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Money and Credit in the Fifteenth Century: Some Lessons from Yorkshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2011

Jennifer I. Kermode
Jennifer I. Kermode
Affiliation:
Jennifer I. Kermode is lecturer in history at theUniversity of Liverpool.
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Extract

This article explores some of the methods used to raise credit in an important trading region of late medieval England during a decline in overseas trade and an international bullion famine. It argues that, because provincial credit arrangements depended on local as well as national factors, a combination of demographic and regional circumstances contributed to the commercial weakness of Yorkshire merchants as they faced growing competition from Londoners with access to more sophisticated financial networks.

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Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 65 , Issue 3: Financial Services , Autumn 1991 , pp. 475 - 501
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1991

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References

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12 See Jenks, S., “Das Schreiberbuch des John Thorpe und der Hansische Handel in London 1457–9,” Hansische Geschichtsblatter 101 (1983): 67–112Google Scholar, for Hanse credit operations in England. I am grateful to Wendy Childs and N. J. Alldridge for this reference.

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15 Hanham, The Celys and Their World, 398–405.

16 For example, in 1425 a Lombard merchant was licensed to pay off his £10 debt to Robert de Holme of York with a bill of exchange redeemable abroad. Calendar of Close Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office [hereafter CCR], 1429–35, 369, 371. See also Smit, H. J., ed., Bronnen tot de Geschiedenis van den Handel met Engelond, Schotland, en Ireland 1150–1485 (The Hague, 1928), 2: 1073–74Google Scholar. Cf. Cal. Plea & Mem. Rolls City of London, 1413–37, 11–12.

17 York City Record Office [hereafter, York CRO], E39, 110; York Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, Probate Register [hereafter Inst. Prob. Reg.], I, 20 (will of Ann Durem); Postan, “Private Financial Instruments,” 34.

18 Spufford, Handbook, xxviii–xxix; Spufford, Money and Its Use, 256–58, 394–95. See Clark, E., “Debt Litigation in a Late Medieval Vill,” in Pathways to Medieval Peasants, ed. Raftis, J. A. (Toronto, Ont., 1981), 247–79Google Scholar, for a discussion of rural local transactions.

19 Spufford, Money and Its Use, 376, for examples.

20 Hoppit, Julian, “The use and abuse of credit in eighteenth-century England,” in Business Life and Public Policy: Essays in Honour of D. C. Coleman, ed. McKendrick, Neil and Outhwaite, R. B. (London, 1986), 64–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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22 Bennett, E. Z., “Debt and Credit in the Urban Economy: London 1380–1460” (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1989), 153Google Scholar. There were 378 actions in 1461–70, 447 in 1471–80, 106 in 1481–90 (5 years missing), 347 in 1491–1500 (Public Record Office [hereafter, PRO] C241/246–73); Day, Medieval Market Economy, 64. See also Britnell, R. H., Growth and Decline in Colchester, 1300–1525 (Cambridge, England, 1984), 100–101Google Scholar. Statute Staple Certificates were writs issued by the chancellor on behalf of creditors trying to recover a debt registered under Statute Staple. See text at note 50.

23 Holdsworth, W. S., A History of English Law, 4th ed. (London, 1935), 3: 586–87Google Scholar. Such was the strength of the custom, that it prevailed over compassion in the London City court in 1396, when the payment of a debt took precedence over provision for two minors, even though complex legal formalities for their care had been completed. Cal. Plea & Mem. Rolls City of London, 1381–1412, 239.

24 York Borthwick Inst. Prob Reg. V, 501 (Grenely), VI, 70 (Collinson); York CRO E39, 187.

25 For example, Calendar of Patent Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office [hereafter, CPR], 1388–92, 259; 1476–85, 293; Sellars, M., ed., York Memorandum Book, I, Surtees Society 120 (1911): 33Google Scholar; Brown, W., ed., Yorkshire Deeds, II, Yorkshire Archaeological Society 50 (1914): 218Google Scholar; PRO Cl/59/112, 64/1137; York CRO E39, 266–67, 281.

26 Robert Northwold, mercer of London, died about 1374, leaving debts to be retrieved from Beverley, York, Ludlow, Oxford, Gloucester, Winchester, and from a Lombard. Cal. Plea & Mem. Rolls City of London, 1364–81, 168–69. A debt did not have to be large to be exploited. In 1369 a debt of £6 13s.4d. was assigned to “divers persons"; ibid., 111–12.

27 York Borthwick Inst. Prob. Reg. III, 403 (Alcock); York Minster Library, Dean & Chapter Wills II, 43 (Elwald); Raine, J., ed., Testamenta Eboracensia, III, Surtees Society 45 (1865): 49-50, 104, 141Google Scholar.

