The Indebted Individual: Dominant Discourses and Alternative Understandings of Personal Debt in the UK

Abstract

During Europe’s Middle Ages, individuals who found themselves in debt that they were unable to repay were incarcerated together in large single cells until their families paid their debt. Conditions for these “debt prisoners” were often very poor, with disease, starvation, abuse from other prisoners and death frequently being reported (Hutter and Power, 2000). Throughout this regime it was clear that society placed responsibility for borrowing and incapacity to repay debts firmly on that of the individual. During the 13th century, King Edward I realised the potential of the credit industry, regulating it and establishing an institution called the Exchequer of the Jewry in an attempt to control, promote and profit (via tax) from lending practices in the UK (Koyama, 2010a, 2010b). Despite the promotion and regulation of the credit industry by governments, throughout history the individuals who have borrowed have been responsible for this practice, with stiff punishment being meted out to those who were incapable of repaying. Indeed, the practice of debtors being placed in debtors’ prisons was not something that disappeared following the Middle Ages. Rather, such practices were the focus of campaigns for financial reform in the 17th century by the Levellers, and by the novelist Charles Dickens in the 19th century. However, the practice continued until the Debtors Act of 1869, which all but abolished imprisonment due to debt (Rajak, 2008). Worryingly, though, there are reports of some courts in the state of Ohio in the USA reconstituting the imprisonment of debtors, primarily for state fines, such as parking tickets (ACLU, 2014).