Chapter 8

Monetary credit market in the cities of the southern Baltic coast in the late Middle Ages (Greifswald, Gdańsk, Elbląg, Toruń, Rewel)

Cezary Kardasz

Introduction

The colonization and urbanization of the south-eastern coast of the Baltic Sea integrated these areas into the Latin culture and the European economic system. Settlers from Germany brought along to Baltic cities credit forms and institutions known in Western Europe (Sprandel 1975, p. 55). The 14th century saw a significant development of credit markets. At that time, the purchase of rents became the most popular form of raising and investing capital in cities located on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea. The flexibility of this legal form enabled its rapid evolution and expansion. From the 12th century, lifetime contracts concluded with monasteries to the credit transaction, a fully developed form used in the 14th and 15th centuries. Late medieval source materials, in addition to the basic form of rent transactions, contain information on number of other rent types used according to the needs of counterparties – from perpetual rents, which disappeared in the 14th century, arising when the original creditor sought to recover the invested cash from older rents, through ratione muri rents used in the acquisition or reconstruction of a property, to lifetime rents which played an important role in municipal economy (Kardasz 2013, pp. 31–42).

Social aspects of credit markets in Baltic cities – social structure of the participants

The degree of development of the capital market is one of the basic indicators of economic advancement. The social scope of the market – the percentage of the entire public, as well as individual social and professional groups participating in it – allows us to determine the degree and dynamics of its development, and, in turn, the city and country in which it operates. It is assumed that the wider the group of market participants, the higher the degree of socio-economic development. It is not only the social scope that is important here, but also the degree and nature of market share of particular social and professional groups and institutions (merchants, craftsmen, women and minors, clergy and the Church, as well as municipal authorities).

The condition of the source base and the dynamics of this phenomenon make us dependent on estimates when trying to determine the social scope of the credit market in Baltic cities in the Middle Ages (Cf. Wenner 1972, p. 51). The analysis of credit records shows that a monetary credit enjoyed moderate interest among the society. In Greifswald, over the period 1300–1442, 3,129 people were recognised as being creditors or debtors at least once. At that time, five generations of the town’s inhabitants could be active on the market; in Elbląg, over the period 1330–1417, it was 3,008 people. With some caution, we can estimate the percentage of inhabitants of the studied cities who were active on the credit market at 10 to 20% of the total population. In Greifswald and Rewel, it was about 10%, a higher percentage was recorded in the Old Town of Elbląg (20%).

Debtors prevailed on all studied markets. The percentage of people in both groups was low (5–7%). This clearly demonstrates a specialisation of credit market activity resulting from the economic situation of particular groups. The clear division between those granting credit and those incurring debts was not associated with high prevalence on the market. The majority of both creditors and debtors (50–60%) have granted or taken out a loan only once. However, creditors outnumbered debtors on the market.

The identified merchants constituted from 10 to 20% of market participants but they contributed almost half of the capital to the market. The average value of loans granted by the representatives of this group was a result of its financial capacity and demand for loans. Merchants dominated both among those granting high loans and in the group of those making high financial commitments. This indicates high income and investment activity on the market. However, a significant part of the loans granted by the representatives of this group were small and medium transactions, which proves the influence of demand on the value structure.

The share of craftsmen in the markets was between 10 and 20%. Like merchants, they often appeared on the market only once, yet in contrast to them, they took out debts much more often than they granted loans. The average value of debts and investments, compared to the representatives of the merchant stratum, is much lower in this group. There were some significant differences with regard to wealth within the group, which were reflected also in the nature of activity on the credit market. There were numerous representations of craftsman’s related to trade (coopers), food industry (bakers, butchers), and metal’s craft (goldsmiths, blacksmiths). The representatives of these crafts stood out from the group in terms of the amount of loans taken out.

Women and minors were present on the credit markets of all the studied towns. They accounted for 10 to 15% of all participants. Their market share is characterized by low prevalence on the market and a visible advantage of the granted credit value over debt. Representatives of these groups granted high loans, which, combined with their low prevalence on the market, indicates searching for financial security. The activity of women, chiefly widows and minors, on the market was associated with local factors (e.g. epidemics). With the exception of Greifswald, we do not observe an increase in investments made by these groups in the examined cities in late 1340s and early 1350s, which indicates that they were not directly affected by the plague outbreak of that period.

