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Spending, saving, or investing? Risk management in sixteenth-century Dutch households

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  • JACO ZUIJDERDUIJN
  • TINE DE MOOR

Abstract

(This paper has been accepted (May 2011) for publication in the Economic History Review) In the past one of the main challenges to households was how to cope with adversity. War, plague, famine, and flood were a constant threat, and could reduce what little improvements families had made in productivity. Economic growth therefore required a means to absorb external adversities. To see how well late medieval households coped with adversity,this investigation focuses on the households of a small town and its surroundings in early modern Holland. Our findings reveal that several severe external events around 1500 had little effect on the general level or distribution of wealth, which suggests certain forms of insurance may have protected the population. The results show that households increasingly invested in capital markets rather than employ such techniques as scattered holdings and hoarding.. This fact indicates that such investment played a vital role in a household’s risk aversion strategy. The change from unproductive to more productive risk-aversion strategies also provides some clues about progress with respect to insurance during Holland’s financial revolution.
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  • Jaco Zuijderduijn & Tine De Moor, 2013. "Spending, saving, or investing? Risk management in sixteenth-century Dutch households," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 66(1), pages 38-56, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:66:y:2013:i:1:p:38-56
    DOI: 10.1111/ehr.2013.66.issue-1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Tine De Moor & Jan Luiten Van Zanden, 2010. "Girl power: the European marriage pattern and labour markets in the North Sea region in the late medieval and early modern period1," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 63(1), pages 1-33, February.
    2. Van Zanden, Jan Luiten, 2002. "Taking the measure of the early modern economy: Historical national accounts for Holland in 1510/14," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(2), pages 131-163, August.
    3. van Bavel, Bas, 2016. "Manors and Markets: Economy and Society in the Low Countries 500-1600," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198783756.
    4. Van Zanden, Jan Luiten & Prak, Maarten, 2006. "Towards an economic interpretation of citizenship: The Dutch Republic between medieval communes and modern nation-states," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(2), pages 111-145, August.
    5. J. L. Van Zanden, 1995. "Tracing the beginning of the Kuznets curve: western Europe during the early modern period," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 48(4), pages 643-664, November.
    6. Vries,Jan de, 2008. "The Industrious Revolution," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521895026, January.
    7. Vries,Jan de, 2008. "The Industrious Revolution," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521719254, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Wouter Ryckbosch, 2014. "Economic inequality and growth before the industrial revolution: A case study of the Low Countries (14th-19th centuries)," Working Papers 067, "Carlo F. Dondena" Centre for Research on Social Dynamics (DONDENA), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi.
    2. Zuijderduijn, Jaco, 2016. "The Ages of Women and Men : Life Cycles, Family and Investment in the Fifteenth-Century Low Countries," Lund Papers in Economic History 150, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    3. Christopher Gerrard & David Petley, 2013. "A risk society? Environmental hazards, risk and resilience in the later Middle Ages in Europe," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 69(1), pages 1051-1079, October.
    4. Jan Luiten van Zanden & Jaco Zuijderduijn & Tine De Moor, 2012. "Small is beautiful: the efficiency of credit markets in the late medieval Holland," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 16(1), pages 3-22, February.
    5. Ann M. Carlos & Erin Fletcher & Larry Neal, 2015. "Share portfolios in the early years of financial capitalism: London, 1690–1730," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(2), pages 574-599, May.
    6. Schroeder, Max & Lazarakis, Spyridon & Mancy, Rebecca & Angelopoulos, Konstantinos, 2023. "An extended period of elevated influenza mortality risk follows the main waves of influenza pandemics," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).

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