An Empty Shell? Rethinking the Usury Laws in Medieval Europe

Tan, Elaine S.

doi:10.1080/01440362308539649

Cited by 24 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Yet there is growing evidence that, at least in some countries and periods, they were strictly enforced. Evasion was difficult and rare (Rockoff, 2003; Tan, 2001). Practical difficulties in tracing the usury laws’ effects abound.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Interest Rate Restrictions in a Natural Experiment: Loan Allocation and the Change in the Usury Laws in 1714

Temin

Voth

2008

The Economic Journal

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If financial deepening aids economic growth, then financial repression should be harmful. We use a natural experiment -the change in the English usury laws in 1714 -to analyze the effects of interest rate restrictions. We use a sample of individual loan transactions to demonstrate how the reduction of the legal maximum rate of interest affected the supply and demand for credit. Average loan size and minimum loan size increased strongly, and access to credit worsened for those with little 'social capital.' While we have no direct evidence that loans were misallocated, the discontinuity in loan receipts makes this highly likely. We conclude that financial repression can undermine the positive effects of financial deepening.

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confidence: 99%

Interest Rate Restrictions in a Natural Experiment: Loan Allocation and the Change in the Usury Laws in 1714

Temin

Voth

2008

The Economic Journal

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“…Sometimes complicated economic arrangements—and some theological gymnastics—were needed to come up with ways to evade the ban. Historians differ in their assessment of how much the bans reduced interest taking or distorted the market for lending (de Roover, 1967; Kaelber, 2004; Tan, 2002). However even though subterfuge may have skirted legal rules, it did not change usury’s status as odious or morally problematic (Homer & Sylla, 2007; Kaelber, 2004; Tan, 2002).…”

Section: History Of Religious Attitudes Toward Lending and Borrowingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitudes, behavior, and institutional inversion: The case of debt.

Cohen¹,

Shin²,

Lawless

2021

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

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Psychologists often posit relatively straightforward attitude-behavior links. They also often study cultural arrangements as manifestations of attitudes and values writ large. However, we illustrate some difficulties with scaling up attitude-behavior principles from the individual-level to the cultural-level: Historical attitudes and values can lead to the creation of intermediating institutions, whose value-expressive functions may be at odds with the behavioral outcomes they produce. Through "institutional inversion," institutions may facilitate rather than inhibit stigmatized behavior. Here we examine attitudes and behavior related to debt, contrast historically Protestant versus Catholic places, and show how cultural attitudes against debt may lead to the creation of institutions that increase-rather than decrease-borrowing. Historical antidebt attitudes in Protestant places have led to contemporary households in Protestant cultures now carrying the highest debt loads. We discuss the importance of supply side factors, attitude ! institutions ! behavior causal chains, and some blind spots that lead to unintended consequences.

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“…This penalty was raised to excommunication at the 1207 Council of Paris. In 1311, Church prosecutors were empowered still further: businessmen accused of usury had to turn over their account books to the ecclesiastical courts [Tan 2002: 190]. These innovations in canon law were the rico Acts of their day.…”

Section: Christianitymentioning

confidence: 99%

God’s Technicians: Religious Jurists and the Usury Ban in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Calder¹

2016

Arch. eur. sociol.

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At the heart of the $2 trillion Islamic-finance industry is a ban on interest. But why is there only anIslamicban on interest today? After all, for over a millennium, interest was also gravely sinful in Judaism and Christianity. While scholars have addressed the evolution of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic economic morality in isolation, very few since Weber have tackled the interest question directly and comparatively.I argue that the fate of the religious interest ban has always depended on the fate of religious jurists. When religious jurists are absent, no systematic interest ban emerges. When religious jurists emerge as technical experts, the interest ban appears and thrives. And when religious jurists come under attack or lose their traditional role in society, the interest ban withers and dies.To conclude, I call for a reconstruction of Weber’s theory of religion and economic morality that dissolves the tradition-modernity binary.

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An Empty Shell? Rethinking the Usury Laws in Medieval Europe

Cited by 24 publications

References 31 publications

Interest Rate Restrictions in a Natural Experiment: Loan Allocation and the Change in the Usury Laws in 1714

Interest Rate Restrictions in a Natural Experiment: Loan Allocation and the Change in the Usury Laws in 1714

Attitudes, behavior, and institutional inversion: The case of debt.

God’s Technicians: Religious Jurists and the Usury Ban in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

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