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‘Learning to bring dead capital to life’: the Riksens Ständers Bank and the credit market in seventeenth-century Sweden

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 July 2019

Christopher Pihl
Christopher Pihl*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Uppsala University
*
*Corresponding author. Email: christopher.pihl@hist.uu.se
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Abstract

Successful mortgage lending is often said to require a system of registration, which records the ownership of, and any encumbrances on, a particular piece of real estate. Here we analyse how Sweden's Riksens Ständers Bank handled the uncertainties of the mortgage lending market c. 1680–1700, when there was no coherent system of property registration. The bank tried to make registration compulsory, but when influential groups opposed this move, the bank had to modify its lending practices. The study thus sheds light on the somewhat fraught initial stages of the shifts in the credit system, which from the latter half of the seventeenth century onwards, saw personal trust replaced by system trust, and private credit replaced by institutional credit.

French abstract

On dit souvent que le succès d'un prêt hypothécaire repose sur un bon système d'enregistrement de la propriété d'un bien immobilier, y compris les charges qui en découlent précisément. Nous analysons comment la banque suédoise Riksens Ständers a géré les incertitudes touchant le marché du crédit hypothécaire entre 1680 et 1700 environ, alors qu'il n'existait aucun système cohérent d'enregistrement de la propriété. Cette banque a tenté de rendre cet enregistrement obligatoire, mais les groupes d'influence se sont opposés à ce changement, et elle a dû modifier ses pratiques de prêt. L'article éclaire par quels chemins tortueux le système de crédit put être modifié, menant, à partir de la seconde moitié du dix-septième siècle, à remplacer confiance en une personne par confiance dans un système, crédit privé se trouvant remplacé par crédit institutionnel.

German abstract

Nach landläufiger Auffassung erfordern Hypothenkreditgeschäfte ein Register, in dem die Eigentumstitel und Belastungen jedes einzelnen Grundstücks verzeichnet sind. In diesem Beitrag wird analysiert, wie die schwedische Riksens Ständers Bank mit den Unsicherheiten des Hypothekenkreditmarktes im Zeitraum von zirka 1680–1700 umging, als es noch kein kohärentes System der Grundstücksregistrierung gab. Die Bank versuchte, die Registrierung verpflichtend zu machen, aber als einflussreiche Gruppen sich diesem Schritt widersetzten, musste sie ihre Kreditvergabepraktiken modifizieren. Die Untersuchung beleuchtet somit die ziemlich angespannten Anfangsstadien in der Entwicklung des Kreditsystems, in denen ab dem späten 17. Jahrhundert das persönliche Vertrauen durch Vertrauen ins System und der private Kredit durch institutionellen Kredit ersetzt wurde.

Type
Research Article
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , August 2019 , pp. 209 - 230
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

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References

Notes

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27 Ibid., 168–77.

28 Ibid., 153.

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36 ‘Instruction. Hwarefter Sweriges Rijkes … 1668’, printed in Brisman, Sveriges riksbank, appendix VIII, paras LVII, LX and LXIV.

37 Ibid., para. L.

38 Ågren, Jord och gäld, 42–6.

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40 Ågren, Jord och gäld, 48.

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42 Jordabalken, sections 12, 20, 21, Konung Magnus Erikssons landslag, Corpus iuris Sueo-Gotorum antiqui X, ed. C. J. Schlyter (Lund, 1862) (hereafter MEL).

43 Ågren, M., Att hävda sin rätt: synen på jordägande i 1600-talets Sverige (Stockholm, 1997), 63–4Google Scholar, 183–7; Muldrew, Economy of obligation, 150; Smail, D. L., The consumption of justice: emotions, publicity, and legal culture in Marseille, 1264–1423 (Ithaca, 2003), 209–13Google Scholar.

44 SNA 6211.02/A I a/873, 512.

45 SNA 6211.02/A I a/865, 260; 6211.02/A I a/869, 161; 6211.02/A I a/870, 171, 699; 6211.02/A I a/873, 696; 6211.02/A I a/874, 6.

46 According to the law, married women and widows were possible guarantors. SNA/RA 6211/6211.02/A I a/859, 599.

47 Jägerskiöld, Handelsbalkens utländska källor, 210.

48 SNA 6211.02/A I a/865, 353, 595; 6211.02/A I a/869, 161, 660; 6211.02/A I a/870, 699, 1053, 1080, 1175; 6211.02/A I a/873, 452; 6211.02/A I a/874, 56.

49 Jordabalken, section 21, MEL: ‘If title deeds are destroyed’.

50 Hoffman et al., Priceless markets, 25–7; van Bochove et al., ‘Real estate’, 11–15, 21; C. Briggs, ‘Introduction: law courts, contracts and rural society in Europe, 1200–1600’, Continuity and Change 29, 1 (2014), 5–7.

51 SNA 6211.02/A I a/873, 452. 1 daler kopparmynt = 1/3 daler silvermynt.

52 SNA 6211.02/A I a/870, 1180.

53 SNA 6211.02/A I a/859, 354; 6211.02/A I a/860, 2, 7, 48.

54 Jägerskiöld, Handelsbalkens utländska källor, 209.

55 SNA 6211.02/A I a/859, 19, 213; 6211.02/A I a/860, 48; 6211.02/A I a/865, 104, 113, 303, 372.

56 SNA/RA 6211/6211.01/A II a/305, 401–05; SNA/RA 6211/6211.01/A II a/306, 147–9.

57 Jägerskiöld, Handelsbalkens utländska källor, 204–09.

58 SNA 6211.02/A I a/859, 188–9, 245, 258, 264.

59 SNA 6211.02/A I a/859, 258, 264.

60 Brisman, Sveriges riksbank, 160–1; Bernt Johansson, ‘Godsförvärv och likviditetsproblem’ (unpublished licentiate thesis, Uppsala University, 1969), 118–19.

