USURY AND USURER IN THE CONTEXT OF ALFONSO X'S LEGAL SOURCES (THIRTEENTH CENTURY)

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the practice of usury and the figure of usurers in the Kingdom of Castile during the thirteenth century. We use as a source two legal codes elaborated in the reign of Alfonso X (1252 - 1284): the Fuero Real and the Siete Partidas. We resort to sources from the medieval religious universe, such as the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, the Jerusalem Bible and documents of the Second and Third Lateran Councils, to understand the Church's view of usury. Our study centers the discussions in the context of the expansion of the practice of financial loans as a result of the expansion of Castilian trade between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries.