The moral economy : poverty, credit, and trust in early moderns Europe

"The Moral Economy examines the nexus of poverty, credit, and trust in early modern Europe. It starts with an examination of poverty, the need for credit, and the lending practices of different social groups. It then reconstructs the battles between the Churches and the State around the ban on usury, and analyzes the institutions created to eradicate usury and the informal petty financial economy that developed as a result. Laurence Fontaine unpacks the values that structured these lending practices, namely, the two competing cultures of credit that coexisted, fought, and sometimes merged: the vibrant aristocratic culture and the capitalistic merchant culture. More broadly, Fontaine shows how economic trust between individuals was constructed in the early modern world. By creating a dialogue between past and present, and contrasting their definitions of poverty, the role of the market, and the mechanisms of microcredit, Fontaine draws attention to the necessity of recognizing the different values that coexist in diverse political economies."--Back cover Cover 1 The Moral Economy 3 Title 5 Copyright 6 Contents 7 Acknowledgements 9 Prologue 11 Introduction 19 1 Poverty, Credit, and Social Networks 26 Historiographical Questions 28 The Mechanisms of Impoverishment 33 Social Networks and Credit 37 Varying Social Attitudes to Credit 45 2 Peasants and Debt Logic 53 Circles of Creditors 54 Hierarchy of Creditors and Modalities of Credit 61 Structural Overindebtedness 63 The Logics of Debt 70 Access to Other Markets 70 In the Villages, Community Belonging Was Based on Debt 72 Debt, a Sign of Power over Men 73 Fragility and Dynamics of Debt Ties 75 How Then Is Usury to be Dealt with Given These Practices and Their Diversity? 77 3 The Elite and Debt Logic 82 Indebtedness of the Nobility and Circles of Creditors 83 Obligatory Credit 94 Jean-Louis De Rodolp, a Country Gentleman 94 Pressure on Merchant Wealth 99 Jean Giraud, Protestant Merchant 99 A New Type of Homo Creditus 103 Samuel Pepys, an Employee of the State 103 4 Urban Financial Microcircuits 107 Compensation and Credit for Small Trade 109 Workers Associations 111 The World of Pawnbroking 112 An Instrument of Poor Economies 112 The All-Pervasive Intermediary 113 The Role of Women and Brokers 116 An Activity Practiced by Rich Individuals 123 Trade, Crafts, and Pawnbroking 126 An Activity Difficult to Regulate 134 5 Women’s Economic Spheres and Credit 140 The Law and Women’s Economic Activities 141 Life Cycle 142 The Market 150 The Departure of Men 156 Women as Financial and Trading Intermediaries 159 Pawnbroking and Secondhand Markets 159 Peddling 160 Maidservants 162 Specific Economic Practices 162 Can We Talk about Specifically Female Money Management? 162 A Specific Economic Culture? 167 6 Between Bank and Assistance: Setting Up Pawnshops 169 The Question of Funding: Between Donation and Capital 171 Institutions That Won the Immediate Acceptance of the People 184 7 The Battle of Prohibitions against Usury 195 The First Tensions Concerning Time, Work, and Charity 196 Affirmation of the State and the Struggle to Maintain Social Hierarchies 206 The Loss of Social Relevance of Religious Discourse 217 8 Political Economies and Cultures of Exchange 229 Friendship and Economy 230 Risk and the Economy 243 Interlacing of Two Economies 250 9 Political Economy and Exchange Practices 258 Uncertainty and the Economy of the Bazaar 259 Credit 262 Gift and Moral Economy 265 Authoritarian Pricing 267 Circulation of Collectors’ Items as Indicators of the Relationship with the Economy 270 10 Building Trust 280 Trust and Networks 282 Trust and Exchange of Values 284 Trust and Appearance 284 Trust and Reputation 287 Economic Discipline and Reputation 289 Friendship and Information 297 Changing Values at the End of the Eighteenth Century 299 From Micro to Macro: Economic Imbalances and Individual Behaviour 301 An Unpredictable and Speculative Economy 301 Effect on Individual Behaviour 305 Conclusion 309 Social Networks 310 Micro Credit and Market 313 Rehabilitating the Market in Favour of the Poor 320 “Disembedding” and the Plurality of Economies 326 Freeing Oneself from Morality and Solidarities 329 Introduction -- Prologue -- Poverty, credit and social networks -- Peasants and debt logic -- The elite and debt logic -- Urban financial microcircuits -- Women's economic spheres and credit -- Between bank and assistance : setting up pawnshops -- The battle of prohibitions against usury -- Political economies and cultures of exchange -- Political economy and exchange practices -- Building trust -- Conclusion The Moral Economy examines the nexus of poverty, credit, and trust in early modern Europe, focusing on lending practices and the values that structured them. Laurence Fontaine creates a dialogue between past and present, contrasting their definitions of poverty, the role of the market, and the mechanisms of microcredit.