Frequent lenders and the credit market of Lima. An analysis of notarized loans

Zegarra L.F. · Revista de Historia Economica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History (2026) · DOI: 10.1017/s0212610926101013

Resumen

This article examines the role of frequent lenders in the credit market of Lima between 1840 and 1865. Frequent lenders were wealthy individuals, many of them merchants or proprietors. Their credit activity was not concentrated among the richest borrowers in Lima; they also served middle- and low-income individuals. In addition, they diversified risk by lending to borrowers from different sectors. Consistent with the hypothesis that frequent lenders knew borrowers better than occasional lenders, they incurred less regularity in repeated lending. © The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Instituto Figuerola de Historia y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

Instituciones: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú