The Journal of Economic History

Table of Contents - 2002 - Volume 62, Issue 03  


ARTICLES

THE MODERNIZATION OF SWEDISH CREDIT MARKETS, 1840–1905: EVIDENCE FROM PROBATE RECORDS

Håkan Lindgren c1

Abstract

This study estimates the size of the so-called “informal,” or unintermediated, credit market in one Swedish city through a period of economic transformation. In the early 1840s promissory notes accounted for more than half of the total credit market, and almost four times the value of credit channeled through the banking system. Even in the 1870s, the promissory-note market was twice the size of the loan volume of the banking system. By 1905 bank-based credit had finally surpassed the informal variety; but even then, outstanding promissory notes were almost three-fifths as great as total bank credits to noncorporate borrowers.


Correspondence:
c1 Håkan Lindgren is Professor of Economic History at the Institute for Research in Economic History, Stockholm School of Economics, Box 6501, SE-113 83 Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail: hakan.lindgren@hhs.se.