Alternative finance has seemingly burst on the scene in recent years. The movement has picked up momentum in a major way, but where did the ideas of alternative finance come from, and why have they had such a strong impact on the financial world? Here’s a look back at the history of alternative finance.
The beginning
The basic idea of alternative financing is a simple one: customers should have alternative options for financial services outside of traditional banks and their high costs and low approval rates. We have found examples of alternative finance dating back hundreds of years.
Irishman Jonathan Swift created the Irish Loan Fund way back in the 1700s. Swift, who some have called the “father of microcredit,” established the fund to provide loans to poor rural families who had no credit history and very little collateral. The Irish Loan Fund would make small loans of 5 to 10 pounds and require weekly repayments of as little as 2 shillings at a time. Swift also required each borrower to have two neighbors as “co-signers” that would guarantee the loan if payments were missed.
Swift recognized that, just because many of these people didn’t fit the mold of traditional “credit-worthy” borrowers, the vast majority of them were honest, hard-working people that would make their payments on time. These people needed financial services, and he opened up a world of financial freedom to them outside of the traditional financial framework at the time.
Another powerful example of alternative finance in history involves the Statue of Liberty. Crowdfunding consists of pooling the capital of a number of small investors to reach a large fundraising goal. There’s no telling how far back this practice goes, but thanks to Joseph Pulitzer, crowdfunding is responsible for one of the most iconic American monuments.
It’s a common bit of U.S. trivia that the Statue of Liberty was a gift from France, but apparently the pedestal on which it stands on Liberty Island was not part of the deal. When the construction of the pedestal ran into funding issues, Pulitzer stepped in and launched a 19th-century version of a crowdfunding campaign. Pulitzer made his case for donations to the project via his newspaper, the New York World, back in 1885. Pulitzer’s drive raised more than $100,000 in six months from more than 125,000 contributors, many of which gave $1 or less to the cause. However, the efforts demonstrated the combined power of a large group of small investors.
Revolution begins
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