Microcredit and Participation in Markets in the Later Middle Ages

该项目增加了我们对前现代时期小额信贷历史的了解。它调查的作用，小规模贷款的经济和社会生活的中世纪晚期和早期现代社会。近代早期和现代时期的历史学家，如方丹、斯伦博姆和克莱门斯，在最近的研究中提出了一个以研究为主导的假设，即社会凝聚力可以主要通过市场参与来产生。我们想知道，这一论点是否也适用于中世纪社会。我们这样做，在三个案例研究和分析档案材料从地理和社会非常不同的地区在欧洲。Tanja Skambraks的子项目1评估了伦敦圣保罗大教堂的教会管理，并研究了城市神职人员作为小规模贷款人和借款人的作用。希拉姆·库姆佩尔的子项目2评估了德国西北部城市博霍尔特、卡尔卡尔和韦塞尔的会计账簿，这些账簿使人们能够深入了解公民中的小额贷款。Annette Kehnel和Stephan Köhler的分项目3审查了蒂罗尔州会计账簿（Raitbücher）中农村地区的小规模贷款，重点是公爵贷款机构，资料来源中称之为casminal或gazane。这可能是欧洲最早的当铺。通过这个子项目，历史研究所曼海姆进一步促进了对典当行早期历史的现有研究重点，目前由Tanja Skambraks自2014年以来在她的Habilitationsprojekt关于意大利Monti di Pieta的研究中处理。因为相互债务的日常经济做法通常是非正式的，没有记录在案。然而，近年来，新的冲动刺激了讨论，特别是在Fouquet，Signori，Glimomen等人的城市实践领域。我们的研究项目希望通过对迄今为止尚未用于此目的的来源的示例性分析来增加这一研究方向。

The project adds to our understanding of the history of microcredit in the pre-modern era. It investigates the role of small scale loans for the economic and social life of late medieval and early modern societies. The research-led hypothesis that social coherence can be generated essentially through market participation was promoted in recent research by historians of the Early Modern and Modern periods, such as Fontaine, Schlumbohm, Clemens. We want to find out, whether this thesis holds good for medieval societies as well. We do so in three case studies and analyse archival material from geographically and socially very different regions in Europe. Tanja Skambraks’ subproject 1 evaluates ecclesiastical administration of the cathedral of St. Pauls, London and examines the role of the urban clergy as small scale lenders and borrowers. Subproject 2 of Hiram Kümper evaluates accounting books from the north-west German cities of Bocholt, Kalkar and Wesel, that allow insights into micro loans amongst the citizens. Subproject 3 of Annette Kehnel and Stephan Köhler examines small-scale loans in rural areas from Tyrolean accounting books (Raitbücher), in concentration on ducal loan-institutions, addressed as casanae or gazane in the sources. These are probably the earliest pawnshops in Europe. With this subproject the Historical Institute Mannheim further promotes an already existing research focus on the early history of pawnshops, that is currently dealt with by Tanja Skambraks in her Habilitationsprojekt on the Italian Monti di Pieta since 2014.The main problem of the research on micro-credit relationships in medieval societies has been the lack of sources, since everyday economic practices of mutual debt usually run informally and have not been documented. In recent years, however, the discussion has been stimulated by new impulses, particularly in the area of urban practices by Fouquet, Signori, Glimomen et al. Our research project wants to add to this research direction with the exemplary analysis of sources that so far have not been used for this purpose.