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The Savings of Ordinary Americans: The Philadelphia Saving Fund Society in the Mid-Nineteenth Century

Author

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  • Alter, George
  • Goldin, Claudia
  • Rotella, Elyce

Abstract

We explore the savings behavior of ordinary Americans through their accounts at the Philadelphia Saving Fund Society, the oldest mutual savings bank in the United States. Our sample contains all 2,374 accounts opened in 1850. Savings accounts were generally brief affairs, but median balances mounted to about three-quarters of annual income in three years. Deposits and withdrawals were infrequent, but substantial. Only female servants, as a group, used their accounts for life-cycle savings, eventually amassing large nest eggs. Men often used them to hold funds before acquiring physical property. We estimate saving rates between 10 and 15 percent on active accounts.

Suggested Citation

  • Alter, George & Goldin, Claudia & Rotella, Elyce, 1994. "The Savings of Ordinary Americans: The Philadelphia Saving Fund Society in the Mid-Nineteenth Century," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(4), pages 735-767, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:54:y:1994:i:04:p:735-767_01
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    Cited by:

    1. Cormac Ó Gráda, 2001. "An institutional import : Irish savings banks c. 1820-1860," Working Papers 200117, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    2. Sok Chul Hong, 2010. "Marriage and Men's Wealth Accumulation in the United States, 1860-1870," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 26, pages 27-58.
    3. Cormac Ó Gráda, 2003. "Financial panic, famine and contagion : Ireland in the 1840s and 1850s," Working Papers 200316, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    4. Cormac O Grada & Morgan Kelly, 2000. "Market Contagion: Evidence from the Panics of 1854 and 1857," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1110-1124, December.
    5. Timothy Guinnane, 2001. "Delegated Monitors, Large and Small: The Development of Germany’s Banking System, 1800-1914," CESifo Working Paper Series 565, CESifo.
    6. Eugene N. White & Cormac Ó Gráda, 2003. "The panics of 1854 and 1857 : a view from the Emigration Industrial Savings Bank," Open Access publications 10197/438, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    7. Lehmann-Hasemeyer, Sibylle & Neumayer, Andreas & Streb, Jochen, 2023. "Heterogeneous inflation and deflation experiences and savings decisions during German industrialization," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    8. Cormac O. Grada & Eugene N. White, 2002. "Who Panics During Panics? Evidence from a Nineteenth Century Savings Bank," NBER Working Papers 8856, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Susan B. Carter & Richard Sutch, 1995. "Myth of the Industrial Scrap Heap: A Revisionist View of Turn-of-the- Century American Retirement," NBER Historical Working Papers 0073, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Michael G. Palumbo, 2000. "Estimating the Effects of Earnings Uncertainty on Families' Saving and Insurance Decisions," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 67(1), pages 64-86, July.
    11. Howard Bodenhorn, 2016. "Two Centuries of Finance and Growth in the United States, 1790-1980," Working Papers id:11352, eSocialSciences.
    12. Jaremski, Matthew & Plastaras, Brady, 2015. "An In-depth Analysis of New England Mutual Savings Banks, 1870-1914," Working Papers 2015-02, Department of Economics, Colgate University, revised 12 Feb 2015.
    13. Howard Bodenhorn, 2019. "Were Nineteenth‐Century Industrial Workers Permanent Income Savers?," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 85(4), pages 1286-1310, April.
    14. Timothy W. Guinnane, 2002. "Delegated Monitors, Large and Small: Germany's Banking System, 1800–1914," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 73-124, March.
    15. Lee, Chulhee, 1999. "Farm Value and Retirement of Farm Owners in Early-Twentieth-Century America," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 387-408, October.
    16. Mersland, Roy, 2005. "Microcredit for self-employed disabled persons in developing countries," MPRA Paper 2068, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Di Matteo, Livio, 2013. "Women, wealth and economic change: An assessment of the impact of women's property law in Wentworth County, Ontario, 1872–1927," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 285-307.
    18. Howard Bodenhorn, 2017. "Finance and Growth: Household Savings, Public Investment, and Public Health in Late Nineteenth-Century New Jersey," NBER Working Papers 23430, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Chulhee Lee, 2004. "Intra-household transfers and old-age security in America, 1890-1950," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 79-102.
    20. Lehmann-Hasemeyer, Sibylle H. & Neumayer, Andreas & Streb, Jochen, 2022. "Heterogeneous savers and their inflation expectation during German industrialization: Social class, wealth, and gender," Working Papers 33, German Research Foundation's Priority Programme 1859 "Experience and Expectation. Historical Foundations of Economic Behaviour", Humboldt University Berlin.
    21. Anbinder, Tyler & Connor, Dylan & O Grada, Cormac & Wegge, Simone, 2021. "The Problem of False Positives in Automated Census Linking: Evidence from Nineteenth-Century New York's Irish Immigrants," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 568, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    22. Simone A. Wegge & Tyler Anbinder & Cormac Ó Gráda, 2017. "Immigrants and savers: A rich new database on the Irish in 1850s New York," Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(3), pages 144-155, July.

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