, and next local governments taxed its citizens or villagers.³⁷ The government agents talked to representatives of towns and villages and questioned them about the number of inhabitants, the economic situation and the way they usually levied taxes. They also asked about the financial situation, about revenues and expenses, and loans local governments had contracted: which type of loans, under what conditions these had been contracted, when and why.

The investigation has been preserved in a document called Informacie. Since Robert Fruin edited this source in 1866 many historians have used it in research into late-medieval Holland. Some questioned its credibility, pointing out that town and village representatives probably tried to make things look worse than they were in order to get a lower taxation, while others deemed the source to be reliable enough.³⁸ It is certainly so that some representatives of towns and villages overacted, complaining about the horrors of war and natural disaster. And even though they were questioned under oath, some representatives even made false statements. However, fraud seems to have been restricted to statements about the landed property of the villagers.³⁹ This is hardly surprising because landed property was one of the main elements, if not the main element, the distribution code would be based on. The data regarding public debt probably had a much smaller effect on the new distribution code.

The reliability of the data on public debt the Informacie gives can be confirmed by referring to town accounts, such as those of Dordrecht. The interest rates mentioned in both Informacie and town accounts are identical, which means that the survey provides insight in sale conditions, and does not reflect any changes made to contracts afterward.⁴⁰ Furthermore, it has become clear that government agents, during their investigation in 1514, also required representatives of towns to back up their statements with evidence in writing. Even though some town magistrates sometimes showed little enthusiasm to hand over documents such as town accounts, they usually cooperated. It was more difficult to get village governments to present evidence in writing because few villages seem to have kept financial records. Only in one case we have been able to compare the data the Informacie gives with village accounts. The representatives of the large village of Noordwijk claimed they paid an interest of 31½ guilders, and the village accounts support their statement.⁴¹

What does the Informacie reveal about public debt? By 1514 all towns of Holland had created public debt, having sold life and redeemable annuities. Moreover, 60 % of the villages of Holland had done so as well. This public debt was mainly created during the period 1477-1514, during a period of increasing financial pressure due to ongoing state formation and war efforts by the Dukes of Burgundy –in particular Charles the Bold (r. 1467-1477) and Maximilian I. Faced with ambitious rulers, towns and villages used most of the principals to be able to pay taxes and war expenses. In contrast, only a small part of the funds went to such causes as public works.⁴²

      Table 1 gives an overview of the annuities towns and villages had to pay out every year. The main towns of Holland were most heavily indebted: the burden of annuities per capita was 2,26 guilders. In other words: here every inhabitant contributed 2,26 guilders –presumably via taxation– to interest payments. In Holland’s many smaller towns the per capita contribution was much lower, at 0,79 guilders. This difference is most likely the result of the main towns increasingly being used by the rulers to gain access to financial markets: the towns thus sold annuities on behalf of the rulers because the latter lacked creditworthiness. The rulers did not use smaller towns to such ends, let alone villages: the latter’s public debt was on average 0,21 guilders per capita.

      The Informacie provides detailed information of the interest rates towns and villages СКАЧАТЬ