Kisemberek kishitelei a 19. század végi Budapesten
Ordinary Loans for Ordinary People in Late-Nineteenth-Century Budapest

Summary/Abstract: One of little known areas of 19th-century credit business is the segment of small-scale loans given to private individuals. By examining János József Lowetinszky’s (1866–1935) 40-volume diary, an extremely valuable source material, we can have a look at the colorful world of the credit transactions of the lower middle class living in Budapest – a world that was almost completely interwoven by intertwining loan dependencies and cross- and circular debt. We can follow how, throughout the years, the structure and value of the outstanding loans of our penniless diary writer, a clerk by profession, changed and we can also have a glimpse of his relationships with his lenders and borrowers. With some of his colleagues, trying to preserve his social reputation, he paid special attention not make them wait for the payments. It was for the same motives that he gave smaller loans to such colleagues and friends who were unlikely to repay the entire amount. Throughout his life, there were several occasions when the diary writer was unable to repay larger loans, and some of the lenders – including three of his ex-partners – took the case to court. The paper describes Lowetinszky’s annual budgets and loan businesses between the years 1889 and 1910, and examines in detail the frameworks of two-way lending in the years 1893 and 1900. The detailed statistics and balances of the diary writer are used parallel with his narration. The paper highlights that small-scale loans had a very strong societybonding role in the given period.

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