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Jaco Zuijderduijn
Senior lecturer
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Or do you prefer cash? : Pensions in kind in pre-modern Germany and the Low Countries
Author
Editor
- Angela Orlandi
Summary, in English
In the later Middle Ages and early modern period, many European hospitals developed into commercial retirement homes that allowed investors to pay for lifelong food and lodging. Their clients consisted mainly of elderly citizens who decided to spend their final years enjoying a pension, often living by themselves or occasionally with a spouse. Corrodies can best be understood as life annuities in kind: food and lodging were provided until the corrodian – or the longest-living spouse of a couple – passed away. Demand was so great that institutions are known to have had waiting lists or to raffle seats among potential investors. We claim that corrodies allowed investors who were looking to secure their livelihood to mitigate the risks that came with financial instruments that paid in currency. Our paper contributes to a historiography that claims that payments in kind should not be considered ‘backwards’ but rather as techniques that offered protection against the whims of the market.
Department/s
- Department of Economic History
- Financial history, banking and insurance
- Growth, technological change, and inequality
Publishing year
2024
Language
English
Pages
237-255
Publication/Series
Datini Studies in Economic History
Document type
Book chapter
Publisher
Firenze University Press
Topic
- Economic History
Keywords
- Corrodians
- pensions
- annuities
- payments in kind
- retirement homes
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISBN: 979-12-215-0346-3
- ISBN: 979-12-215-0347-0