Trust, guilds and kinship in London, 1330-1680

Ammaarah Adam, Raphael Ades, William Banks, Canbeck Benning, Gwyneth Grant, Harry Forster-Brass, Owen McGiveron, Joe Miller, Daniel Phelan, Sebastian Randazzo, Matthew Reilly, Michael Scott, Sebastian Serban, Carys Stockton and Patrick Wallis

Economic History Working Papers from London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History

Abstract: How was trust created and reinforced between the inhabitants of medieval and early modern cities? And how did the social foundations of trusting relationships change over time? Current research highlights the role of kinship, neighbourhood and associations, particularly guilds, in creating ‘relationships of trust’ and social capital in the face of high levels of migration, mortality and economic volatility, but tells us little about their relative importance or how they developed. We uncover a profound shift in the contribution of family and guilds to trust networks among the middling and elite of one of Europe’s major cities, London, over three centuries, from the 1330s to the 1680s. We examine the networks of sureties created to secure the inheritances of children whose fathers died while they were minors, surviving in the records of London’s Orphans Court. Our analysis of almost fifteen thousand networks evaluates the presence of trusting relationships connected with guild membership, family and place over several centuries. We show a profound increase in the role of kinship – a re-embedding of trust within the family - and a decline of the importance of shared guild membership in connecting Londoner’s who secured orphans’ inheritances together. We suggest these developments are best explained as a result of the impact of the Reformation on the form and intensity of sociability fostered by guilds and the enormous growth of the metropolis.

Keywords: orphans; networks; trust; credit; London; guilds; kinship; reformation; early-modern (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N13 N20 N33 N93 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 52 pages
Date: 2022-11-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dem, nep-evo, nep-his, nep-net, nep-soc and nep-ure
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