Oxen to Organs

Chattel Credit In Springdale Town, 1849-1900

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8157463
AutoresAllan G Bogue (autor correspondente), Brian Q Cannon, Kenneth J Winkle
Ano2003
Volume77
Fascículo3
Páginas420-452
Data de publicação2003-07-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAgricultural History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0002-1482 • E-ISSN: 1533-8290
EditoraDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1525/ah.2003.77.3.420
OpenAlexW1982126201
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas2
Referências citadas4

Historians have noted the importance of chattel-mortgage financing in nineteenth-century Midwestern agriculture, including its contribution to farmer distress but have not examined its icidence, purposes, or practices in detail. Here the authors describe chattel mortgages in the town of Springdale, Dane County, Wisconsin between 1848 and 1900, focusing on the borrowing and lending practices of the farmer householders listed in the population and agricultural federal census shedules of 1860 and 1880 and relating them to economic development, production patterns and the ethnocultural backgrounds, tenure and gender of the farm operators. They provide comparative data on the extent to which the farmers also borrowed on landed security. They include two detailed case histories of unsuccessful chattel borrowers but also show the importance of chattel credit in the agricultural mechanization that occured during these years. This type of credit involved smaller principal sums than land credit but was a significant element in the business and commercial processes of the town and although more costly than land credit the difference was apparently less than has been suggested on the basis of experience elsewhere in this era. Farmer distress as reflected in foreclosures was greatest here at earlier dates than those of the Populist Era

History · Land Rights and Reforms