A Culture of Everyday Credit – Housekeeping, Pawnbroking, and Governance in Mex…

A Culture of Everyday CreditHousekeeping, Pawnbroking, and Governance in Mexico City, 1750-1920\nAuthor(s): Marie Eileen Francois\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: University of Nebraska Press, United States\nImprint: University of Nebraska Press\nISBN-13: 9780803269231, 978-0803269231\nSynopsis\nPawning was the most common credit mechanism in Mexico City in the nineteenth century. A diverse, largely female pawning clientele from lower- and middle-class households regularly secured small consumption loans by hocking household goods. A two-tiered sector of public and private pawnbrokers provided collateral credit. Rather than just providing emergency subsistence for the poor, pawnbroking facilitated consumption by Creole and mestizo middle sectors of Mexican society and enhanced identity formation for those in middling households by allowing them to cash in on material investments to maintain status during lean times. A Culture of Everyday Credit shows how Mexican women have depended on .