Volume and Classification of Consumer Loans

• Author: Margaret Grobben
• DOI: 10.1177/000271623819600112
• Published date: 01 March 1938
• Date: 01 March 1938
• Subject Matter: Articles

74

Volume

and

Classification

of

Consumer

Loans

By

MARGARET

GROBBEN

THROUGHOUT

the

year

1936

over

f ourteen

billion

dollars

were

ad-

vanced

in

the

form

of

consumer

credit.

Outstandings

at

the

end

of

the

year

amounted

to

over

five

billions

of

dol-

lars.

Of

total

loans,

nearly

one

and

a

half

billion

dollars

comprised

outright

loans

of

money,

and

twelve

and

one-

half

billions

were

loaned

indirectly

in

connection

with

the

sale

of

merchan-

TABLE

I-ESTIMATED

CONSUMER

LOANS

MADE

DURING

1936

AND

OUTSTANDINGS

AT

THE

END

OF

THAT

YEAR

a

a

Were

it

possible

to

discover

statistical

data

covering

consumer

credit

in

the

sense

in

which

the

economist

would

use

the

general

term,

it

is

conceivable

that

the

total

consumer

debt

might

approach

figures

not

unlike

the

size

of

all

commercial

and

business

debt.

It

could,

for

example,

be

conceived

of

as

covering

all

mortgages

on

homes,

rentals

still

to

be

paid

on

the

customary

annual

agreements,

such

portions

of

Federal,

state,

and

municipal

taxes

as

may

be

handled

on

deferred

payments,

bills

for

professional

services,

amounts

due

to

manufacturers

for

that

part

of

their

goods

sold

directly

to

consumers,

amounts

still

due

on

life

insurance

policies

under

annual

or

quarterly

premiums,

assuming

average

life

expectancy

as

the

full

term

of

contract,

every

subscrip-

tion

or

other

agreement,

however

trifling,

under

which

a

customer

agrees

to

pay

set

amounts

at

inter-

vals

over

an

agreed

period

of

time,

ordinary

commercial

bank

loans,

proceeds

of

which

are

devoted

to

the

personal

rather

than

the

business

interests

of

the

borrower,

and

many

other

phases

of

our

credit

system

which

can,

and

do

at

times,

actually

extend

into

the

technical

consumer

field.

An

example

of

some

of

the

additions

which

might

be

made

in

these

categories,

and

on

which

data

are

obtainable,

are

the

following.

But,

it

must

be

remembered,

no

one

of

these

is,

after

all,

wholly

in

the

consumer

field:

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