Prison bound? : Merchants, Loan Guarantees, and Reprisals in Medieval Dordrecht (c. 1300)
The article provides empirical evidence on the use of two types of security in medieval finance: conditional hostageship and the community responsibility system. Both exposed guarantors to imprisonment or confiscation. Evidence from Dordrecht shows the former was frequently applied but was not very disruptive. However, the latter community responsibility system did lead to reprisals against mercha