28 York Borthwick Inst. Prob. Reg. III, 255–255v. (Holme), 265–265v. (Louth). This was not an uncommon practice. Bennett, “Debt and Credit in the Urban Economy,” 200.

29 In about 1415 it cost John Talkan of York's executors £8 6s.8d. to collect his debts and settle his estate, which had a total value of about £104. In 1451 Thomas Vicars's executors spent only 20s. on tracing and collecting his debts, plus a further 20s. riding around to settle everything. Testamenta Eboracensia, III, 87–89, 120–22. Cf. Bristol merchant Philip Vale, whose executors' expenses for settling debts and selling property in 1393 came to £7. Cal. Plea & Mem. Rolls City of London, 1381–1412, 208–15.

30 Cal. Plea & Mem. Rolls City of London, 1413–37, 10; Memorandum Book, II, 160. While most Londoners’ actions against debtors defaulting under staple law commenced within one year, 39 percent of Colchester creditors waited for three years or longer. Bennett, “Debt and Credit in the Urban Economy,” 153–56; Britnell, Growth and Decline in Colchester, 251.

31 In the seven years before his death in 1397, Maghfeld's assets shrank by about 80 percent. James, “A London Merchant,” 369, 373–74.

32 For example, York Borthwick Inst. Prob. Reg. II, 21 (Stockton), 119v (Shackles); III, 415v–416 (Blackburn), 540 (Hill); V, 29v (Croule), 99 (Johnson), 167 (Ryddesdale).

33 Testamenta Eboracensia, III, 49–50.

34 See also Brompton, 1444, about £600, debts £200: Barley, 1468, £74, debts £53: Fisher, 1476, £13, debts £10. York Borthwick Inst. Prob. Reg. II, 86–90v (Brompton); II, 225 (Preston); IV, 60 (Barley); V, 8v (Fisher); Archival Register 18, 384v–385 (Frost). Cf. William Lynn, a London stapler, who left an estate worth £4,842 7s. 2d., of which £3,072 was in debts owed to him, while he owed £1,737 1s. 4d.: Postan, “Credit in Medieval Trade,” 255–56; and Richard Toky, 40 percent of whose estate comprised unrecoverable debts: Thrupp, Sylvia, The Merchant Class of Medieval London (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1962), 105Google Scholar.

35 We will never know how many agreements were concluded with a simple handshake like that “on the sands at Scarborough” in 1402 and another “in the churchyard” of St. Margaret's, Walmegate, York, in 1410. Verbal contracts were probably used for small local debts. York Borthwick Inst. Cause Papers, f. 23, 58. I am grateful to Jeremy Goldberg for these references.

36 Hull City Record Office [hereafter Hull CRO], Bench Books BRG; BRE1, 2; BRB1; York CRO E25, 39; Sellars, ed., York Memorandum Book, I and II, Surtees Society, 120, 125 (1911, 1914); J. W. Percy, ed., III, Surtees Society 186 (1973); Yorkshire Deeds and Feet of Fines for Yorkshire, Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record Series.

37 Unwin, G., “London Tradesmen and Their Creditors,” in Finance and Trade under Edward III, ed. Unwin, George (Manchester, England, 1918), 19Google Scholar; Kowaleski, M., “The Commercial Dominance of a Medieval Provincial Oligarchy: Exeter in the Late Fourteenth Century,” Medieval Studies 46 (1984): 369.Google Scholar

38 For example, Beardwood, A., ed., The Statute Merchant Roll of Coventry, 1392–1416, Dugdale Society 17 (1939)Google Scholar; City of London Letter Books, Recognisance Rolls, Guildhall Library.

39 Memorandum Book, II, 98.

40 Helmholz, Richard H., “Usury and the Medieval English Church Courts,” Speculum 61 (1986): 365Google Scholar; Postan, “Private Financial Instruments,” 31.

41 In general the debt or loan was divided into equal portions and repaid at annual or six-month intervals. For example, Memorandum Book, II, 274; York CRO E39, 106, 108, 267.

42 Memorandum Book, II, 160. It may be that she was meeting obligations from her father's estate. For other examples see ibid., 96, 114; York CRO E39, 267 and cf. Cal. Plea & Mem. Rolls City of London, 1382–1412, 239.

