The long duration of the census reservativus. Credit forms and agrarian contracts between the middle ages and the modern era

Abstract

The census reservativus is a form of rent or annuity often misunderstood in historiographical researches; the difficult of the argument consist, generally, in the questions studied by the linguistic turn and in the plasticity of a institution swinging between the agrarian contracts and the supply of money. This form of rent has been associated for a long time with another contract, known as census consignativus, that recently has been traduced with the ambiguous term consignative emphyteusis; the evolution of the census reservativus belong to a history of longue durée and has been particularly distinguished by the fusion of locals customs with the revival of the principles of roman right in the early modern time. This study intend to remove some doubts still currents among historians and to contribute to elaborate a new perspective in the economic history.