Lending a hand: help banks in the Netherlands, 1848–1898

Abstract

Households and small businesses are often confronted with funding gaps due to small-scale lending problems. Whereas existing research focused primarily on how rural areas addressed such problems, this paper determines what contributed to the success of urban help banks in the Netherlands (1848–1898). It considers how help banks’ lending mechanism, corporate governance mechanism, and historical circumstances lowered operating costs. The latter was crucial and depended on elites with philanthropic and practical considerations, who housed, staffed, and funded help banks at modest costs. This mix provides guidance to small-scale lenders, including microcredit institutions, to address funding gaps and tailor their services.