To the issue about the meaning of credit: history and modernity

The article analyses prerequisites for origination of credit, a special place among which is given to the development of gift exchange in particular and exchange relations in general. Positive and negative consequences of credit origination are reviewed. The positive ones include ensuring sustainable economic growth. Among the negative ones is enhancement of social differentiation of economic entities. Examples from experience of credit’s functioning in the Perm Governorate in the 19th century were used when writing the article. Large-scale industry, marketing cooperatives and rural communities are singled out as the object of consideration. Particular attention is paid to the problem of low availability of credit granting for representatives of handicraft industry and to the ways of improving the creditability of craftsmen. Negative consequences of credit are considered on the example of bondage forms of credit relations: winter hiring and commercial seasonal bondage. Objective causes of bondage-based relationships are substantiated. A parallel between development of credit relations in the past and under modern conditions is determined.