When talking about the market share of minors, it is impossible to ignore the capital introduced to the credit market on their behalf by municipal authorities. Based on the analysis of the sources from Toruń and Gdańsk, it can be concluded that there are clear differences in this field. The authorities of Toruń, having at their disposal the capital of minors, granted low-interest loans to merchants suffering from the negative effects of the downturn in Hanseatic trade in late 14th century.

Clergy and church institutions were a permanent element of the late medieval capital market. The market share of these groups in the studied urban centres ranged from 0.4 to 15.4%. Representatives of the clergy and church institutions were relatively rare on the credit market – they usually appeared once or twice, mainly as creditors. However, the only exception to this rule were municipal hospitals, which made repeated appearances on the market. The representatives of this group invested large sums of money on the market – this particularly applies to institutions.

Apart from church institutions, municipal authorities were some of the most important institutional participants of the credit market in late medieval cities (cf. Huang 2019). In the studied cities, the share of municipal authorities in the turnover of the credit market ranged from 0.1 to 8.8% in the case of granted loans and 1.4 to 4.7% of the debt value. Municipal councils were mainly active on the credit market as debtors, seeking capital to cover growing expenses. A characteristic feature of their market share is the high value of transactions concluded which could be associated with their high credibility as debtors. However, the market share of municipal authorities was not limited to borrowing only to meet current needs. The example of Rewel’s authorities shows that they sometimes also conducted extensive lending operations related to the investment of capital belonging to church institutions that remained under their patronage.

When reflecting on the social side of credit market in late medieval cities, it is impossible to ignore the question of the allocation of the funds obtained in this way. It can be stated that part of the credit was earmarked for investments – the borrowed money was used, for example for the purchase of real estate, commercial activity, modernisation of the workshop – however, we cannot unfalteringly determine the scale of this phenomenon. In Höxter, a city in Westphalia, at the turn of the 14th century, only in less than 10% of cases the moment of selling a rent can be linked to the purchase or reconstruction of a house or workshop, and in 50% of cases the debt was the result of a bad economic situation (Rüthing 1986, p. 244). Studies on the rent market in other regions show that non-economic factors such as family situation, marital status or age may have played a significant role in making a decision whether to be active in this field and thus allocate the capital.

Economic aspects of credit markets in Baltic cities – credit market as an indicator of the city’s economic position

The credit market, as a place to invest and raise capital, was an important part of the city-wide economic system. It is still disputed which of its elements determined the turnover and thus reflect the economic situation of the time. A large number of researchers assume that the development of the market for rent purchase was determined by the supply of merchant capital, which was dependent on economic conditions (Richter 1971, p. 8; Wenner 1972, pp. 20, 94). Senior researchers assumed that the more prosperous the economic situation, the higher the profits from commercial activity and, consequently, the higher the turnover on the rent market. As Helen Haberland has shown, at certain times the value of turnover was determined by the demand for loans (Haberland 1974, p. 262).

When considering the relationship between the demand and supply of capital in the rent purchase market, we must also take account of the fact that the sources containing the entries of rent transactions do not inform us of the total supply of capital and demand for credit, the number and value of transactions concluded were the resultant of these factors (Czaja 1987, p. 22). The amount of capital obtained from trade was higher than the value of rents bought at that time, as not all capital was invested in their purchase. Similarly, the demand for credit could at certain times exceed the amount for which the rents were sold – due to the lack of free cash, only part of it could be satisfied. The increase in the turnover of the rent market was not always synonymous with good economic situation. Studies on the rent market in Elbląg prove that in the periods of stagnation in commercial activity, the withdrawn capital was invested in the purchase of rents (Kardasz 2008, p. 311). However, turnover fluctuations on the rent market can be used to capture certain tendencies in the economic life of the city, as in the period of a long-term crisis the inflow of capital to the market would be impossible, which would result in a clear decline in the turnover.

The analysis of the types of purchased rents can provide information on the economic location and the course of the economic situation. The emergence and functioning of the secondary rent market is another stage of capital market development in the city (Gilomen 2010, p. 65). The older and more stable the market, the greater the share of old rents in it, and the newer and more dynamically developing the market, the newer rents (Goliński 2003, p. 40).

