Why We Need a History of Collateral Rights: the Example of Antwerp (15th-16th Century)

The Antwerp case demonstrates that rules of commercial law were crafted in response to diverse and connected phenomena. Lawmakers took into account the needs and demands of merchants, but also strife among groups of professionals and city leaders was responsible for legal change. The legal regime concerning collateral rights proved a challenge for the Antwerp administrators. Le Marchand was right in saying that in Antwerp the dowry was at one point considered a superpriority, but this was only during the period 1523-1530. Yet, in spite of this, Le Marchand’s analysis as pointing to collateral rights as crucial features of municipal legal constellations can be taken on as an invitation to analyse collateral rights and priority of debts as a fundamental part of the political economy of late-medieval and early modern cities of trade. For that purpose, the perspective must be broad, with an eye on the interactions between di"erent arrangements and proceedings