Abstract
The issue of the relationship of late medieval peasantry and the credit market has attracted the attention of historians, especially in recent years, as shown by a series of monographs, volumes and papers. It discusses inter alia the nature and representative nature of the available sources, the purpose of the loan, its length, amount, the interest and amount of the instalments, the social position of the parties, the share of the specialised and non-specialised creditors, the role of the cities and Jews, the institution of the security rights of the creditors, the structure of the credit market, its accessibility, the level of informational awareness of the peasants, the positive and negative impacts of the credit market on the peasant economy. The case study deals with these important questions for the late medieval town of Znojmo in South Moravia.
The research is based on books of Jewish obligations (7 books; 1415-1438), which record loans (mostly repaid) taken out by inhabitants of Znojmo and mostly by peasantry from the surroundings of the town. Despite the designation of the books, the creditors were both Jews and Christians. The books are divided in three parts: 1) Jewish obligations, 2) obligations of Christians and 3) claims to sum owed. By means of analysis of the obligations, we present the structure of rural credit in South Moravia.