In all the studied cities, the so-called new rents, which constituted about 80% of the market, were most frequently used. The share of old rents in the total number of contracts ranged from 0.7% in Rewel to 2.3% in Greifswald. The weakness of the secondary market indicates that the capital market of the examined cities in the 14th and the first half of the 15th century was still in the initial phase of development. This makes it very difficult to use the relations between the types of rents as an indicator of economic location. In Greifswald and Rewel, we often encounter rents related to the purchase of real estate, which indicates a close relationship between the rent market and the real estate market.

Another indicator used in research on the credit market and economic location is the amount of interest rate. Ahasver von Brandt treated the rent market as a place to invest merchant capital, granting them a decisive influence over its development. Using a simple correlation between demand and supply, he found that in periods of economic prosperity, increasing profits of merchants resulted in increased investments that lead to a supply-over-demand advantage and a drop in credit prices, whereas during the crisis, demand for credit exceeded supply, resulting in an increase in interest rates, that is a drop in the price of rents (Brandt 1935, pp. 19–20). However, this view has several shortcomings. The amount of interest is a function of the degree of social and economic development, and the low cost of credit indicates that the development of the money-goods economy is advanced and the credit market is developed but, in the late Middle Ages, the interest rate was not a simple result of the capital demand and supply ratio. The Church, territorial rulers, and municipal authorities often established the applicable or maximum interest rate by way of administration. In such cases, the amount did not fully reflect the real economic situation of the city. More importantly, the increased supply of merchant capital and the ensuing increase in the turnover on the rent market did not always result from the economic boom. During the crisis, attempts were made to invest the capital withdrawn from commercial operations in the purchase of rents, and the downturn did not encourage the incurring of liabilities, so the supply could exceed demand. Under certain circumstances, therefore, falling interest rates could indicate an economic depression.

All throughout the period under review, the markets of the studied cities – in line with the pan-European trend – have seen a fall in the interest rates on rent loans. At the beginning of the 14th century, it was usually 10%, a value which continued until the 1360s. Apparently, interest rates fell in Livonian cities to 6.6–5% at the turn of the 14th century. In Prussia, in 1386, the maximum interest rate was lowered by administration from 10 to 8.33%. This amount, with the exception of Elbląg, was valid until the end of the 15th century. In Elbląg, as early as in the 1380s, probably due to the large supply of merchant capital, the interest rate on rents fell below 8%, at the beginning of the 15th century a rate of 1:15 (6.66%) was commonly used there.

Having analysed the structure of the credit market value one may draw conclusions about its social scope and the role of credit in the economic activity of particular groups, and, indirectly, also about the origin of capital on the market and economic situation. It should be assumed that craftsmen were looking for a small credit (≤30 marks) and a large credit (≥100 marks) was sought by merchants. This assumption is confirmed by share analyses of identified representatives of individual social groups on the credit market and source information indicating the ownership and income of individual social groups. The annual cost of living, including food, accommodation, fuel, and clothing for a family of five in Rostock at the end of the 14th century amounted to about 35–40 Lübeck marks, while the average income of a craftsman amounted to 30–50 marks. (Hauschield 1973, p. 158; Hammel 1981, pp. 44–6). The bricklayer’s daily rate was 3 solidi, which gave the amount of about 13 marks annually. The basic annual salary of a city scribe in the 15th century Elbląg was 12 Prussian marks. The flautist employed by the city council earned 0.25 marks per week (Pelech 1987–1989, Nos 82, 211, 772, 1100). We can see that a loan of 30 marks, with an interest rate of 2–3 marks per year, was the maximum financial capacity of a craftsman from that time. The merchants’ income depended on the direction and object of trade and the economic situation but on average amounted to 15% to 25% of the invested sum (Stark 1985, pp. 131–40). Thus, the market share of transactions of a certain amount will not only allow to make conclusions about the social scope of medium- and long-term credit, it may also indicate the location of particular social groups.

The structure of transaction values concluded in Gdańsk and Elbląg was dominated by small transactions (≤ 30 marks). In Rewel, they accounted for less than half of all concluded transactions; in Greifswald and Toruń, they remained on the margin of the credit market. In all the cities, the value of turnover was determined by large transactions (≥ 100 marks) or, as in the case of Elbląg, large and medium transactions.

Table 8.1 Structure of credit market value in selected cities (in percentages)^*

* 1 – Value of transactions; 2 – Number of transactions.

The structure of credit market value was not static. In the examined period, the average value of one transaction increased in all studied cities. This process was associated with a drop in interest rates and rising inflation in the 15th century. The social structure of market participants also influenced the structure of the value of concluded transactions – in the periods of increased merchant activity there was an increase in the market share of high value transactions.

