This article explores the role of the Monti di Pietà in late medieval Italy and Early Modern Germany as instrument of self-help of the working poor. Claiming that microcredits provided by urban pawnbroking institutions helped to mitigate phases of illiquidity and possible insolvency, it can be shown that they were part of the strategies of survival applied by a clientele consisting mostly of craftsmen, day-laborers and small shop-keepers. These social groups used their material belongings – mostly humble household objects and clothes – to convert them into small-scale credit in times of crisis. The second part of the article thematizes the introduction of the Monti in two German cities that were major trading hubs: Augsburg and Nuremberg showing the successful adaption of the Italian model of welfare north of the Alps.
University of Graz, Austria - ORCID: 0009-0006-2185-7013
Titolo del capitolo
Dealing with economic precarity through microcredit. The Monti di Pietà in late medieval and early modern Italy and Germany
Autori
Tanja Skambraks
Lingua
Inglese
DOI
10.36253/979-12-215-0963-2.06
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Anno di pubblicazione
2026
Copyright
© 2026 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Titolo del libro
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)
Curatori
Angela Orlandi
Opera sottoposta a peer review
Numero di pagine
568
Anno di pubblicazione
2026
Copyright
© 2026 Author(s)
Licenza d'uso
Licenza dei metadati
Editore
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
Collana
Datini Studies in Economic History
ISSN della collana
2975-1241
e-ISSN della collana
2975-1195