5 - Clothing Distrained for Debt in the Court of Merchants of Lucca in the Late Fourteenth Century

Summary

The records of the Court of Merchants in the archives of Lucca, a commercial and manufacturing centre in Tuscany, central Italy, contain two extensive lists of clothing, textiles, and other articles that were distrained for debts in 1370 and 1380. Mentions of items distrained in such circumstances are quite common in Lucchese court records generally, but they tend to be single scattered examples. It is unusual to find many together, and the fact that the court in question was the Court of Merchants, which had oversight of wholesale trade, banking, the manufacture of silk and woollen cloth, leatherworking, and a number of crafts such as tailoring, means that clothing and textile items are particularly likely to figure among possessions seized for debts or offered as security. This article will concentrate on items of clothing, attempting to identify them and discuss their value and the significance of their appearance in these records. It will not deal with related textile items, such as bedding, towels, or table linen, except where these appear in conjunction with clothing.

The Use of Credit in Medieval Lucca

Although this article is primarily concerned with the objects seized, not with the distraint system as such, it is necessary to explain the use of credit and the problems of enforcing payment by debtors in order to understand the parameters of relations between creditors and debtors, and the forms of action available to creditors to obtain payment from those reluctant or unable to pay.

The use of credit was widespread at all social and economic levels. Not only was there direct lending of sums of money, ranging from a few florins to several hundred, but purchases of goods—whether raw materials and luxury fabrics worth hundreds of florins or minor acquisitions of clothing and household goods for a few lire—were regularly made on credit. Services, too, often involved credit, both deferred payment for professional services and advances of money by those commissioning tasks, which were to be paid off by subsequent work. There was often a credit period also for the payment of fines and dues, though there were penalties of an additional 25 percent for payment made once that period had elapsed. Inevitably some individuals were unable to meet the payments they had committed themselves to and found themselves in debt.