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ID: 160845

financialization of help: moneylenders as economic translators in the debt-based economy / Waters, Hedwig Amelia

Waters, Hedwig Amelia	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

Considering that debt has become a pervasive feature of contemporary life in Mongolia, this article calls for a nuanced examination of the diversity of current debt relations as evinced through its multiple moral interpretations and social effects. Through case studies of moneylenders in contemporary Dornod Province, I discuss (1) how local actors perceive multiple moralities and types of debt (e.g. formal and informal/kinship); (2) how moneylenders comprise an occupational role as ‘translators’ between these different registers; and thus (3) how they allow local debtor actors to navigate their debt load by moving money between the varying registers. By mobilizing local forms of social value, moneylenders create financial value that supports and enables bank debt. As a result, the moralities and logics of finance have increasingly pervaded aspects of local social relations in the collateralization of social standing and the designation of interest payment as a form of community assistance.

Key Words

Mongolia ; Debt ; Financialization ; Moneylending ; Economic Anthropology ; Usury

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ID: 142051

Regulation of customary practices under colonial administration: kinship and mortgages in a Hong Kong village / Chan, Kwok-Shing

Chan, Kwok-Shing	Article
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This article examines two Chinese customary forms of mortgage, dian (典) and diya (抵押), in a Tang (鄧) lineage village in rural Hong Kong under British colonial rule. It finds that the colonial government was active in imposing a set of standardized administrative rules and legal measures to regulate these two customary practices. And, an examination of 314 records of mortgages in a lineage community during the period 1905–65 reveals that diya was a common form. This form of mortgage bears the following characteristics: non-kin ties played a more active and dominant role; Tang mortgagors did not receive special interest rates from kin mortgagees; both grain and cash were used as means of paying interest, but the latter was more common; one-year loans were the most common in both land and house mortgages; the majority of cases had a one-year redemption period; and monthly interest rates were usually in the range of 1 per cent to 2 per cent of the principal loan. The findings of this article complement the current literature on the nature of British colonial rule and on the role of non-agnatic ties in mortgage practices in a Chinese lineage village.

Key Words

Chinese Customary Mortgage ; Collateral Loan ; Kinship Ties ; British Colonial Policy ; Corporate Estate ; Moneylending

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