Comparing Opportunities and Limitations for Women's Participation in Property and Credit Markets in Late Medieval Brabant

Social scientists emphasize that economic development and women’s empowerment are closely interrelated. The abilities of women to invest in credit and property markets is considered a crucial aspect of this relationship (Yunus 2008; Duflo 2012). Nevertheless, female involvement in credit markets or property markets has received little attention in studies of the premodern economy. This paper addresses this issue through a study of the late medieval Low Countries. This case is of particular importance to debates on the historical connections between women’s opportunities, economic structures and economic development, as historians have recently argued that during the late middle ages the Low Countries were the premier region in the development of the European Marriage Pattern, a demographic pattern that is alleged to have enhanced women’s position and stimulated economic growth (De Moor and Van Zanden 2010).

By comparing women’s investments in two cities with different economic characteristics during the fifteenth century, this study analyses the influence of social and economic structures on women’s investment opportunities. The case study consists of two cities in the duchy of Brabant: Antwerp and Leuven. Although the juridical and political situation was roughly comparable in both cities, women’s legal position differed in important aspects. Moreover, the two cities had opposite economic trajectories during the fifteenth century. Based on aldermen’s registers, sources containing economic contracts of all sorts, this paper compares how women of different social and marital status invested their wealth in credit and property markets in Leuven and Antwerp.