Did you know that Arthur Morris is the man responsible for creating the installment loan in (or around) 1910?
It was called the Morris Plan (clever name huh) and it was the first stab at making credit available to the average person despite heavy criticism that lending money to working class citizens had failure written all over it.
And yet the American economy today is built on credit!
Back then, the lending requirements were as follows:
- Two co-signers in order to qualify
- Loan term = 1 year
- Payments were made in weekly and monthly installments
hhhhmm, Interesting. Thanks for the history lesson.
Sean Allen
Sean: I purposely kept it short and sweet in light of the weekend :D
Interesting! Very innocent and modest beginnings. My how things have changed in 98 years.
Back in htose days, a house would cost you less than a year's salary. Now it's more like 3 years salary.
ILM Realty: can you belive my mother bought her first two houses at age 19 for $28,000 and $32,000 a piece!?
Ricardo ... You're hooked on Google books, too, eh? :-)
Thanks, A Financial History of the United States looks like a great find !!!!! ....
Cheryl: Hiya! I caught this little bit of history in the Wall Street Journal and it prompted me to look for a source...Google brought me "A Financial History of the United States" and I found it completely and utterly interesting. I mean just imagine how far we have come! It's really quite amazing when you pause to think about it.
Great books are definitely an addiction of mine and this one qualifies to be on the bookshelf.
Ricardo, I had no idea, amazing thanks for sharing that tidbit.
Ricardo -- Excuse the out-bound link, but for anyone who hasn't yet discovered the joy of Google Books, here you go ...
http://books.google.com/advanced_book_search
Cheryl: by all means...it will save us the expense of a day at Barnes & Noble :D
Missy: It's amazing when you think about it. Almost everything we consume is on credit.