Economy

Last updated: 29 August 2026

Economy

What changed hands, and between whom?

What this measure says

These matters come almost entirely from the court of Jerusalem, whose registers read so far cover a window of six decades. They bring into the measure inhabitants the parish registers never see, Muslims included: these are the people who come before the court, not the whole town.

11,723 matters of money and property are pleaded and signed across these three centuries: pious endowment, debt and credit, sale, lease, inheritance, gift. One matter may fall under two kinds, a sale on credit for instance, and then counts in each.

Breakdown

debt and credit7,032
pious endowment3,172
sale2,148
inheritance749
lease735
gift176

Over the decades

pious endowment

debt and credit

sale

lease

inheritance

gift

The figures

Decade	pious endowment	debt and credit	sale	lease	inheritance	gift
1500	0	0	0	0	0	1
1510	0	0	0	0	0	1
1520	0	0	0	0	0	0
1530	0	0	0	0	0	0
1540	0	30	13	4	2	0
1550	1	1	1	2	0	0
1560	0	0	0	0	0	0
1570	0	1	0	0	0	0
1580	0	0	1	0	0	9
1590	0	0	4	0	0	2
1600	0	0	0	0	0	0
1610	52	738	216	82	38	24
1620	826	1,675	406	144	110	30
1630	480	842	173	58	52	17
1640	365	592	159	72	78	1
1650	624	990	392	139	135	16
1660	347	736	193	73	57	23
1670	433	1,354	292	131	190	16
1680	43	22	47	5	20	2
1690	0	0	0	2	0	0
1700	0	48	251	22	67	33
1710	1	3	0	1	0	0
1720	0	0	0	0	0	1
1730	0	0	0	0	0	0
1740	0	0	0	0	0	0
1750	0	0	0	0	0	0
1760	0	0	0	0	0	0
1770	0	0	0	0	0	0
1780	0	0	0	0	0	0
1790	0	0	0	0	0	0

What attaches to a town

The court rarely says where a matter is struck: 1,675 deeds out of 20,921 name a place precise enough to reach a town. All the economy that remains is read here, and nowhere else.

The first prices established

Amounts are not given all at once: each sum is established deed by deed, as the registers are read again. 5 groups of sums are validated so far, out of 141 entries already examined.

What this measure says

Each group holds for its own register and its own window. Two groups are not compared with each other: nothing shows that the piastre of one register is the piastre of another, forty years later and under a different hand.

Register RCSG-201
from 7 July 1701 to 31 May 1703
dower and marriage gift
Median : 70 qirsh ʿadadī
from 15 at the lowest to 200 at the highest
Contracts retained : 12
Signed on 14 August 2026
Reading reservations for this measure
Another signed set of readings from the same register covers the same period, the same kind of sum and the same unit, over 32 retained contracts: the two scopes overlap, and these two values are never read against one another.
8 deeds of the window are set aside from the measure, that is 40 % of its scope.
No average is put forward: the only measure of central tendency comes from the signed row itself, with its own spread.
The value served is the one the line declares, with its count and its range: those are what qualify it.
The share this group holds of the whole register is still to be measured.
Register RCSG-150
from 29 December 1654 to 8 October 1655
dower and marriage gift
Median : 25 qirsh asadī
from 8 at the lowest to 150 at the highest
Contracts retained : 16
Signed on 14 August 2026
Reading reservations for this measure
4 deeds of the window are set aside from the measure, that is 20 % of its scope.
No average is put forward: the only measure of central tendency comes from the signed row itself, with its own spread.
The value served is the one the line declares, with its count and its range: those are what qualify it.
The share this group holds of the whole register is still to be measured.
Register RCSG-201
from 7 July 1701 to 16 June 1703
dower and marriage gift
Median : 70 qirsh ʿadadī
from 15 at the lowest to 200 at the highest
Contracts retained : 32 · 2.7 % of the register's deeds
Signed on 15 August 2026
Reading reservations for this measure
Another signed set of readings from the same register covers the same period, the same kind of sum and the same unit, over 12 retained contracts: the two scopes overlap, and these two values are never read against one another.
8 deeds of the window are set aside from the measure, that is 20 % of its scope.
No average is put forward: the only measure of central tendency comes from the signed row itself, with its own spread.
The value served is the one the line declares, with its count and its range: those are what qualify it.
Register RCSG-149
from 21 December 1653 to 4 December 1654
dower and marriage gift
Median : 45 qirsh
from 9 at the lowest to 250 at the highest
Contracts retained : 19 · 1 % of the register's deeds
Signed on 15 August 2026
Reading reservations for this measure
1 deed of the window is set aside from the measure, that is 5 % of its scope.
No average is put forward: the only measure of central tendency comes from the signed row itself, with its own spread.
The value served is the one the line declares, with its count and its range: those are what qualify it.
The monetary unit is written without a qualifier in the source: this group compares with no other, not even from the same register.
Register RCSG-101
from 15 September 1618 to 25 April 1619
dower and marriage gift
Median : 15 qirsh
from 2 at the lowest to 80 at the highest
Contracts retained : 17 · 0.8 % of the register's deeds
Signed on 16 August 2026
Reading reservations for this measure
3 deeds of the window are set aside from the measure, that is 15 % of its scope.
No average is put forward: the only measure of central tendency comes from the signed row itself, with its own spread.
The value served is the one the line declares, with its count and its range: those are what qualify it.
The monetary unit is written without a qualifier in the source: this group compares with no other, not even from the same register.

See these deeds