summary. the open window shortly thereafter, redeemed his inheritance from the king in order to devote himself to a burgher occupation. Why was the joint property system implemented in Stockholm in such a persistent way? Some simple explanations can be offered. First, it pragmatically facilitated property transfers. High mortality rates and high rates of remarriage led to families with stepchildren and stepparents. The division of inherited property of the various parties became complicated. It was easier tomake nodistinction and instead to share everything. Another simple explanation is the financial one. Financial mobility is benefited when property is not subject to restrictions. During the period of the High Middle Ages, laws favored the family’s right to lineal property. Many laws in Europe favored the male line. Families had birthright claims to the family’s lineal property. Late medieval burgher societies needed to find ways to free the immovable, lineal property from its restrictions and the family’s grip on lineal property, so that the individual could use his or her property as freely as possible. Therefore, Northern European cities chose the concept of joint marital ownership instead of a separate marital ownership. After all, each city could decide what types of properties would be common in a marriage and which might be kept out of the common marital economy. In some places, there was the right to depart from established rules by creating private law agreements in the form of marriage contracts, something unauthorized in Stockholm. Marriages in Stockholm chose to hold all types of property jointly within the household and each party was entitled to half of household property. City councils in Europe could decide not only on the forms of ownership but also on the management of the property itself. Many city councils chose to give wives some form of administrative rights, but in many other cities only the husband possessed administrative rights, and that included the management over all property. An additional explanation can be derived based on the knowledge of the high mortality caused by constant recurring plagues and by the 302 Promoting burgher occupations
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