Histoire sociale et culturelle des Caisses d'Épargne en France: 1818-1881 (review)

While this imprint has more immediately alluring titles, such as Le Guide vert Michelin, Histoire du thermalisme or even Familles, institutions et déviances, Christen-Lécuyer makes a potentially narrow economic history topic one of more general interest by looking at the social and cultural aspects. She does this in a direct, almost sprightly way. Clarity is achieved by structuring, consisting of introductions and summaries for each chapter and also each of the four parts; these enclose the substantial bodies of evidence drawn from statistics, archival records and contemporary sources such as novels, newspapers and prints. Initially, Christen-Lécuyer considers the prerequisites for the foundation of savings institutions, such as the development of economic theory, beginnings of statistics and actuarial science, the repeal of usury laws (which, she points out, persisted for a millennium in France) together with attitudinal changes (the Roman Catholic church's prohibition on usury continued until 1830). She discerns Enlightenment ideas, notably Protestant and lay ones, about the help which rainy-day savings might bring to the poor and also the influence of foreign models in the tortuous and halting process of the foundation of the first Caisse d'épargne in Paris. Christen-Lécuyer shows how the philanthropic intentions of founders and their desire to encourage the virtues of prudence, sobriety and diligence and the methods they employed to influence people's behaviour achieved only limited success. The Caisses became more the home for investments of the comfortably-off rather than weekly savings against misfortune by the industrious poor, because they provided an unique investment medium which was secure, simple, respectable, locally available and remunerative. The implications of state guarantee meant that, in the 1848 crisis, funds were placed with the Caisse des dépôts et consignations and in 1870 customer withdrawals limited by order. Thus, the originally philanthropic and benevolent system eventually became an efficient and inexpensive method of raising state finance. However, the public image was of a risk-free, simple and locally available savings method, symbolized by the Livret. Christen-Lécuyer's viewpoint is refreshingly undoctrinaire which, together with the clarity of exposition and the choice of illumination through contemporary comment and evidence, makes the subject palatable, indeed attractive, though it should be noted that the major economic implications do not receive the same attention as the social and cultural.