Prior to banks, nuns lent cash: how convents helped energy medieval Vienna’s economic system

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Retirement making plans would possibly appear to be a totally fashionable worry, with pensions, investments and annuities forming a part of these days’s monetary toolkit. However those monetary equipment are a lot older than they seem. Within the later Heart Ages, other people have been already exchanging lump sums for stable source of revenue streams – and, in towns like Vienna, those preparations underpinned whole city economies.

Much less anticipated, in all probability, is who helped make the program paintings. Along traders and elites, communities of nuns quietly emerged as one of the most town’s maximum dependable monetary operators.

Annuities existed in numerous bureaucracy, every suited for other wishes. At their core, those contracts concerned one celebration offering a lump sum in trade for a normal fee, typically secured on assets or city revenues. The most typical sort in medieval Vienna – my space of analysis – was once the perpetual annuity, which generated a hard and fast annual go back with out a set finish date and might be transferred or offered.

The Artist’s Sister within the Garb of a Nun by way of Sofonisba Anguissola (circa 1535–1625).
Southampton Town Artwork Gallery

Along those stood existence annuities, which paid other people an source of revenue for his or her lifetime. This association supplied safety in outdated age and helped with managing inheritance. There have been additionally…

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Author : bq3anews

Publish date : 2026-06-17 23:15:00

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