43 Postan, “Private Financial Instruments,” 38.

44 York Borthwick Inst. Prob. Reg. IV, 116 (Wartre); VI, 185 (Stockdale); Memorandum Book, II, 13.

45 PRO C1/289/10.

46 Memorandum Book, I, 12–13.

47 For example, CPR 1429–35, 354; 1446–52, 198; 1452–61, 384, 456; 1467–77, 9, 431.

48 PRO C1/17/96, 64/439.

49 Cal. Plea & Mem. Rolls City of London, 1381–1412, xxxii–iii; Postan, “Private Financial Instruments, “ 40–49.

50 Hall, H., ed., Select Cases Concerning the Law Merchant, II, Selden Society 48 (1930): xiff.Google Scholar; III, Selden Society 49 (1932): xvi, xxviii, xxix; Plucknett, T. F. T., The Legislation of Edward I (Oxford, 1949), 138Google Scholar; CCR 1279–88, 244.

51 CCR 1279–88, 244; Cal. Plea & Mem. Rolls City of London, 1381–1412, xxxv.

52 There were about 6,000 cases brought under Statute Staple from 1390 to 1450; Bennett, “Debt and Credit in the Urban Economy,” 153. But the local courts in Exeter handled over 4,500 between 1378 and 1388, and those at Colchester between 200 and 300 a year in the fifteenth century. Kowaleski, “Fourteenth-Century Exeter,” 369; Britnell, Growth and Decline in Colchester, 281.

53 Hubert Hall thought that the volume of cases concerning enrolled obligations that were recorded in the Close and Patent Rolls, in the Miscellaneous Book of the Exchequer and in Kings and Commons Bench Plea Rolls suggested that statutory recognizances did not supersede traditional enrollments for the repayment of trade debts and loans. Hall, Select Cases, III, xiii.

54 CPR 1381–5, 87; Memorandum Book, II, 30; Hull CRO, D248.

55 Postan, “Credit in Medieval Trade,” 248–49.

56 A rare survival, a Bristol merchant's inventory, reveals that Philip Vale's real estate was sold for £322 8s. 4d. in 1393; his total estate, including debts, was approximately £757. Cal. Plea & Mem. Rolls City of London, 1381–1412, 213–15; Hilton, R. H., “Rent and Capital Formation in Feudal Society,” in Second International Conference of Economic History, Aix-en-Provence, 1962 (Paris, 1965), 66–67.Google Scholar

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58 Kermode, J., “The Merchants of York, Beverley and Hull in the 14th and 15th Centuries” (Ph.D. diss., University of Sheffield, 1990), 241–71Google Scholar. Property was also a constant element in Londoners’ wills between 1400 and 1459. Bennett, “Debt and Credit in the Urban Economy,” 196.

59 Thrupp, London Merchant Class, 122–23.

60 For examples of the same properties being resold repeatedly by merchants, see ibid., 127–28.

61 Investment in rent-charges or annuities was more common on the Continent. Hilton, “Problems of Urban Real Property,” 336–37; Baum, H-P., “Annuities in Late Medieval Hanse Towns,” Business History Review 59 (1985): 24–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

62 Unwin, “London Tradesmen,” 32; Thrupp, London Merchant Class, 122, 126.

63 E. A. Bond, ed., Chronica Monasterii de Melsa, III, Rolls Ser. (1868), 144–45; Baildon, W. Paley, ed., Yorkshire Fines, 1347–77, Yorkshire Archaeological Society 52 (1915): 64Google Scholar; M. J. Hebditch, ed., Yorkshire Deeds, IX, ibid. III (1948): 67; M. J. Stanley Price, ed., Yorkshire Deeds, X, ibid. 120 (1955): 139–40. See also Hull CRO, D126 and Cal. Plea & Mem. Rolls City of London, 1413–37, 142.

64 PRO C1/44/89; Yorkshire Fines, 1347–77, 64, 72. Statute Merchant bonds were also used in property transactions to ensure that seisin of a property was achieved, the bond becoming enforceable if the contract was not fulfilled, like the penalty clause in a modern conveyance. Thus when Hugh Swynflete conveyed a property in Hull to William Ryplingham, they entered a Statute Merchant bond, which was to lapse once “delivery of possession of the property” had been completed. Hull CRO, D301 and also D107; Memorandum Book, II, 45.

65 Thrupp, London Merchant Class, 122–23, estimated that when conditions were favorable in the fourteenth century, a return of 6–8 percent might be expected, falling to 5 percent in the fifteenth century.

66 London mercer William Causton built up a sizable rural estate by lending on the security of land and gaining from defaulters. Thrupp, London Merchant Class, 121.

