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

Чтение книги онлайн.

      Main towns: Dordecht, Haarlem, Delft, Leiden, Gouda, Amsterdam. Small towns: Beverwijk, Alkmaar, Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Medemblik, Edam, Monnikendam, Naarden, Weesp and Weesperkerspel, Muiden, Purmerend, Woerden, Oudewater, The Hague, Vlaardingen Gravenzande, Schoonhoven, Gorinchem, Heusden, Rotterdam, Schiedam, Geertruidenberg, Asperen, Heukelum.

      Towns rarely paid interest rates below 5,6 %. The outliers in our dataset –annuities carrying premiums either below 5,6 % or above 7,1 %–, had generally been sold by villages (46 of 60). This difference may well be due to towns selling annuities in large financial centers, where they competed with others in attracting investors, and where investors likewise competed amongst each other, the result being price convergence. Apparently villages generally operated on a smaller scale: they did not explore several financial markets, but would usually have tried to sell an annuity to a fellow villager, or to an inhabitant of the nearest village or town. They operated in a limited number of localities, which could also be fairly isolated: this sometimes yielded them favourable premiums, but could also force them to accept high interest rates.

      To be sure: not all villages found buyers for their annuities: several complained they lacked credit during the interrogation in 1514. Thus, when Hilversum, to the Southeast of Amsterdam, did not manage to increase its public debt, the villagers were forced to increase their private debt. In their own words:

Say that they, for a lack of credit, were unable to sell any more annuities as a village community, forcing the villagers to sell 100 guilders worth of annuities, which they mortgaged on their houses and land.⁴⁵

It turned out that creating public debt, using as a security a community responsibility system to make all inhabitants liable for annuity payments, was impossible for Hilversum. A solution was found in having well-off villagers selling annuities on collateral of their privately owned land. This example makes clear that access to financial markets was not at all evident for villages; it also underscores the pricing mechanisms that ultimately priced Hilversum –and quite a few other villages– out of the market.⁴⁶

      For our understanding of the functioning of financial markets, it would be interesting to know to what degree regional differences existed. When we take a closer look at the premiums paid by towns (figure 3), we see that differences were relatively low in the North and centre of Holland. In the only large town of the South, Dordrecht, premiums show greater diversity, varying from 6,7 % to 8,3 %. Dordrecht’s average interest rate was relatively high at 7,1 %, whereas averages in the North (6,7 %) and centre (6,1 %) were lower.

      FIGURE 3

      Interest rates on redeemable annuities main towns (1514)

      North: area above river IJ, no large towns. Center: area between river oude Maas/ Merwede and river IJ, large towns Haarlem, Delft, Leiden, Gouda, Amsterdam. South: area below river oude Maas/ Merwede, large town Dordrecht.

      There were few differences between large and small towns: in the North all towns were small and interest rates did not differ much. In the centre the large towns Haarlem, Delft, Leiden, Amsterdam and Gouda in general paid interest rates ranging from 5,6 % to 6,3 %. They were somewhat better off than the small towns, which in general paid interest rates ranging from 5,3 % to 6,7 % (figure 4). Dordrecht, the only large town in the South, paid relatively high interest rates compared to small towns in this region.

When we take a look at the premiums paid by villages in different regions of Holland, it seems that differences were relatively low in the centre, and somewhat higher in the South (figure 5). In the North we clearly encounter the largest differences. This is the region above the River IJ, which was less urbanized than the other regions; Hoorn (3.600 inhabitants), Alkmaar (2.800) and Enkhuizen (2.300) were the largest towns.⁴⁷ These were small towns; Holland’s six main towns, which all lay below the River IJ, had about 7.000 to 10.000 inhabitants.

      FIGURE 4

       Interest rates on redeemable annuities small towns (1514)

      North: Alkmaar, Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Medemblik, Edam, Monnikendam, Beverwijk, Naarden, Weesp, Muiden, Purmerend. Center: The Hague, Woerden, Oudewater, Vlaardingen’s Gravenzande, Schiedam, Vlaardingen, Rotterdam. South: Gorkum, Asperen, Heukelum, Arkel, Heusden

      FIGURE 5

       Interest rates on redeemable annuities 1514 (all villages)

There are several reasons to assume that the low level of integration in the North had much to do with the absense of large towns: the availability of money in large urban economies is likely to have been superior, and wealthy elites in large towns were more likely to invest their savings in financial markets. But it is also possible that this part of Holland was poorly integrated with the economy of the rest of the county.⁴⁸ Direct evidence for the latter idea comes from the villagers of Petten, in the far north of Holland, who claimed in 1514 not to have sold annuities «because their remote location and poverty reduced their creditworthiness».⁴⁹

      In sum: participants in financial markets negotiated premiums on redeemable annuities ranging from 5 % to 10 %. However, most annuities by far were sold at interest rates around 6 % to 7 %. Interest rates were usually quite similar, in large and small towns and in the countryside. Villages in the North seem to have had most trouble gaining access to capital markets: here we encounter a wide range of СКАЧАТЬ