Bezgotówkowy obrót handlowy i przeciwdziałanie jego nadużyciom w Krakowie w pierwszej połowie XIX stulecia
Cashless Trade and the Prevention of Its Abuse in Kraków in the First Half of the 19th Century

Summary/Abstract: An important institution interfering with the circulation of credit in the first half of the 19th century was advertisements placed in the press. In them, the sender informed the public that any debts incurred on his/her behalf by third parties would not be honored. We discuss these public declarations of intent (in the form of press advertisements) using the example of the Gazeta Krakowska, which was published between 1798 and 1849. On the basis of the available issues of the periodical, we created a database that enabled us to carry out not only a legal-historical but also a quantitative analysis. We attempted to show the phenomenon of cashless trading in Kraków in the first half of the 19th century. The daily newspaper became a new medium for disseminating information on creditworthiness. Thus, with one or more advertisements, it was possible to inform all businesses operating in the immediate vicinity of a particular family’s new credit situation. The main objective was to stop dishonest customers who, citing a relationship with the advertiser, bought goods on credit. This was because sometimes a person who had previously acted under authorization subsequently lost that authority. A servant or a journeyman lost his/ her job and a family member was no longer seen as a trustworthy person in financial matters. Above all, we were interested in the practice of dealing with the above-mentioned issue independently from the legal systems existing in Kraków. We believe that the choice of newspaper advertisements originating in Kraków as a kind of case study, illustrating solutions applied in a wider area, is justified by the role played by this city in southern Poland. Due to its economic importance, the presence of a university and the administrative functions it performed, Kraków’s advertisements concern not only the city itself, but also neighboring counties. It should also be remembered that in the 19th century newspaper audiences of the day sometimes extended beyond the place of publication.

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