A lot of business was done on the basis of borrowed money and there are plenty of people applying in chancery (especially those supplying sureties for loan repayment) trying to weasel their way out of mortgage forclosures from lenders when things go unexpectedly pear-shaped on the basis of non-equity or fraud. Later to lead (no pun intended) to the insurance business... A case turning up in Chancery either means the paperwork was unimpeachable at Common Law or conversely non-existent for any one of a number of reasons.
I take it these are just the chancery bills i.e. TNA PRO C1 documents?
regards
John A W Lock
----- Original Message -----
From: Ian Spensley
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 4:31 PM
Subject: 16th century futures market
I've just transcribed two chancery documents dating from 1500 to 1530 both
dealing with non delivery of lead to merchants in York, both small amounts, 4
fother from Wensleydale and 3 fothers from Swaledale. I'm wondering if these
are just isolated cases of pure fraud, or whether it was common practice to
make advance payments.
Does anyone else have evidence of payments being made in advance of the
metal being delivered at such an early date?
Thanks in advance
Ian Spensley
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