Introduction: mortgages and annuities in historical perspective

Abstract

This Introduction outlines the key themes and concerns of Land and credit. It emphasizes the historical importance of the use of land and other real property as security for loans in the shape of mortgages and annuities. Such secured lending has often been ascribed a significant role in the development of the pre-industrial European economy, yet the exact character of that role has hitherto remained unclear, with some commentators placing an emphasis on peasant borrowing for investment while others stress peasant expropriation via mortgage foreclosure. The Introduction explores these possibilities and, drawing on the substantive chapters which follow, places particular emphasis on the part played by mortgage law and the evolution of mortgage instruments in shaping the extent to which borrowing on landed security was taken up in the European countryside in this period.