A Debreceni Déri Múzeum Évkönyve 2006 (Debrecen, 2007)

Történettudomány - Krankovics Ilona: Hitelezők, adósok és csődperek Debrecenben 1842–1850 között

HITELEZŐK, ADÓSOK ÉS CSÖDPEREK DEBRECENBEN 1842-1850 KÖZÖTT 73 Krankovics, Ilona CREDITORS, DEBTORS, AND BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS IN DEBRECEN BETWEEN 1842 AND 1850 In the first half of the 19th century, before the establishment of the classical credit institutions, there had been several sources available for the purpose of taking up a credit or loans. It is no longer a disputed issue in the field of descriptive economic history that the allegation in the analyses produced around the end of the past century concerning the total absence of credit was an overt generalization. Hastily and without any preliminary investigations, these analyses stated that it was due to the lack of capital that there was no credit available in Hungary before 1840. Today, it seems more important for us to focus on the issue of what sort of a role credit capital had in the economy and to what extent it can be traced in the individual enterprises. Through an increasingly extensive and profound exploration of the topographical history of the city of Debrecen, it becomes more and more evident that not only the guilds of handicraftsmen and those of merchants, but also the citizens outside the guilds did frequently take the opportunity to take up loans and were oftentimes creditors themselves, lending minor or major amounts of money. Through a study of the individual sources, it can be ascertained that the phenomenon of credit was indeed present in the life of the citizens in one way or another. The terms and conditions of providing loans or credit could considerably contribute to a case of bankruptcy. What the creditors regarded to be one the most important conditions in this respect was the payment of 6% annual interest on the capital. This diverted the attention of both the creditors and the debtors from the responsibility of having to repay the capital in one lump sum. The court files reveal the fact that, in the business activities of merchants, commercial credit played a decisive part. What they usually did was that they received the goods on commission from the wholesalers of Vienna, Bratislava, or Pest and then they consigned the same goods forward to retailers. It would be quite a legitimate question on our part to ask why they took such a big risk. Well, we have information from trading books on how the goods they had purchased in bulk were then sold for twice as much as the original price, or for even more. It is quite probable that this system did work effectively for a number of years, and the merchants could keep a balance between their debts and receivables. Furthermore, it seems that, with the spread and general use of promissory notes, the debtors did not so much feel the burden of debt as in the case of loans taken with an interest. It was the responsibility of the bankruptcy and draft courts, established across the nation in 1840, to establish and maintain law and order in the confusion resulting from the diverse system of repayments.