Zelenaštvo u Kneževini Srbiji

Abstract

In this paper, the author examines the phenomenon of usury in the Principality of Serbia and the various measures that the state implemented in order to stop it, hoping to save the Serbian countryside from ruin. As the Principality of Serbia moved on from the timar system and transitioned into the early phase of capitalism, it experienced various disturbances which mostly influenced the poorer populace. Such occurances encouraged various actors to profit, through illegal and unproportional interest, from the need of the poor. That turn of events had a damaging influence on the state, and also on the afore-mentioned borrowers, which gave rise to a conflict between the government and the predatory money lenders who were often very influential people in society. Numerous regulations which involved various branches of law (civil law, criminal law, commercial law, procedural law, tax law, regulations concerning credit institutes and agricultural regulations) made a substantial impact on this problem. Sometimes they contributed to the solution of this problem, but often they made the entire situation more complicated. At the twilight of the Principality of Serbia, there is a significant change in the views of this matter, as a consequence of the industrialization process, which calls into question the interests of the state in solving the problem of usury. Finally, the attention is turned to all the sociological causes and consequences of the phenomenon of usury and the conclusions about the various solutions the government had made over a number of decades.