| This dissertation is a study of the availability and use of credit by the merchant class of late medieval London, and the impact of the use of credit on society and the economy. Debt records from city and central courts reveal that credit was used by all levels of society in commercial transactions and for investment (Chapter II). However, the availability of credit was limited in several ways. The church prohibited lending at interest. The common law was hostile to negotiable instruments (Chapter III). Royal monetary policy sometimes prohibited the use of credit in overseas trade (Chapter I). And the forms of credit used by Londoners were unsophisticated: commercial practices like deposit banking and speculation on the money market were used by Italians but not by the English (Chapter II).;Credit, and economic opportunity, was especially restricted during the first half of the fifteenth century, when England was experiencing an economic depression. It is often argued that London escaped the effects of this depression, but the credit records show that although London benefited from its unique position as a center of trade and government, it was not exempt from the economic troubles of the period (Chapter IV). In a climate of limited economic opportunity, the wealthy merchant class controlled the city government and the law merchant courts. London's wealthiest merchants, as members of Parliament and the Company of the Staple, also influenced royal monetary policy. The evidence of tax assessments and wills suggests that credit restrictions widened the gap between rich and poor and intensified social tension and unrest in the city (Chapter V). |
