How Notaries Became Medieval Banks—A Blueprint for Trust Without Institutions
Before modern banks existed, notaries served as crucial credit intermediaries by leveraging detailed knowledge of borrowers and lenders. The research reveals how local trust networks and information access enabled notaries to solve lending problems—insights relevant today for alternative finance platforms and decentralized lending models seeking to build credibility without traditional institutional oversight.
Originaltitel: Intermediated Credit: Notarial Contracts
<p>Chapter 3 focuses on notarial credit. Because notaries drafted various kinds of contracts related to individuals, families, and household wealth, scholars have emphasized the exceptional access they had to a vast array of information. With such information, especially regarding creditworthiness, notaries could overcome asymmetric information, lower transaction costs, and match lenders and borrowers effectively, precluding the role of banks until the nineteenth century. Recent historiography highlights, therefore, their role as intermediaries between investors and borrowers. In rural areas, where most individuals knew each other, were related to each other, and conducted business on a daily basis with each other, this brokerage role bore another meaning. This chapter look closely at the various types of notarial contracts and their characteristics.</p>