90

During the 19th century, credit banks were mainly aimed at big industry and commerce. During the same period, craftsmen, small businesses and farmers freed themselves from traditional forms of borrowing (mounts of piety, pawnbrokers) by promoting forms of cooperation and mutualist banking supported by philanthropists and sometimes linked to socialist groups. However, they were met with successive waves of repression and were superseded by the “Crédit agricole” (Agricultural credit bank) and the “Crédit mutuel” (Mutualist bank) both created under influence from foreign sources.