Always a natural companion to capitalism, bankruptcy has become much more prevalent in the public consciousness since the global financial crisis. This volume, from an international set of scholars, focuses on bankruptcy in early modern Europe, when its frequency made it not only an economic problem but the great personal and social tragedy it has become.

Thomas Max Safley is Professor of History at University of Pennsylvania, USA.

1. Introduction: A History of Bankruptcy and Bankruptcy in History Thomas Max Safley I. Social Contexts 2. Merchants' Bankruptcies, Economic Development and Social Relations in German Cities during the Long 16th Century Mark Häberlein 3. Debt and Default in 18th-Century Champagne Tom Brennan 4. Credit, Trust and Risk: Shopkeepers' Bankruptcies in 18th-Century Paris Natacha Coquery 5. Financial Networks, Migration and the Transformation of the Merchant Elite in 18th-Century Stockholm Klas Nyberg and Håkan Jakobsson II. Business Practices 6. Bankruptcy in the Kingdom of Naples: The Case of Public Banks (17th-18th Centuries) Paula Avallone 7. Learning from Others' Failures: The Rise of the Monte di pieta in Early Modern Bologna Mauro Carboni and Massimo Fornassari 8. Bankruptcy and the Bank: The Case of the 'kaiserlich königliche Wiener octroyierte Commercial-, Leih- und Wechselbank' of Vienna in the 18th Century Dana Stefanova 9. Boom and Crisis in Financing the British Transatlantic Trade: A Case Study of the Bankruptcy of John Leigh & Company in 1811 Mina Ishizu III: Institutional Developments 10. The Insolvent Zuchthaus as Cameralist Dystopia Andre Wakefield 11. Bankruptcy in Early-Modern German Territories Paul Fischer 12. Bankruptcy, Insolvency and Debt Collection among Merchants in Antwerp (c. 1490-c.1540) Dave De ruysschen 13. The Reception of the Actio Pauliana in Scots Law John MacLeod 14. Bankruptcy, Fresh Start and Debt Renegotation in England and France (17th-18th Century) Jérôme Sgard