ABSTRACT
A shortage of specie (cash money) in Europe in the early modern period meant that everyone relied on credit for everything, from day-to-day purchases to luxuries. Moreover, gender played, and still plays, a critical role in the world of credit, as a person’s economic credit was often seen to be an extension of his or her reputation, often referred to as creditworthiness or social credit. This was particularly important to women, who were considered less likely than men to have a specific occupation or trade. However, such types of credit also affected men, with recent studies challenging the assumption that men’s creditworthiness was determined solely by their economic standing. Instead, reputation affected the creditworthiness of both men and women. This chapter will explore the role of gender and credit in early modern European towns, considering not only who participated in the ‘culture of credit’ that existed in Europe but also how influences such as gender and social and occupational status affected early modern understandings of credit and credit networks. While this chapter will use the towns of Scotland between 1560 and 1640 as a focal point for its discussion, it will also employ a comparative consideration of understandings of, and attitudes towards, credit in this period in Britain and in north-western Europe more broadly. This is facilitated by the increasingly numerous and detailed debt records of this period, the existence of which stems in part from the requirement to keep track of debts in growing urban areas.
