El sistema financiero a finales de la Edad Media: instrumentos y métodos. AAVV

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El sistema financiero a finales de la Edad Media: instrumentos y métodos - AAVV


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to increase its public debt, the villagers were forced to increase their private debt. In their own words:

      For our understanding of the functioning of financial markets, it would be interesting to know to what degree regional differences existed. When we take a closer look at the premiums paid by towns (figure 3), we see that differences were relatively low in the North and centre of Holland. In the only large town of the South, Dordrecht, premiums show greater diversity, varying from 6,7 % to 8,3 %. Dordrecht’s average interest rate was relatively high at 7,1 %, whereas averages in the North (6,7 %) and centre (6,1 %) were lower.

      FIGURE 3

      Interest rates on redeemable annuities main towns (1514)

      North: area above river IJ, no large towns. Center: area between river oude Maas/ Merwede and river IJ, large towns Haarlem, Delft, Leiden, Gouda, Amsterdam. South: area below river oude Maas/ Merwede, large town Dordrecht.

      There were few differences between large and small towns: in the North all towns were small and interest rates did not differ much. In the centre the large towns Haarlem, Delft, Leiden, Amsterdam and Gouda in general paid interest rates ranging from 5,6 % to 6,3 %. They were somewhat better off than the small towns, which in general paid interest rates ranging from 5,3 % to 6,7 % (figure 4). Dordrecht, the only large town in the South, paid relatively high interest rates compared to small towns in this region.

      FIGURE 4

       Interest rates on redeemable annuities small towns (1514)

      North: Alkmaar, Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Medemblik, Edam, Monnikendam, Beverwijk, Naarden, Weesp, Muiden, Purmerend. Center: The Hague, Woerden, Oudewater, Vlaardingen’s Gravenzande, Schiedam, Vlaardingen, Rotterdam. South: Gorkum, Asperen, Heukelum, Arkel, Heusden

      FIGURE 5

       Interest rates on redeemable annuities 1514 (all villages)

      In sum: participants in financial markets negotiated premiums on redeemable annuities ranging from 5 % to 10 %. However, most annuities by far were sold at interest rates around 6 % to 7 %. Interest rates were usually quite similar, in large and small towns and in the countryside. Villages in the North seem to have had most trouble gaining access to capital markets: here we encounter a wide range of premiums paid by villages. The low variation in interest rates seems to indicate that financial markets functioned quite well in the centre and South of Holland: they connected supply and demand in a way that prevented the emergence of «pockets» where premiums were either relatively high or low. The exceptance was the North of Holland, where interest rates show a much greater volatility, presumably due to a low level of urbanization and economic integration with the rest of Holland.

      V

      At the end of the late middle ages financial markets in Holland brought people looking to invest their savings in contact with public bodies looking for funding. They did so on a local, regional and interregional level. Towns could be particularly successful in attracting savings from foreigners: a considerable share of the public debt Leiden, Groningen and Nijmegen created was contracted with people from out of town, and often even from outside the province. In Holland only small differences in interest rates existed between large towns, small towns and villages: except for the north of Holland there is little evidence for the existence of «pockets» where interest rates were either very high or very low. For the rest financial markets thus appear to have been quite efficient in bringing together supply and demand.


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