The economy of obligation: the culture of credit and social relations in early modern England

Abstract

Craig Muldrew, The Economy of Obligation: The Culture of Credit and Social Relations in Early Modern England, London, Macmillan Press, 1998, pp. xxvii + 453, hb. £47.50, ISBN: 0333625714This is a wonderful book. Craig Muldrew's re-examination of credit should provoke a redefinition of the way we should think about early modern history. His is a large book in four parts. In the first the author identifies a major expansion in the ownership of goods between the 1550s and 1580. As one would expect, such new standards of material comfort were concentrated in the homes of successful farmers and tradesmen, rather than those of the labouring poor. Most goods were bought on credit, and involved long-drawn-out bargains, initiated in the urban market-place, but also, increasingly, in shops. The huge increase in buying and selling that accompanied economic expansion produced a dense network of middlemen operating within a new 'market culture'. Bargains were made orally, witnesses were the most important form of security. Tradesmen used account books only infrequently (65), many households continually overspent and most conflated domestic and trading accounts. An ingenious attempt to estimate the number of purchases in King's Lynn demonstrates that this relatively modest town of some two thousand households made about 642,000 separate purchases per year, which translates to a relatively low level of economic activity. There was plenty of time for negotiation and socialising as part of early modern business, which was just as well, since conversation to establish the credit and reputation of all parties to a transaction was the very stuff of this 'economy of obligation'. Since the supply of money failed to keep pace with the demand for it, cash formed less than one in ten of all exchanges (100) and was used in relatively unusual circumstances. All households were thus bound up in a complex mesh of credit relationships, usually informal agreements based on trust. Even though lending money (at interest) was done, increasingly, on bonds, such informal credit arrangements remained the dominant mode of exchange throughout our period.The second part of the book explores this 'culture of credit'. Essentially the growth of credit placed the question of trust, and the enforcement of bargains and contracts centre stage. The Protestant religion's 'emphasis on faith was mirrored by an increasing emphasis on trust within everyday social relations' (132) that were perceived to be increasingly necessary when credit networks were growing ever more complex. For the middling sort, trust in God and neighbours, 'credit' rather than capital accumulation, was at the foundation of their economic activities. Every member of a community should live soberly, lend modestly and preserve their reputation and order in their household. Moral lapses and defamation were therefore serious matters and prosecuted ever more vigorously in the courts.Despite such emphasis on trust and the cultivation of appropriate and trustworthy behaviour, and as is already well known from the work of Chris Brooks, economic expansion not only multiplied credit transactions but produced a mounting tide of debt-related litigation. Whereas central courts saw an expansion in business generated by the use of formal credit instruments, Muldrew shows that there was, in fact, a parallel rise in litigation in local borough courts seeking to enforce oral agreements. Such litigation increased sharply after 1560 and was, predictably, most common in the 1580s. In the third part of the book, Muldrew estimates that over one million actions were being initiated locally in the 1580s, thereafter real rates of litigation declined as individuals became more adept at managing new levels of credit. Not surprisingly, then, going to law was experienced by virtually everybody. Although, as one would expect, the wealthy had more litigation pending and were more likely to take cases further, in a community like King's Lynn, even aged paupers sued their neighbours for outstanding debts. …