Protecting the Foreign Creditor – International Insolvency in Early Modern Amsterdam and Frankfurt am Main

Author(s)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18352/tseg.1060

Keywords:

International political economy, reciprocity, bankruptcy law, insolvency, institutional history, Amsterdam, Frankfurt am Main, Dutch Golden Age

Abstract

In early modern Europe, insolvency was an inherently localized procedure. Whereas merchants and investors operated as part of an internationalizing economy,financial misfortune was treated by local authorities in cities such as Amsterdam and Frankfurt am Main. Throughout the early modern period, increasing levels of communication between municipal authorities on such matters can be observed. Governments cooperated in order to support their citizens’ position as creditors of a foreign debtor. The case study of the Amsterdam insolvent Gasparo Schellekens displays how the Amsterdam Desolate Boedelskamer used tailor-made forms of communication to allow both local and foreign creditors to participate in its insolvency procedure on an equal footing. We will argue that reciprocity rather than competition formed the basis of this open access institution, much to the benefit of all parties involved.

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Author Biographies

  • Maurits den Hollander, Tilburg University
    Maurits den Hollander (MA) (1994) works as PhD Researcher in Legal History at the Department of Public Law and Governance of Tilburg University. His research interests span a broad range of financial, political and institutional topics, but in the last years he has focused on late medieval governmental auditing bodies and local financial crisis management in the northern Habsburg Netherlands. Den Hollander’s current research focusses on insolvencies in seventeenth
    century Amsterdam. Main publication:Den Hollander, M., ‘Comparative cultures of accountability. The Scottish Exchequer and the Audit Chamber of Holland between 1477 and 1515’, Comparative Legal History 6:2 (2018)
    158-183
  • Remko J. Mooi, Tilburg University

    Remko J. Mooi (LLM, MA) (1989) works as PhD Researcher in Legal History at the Department of Public Law and Governance of Tilburg University. Next to his main focus on the history of international insolvency and trade law, he has
    an interest in the history of human rights. His PhD research focusses on the development of the position of foreign creditors in insolvency procedures in seventeenth and eighteenth century Frankfurt am Main.

    E-mail: R.J.Mooi@uvt.nl

Published

2020-02-26

Issue

Section

Research Article

How to Cite

den Hollander, M., & Mooi, R. J. (2020). Protecting the Foreign Creditor – International Insolvency in Early Modern Amsterdam and Frankfurt am Main. TSEG - The Low Countries Journal of Social and Economic History, 16(3-4), 37-57. https://doi.org/10.18352/tseg.1060