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Introduction: law courts, contracts and rural society in Europe, 1200–1600

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2014

CHRIS BRIGGS
CHRIS BRIGGS*
Affiliation:
Faculty of History, University of Cambridge.
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Abstract

Private contracts of many different kinds were at the heart of the rural economy in medieval and early modern Europe. This article considers some of the key issues involved in the study of those contracts, and of the institutions that facilitated their registration and enforcement. Drawing on examples from medieval England as well as the articles in this special issue of the journal, it is argued that complex and effective ‘public-order’ structures for contract registration and enforcement – principally various kinds of law court – were ubiquitous in European villages and small towns in this era.

Introduction: tribunaux, contrats et société rurale en europe, 1200–1600

A travers toute l'Europe médiévale et moderne, on trouve des contrats privés de toutes sortes au cœur de l’économie rurale. Cet article examine certaines des questions clés que l’étude de ces contrats soulève, tout autant que celles que pose l’étude des institutions qui facilitaient l'enregistrement et la mise en application de ces contrats. Considérant à la fois le cas de l'Angleterre médiévale et les articles du présent numéro spécial de Continuity and Change, nous soutenons qu'il existait, dans toute cette Europe médiévale et moderne, et ce dans les villages comme dans les petites villes, des structures complexes et efficaces de maintien de « l'ordre public » qui veillaient, de façon omniprésente, à l'enregistrement des contrats et à leur exécution, à savoir principalement divers types de tribunaux.

Einführung: gerichte, verträge und ländliche gesellschaft in europa, 1200–1600

Private Verträge unterschiedlichster Art gehören zum Kernbestand der ländlichen Wirtschaft im mittelalterlichen und frühneuzeitlichen Europa. Dieser Beitrag beleuchtet einige der zentralen Themen, die mit der Erforschung dieser Verträge und der Institutionen, die ihre Registrierung und Einhaltung erleichterten, zusammenhängen. Unter Bezugnahme sowohl auf Beispiele aus dem mittelalterlichen England als auch auf die übrigen Beiträge dieses Themenheftes wird die These vertreten, dass es für die Registrierung und Durchsetzung solcher Verträge überall in Europa in Dörfern und Kleinstädten komplexe und wirksame Strukturen der ‚öffentlichen Ordnung‘ gab, und zwar hauptsächlich Gerichte unterschiedlicher Art.

Type
Research Article
Information
Continuity and Change , Volume 29 , Issue 1: SPECIAL ISSUE: LAW COURTS, CONTRACTS AND RURAL SOCIETY IN EUROPE 1200–1600. , May 2014 , pp. 3 - 18
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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References

ENDNOTES

1 Among recent works, see for example Nicholas, David, ‘Economy’, in Power, Daniel ed., The Short Oxford history of Europe. The central middle ages: Europe 950–1320 (Oxford, 2006), 57–90Google Scholar; Bourin, Monique, Carocci, Sandro, Menant, François and Figueras, Lluís To, ‘Les campagnes de la Méditerranée occidentale autour de 1300: tensions destructrices, tensions novatrices’, Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales 66, 3 (2011), 663–704Google Scholar, esp. 677–84; Muñoz, J. Ángel Sesma and Corbera, Carlos Laliena eds., Crecimiento económico y formación de los mercados en Aragón en la edad media (1200–1350) (Zaragoza, 2009)Google Scholar; van Bavel, Bas, Manors and markets: economy and society in the Low Countries 500–1600 (Oxford, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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7 For the novelty of this field of study in Catalonia, see the articles by Lluís Sales and Xavier Soldevila in this issue; Favà, Lluís Sales i, ‘Suing in a local jurisdictional court in late medieval Catalonia. The case of Caldes de Malavella (1328–1369)’, Continuity and Change 29, 1 (2014)Google Scholar, 49–81; Temporal, Xavier Soldevila i, ‘Rural courts, notaries and credit in the county of Empúries, 1290–1348’, Continuity and Change 29, 1 (2014)Google Scholar, 83–114. For the small number of French studies of rural courts and the shortages of relevant primary evidence, see Charbonnier, Pierre, ‘La paix au village. Les justices seigneuriales rurales au XVe siècle en France’, in Le règlement des conflits au Moyen Âge. Actes du XXXIe congrès de la S.H.M.E.S.P. (Angers, 2000) (Paris, 2001), 281–303Google Scholar and Charbonnier, Pierre, ‘Les justices seigneuriales de village en Auvergne et Bourbonnais du XVe au XVIIe siècle’, in Brizay, François, Follain, Antoine and Sarrazin, Véronique eds., Les justices de village: administration et justice locales de la fin du Moyen Âge à la Révolution (Rennes, 2002), 93–108Google Scholar. See also the studies in Bonfield, Lloyd ed., Seigneurial jurisdiction (Berlin, 2000)Google Scholar.

