I was reading about Julius Caesar's campaign in Gaul when I saw a mention of one of the motivations for the conquest being to pay off the massive debt that he had incurred as a consul and that made me curious.
How did loans work at the time? Who gave the loans? What happened if you didn't pay them back? Were loans only available to aristocrats or was there a developed financial market? Were the consequences of non-payment the same for everyone? I can imagine debt slavery as a punishment but would you enslave a former consul for non-payment?
Even if the question is primarily focused on late republican Rome, I'm also interested in any European society before modern financial institutions or societies/segments of society that didn't have access to modern banks.
By modern banks I mean the ones who were developed in renaissance Italy and later innovations.
Thanks in advance!
Were loans only available to aristocrats or was there a developed financial market
There was a somewhat developed credit market, artisans, shopkeepers and other businessmen had access to it at least. Cameron Hawkins thinks that shopkeepers generally had liabilities around 30% of their assets.
Who gave the loans?
There were three main types of financial lenders in Rome: brokers (who matched borrowers and lenders at a fee), outright money lenders (loaned their own money at an interest), and professional bankers who took deposits and made loans using them at an interest.
Interestingly enough loans didn't only come from "professional" financial lenders. Much of the credit extended actually came directly from sellers of goods. For instance, we know that Roman shopkeepers frequently allowed their customers to buy their goods on credit and pay back later instead of paying in cash right away. Ovid refers to the fact that if you go with your girlfriend to a shop and she sees something pretty she wants to buy, you can't even make the excuse you have no cash on hand because the shopkeeper would allow you to buy now and pay later.
We also know that a lot of business loans are actually made directly by wholesalers, who would allow shopkeepers to buy goods from them on credit, or the promise of a portion of the profit they made on the sales. In fact we have records from professional loaners who would complaint that shopkeepers would rather buy credit from the wholesaler rather than him even though he would offer better terms.
I also have a question I would like to tack on: How were debts recorded/stored (I assume they were written down in some way)?
I have a related question I'd like to tack on. What did ancient Romans use for money at this time, was it gold coins? Were they standardized?