Loans Information

A Brief Look at the Origins of Lending


When trying to discover the origins of lending you might find yourself looking at a lot of unrelated information that doesn't really tell you what it is that you want to know.

The origins of lending go back to at least biblical times, with mentions of lending even being mentioned in certain places in the Bible. Even with modern banking and lending, the origins of lending can go back several hundred years? all the way to the Middle Ages and before.

The Middle Ages and the Renaissance are likely the best places to begin looking for information on this subject, as these times were when financial records were beginning to be kept in earnest and lending in its modern form was beginning to truly develop.

Lending in the early Middle Ages

If you look at the early Middle Ages to try to discover the origins of lending, you'll find that loans were often more or less one-sided and always afforded a large benefit to the lender.

Landowners and the wealthy would make loans to poorer individuals while charging high interest rates or making the borrower work to pay off the debt? in many cases, the lender would even increase the terms of the loan once is was nearly repaid so that the borrower would have to continue to make payments or work without pay for the lender.

If a borrower was unable to repay their loan they could even be thrown into a debtor's prison, held without fair trial until someone was able to pay off their debt or other arrangements for their release were made.

Lending during the Renaissance

During the Renaissance and late Middle Ages, the origins of lending began to take a turn more toward what lending is today. Individuals known as moneylenders would ply their trade in market squares and other business and merchant venues, setting up a bench known as a "banca" (from which we get the modern English word, "bank") on which they would conduct their transactions.

Several moneylenders might work in the same area, and the competition tended to reduce some of the extravagant interest rates that were created by landowners and other officials in previous centuries? this didn't, however, mean that the trade of the moneylender was completely fair or righteous.

The moneylenders would still strive to make as much of a profit as they could from borrowers, and might go so far as to falsify their records of payments and transactions so as to scam more money out of the less fortunate or uneducated.

Debtor's prisons were popular, and in some areas were very crowded with people who had barely been getting by in the outside world and had little hope of release.

Lending in the modern world

As time has progressed, so have the methods of making and receiving loans? it's easy to see how far things have come since the early origins of lending.

The predecessors of modern banks developed in conjunction with the Industrial Revolution, and in the decades and centuries that followed most major countries worldwide have abolished most types of unfair lending as well as debtor's prisons.

Interest rates at banks, finance companies, and online lenders are controlled by both local and national factors, and modern lenders strive to provide a valuable service to both the public and businesses by providing reasonable interest rates and definite terms.

Lending has grown from a practice of a few individuals looking for profits to a major industry on which the basis of the modern world is built? an example of how from simple origins can come great things.

You may freely reprint this article provided the following author's biography (including the live URL link) remains intact:

About The Author

John Mussi is the founder of Direct Online Loans who help homeowners find the best available loans via the http://www.directonlineloans.co.uk website.


MORE RESOURCES:

WSAV-TV

Consumer Borrowing in US Falls Record $7.9 Billion
Bloomberg - 9 hours ago
Non-revolving debt, including auto loans, dropped $5.2 billion for the month. Fed policy makers last month cut the benchmark interest rate target to as low ...
Consumer borrowing falls by $7.94B in November The Associated Press
Consumers borrow less than expected CNNMoney.com
US ECON: November Consumer Credit Falls By Record $7.94 Bln Forbes
The Consumerist - Xinhua
all 209 news articles


stv.tv

Citigroup, Senators Agree on Bankruptcy Role to Trim Loan Rates
Bloomberg - 56 minutes ago
The revised bill Citigroup endorsed would give judges the ability to adjust principle payments or interest rates on existing loans, and could extend the ...
Citi Reaches Deal With Lawmakers on Home Loans New York Times
Citi reaches deal with lawmakers on home loans The Associated Press
Citi Will Support Bill to Rework Bad Loans TheStreet.com
AFP - Wall Street Journal
all 495 news articles


Javno.hr

Loan Delinquencies Hit Record High Last Year
Washington Post, United States - Jan 7, 2009
By Nancy Trejos Delinquencies on auto loans and home equity lines of credit reached their highest levels on record during the third quarter of 2008, ...
Late loan payments hit record high in Q3 USA Today
US consumer loan late payments at 28-year high Reuters
Home-equity delinquencies at record level Newsday
Minneapolis Star Tribune - WalletPop
all 63 news articles


Sallie Mae Raises $1.5 Billion for Private Loans
Washington Post, United States - 8 hours ago
Reston-based Sallie Mae has secured $1.5 billion worth of financing from investment bank Goldman Sachs for a batch of private student loans, a sign that ...
Sallie Mae shares falter despite financing BusinessWeek
Lump of Coal from Sallie Mae AACRAO Transcript
Sallie Mae Closes $1.5 Billion Financing WELT ONLINE
MarketWatch - RTT News
all 25 news articles


PennyMac, Led by Ex-Countrywide Head, Buys FDIC Loans
Bloomberg - Jan 7, 2009
Known as PennyMac and led by Stanford Kurland, the firm is paying an average of 30 cents to 50 cents on the dollar for the loans and the FDIC is sharing ...
FDIC Unnationalizes Some Debt Forbes
BlackRock, Highfields-backed firm to share gains and losses with FDIC MarketWatch
PennyMac Completes Purchase of $558 Million in Mortgage Loans from ... Associated Content
The Associated Press - PR Newswire (press release)
all 80 news articles


Globe and Mail

Banks Pare Fed Loans After Increase for Year-End Cash
Bloomberg - 9 hours ago
Outstanding loans to banks through the Term Auction Facility dropped to $384 billion from $450.2 billion, the Fed release showed. ...
Fed Says M1 and M2 Rise, Loans to Banks and CP Loans Fall CEP News
Banks borrow more, investment firms less from Fed The Associated Press
Will asset-backed securities return? Pottstown Mercury
The Olympian - Sun newspapers
all 780 news articles


Boston Globe

Fed’s Rosengren Calls for ‘Concerted’ Fiscal, Monetary Policies
Bloomberg - 1 hour ago
Fed policy makers have expanded the central bank’s total assets by $1.25 trillion to $2.14 trillion over the past year by increasing loans to banks and ...
Rosengren sees path to recovery Boston Globe
US FED: Rosengren Supports Expanded FHA Mortgage Lending Forbes
Hub’s Fed chief: Deep recession confounds forecasts Boston Herald
Reuters - RTT News
all 47 news articles


Chemistry World

Lyondell Can Borrow $2 Billion in Largest US Loan
Bloomberg - 23 hours ago
US Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber in Manhattan approved the loan at half-past midnight, after lenders spent five hours negotiating to resolve objections to ...
Judge OKs LyondellBasell loans after Ch. 11 filing Forbes
Bankruptcy loans approved for LyondellBasell Chemistry World
Lyondell gets over $2 bln in bankruptcy financing guardian.co.uk
Reuters - Financial Times
all 428 news articles


Reuters

As condition of loan, UAW can't strike against GM
Detroit Free Press, United States - 2 hours ago
The US Treasury set myriad conditions on GM as part of the plan to loan the company $13.4 billion for survival. Those terms had not been fully disclosed ...
UAW strike would put automakers in default of federal loans DetNews.com
GM chief's accounting of taxpayer loans a refreshing contrast MLive.com
Autoworkers union begins talks on concessions The Associated Press
DetNews.com - Detroit Free Press
all 299 news articles


IMF resumes loan accord talks with Turkey
guardian.co.uk, UK - 17 hours ago
Turkish business leaders and investors have long called for an IMF loan accord to stabilise the economy, which has slowed sharply as the global crisis hits ...

Loans - Google News

home | site map
© 2006