Capitolo

Risk-lovers paradise: Lotteries and risk-taking in the Low Countries, 1441-1700

  • Jeroen Putttevils

Various documents pertaining to lotteries in the Low Countries between 1441 and 1700 show that both lottery players and organizers saw the lottery as a form of risk, they “adventured” on it. Some players invested large sums of money and co-operated with one another in syndicates to spread their risks; the lottery organizers risked losing a lot of funds if their lottery did not attract enough revenue to cover its costs. Lotteries were about the domestication and popularisation of risk, to channel funds risk-loving lottery ticket buyers towards the coffers of the lottery organizers, whether they be governments, churches, or private entrepreneurs. Two and half centuries of lottery sources will be examined to investigate shifts in the discourse of risk that pertains to lotteries.

  • Keywords:
  • lotteries,
  • risk-loving,
  • risk-mitigation,
  • Low Countries,
  • late medieval,
  • early modern,
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Jeroen Putttevils

University of Antwerp, Belgium - ORCID: 0000-0003-2791-8586

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  • Anno di pubblicazione: 2026
  • Pagine: 483-502

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  • Anno di pubblicazione: 2026

Informazioni sul capitolo

Titolo del capitolo

Risk-lovers paradise: Lotteries and risk-taking in the Low Countries, 1441-1700

Autori

Jeroen Putttevils

Lingua

Inglese

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-0963-2.29

Opera sottoposta a peer review

Anno di pubblicazione

2026

Copyright

© 2026 Author(s)

Licenza d'uso

CC BY 4.0

Licenza dei metadati

CC0 1.0

Informazioni bibliografiche

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

CC BY 4.0

Licenza dei metadati

CC0 1.0

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

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