61 SNA 6211.02/A I a/859, 28.

62 SNA 6211.02/A I a/859, 218–19.

63 SNA 6211.02/A I a/859, 222.

64 SNA 6211.02/A I a/859, 224.

65 Sandberg, R., ‘Huvudstad i ett stormaktsvälde 1560–1720’, in Nilsson, Lars ed., Staden på vattnet: del I 1252–1850 (Stockholm, 2002), 128Google Scholar.

66 Jägerskiöld, Handelsbalkens utländska källor, 208.

67 Ågren, Hävda sin rätt, 174–8, 183–7.

68 SNA 6211.02/A I a/859, 112; 6211.02/A I a/860, 100; 6211.02/A I a/865, 712, 745; 6211.02/A I a/866, 149, 235.

69 Printed in Brisman, Sveriges riksbank, appendix IX.

70 Brisman, Sveriges riksbank, appendix IX, sub-section 1.

71 Brisman, Sveriges riksbank, appendix IX.

72 SNA 6211.02/A I a/865, 227.

73 De Soto, Mystery of capital; van Bochove et al., ‘Real estate’.

74 Brisman, Sveriges riksbank, appendix IX.

75 SNA 6211.02/A I a/869, 44.

76 Jägerskiöld, Handelsbalkens utländska källor, 197; Pedersen, E. L., ‘Jordværdi og kreditmarked i Danmark 1630–1730’, Historisk Tidskrift 15 (1990), 318Google Scholar; Ågren, Domestic secrets, 92–3; Ito, ‘Registration and credit’, 141, 148–50.

77 SNA 6211.02/A I a/869, 827, 1136. See also 6211.02/A I a/865, 199, 595, 601; 6211.02/A I a/870, 291; 6211.02/A I a/873, 130; 6211.02/A I a/874, 183.

78 Brisman, Sveriges riksbank, appendix IX.

79 SNA 6211/6211.02/A I a/870, 45, 157, 194, 1072; SNA 6211/6211.02/A I a/874, 390, 509–10, 703; A. Jansson, Bördor och bärkraft: borgare och kronotjänare i Stockholm 1644–1672 (Stockholm, 1991), 24–6, 106–08.

80 SNA 6211.02/A I a/870, 168. See also SNA 6211.02/A I a/866, 72; 6211.02/A I a/869, 305; 6211.02/A I a/870, 1187; 6211.02/A I a/873, 266; 6211.02/A I a/874, 501.

81 SNA 6211.02/A I a/860, 127.

82 SNA 6211.02/A I a/866, 267.

83 SNA 6211.02/A I a/870, 1057.

84 Muldrew, Economy of obligation, chs. 6 and 7; Hardwick, Family business, ch. 4; Shepard, A., Accounting for oneself: worth, status, and the social order in early modern England (Oxford, 2015)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ch. 2.

85 SNA 6211.02/A I a/865, 191. Cf. SNA 6211.02/A I a/866, 40; 6211.02/A I a/870, 542.

86 SNA 6211.02/A I a/869, 44–5. Cf. SNA 6211.02/A I a/865, 618; 6211.02/A I a/866, 476; 6211.02/A I a/869, 407; 6211.02/A I a/870, 1057; 6211.02/A I a/873, 130.

87 SNA 6211.02/A I a/866, 149. Cf. SNA 6211.02/A I a/866, 108, 149; 6211.02/A I a/870, 704, 1054, 1103, 1187; 6211.02/A I a/873, 160.

88 Muldrew, Economy of obligation, 152–7; Hardwick, Family business, ch. 4; Paul, ‘Credit, reputation, and masculinity’.

89 SNA 6211.02/A I a/859, 235.

90 SNA 6211.02/A I a/859, 171. Cf. SNA 6211.02/A I a/865, 837.

91 Brisman, Sveriges riksbank, 117.

92 SNA 6211.02/A I a/869, 521.

93 SNA 6211.02/A I a/873, 333.

94 SNA 6211.02/A I a/865, 190.

95 SNA 6211.02/A I a/870, 1025, 1178.

96 SNA 6211.02/A I a/865, 45, 163, 650; 6211.02/A I a/869, 135, 214, 399, 462; 6211.02/A I a/870, 704, 1004; 6211.02/A I a/873, 200.

97 SNA 6211.02/A I a/869, 135.

98 SNA 6211.02/A I a/865, 799.

99 SNA 6211.02/A I a/870, 704. See also SNA 6211.02/A I a/866, 108, 399; 6211.02/A I a/874, 378.

100 Cf. van Bochove et al., ‘Real estate’, n. 5.

101 SNA 6211.02/A I a/866, 293.

102 SNA 6211.02/A I a/870, 901.

103 For examples from all around the Swedish realm, see SNA 6211.02/A I a/865, 111 (Uppsala and Eksjö), 228 (Uppsala), 630 (Uppsala); 6211.02/A I a/866, 541 (Eksjö); 6211.02/A I a/870, 86 (Kristinehamn), 100 (Uppsala), 612 (Linköping); 6211.02/A I a/873, 400 (Helsinki).

104 North and Weingast, ‘Constitutions and commitments’; Hoffman, P. T. et al. , ‘The role of trust in the long-run development of French financial markets’, in Cook, K. S. et al. eds., Whom can we trust? How groups, networks, and institutions make trust possible (New York, 2009), 308–39Google Scholar.