People borrowed from wealthy borrowers began even before our era, when commodity-money relations appeared. Lenders risked money and life, giving loans to powerful monarchs, and common people were under threat of debt or slavery before paying their debts. What role was played in the banking business by the church and monasteries, and at what interest loans were issued - in our material.
From money to bankers
History usury goes back centuries. Crediting existed long before the appearance of coins as such - there was a natural exchange, gold and silver were used. The moneylenders served the Egyptian pharaohs, felt great in Greek policies, and dealt with Phoenician and Syrian merchants. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, its monetary system inherited Byzantium and the former "barbarous" provinces as an integral part of the high Roman culture.However, it is worth noting that since antiquity (and indeed at all times) the occupation by usury has been condemned and unpopular. Religious figures and authorities called their craft sinful and unacceptable. Changed and usurers suffered, but continued to use their services. Attempts to prohibit the provision of money under the percentage were made repeatedly (for example, by the Arabs in Islam), but no tangible results were given - lending continued to exist.
The need to change the coin, its adequate evaluation made the profession changed especially in demand. Since in addition to exchanging the money changers were also engaged in money transfer operations, then gradually they began to turn into bankers. This was greatly facilitated by the era of the Crusades, which brought with it the need to transfer large sums of money to finance the armies.
Who and how to count money in medieval Europe
Those who used the services of usurers can be divided into two main categories: peasants (as well as artisans), and feudal nobility. The first loan was needed primarily for the payment of taxes and rents. The peasants were forced to work their debt (and they were mercilessly exploited), artisans also had to not only sell their products at low prices, but sometimes lay the means of production themselves. In the role of usurers, well-to-do peasants also acted, betraying their poor brothers in loans not only in money, but also in kind.Nobles, including kings and emperors, preferred to borrow money for the purchase of luxury goods or the maintenance of troops. But if petty chivalry is often ruined, losing its means and possessions, passing into the hands of moneylenders, then the big feudal lords could not pay their bills with impunity. For example, Edward III, having borrowed a large sum of gold from the Florentine bankers of Bardi and Peruzzi, required the money for war with France, simply refused to repay the debt, which provoked the financial crisis.
In the XII - XIII centuries, Jews often played the role of moneylenders. They were heavily taxed, which brought good returns to the cities where they worked. For the right to have usury moneylenders, Jews even competed, it was seen as a privilege. Initially, borrowing from them was more profitable than that of local bankers (as, for example, in the Holy Roman Empire). On the other hand, Jewish money-changers and merchants often became victims of religious intolerance towards the infidels, skillfully warmed by the church. The authorities and the clergy encouraged such persecutions.
The flowering of Venice and Genoa, Florence and Siena in no small measure was based on banking. The very word "bank" comes from banca - the so-called table, on which the medieval Italian money changers laid out their coins. Especially a lot of bank offices appeared in Lombardy, the word "pawnshop" itself became synonymous with a pawnbroker. Thanks to the Pope's Roman permission to collect church tithes, bankers from these cities became owners of very impressive capitals.
Their main competitor in the financial field was the Catholic Church, lending money not only to kings, but also to ordinary peasants. She did not charge interest for her services, but she took a pledge - usually land, and did her best to monopolize lending, fighting rivals through religious bans and public reprimands. Non-payers were threatened with excommunication from the church. On the other hand, the Knights Templar was officially authorized to engage in financial transactions. Initially, the knights themselves borrowed money from usurers-Jews, but later the Pope freed them from the need to return these debts.
Templars were more competitive: they issued loans at 10% per annum (compared to 40% for Jewish moneylenders). The Order not only issued loans, but also deposited property, engaged in the exchange and transfer of funds, deposit operations. Becoming a real "state in the state", the Templars made themselves many enemies. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the French King Philip IV, with the support of the pope, declared the Templars outlawed. The Order was dissolved, and its property was confiscated.
Usury in Russia
In medieval Russia, financial centers were primarily monasteries. Although usury was formally condemned (not so much by the fact of a loan as by the collection of interest), the clergy often engaged in such activities. The loans were made not only with money, but with natural products - wheat, roast oats, etc. Interest was also often paid in natural equivalent.Usually a loan was granted for up to one year, and its return was timed to a religious holiday. Loans were issued with the help of a special document - the so-called bondage. The clientele of the monasteries included not only peasants, but also landlords and nobles. After the XVII century the situation is gradually changing, and the main creditors instead of the clergy are merchants and prosperous townspeople. In the XIX century, money loans were secured on the security of valuable things (remember, at least, the old woman from the "Crime and Punishment"). By the beginning of the 20th century, credit partnerships and large banks have already entered the scene.
Separately it is necessary to say a few words about how the debts were raised. If in medieval Russia money was literally kicked out - for this purpose, the so-called. law, which was a very unpleasant procedure for the debtor, then it was replaced by a debt prison, which existed until 1917. Also, confiscation of property was applied.
No comments:
Post a Comment