For a New Approach to Credit Relations in Modern History

Lemercier, Claire; Zalc, Claire

doi:10.1017/s2398568200000418

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 20 publications

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“…Many goods and machinery funded with borrowed money served both productive as well as consumptive means. Conversely, loans aimed for consumption-smoothing purposes could be used to free up capital, thus serving more productive investments (Lemercier and Zalc 2012).…”

Section: Lending Practices Of Cosignatory Lending Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Diversity in Credit Intermediation: Cosignatory Lending Institutions in Europe and North America, 1700s–1960s

Vicq

Bochove

2023

Soc. sci. hist.

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Through a close reading of scattered, disparate, and largely unconnected secondary sources, supplemented with the analysis of primary sources, and backed by economic theory, this paper explores the origins, development, and socio-economic impact of so-called cosignatory lending institutions. These historical institutions were designed to issue small loans to small businesses and households and shared a reliance on cosigners to secure loans and on weekly instalments to repay them. Their shared lending format was flexible enough to display regional variations and this enabled cosignatory lending institutions to operate in societies characterized by notable differences in wealth and economic structure. It also allowed cosignatory lending institutions to fare better in a more urbanized, heterogeneous context than the more well-known credit cooperatives. As such, this systematic overview helps us better understand how credit markets were made more inclusive in urban contexts, which historical circumstances played a role in this, and perhaps even whether and how the success of cosignatory lending institutions may be replicated in present-day developed and less-developed economies.

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Section: Lending Practices Of Cosignatory Lending Institutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Historical Diversity in Credit Intermediation: Cosignatory Lending Institutions in Europe and North America, 1700s–1960s

Vicq

Bochove

2023

Soc. sci. hist.

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The Embeddedness of Inter-Merchant Relations in France, 1750–1850: A Revolution in the World of Commerce?

Bartolomei

Oliveira

Éloire

et al. 2017

Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales

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The grand narratives of modernization often describe the period between 1750 and 1850 as marking a transition from embedded economic relationships (relying on kinship or community ties) to impersonal market transactions supported by legal arrangements. This article questions these narratives by studying three corpora of tools employed by early modern and modern merchants on a daily basis: initial-contact letters, circulars, and notarized proxy forms. Systematic quantitative and qualitative analysis of these documents reveals few traces of a revolution or even a consistent linear evolution. To the contrary, it challenges the opposition between embedded and completely disembedded relationships. Indeed, there is strong evidence that personal and impersonal supports for economic transactions complemented rather than substituted one another. In addition, other types of embeddedness also played an important role: on the one hand, repeated interactions and relational chains involving intermediaries; on the other, a homophilic sociability among merchants that was partly based on the shared language of commerce.

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Protecting the Credit of the State - Speculation, Trust, and Sovereignty in Interwar France

Delalande

2016

Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales

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This article investigates the creation, in 1924, of a new offence in French law, aimed at punishing anyone found guilty of “breaching the credit of the state”—that is, of discourses or practices likely to damage the financial reputation of the French state. In the midst of a destabilizing budgetary and monetary crisis, surrounded by fierce political disputes, “the credit of the state” was legally defined as an essential attribute of sovereignty, to be defended against internal and external threats. However, the intellectual history of public credit and the analysis of archival material relating to this new offence show how difficult it was for courts to draw a line between the freedom of the market and the protection of public order. More broadly, this research emphasizes the interconnected role of material and immaterial elements in promoting public trust in the value of the papers (bonds and currency) issued by the state.

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For a New Approach to Credit Relations in Modern History

Cited by 7 publications

References 20 publications

Historical Diversity in Credit Intermediation: Cosignatory Lending Institutions in Europe and North America, 1700s–1960s

Historical Diversity in Credit Intermediation: Cosignatory Lending Institutions in Europe and North America, 1700s–1960s

The Embeddedness of Inter-Merchant Relations in France, 1750–1850: A Revolution in the World of Commerce?

Protecting the Credit of the State - Speculation, Trust, and Sovereignty in Interwar France

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