The History of helping others manage their cash
Summary: Microfinance has a rich history dating back to pawnshops in the 15th century.
* In the 15th century, Franciscan monks founded
community-oriented pawnshops.
- Jonathan Swift inspired the Irish Loan funds in the 18th and 19th centuries.
- The mid-19th century saw the beginning of the European credit Union.
- In the mid-19th century, Lysander Spooner wrote of the benefits of microloans for entrepreneurial activities to the poor to alleviate poverty.
- Microcredit was included in parts of the Marshall Plan at the end of World War II.
- The 1970s saw the beginning of microcredit as it is known today, beginning originally in Bangladesh with the Grameen Bank Double Citation
- The UN declared 2005 the International Year of Microcredit.