A major gap in our understanding of the medieval economy concerns interest rates,
especially relating to commercial credit. Although direct evidence about interest rates is …

In pre-industrial Europe, many thousands of 'middle-class' individuals retired by purchasing
a corrody: a contract allowing them life-long food and lodging, usually by spending their …

The origin of modern financial economics can be traced to early discounted expected value
solutions for the price of life annuities. In contrast to the single life annuity valuations …

When Adam Smith–author of Wealth of Nations (1776) and Theory of Moral Sentiments
(1759)–was elected a professor at the University of Glasgow in 1751, he also joined an …

Historians have debated the extent of poor relief and social security provision in late
medieval England, yet our knowledge about the inmates of hospitals and almshouses …

The cost of retirement has a strong impact on social processes, both today and in the past.
This study concerns the cost of retirement to St. Hiëronymusdal, a retirement home that was …

This paper provides an analysis of 67 corrody contracts from 1476-1538. By purchasing
such a contract, the elderly acquired lifelong lodging and care in an institution–in this case …

Reviews the basic mathematics of reversionary annuity pricing and valuation, and then
offers some theoretical multiples or contribution rates that should have been charged to …

This paper will show how the relatively voluminous surviving records about exchange rates
in the middle ages can help to illuminate the much murkier question of medieval interest …

This article investigates the causes of the remarkable growth in and specialization of elderly
care institutions in the Netherlands during the early modern period, and relates these …