Call for papers
Workshop “Asset Management of Households in Europe, 1300-1800”
18th of January 2012
Center for Global Economic History
Utrecht University
The Netherlands
Organizers: Jaco Zuijderduijn & Tine De Moor
Recent scholarship has attributed a crucial role to the household in economic history. Much
attention has gone to the restrictions to asset management, for instance with respect to legal
impediments (marriage contracts, entails), gender-based obstacles (agency in households) and
cultural problems (the idea that assets were part of the patrimony) and the effects these had on
the economy.
In spite of these restrictions, there are plenty of indications that households could use at least
part of their possessions as they saw fit, and also that some impediments to alienation became
less severe over time. For instance, in her recent book Commerce before capitalism, Martha
Howell describes a number of cultural shifts that helped make property more easily alienable.
Instead of regarding households as units that received assets from ancestors to pass these on to
their heirs, this workshop looks at the way households used land, houses and savings during the
life cycle. This approach will allow us to grasp one of the dynamics of markets for real estate and
capital, and thus to understand economic and social shifts.
This workshop will center on the question how households made best use of their assets. Did
households make adjustments in their struggle for existence, and if so, to what end? Did they
merely alienate to survive or to assist kin, or did they also invest? Did asset management involve
risk-spreading techniques? And how important were non-economic elements, such as the
political benefits and prestige of being a landowner? And which effects did this have on
economic and social processes?
The following questions will be addressed in particular:
-
-
To what degree did households participate in markets for real estate and financial
markets?
What were the motives for buying or selling property, borrowing or lending? Did asset
management allow households to cope with difficulties they encountered in the course
of the life cycle (for instance the early adulthood squeeze and retirement squeeze of the
life cycle approach of social sciences)? Or did asset management allow for rudimentary
types of insurance, for instance by risk-spreading?
Who decided about asset management? Did men and women participate in markets for
real estate and financial markets? And to what degree did family members continue to
influence decisions with respect to alienation of property?
-
How important were cultural elements, such as the political benefits of being a
landowner, or the notion that land was part of the patrimony?
How did shifts in asset management affect economic development (for instance from a
Smithian perspective) and social processes?
Which differences can be observed when European Marriage Pattern regions (i.e. regions
characterized by neolocality of households) are compared to regions where different
types of household formation existed?
Practical information:
The workshop will take one day, the 18th of January. Selected paper participants will receive
reimbursement of their travel costs and accommodation. Paper proposals (of approx. 1500
words) should be sent before the 15nd of October to Jaco Zuijderduijn ([email protected] )
who is also in charge of the organization of the workshop. Selected participants will be informed
before the 10th of November.
This workshop is made possible by funding from the European Research Council under the
European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC grant
agreement n° 240928) as part of the project "United we stand". The dynamics and consequences
of institutions for collective action in pre-industrial Europe. Further information about this
project can be found via http://www.collective-action.info/projects_ERCGrant.