Economists and lawyers have considered the efficiency of bankruptcy procedures, but given little serious attention to historical examples. Conceptual difficulties also arise in distinguishing «bankruptcy» and «insolvency» as overlapping, but not interchangeable, categories. Bankruptcy statistics provide a useful indication of economic conjunctures. A hike in Sevillian bankruptcies Seville during 1566-1577 shows the effects of government interventions in the Seville money market including the decreto suspending payments on the Castilian floating debt of 1575; this paper details the crisis through the correspondence of local merchants observing these events, focussing on the collapse of Seville’s two licensed deposit-banks in 1576.
Hadlow Historical Society, United Kingdom
Chapter Title
Bankruptcy procedures in sixteenth century Seville, with special reference to the Espinosa and Morga bank failures in the 1570s
Authors
Mark Steele
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0963-2.18
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2026
Copyright Information
© 2026 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Gestione del rischio, insolvenza e bancarotta nel mondo premoderno (secc. XIII-XVIII) / Risk management, insolvency, and bankruptcy in the pre-modern world (13th-18th centuries)
Editors
Angela Orlandi
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
568
Publication Year
2026
Copyright Information
© 2026 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0963-2
ISBN Print
979-12-215-0962-5
eISBN (pdf)
979-12-215-0963-2
eISBN (xml)
979-12-215-0964-9
Series Title
Datini Studies in Economic History
Series ISSN
2975-1241
Series E-ISSN
2975-1195