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10 The literature on notaries is vast; particularly relevant is Menant, François and Redon, Odile eds., Notaires et crédit dans l'occident méditerranéen médiéval (Rome, 2004)Google Scholar. For the tabellions, or scriveners – the northern French equivalents of the notaries – and their role in contentious justice as well as the recording of agreements, see the studies in Arnoux, Mathieu and Guyotjeannin, Olivier eds., Tabellions et tabellionages de la France médiévale et moderne (Paris, 2011)Google Scholar.

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16 What follows is necessarily a simplistic and static account of a very complex situation.

17 Briggs, Chris, ‘Credit and the freehold land market in England, c.1200–c.1350: possibilities and problems for research’, in Schofield, Phillipp and Lambrecht, Thijs eds., Credit and the rural economy in north-western Europe, c.1200–c.1850 (Turnhout, 2009), 109–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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19 The Statutes of Acton Burnell (1283) and Merchants (1285) also established a system of debt registration and recovery, but it is doubtful that many of the rural contracts that concern us here made use of it.

20 For more detail on these issues, see forthcoming work by Chris Briggs and Phillipp Schofield from the project ‘Private law and medieval village society: personal actions in manor courts, c.1250–1350’, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, 2006–09, ref. AH/D502713/1.

21 Briggs, Credit and village society, 12, 67, 216 and references therein.

22 North, Institutions, 54–6; Avner Greif, ‘Institutions and impersonal exchange: the European experience’ (CCDRL working paper no. 14, Stanford, 2004); Dam, Kenneth W., The law–growth nexus: the rule of law and economic development (Washington, DC, 2006), 70–7, 123–8Google Scholar.

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27 See n. 23 above, for examples from a much larger literature; for recent illuminating examinations of these issues, see also de Lara, Yadira González, ‘The secret of Venetian success: a public-order, reputation-based institution’, European Review of Economic History 12, 3 (2008), 247–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Dennison, Tracy, ‘Contract enforcement in Russian serf society, 1750–1860’, Economic History Review 66, 3 (2013), 715–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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31 Epstein, Freedom and growth, 51.

32 Epstein, ‘Rodney Hilton’, 267.

33 The question of which courts had the right to adjudicate which contracts is a complex matter on which more research is needed. For the competence of borough courts, see Kowaleski, Maryanne, Local markets and regional trade in medieval Exeter (Cambridge, 1995), 219–21Google Scholar.

34 The National Archives, London, JUST 1/96, m. 33 (roll of the Cambridgeshire eyre of 1299). For Bourn's medieval manor courts, see Diane K. Bolton, ‘Bourn’, in Elrington, C. R. ed., A history of the county of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: volume 5 (London, 1973), 12–13Google Scholar.

35 Gottfried, Robert S., ‘Bury St Edmunds and the populations of late medieval English towns, 1270–1530’, Journal of British Studies 20, 1 (1980), 1–31CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed, here 12–13.

36 This observation is based on analysis of the rolls of all Fornham manor court sessions of the reign of King Edward I (1272–1307) for which records survive (96 in total).

37 Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds Branch, E3/15.9/1.2.

38 Briggs, Credit and village society, 123–9; Muldrew, Craig, ‘Rural credit, market areas and legal institutions in the countryside in England, 1550–1700’, in Brooks, Christopher and Lobban, Michael eds., Communities and courts in Britain 1150–1900 (London, 1997), 155–77Google Scholar, which demonstrates the marked persistence of fragmented and overlapping jurisdiction over contract disputes in post-medieval England.

39 Briggs, Chris, ‘Manor court procedures, debt litigation levels and rural credit provision in England, c.1290–c.1380’, Law and History Review 24, 3 (2006), 519–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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