Honour, social capital and alternative currencies: the “leisting” custom in the cities of the Late Medieval Low Countries and Rhineland

From Firenze University Press Book: Alternative currencies. Commodities and services as exchange currencies in the monetarized economies of the 13th to 18th centuries

Jean-Luc de Meulemeester, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

Pierre-David Kusman, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium

In this paper, we discuss a system of guaranteeing the repayment of debts by putting financial and social pressure on debtors and/or their network of pledges — the custom of leisting. This custom led the creditor to believe that a quick debt repayment — even if partial — would follow. Leisting was quite widespread in the Low Countries (both North and South, despite some regional differences we highlight below) as well as in the Rhineland from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century. The widespread practice and persistence of the custom indicate that it might have been quite efficient at ensuring debt repayment. It relied mainly upon risks to honour and social prestige, though more objective financial risks could likewise be at stake. In the Southern Low Countries, the practice was first and foremost developed among prominent members of the high nobility and powerful rulers. The traditional scenario was one where a territorial prince needed access to a capital market to raise a considerable amount of money at short notice, for instance to fund territorial expansion. He could ask his Estates (the nobility, the clergy and the cities) to help him, but he would have had to enter difficult political negotiations and concede some new political rights. It was therefore viewed as more advantageous to rely on foreign bankers such as the Italian financiers (Piedmontese and Tuscan bankers) in the Low Countries. This proved to be the case for the Count of Guelders at the end of the thirteenth century and for the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good around the middle of the fifteenth century. Among other studies illustrating this strategy, two classical case studies are those of Van Schaïk 1993 and Haemers and Lambert 2009. Alongside more traditional forms of surety such as the pawning of movables or immovable real estate, personal sureties, or pledges, guaranteed the loan contract. The pledges were generally listed at the end of the loan contract: family members, vassals, princely councillors, and members of the local elites or urban landlords. Once the main debtor defaulted on the set date of repayment, the pledges agreed to go and stay at an inn, where they had to eat and drink conspicuously as representatives of the debtor(s). The accommodation costs were usually charged to these “hostages” before being reimbursed by the main debtor. All these stringent conditions provided incentives to repay the debt as quickly as possible to avoid even greater indebtedness. Social reputation was also at risk with this custom.1 In a few cases, as we will see, pledges proved unable to pay off their accommodation costs and had to pay with alternative currencies such as silver plates or horses. Of course, today, money is a commonly socially accepted means of buying something. It is usually referred to as «The means of facilitating the exchange of goods and services and the accumulation of financial wealth, commonly recognizable as banknotes, coins and bank deposits» (Bannock and Manser 1988, 208). But this clear-cut definition does not apply to society in the Late Middle Ages where (quasi-) money could take multiple forms: properties, houses, land and its products, annuities, furniture, raw materials, inventories, clothes, jewels, arms, kitchenware, household provisions, domesticated animals, credit titles, and silver or gold coins. The habit of merchants of paying their taxes with silver plates or silver ingots, for instance, hints at what today we would call an alternative currency, exactly as horses were for indebted knights. In this paper we first analyse the legal framework surrounding the leisting custom before turning to three different case studies. The first one involves a prince needing capital to fund territorial expansion. The second one deals with high-profile Brussels innkeepers as multi-faceted intermediaries and auxiliaries of princely justice relying on this custom to expand their business. The third one sheds light on the possible regulatory use of the leisting custom by town authorities to control the real estate market in a period of public works. Last, we propose concluding remarks on the differentiated use of this custom in the cities of the Low Countries and on the place of alternative currencies within this debt-enforcement mechanism.

DOI: 10.36253/979–12–215–0347–0.16

Read Full Text: https://books.fupress.it/chapter/honour-social-capital-and-alternative-currencies-the-leisting-custom-in-the-cities-of-the-late-medie/14742