Beyond Banks

Highlights how, among others, nuns, traders, notaries, guilds, innkeepers, and shopkeepers formed networks of credit Offers a more accurate assessment of credit markets throughout history Focuses on the informational context that frames these markets and the conditions under which these markets thrive and grow
Scholars of credit markets have long focused on banks, but pre-modern as well as modern economies often relied on non-bank credit. This edited volume brings together international examples from across history that highlight how guilds, innkeepers, moneylenders, notaries, networks of family members and friends, and religious institutions – among others – mobilized credit before and even along banks. The volume operationalizes a common terminology and set of questions to allow for comparisons between the wide range of bank and non-bank credit arrangements across the globe and across time. It will be of interest to financial and economic historians, economists, and many other scholars in the humanities and social sciences.