ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with terms of clear payments settling the balance of a transaction and the terms for the payment of the first installment after a sale. It discusses both the terms of clear payments settling the balance of a transaction and the terms for the payment of the first installment after a sale. Retailers did not offer the same conditions of credit to all the patrons of their shops. Shops making sales worth large amounts probably had the same type of terms as Lorraine merchants. The chapter reveals that the retail trade was a fairly risky activity, because of the difficulty of mastering cash flows. This difficulty was due to the terms of payment the merchants had to accept, especially from their regular customers. The credit practices are the reflection of a broader economic system in which the agents were motivated less by wealth than by social recognition and respectability.
