Microcredit: What can we learn from the past?

Six microcredit organizations of 19th-century Europe are compared to identi fy what institutional designs were conducive to success and sustainability. Organizations that depended on charitable funding were more fragile and te nded to lose their focus more quickly than those that obtained funds from d epositors. An ability to adjust interest rates also appears important in su stainability. Examining historical microcredit is particularly useful since it offers an opportunity to explore the characteristics of organizations w hich were sustained over many decades, a perspective which is rare in moder n microcredit banks and programs, most of which are less than 15 years old. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.