Agricultural History Review, Volume 67 Part 2 (2019), p. 328

The role of women in the credit economy is particularly obscure. The legal practice of coverture could prohibit women from appearing as sole litigants and a patriarchal legal code did not always record the role of women in household credit when they acted alongside their husbands as creditors and debtors. As women were more likely than their male counterparts to engage in small ‘domestic’ loans or to extend credit in closed social networks, many of their activities in the credit market elude the record altogether. This collection of essays brings together invaluable research on the role of women in the credit economy of pre-industrial society. Arranged chronologically, the chapters trace an almost continuous increase in female borrowing and lending in Europe from the fourteenth through to the eighteenth century. The book explores the agency of women as buyers and sellers at the marketplace, as investors in the credit market and invariably as litigants before the courts in pleas of debt litigation.

The contributions of Richard Goddard, Matthew Frank Stevens and Teresa Phipps all seek to recreate the everyday experience of credit in medieval England through a study of debt litigation. The study of credit via pleas of debt has significant limitations as noted by the authors. Debts were often settled amicably and when litigation was instigated, out-of-court settlement was the norm. Whilst these issues apply across genders, what the book highlights are the particular difficulties in identifying female agency before the courts where records rarely contain a description of the credit contract and where women frequently appeared as joint litigants with their husbands. It is possible, as suggested by Goddard, that women played a significant role as guarantors to the contracts of their male relatives. Ågren’s study is particularly successful in addressing the limitations of the court records by exploring the ways in which women were able to extend the benefits of their trustworthy reputation to male borrowers. The focus on legal institutions in these chapters sets the tone for the book and the impact of legal custom on both practices in the credit economy and on the record of credit, remains a consistent thread throughout the following chapters.

Legal records remain at the forefront of the chapters on early modern English credit. Juliet Gayton’s study of female participation in the seventeenth-century land market is based on manorial court records through which copyhold land was routinely surrendered. The probate and inventory records associated with death form the basis of Judith M. Spicksley’s work on never-married women. Bringing together pan-European studies of women and credit, the book highlights a multiplicity of approaches to the history of women and credit. On the continent, where there existed a strong notarial culture, notaries’ records indicate the involvement of women in formal credit markets. The survival of personal papers in the later early modern period points to the significance of informal networks of support. The richer continental source material is evident in those papers on female credit outside of England. Jaco Zuijderduijn explores female investors in the Low Countries through a study of life annuities issued by the town of Haarlem. Eve Rosenhaft utilizes the personal letters of the middle class widow Eva König to analyse the language of emotion in business. Montserrat Carbonell-Esteller bases her research on the accounts of the Mont de Pietat, an institution that granted loans against objects deposited as collateral. The variety of source material utilized within the book demonstrates that in spite of a legal code that sought to limit the economic agency of women, women remained active participants as both borrowers and lenders in the pre-industrial economy. The chapters thus speak to one another and as a whole, the book advances new approaches to the study of women and credit.

Whilst the book is broad in scope, it is unsurprising therefore that certain elements are missed. Considering the role of the Church in shaping the morality of the marketplace and as an authority presiding over instances of debt litigation in medieval England, it is surprising that none of the chapters explicitly address the role of religion in the credit activities of women. Though the chapter by Phipps highlights the peculiarities of localized legal custom, this is limited to the secular courts and the extent of legal pluralism in medieval England is overlooked. This does not, however, impact the overarching conclusions drawn across all papers that assess the role of women in the credit market as well as the significance of credit for advancing female independence. Fontaine’s concluding remarks muse on the disjuncture between the legal code and practice in the marketplace and consider the means by which women subverted the restrictions imposed by law. The conclusions allude to the wider role of the credit market as a factor towards the empowerment of women. Subverting the legal code and exercising autonomy in their financial affairs, women achieved a degree of economic independence through their engagement with the credit market. The book thus builds on earlier research by Judith Spicksley, William Chester Jordan, Amy M. Froide and others and raises important questions that should shape the future study of women and credit.