El papel desempeñado por los servicios financieros constituye un elemento fundamental a la hora de favorecer el crecimiento potencial de una economía, especialmente para aquellas que transitan desde un marco de subsistencia hacia otro dominado por las relaciones de mercado y la inserción en circuitos comerciales más amplios. En línea con dicha afirmación, en el presente artículo se analiza el funcionamiento del mercado crediticio malagueño a través de un tipo de contrato-la obligación-préstamodentro de una coyuntura expansiva-finales del siglo XVIII-, vinculando el desarrollo financiero con la situación del tejido productivo local, dominado en estos momentos por la producción y posterior exportación de derivados vitivinícolas. La generalización de determinadas prácticas entre los múltiples prestamistas parece responder a la necesidad de amoldar los instrumentos crediticios a la realidad material local, con el fin último de asegurar una mayor eficiencia del mercado, y superar así los obstáculos que dificultaban una óptima asignación de recursos.
New Institutional Economics treats early modern Spain as an example of a state whose political and contracting institutions hindered economic growth. However, the assumption that Spanish political institutions were predatory in this respect has been called into question. This paper challenges the idea that Spain was unable to develop sufficiently good contracting institutions, of which we know relatively little. Using data from Malaga's notarial credit market, I show that legal institutions facilitated contractual compliance in private financial transactions. Specifically, public mortgage registries, which had improved the registration of properties used as collateral since their creation in 1768, favoured the subscription of larger contracts. Furthermore, results suggest that registries could have contributed to the development of a more impersonal credit market.
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