Sketch of University Economy in the Early Modern Age: the case of the University of Salamanca. 1580-1640.

Abstract

The article describes the financing of the University of Salamanca during the period of the Iberian Union. From the analysis of the lawsuits with its tenants held in the court of this University from 1580 to 1640, the characteristics of an institution with patrimonial financing are described regarding the collection of rents as well as the negotiations of rental contracts, at a time when the economy did not yet dispense with payments in kind. The research does not stop at an analysis of an economic nature, but rather questions about commercial relations from the point of view of Social History. It concludes that the most frequent daily work of the university justice officials was debt collection, defining a society and an institution with debt collection issues as well as being heavily indebted itself in a period of serious economic crisis.