Pawning and pawners in the industrial era: evidence from Sweden, 1870 to 1950

Abstract

Many people, both the poor and from the middle-classes, depended on pawn-broking. We have used a unique material, the daily ledgers from a Swedish pawnshop in naval town Karlskrona, during a long period of time 1880-1950. We find that the number of loans in relation to population did decline, especially after 1910, but in no year was the value of the average loan less than that of a day's work for a day labourer, meaning that the average loans did not show signs of being the act of a very impoverished person. The main objects being pawned was clothes, and among them coats. Most of them were pawned in May, which would support an idea of seasonal pawning, rather than weekly pawning. A majority of the pawners consisted of military men and workers. Women made up a small part of the sample, between ten and twenty per cent. In general, workers pawned mostly clothes and shoes, but they also pawned rings. Likely, the national context does affect when shifts and changes occur. pawnbroking Sweden working class middle class.