Creditors and debtors: Christian and Jewish money and capital markets in late medieval German towns

正如布鲁诺·库斯克和他之后的许多人所确定的那样，信用全面渗透到中世纪的经济生活中。即使是半城市的农村信贷市场，很大程度上是基于口头的，至少在地方层面上也具有重大的经济意义，例如15世纪后期殷格翰地区的信贷市场。这一结论可以从这一事实中得出，即双方的冲突在法庭上被书面记录下来。除了对中世纪晚期年金贷款和城市债券市场的全面研究之外，利息贷款，在13世纪激烈的高利贷辩论中得到认可，确实通过对犹太信用体系，伦巴第人和卡霍辛人的广泛研究以及基督教商人的商业实践，特别是所谓的商业银行家，获得了其特殊的重要性。然而，自14世纪后期以来，对犹太人信贷替代的重要观察主要是否定的，因为只有零星的研究将注意力转向基督教放债人发放的贷款，因此犹太人的直接竞争对手。因此，在研究文献中，犹太人的贷款几乎仍然被视为中世纪整个贷款制度的同义词。因此，拟议项目的主要问题是基于这样一个假设：至少自1320年以来，贷款市场总是受到基督教和犹太金融家的影响。由于敲诈信贷的工具显然是由基督徒首先考虑和证明的，基督教和犹太信贷之间甚至必须有一个功能上的联系。举例来说，1356年至1485年间基督教和犹太贷款市场的不同功能将在维也纳、康斯坦茨和巴本豪森（达姆施塔特附近）等城市相关资料的审查基础上进行探讨。这些城市的城市发展差异很大，可能代表着不同模式的贷款市场。此外，它们还谨慎地提供了比较分析的可能性。通过统计和人口统计学方法的结合，将考虑到债务持有人和债务人，无论男女，以及信贷数额和他们各自安排的贷款协议的使用情况。因此，可以写出中世纪晚期贷款的经济史和个人历史。

Credit penetrated the medieval economic life all-around, as Bruno Kuske and many after him ascertained. Even semi-urban rural credit markets, which were largely based on orality, were of great economic significance at least on a local level, as e.g. the credit markets in the Ingelheim region of the late 15th century shows. This conclusion can be drawn from the fact that according conflicts were put into writing before court. In addition to the comprehensive research regarding annuity loans and the urban bond markets of the late Middle Ages, the interest loan, sanctioned by the aggravated usury debate of the 13th century, indeed gained its specific importance by the extensive research on the Jewish credit system, the Lombards and Cahorsins, and the business practices of Christian merchants, especially of the so-called merchant-bankers. However, the important observation of the substitution of Jewish credits since the late 14th century was mainly substantiated ex negativo, since there was only sporadic research that turned attention to the loans granted by Christian moneylenders and thus by the Jews' direct competitors. Therefore, in research literature the Jewish loan is still perceived almost synonymously with the entire loan system of the Middle Ages. Hence, the proposed project's primary question is based on the assumption that at least since 1320 loan markets were always affected by Christian and Jewish financiers alike. Due to the instruments of the extortionate credits that had apparently been cogitated and proven by Christians at first, there even had to be a functional connection between the Christian and the Jewish credit. Exemplarily, the differing functions of the Christian and the Jewish loan markets between 1356 and 1485 will be explored on the basis of an examination of relevant sources from the cities of Vienna, Constance and Babenhausen (near Darmstadt). These cities varied significantly in their urban development and are likely to represent loan markets with differing patterns. Additionally, they also offer, with all due caution, possibilities of comparative analysis. Through the combination of statistic and prosopographic methods, debt holders and debtors, men and women alike, will be taken into consideration as well as the credit volumes and their respectively arranged usances of loan agreements. Thereby, an economic history and a personal history of the Late Medieval loan may be written.