67 Postan, “Private Financial Instruments,” 31; Hall, Select Cases, III, xxix.

68 PRO C1/289/10; York CRO E39, 128, 172, 187, 205–7.

69 Loan arrangements reflected political networks within regions. For the southwest, see Kowaleski, “Fourteenth-Century Exeter,” 366; for Yorkshire, see Kermode, “York, Beverley and Hull,” 235–36.

70 PRO C1/16/163, 164.

71 For example, Memorandum Book, I, 187, 204, 215, 236, 245; II, 34, 39, 112, 218; III, 6, 7, 38, 53, 102.

72 Ibid., III, 53; York Borthwick Inst. Prob. Reg. II, 612; (Auncell); CCR 1447–54, 465; Wedgwood, J. C., Biographies of the Members of the Commons House, 1430–1509 (London, 1936), 12Google Scholar.

73 (Bilton) Hull CRO BRE 1 263; Memorandum Book, III, 102, 105.

74 Statutes of the Realm, II, 513. Quoted in Cal. Plea & Mem. Rolls City of London, 1413–37, xx.

75 See, for example, 1428, the case of John Davy of Exeter, who promised to settle a debt “immediately after a certain ship… should chance to arrive at any port in England.” Gross, C., ed., Select Cases Concerning the Law Merchant, I, Selden Society 23 (1908): 117Google Scholar. John Henryson of Hull made bequests in his will in 1526 contingent upon the arrival of the “hulks out of Dansk.” Prob. Reg. IX, 328.

76 Memorandum Book, III, 121–22.

77 Cal. Plea & Mem. Rolls City of London, 1413–37, xix–xxiii; ibid., 1437–57, xxii–xxviii, 1; ibid., 1458–82, 147–79, for an appendix listing such gifts. See also Rosser, G., Medieval Westminster, 1200–1540 (Oxford, 1989), 156–57Google Scholar.

78 In 1465, the Dominican Friars in York were in danger of forfeiting jewels, books, and other “precious gifts” that they had used as security to raise loans. Memorandum Book, II, lxxi–iii.

79 This is an argument advanced by Baum, “Hanse Annuities,” 48.

80 Cf. London, where the evidence of the Sheriffs’ and Mayor's courts and of Staple Certificates confirm that the flow of credit was always from London to the provinces; Bennett, “Debt and Credit in the Urban Economy,” 142, 147, 169–71. See also Britnell, Growth and Decline in Colchester, 206–8, 281, for fluctuations over time.

81 For example, Lancaster, CPR 1436–41, 458; Richmond, ibid., 217; Burton-on-Trent, ibid., 216, 1441–46, 18; Penrith, ibid., 7; Lincolnshire, 1452–61, II; Coventry, ibid., 264, 453; Chesterfield, York CRO E39, 288.

82 CPR 1405–9, 226; 1413–29, 82; 1436–41, 322; CCR 1447–61, 132; 1461–7, 502; 1494–1509, 3.

83 Wroot, H. E., “Yorkshire Abbeys and the Wool Trade,” Miscellanea, Thoresby Society 33 (1935): 14–15.Google Scholar

84 For example, Reginald Aleyn between 1391 and 1393, CPR 1391–6, 398.

85 CPR 1392–6, 22 (Savage); ibid.1416–22, 95 (Fitling).

86 Testamenta Eboracensia, III, 101–5.

87 York CRO E39, 278, 284–85, 288, 295.

88 Memorandum Book, II, 9–10, 269.

89 For example, William Bracebridge of York, Yorkshire Deeds, IV, 161; William Brompton of Hull, Hull CRO D533, 534. Richard Blackburn moved down to London but returned to York before he died. Memorandum Book, II, 160; York Borthwick Inst. Prob. Reg. VIII, 105.

90 Hostilities between the Hanse and the East Coast ports in particular probably accelerated the carriage of Yorkshire cloth via London. In 1420–21, for instance, Hanse merchants were exporting York coverlets through London. Gras, N. S. B., The Early English Customs System (Cambridge, Mass., 1918), 120, 459, 469.Google Scholar

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103 Britnell, Growth and Decline in Colchester, 100–101.

104 Bennett, “Debt and Credit in the Urban Economy,” 153.

105 Baum, “Hanse Annuities,” 48.

106 Since this article was written, Pamela Nightingale has argued that the level of debt and credit reflected in the Statute Staple Certificates involving Londoners was a consequence of their trade in wool, and that the rates of interest set in these transactions in turn influenced all commercial transactions and prices. Nightingale, P., “Monetary Contraction and Mercantile Credit in Later Medieval England,” Economic History Review, 2d ser. 43 (1990): 560–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar