Elise M. Dermineur is an associate professor of Economic History at Stockholm University. She specializes in fi nancial history and gender history. She is the author of several books and articles, including Gender and Politics in EighteenthCentury Sweden, a political biography of the Swedish queen Lovisa Ulrika (1720– 1782), a collection of essays titled Women and Credit in Preindustrial Europe, and the monograph Before Banks, The Making of Credit and Debt in Preindustrial France Matteo Pompermaier is an assistant professor at the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Brescia. He specializes in the history of fi nance, with a particular focus on preindustrial credit markets. He authored a monograph on the 18th-century Venetian credit market and several scientifi c articles.