The Boundaries of Debt: Bankruptcy between Local Practices and Liberal Rule in Nineteenth-Century Switzerland
Year: 2016
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: In the nineteenth century, the legal collection of debts was a drab affair, a routine that involved paperwork, deadlines, signatures, and receipts.1 And yet these proceedings set the stage for unexpected occurrences, such as one occasion in summer 1829 when eight women from Oberweningen, an agrarian community in the canton of Zurich, sent a letter of complaint to the Commission for Administrative Disputes, a subunit of the canton's highest administrative authority.2 They explained that their husbands had suffered "the tragic fate" of falling into bankruptcy and now their families were allowed only half a share of wood from the community commons.3 In their letter, the women requested that they receive the same share ofwood as other members oftheir community.They signed the letter with their maiden names instead of their married names, and they were the ones who appealed to the commission-not their husbands, who had forfeited their civic rights and marital guardianship as a result of bankruptcy.4 Because of the bankruptcy, the women continued, the "household burden" had shifted to them and, using their own funds, they had kept their families from having to claim social assistance due to poverty.Thus they protested against being "treated as only halfmunicipal citizens" with regard to the allocation ofwood.5 The municipal council (Gemeindevorsteherschaft) reacted with indignation to the women's demand, arguing that the principle whereby every "upstanding"-that is to say, solvent-citizen received a füll share of wood and a "bankrupt household" received only half a share had existed from "time immemorial."These "upstanding citizens," the municipal council proceeded,
Source: edoc (University of Basel)
Author: Suter, Mischa
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6950569885