Description
Book SynopsisIn A Stake in the Ground, Michael Schraer explores the economic functions of real estate amongst the Jews of the medieval crown of Aragon. He challenges the view of medieval Jews as primarily money-lenders and merchants, finding compelling evidence for extensive property trading and investment. Jews are found as landlords to Christian tenants, transferring land in dowries, wills and gifts. Property holdings were often extremely valuable. For some, property was a major part of their asset portfolios. Whilst many property transactions were linked to the credit boom, land also acted as a liquid and tradeable investment asset in its own right. This is a key contribution to the economic history of medieval Iberia and of medieval Jews. See inside the book.
Trade Review"In this excellent work, Schraer enjoins us to challenge more vigorously the erroneous notion that Jews were simply financiers who sat the margins of medieval society. As property owners and investors who knew how to utilize property for a range of investment goals, Jews were, in fact, deeply integrated into the "core fabric of medieval society"." Jennifer Speed, in The Medieval Review, 20.10.10 Click here. "Apart from filling a void in the historiography on Iberian Jews and casting doubt on the major assumptions of prior scholarship regarding Jewish economic behavior, A Stake in the Ground has important implications for broader ongoing debates about the role of moneylending among European and Mediterranean Jews living within Christian domains. [...] Schraer’s compelling study should serve as a reminder to scholars at work on other geographical areas that they can no longer afford to ignore scholarship on Iberia on the grounds that it is an exceptional, peripheral case". Thomas W. Barton, in Speculum 96/1 (January 2021).
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Illustrations Abbreviations Orthography Currencies, Land Areas and Weights and Measures Glossary 1 Introduction Part 1: Jews as Property Investors: The Evidence 2 Property Rights 3 Jews in the Market for Land 4 Lords of the Land? Jews as Rentiers and Cultivators 5 Dowries, Wills and Gifts Property and the Transfer of Wealth 6 The Link between Credit and Land Part 2: Property and the Jewish Economy 7 The Economic Case for Property Asset Choices, Risk and Return 8 Credit and Property in the Wealth of the Jews 9 Postscript Appendix 1: Currencies and Equivalences Appendix 2: Land Areas, Weights and Measures in the Archival Sources Bibliography Index
