Usury and Debt – The Truth About Medieval Lending

In this video we discuss loans, credit and usury. We examine what type of lending was occurring in Medieval Europe and how despite the strong stance of the Church against usury, lending and charging interest were part of the Medieval Economy. We look at the important role both Christian and Jewish money lending bought to the community as well as the origins of credit in what would eventually become our modern economy. Intro 0:00 - 2:31 Jingle 2:32 - 2:41 Overview of Credit 2:41 - 7:05 Chapter 1 Bills of Exchange 7:05 - 9:25 Chapter 2 Promissory Notes 9:25 - 12:28 Chapter 3 Rural Credit and Pledges 12:29 - 15:09 Chapter 4 Usury laws and Jewish Money Lending 15:10 - 21:01 Chapter 5 How much interest was charged 21:02 - 27:21 Chapter 6 Debt Collection - 27:22 - 29:51 Conclusion 29:51 - 31:40 Outro 31:40 - 32:16 Sources: 1. Munro, J. H. (2003). The Medieval Origins of the Financial Revolution: Usury, Rentes, and Negotiability. The International History Review. Available at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/10925... 2. Nicolussi-Köhler, S. (2020). The price of money – Interest rates in medieval sources: Examples from Tirol 1287-1406. Available at https://eurhisfirm.eu/wp-content/uplo... 3. Bell, A., Brooks, C. and Moore, T. (2017) The non-use of money in the Middle Ages. Mayhew, N. (ed.) Peter Spufford's Money and its Use in Medieval Europe - Twenty-five Years On. Available at http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/30672 4. Briggs, C. (2012). Pledging and Credit Markets in Medieval England. Available at https://www.econsoc.hist.cam.ac.uk/do... 5. Smail, D. L. (2018). The Materiality of Credit: Debt Collection as Pawnbroking in Late Medieval Mediterranean Europe. Histoire Urbaine. Available at https://www.cairn.info/revue-histoire... 6. Botticini, M. (2000). A Tale of “Benevolent” Governments: Private Credit Markets, Public Finance, and the Role of Jewish Lenders in Medieval and Renaissance Italy. The Journal of Economic History. Available at http://www.jstor.org/stable/2566801 -------------------------------------------------------------- Follow us on social media! Instagram at   / modernmedievalman   and   / urchincreature   Facebook at   / modernmedievalman   Email at [email protected] -------------------------------------------------------------- Intro Music is Traubentritt, provided by our good friends Wayward. Many thanks for the use of their music. Please buy their wonderful stuff at https://waywardentertainment.wixsite.... or their SoundCloud at   / waywardminstrels   --------------------------------------------------------------- Our channel is intended to discuss the skills needed to reenact, demonstrate and teach. We also discuss the historic context and research behind our findings. Popula Urbanum is latin for people of the city. We are recreating the burgeoning middle classes in the 14th century. -------------------------------------------------------------