pledges of another character (pledges with interest) began to emerge, in which parties borrowed from one another to immediately carry out other transactions or to borrow money for other transactions. Purchases and sales became, after some additional decades, transactions that could be accomplished between equal, unrelated parties. Even certain kinds of gifts, where the gift’s value was stated and where the service in return was specified, fulfilled several criteria for commercial market relations (In Chapter 3 I have developed the criteria fromWeber and Smart). In Jämtland, however, it does not appear as though these independent, equal market relationships have existed during the 14th Century. The first documented sale is from1347, in contrast to Finnveden’s first sale which occurred in 1307. The sales in 14th Century Jämtland were few and the freeholders emerge late in the materials.The same applies to the exchanges.There were even fewer exchanges during the 13th Century, and it was only the wealthy who exchanged with each other. The few pledges that were drawn were made so that one could survive, which applies for the entire investigation period! The pledge was not used as an instrument to acquire money for other business transactions, as it was in Finnveden (already in1370).We also saw that in Jämtland it took a long time before real money was used as a means of payment for both exchanges and purchases.The big buyers were not as big as those who were in Finnveden already at the end of the 14th Century. In Jämtland we have to wait until the turn of the 16th Century for the really big buyers.The freeholders’ transactions on the market were, above all, steered by life cycles; something which Postan called attention to in the 1960s: the old person made a maintenance agreement with a relative when he or she couldn’t manage to support him- or herself any longer; the young brother bought up land from another brother in order to be able to build a family; and the sister allowed her new husband to make use of her inheritance. p a r t v i 1 297
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjYyNDk=