Set for Life: Old-Age Pensions Provided by Hospitals in Late-Medieval Amsterdam

Abstract Hospitals were among the wealthiest organizations in medieval cities. Their directors managed portfolios consisting of real estate and financial instruments; as a result, they also handled large quantities of money. It has been suggested that they used these to provide a variety of financial services and performed early banking functions. In this study I focus on the role hospitals played in allowing the general population to invest in financial instruments that could serve as old age pensions. Two hospitals in Amsterdam issued corrodies: pensions in kind that gave investors the right to lifelong board and lodging in the hospitals. They also issued life annuities: lifelong monetary pensions. Since both contract types were automatically terminated at death, they required relatively low investments and were ideal for securing an income in money or in kind during one’s final years. In this article, I will demonstrate that via the practice of issuing life annuities and corrodies, these hospitals played a central role in providing the late-medieval urban middle class with access to pensions. I will also show that thresholds for investing were sufficiently low to allow Amsterdam’s middle class to invest in both life annuities and corrodies.