Economic prosperity on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in the late Middle Ages and its conditions

The period until mid-14th century was a time of relatively stable growth and a successful economic situation, interrupted only by short periods of downturn. There are clear analogies in the economic situation of the cities of the Wendish Quarter, Pomerania, Prussia, and Livonia. These concern both long-term trends, such as the economic recovery in the 1330s and the prosperity after the Treaty of Stralsund, as well as its short-term collapses, such as the crisis in the 1340s. These phenomena were associated with political events concerning the entire Baltic area – the end of the 1320s crisis, the end of the war with Denmark and the opening of trade opportunities after signing the peace treaty, the conflict with the counts of Holstein. The exception was the plague outbreak of the late 1340s, the effects of which were almost unnoticeable in Prussia and Livonia. As the crises of 1380s intensified, the role of local and regional factors became increasingly important, which, combined with the general crisis tendencies, determined the situation of individual cities.

The first symptoms of the approaching economic collapse appeared in Elbląg in the early 1380s. At that time, the percentage of merchant capital invested in the credit market clearly increased, which was a consequence of the withdrawal or/and exclusion of Elbląg merchants from long-distance trade and the search for safe investments. This was mainly due to an increasing competition of Gdańsk merchants and difficulties accessing the sea. At that time in other cities of the Baltic area, we can still observe a relatively stable situation related to the effects of the Treaty of Stralsund (1370) (Hammel 1988, p. 92).

The economic situation of Greifswald was similar to that of Elbląg at the turn of the 14th century. Both cities experienced a period of economic growth and prosperity in the first half of the 14th century but in the second half of the century they found themselves in a crisis which resulted in the exclusion of these towns from long-distance trade. The reasons for these phenomena lay at the local (ports) and regional level (stronger neighbours). The unfavourable trend in the economic situation in this period undoubtedly accelerated these phenomena. This argument is confirmed by the fact that the economic collapse began in Greifswald almost two decades after it took place in Elbląg.

The situation of Toruń was utterly different. Until the beginning of the 15th century, the city had remained strongly linked to Silesia economically and acted as an intermediary between the Sudeten-Carpathian area and the Baltic Sea basin. The first symptom of the crisis was that merchants in the late 1380s became increasingly interested in loans. Due to difficulties in trade with Slovakia and Russia and the downturn in Hanseatic trade, trade income was declining, and some of the merchants sought capital to survive the impending crisis. However, the symptoms of the downturn were visible in Toruń only at the beginning of the 15th century and its effects were aggravated by the aftermath of the war of 1409–1411 (Sarnowsky 1993, p. 454). Although in the 1440s Toruń experienced a short-term economic recovery, the city waited until the end of the 15th century to reverse the long-term unfavourable trend.

Among the analysed Prussian cities, Gdańsk clearly stood out from other cities in terms of economic location at the turn of the 14th century. It quickly rebuilt the damage it incurred at the beginning of the century and in the second half of the 14th century the merchants of Gdańsk, at the expense of the inhabitants of Elbląg and Toruń, were gaining an increasingly strong position in Prussian trade. This related to contacts with Polish lands and relations with the cities of Western Europe. Research indicates a clear intensification of economic contacts of Cologne with Gdańsk at the beginning of the 15th century, whereas at the same time the relations with Elbląg (late 14th century) and Toruń (after 1411) (Hirschfelder 1994, p. 222) were dying out. The analysed source material does not indicate an economic slowdown in Gdańsk at the end of the 14th century. A slight increase in the number of unpaid rents, which may indicate that the economic situation deteriorated, occurred in the Main City of Gdańsk only in the 1430s.

The influence of regional factors on the economic location of the city is clearly visible on the example of the Livonian city of Rewel. In Rewel, a period of economic downturn associated with pirate activity at the end of the 14th century took place along with other surveyed cities, yet unlike in Prussian or Pomeranian cities we do not observe a downturn at the turn of the 14th century. The signs of crisis are not to be seen in Rewel until the mid-1420s – at the same time, due to economic differences, there was a clear increase in tension between Wendish, notably Lübeck, and Livonian cities (Misāns 2003, p. 36).

Credit markets in Baltic cities against the backdrop of the region and Western Europe (selected aspects)

About 15% of inhabitants of the 14th-century Stade are mentioned on the credit market (Ellermeyer 1975, p. 47). In Lübeck, as early as at the turn of the 13th century, one-third of the city’s residents were active on the rent and real estate market (Haberland 1974, p. 23). In the mid-14th century in Hamburg, the share of the city’s inhabitants mentioned as creditors or debtors is estimated at about 50–60% (Wenner 1972, p. 52). The social scope of credit markets in Baltic cities of 10 to 20% ranks them among the small and medium-sized Hanseatic cities.

In all analysed cities, the secondary market was very underdeveloped. In Hamburg, the share of old rents on the market in the second half of the 14th century was 22–32% so it was ten times higher than in Greifswald (Baum 1976, p. 87). In Poland in the 14th to 15th centuries, the old rent was barely known (Lesiński 1966, p. 189).

Compared to the cities of similar size and economic potential and smaller Hanseatic cities, the level of loan interest rates in the analysed cities in the second half of the 14th and early 15th centuries shows no clear differences. A similar situation can be observed in Silesia where the prevailing rate of 10% in the 14th century went slowly down in the second half of the century only to reach 7% in Wrocław at the beginning of the 15th century (Beyer 1901, p. 83; Goliński 2003, p. 36). At that time, lower interest rates were applied in the largest trade and craft centres of the Baltic area. In Hamburg at the turn of the 13th century, they ranged from 12.5 to 6.66%, the most commonly applied was 8.33%, and from 1303 6.66% (Richter 1971, p. 61). In Lübeck at the same time, the interest rate was 6.25%, falling to 5% in the decades that followed (Haberland 1974, pp. 202–3). In the cities of the Kingdom of Poland at the beginning of the 14th century, the most common interest rate amounted to 12.5% (Cracow). In the second half of this century, it amounted to 10% (Lviv, Poznań), and dropped to 8.33% in the middle of the 15th century (Lesiński 1966, p. 185).

In the value structure of rent transactions in the examined cities, small transactions prevailed, however, the turnover was determined by contracts for higher amounts. In Hamburg, which is best documented in this respect in 1471–1490, small rents (with a value of up to 10 marks) accounted for 70% of concluded transactions, with a share in turnover amounting to 32%, medium-sized transactions (from 10.1 to 50 marks) accounted for 28% of all concluded transactions concluded and their value amounted to 57% of total turnover, large rents (above 50 marks) accounted for only 2% of concluded transactions and the turnover of 11% (Gabrielsson 1971, p. 42). This comparison confirms the conclusions from the analysis of the social scope – in the 14th and 15th centuries credit markets in the examined cities were at an initial stage of development.

Conclusion

In the 14th–15th centuries Baltic cities in Prussia and Livonia, rents constituted a commonly used credit form. Merchants clearly dominated credit markets. However, the scale and nature of their participation was locally determined and depended on the economic situation of the city. The market share and its nature of other social groups showed clear analogies.

The period of up to the 1380s in all the examined cities was characterised by a successful economic situation. As crisis intensified on a European scale, local conditions played an increasingly important role. As early as in the 1380s the first symptoms of the crisis were traceable in Elbląg, and a decade later in Greifswald. At the beginning of the 15th century, Toruń became also affected by the crisis which, until that time, had been competing with Gdańsk as it had strong ties with Polish lands and Silesia. In Rewel, clear symptoms of the crisis are visible in the mid-1420s. Gdańsk clearly stands out in comparison with other Prussian cities as the signs of crisis appeared there only in the 1430s.

The degree of development of credit markets in individual cities over the period of the 14th–15th centuries varied: from the relatively underdeveloped and having an insignificant social scope market in Rewel, through a more developed market in Elbląg, which was in serious crisis at the turn of the 14th century, to the large and developed market in 15th-century Gdańsk. Comparing the situation on credit markets in the selected cities on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea, the Reich, the Kingdom of Poland and Silesia proves the existence of a number of locally conditioned differences in the degree of their development. In the late Middle Ages, credit markets in the analysed urban centres were underdeveloped compared with the situation in Hamburg or Lübeck but showed clear analogies with the situation in Silesian cities. In the 14th–15th centuries, the capital market in Polish cities was much less developed. The degree of development and social range of the credit market in the late medieval Baltic cities represented a function of their social structure and economic location.

Funding

Text prepared as a part of the project, no. UMO-2016/21/B/HS3/03099, financed by the National Science Centre, Poland.

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