Household Debt in Early Modern Germany: Evidence from Personal Inventories
利用17世纪德国婚姻和死亡财产清单数据，分析普通人的借贷目的、家庭与社区联系以及债务特征，发现即使在欠发达的农村经济中，人们也通过借贷进行投资、平滑消费和储蓄。
The “less-developed” interior of early modern Europe, especially the rural economy, is often regarded as financially comatose. This article investigates this view using a rich data set of marriage and death inventories for seventeenth-century Germany. It first analyzes the characteristics of debts, examining borrowing purposes, familial links, communal ties, and documentary instruments. It then explores how borrowing varied with gender, age, marital status, occupation, date, and asset portfolio. It finds that ordinary people, even in a “less-developed” economy in rural central Europe, sought to invest profitably, smooth consumption, bridge low liquidity, and hold savings in financial form.