In 1820 something totally new opened in Gothenburg: the country’s first savings bank. Its founder was Eduard Ludendorff, an immigrant from Poland. The idea was that Gothenburg residents would deposit their money and then the bank would lend it out. The borrowers would pay interest, some of which would go to the person who had deposited the money. The bank kept the difference.
In Sweden at this time there was as yet no tradition of depositing money into a bank account. Instead, the savings bank used the German model to try to educate the city’s poor people to save money. In a city like Gothenburg with seasonal trade and shipping, it was common for workers to have no income for parts of the year. Many people could not manage to save money and depended on poor relief measures during the winters. With money in the bank they would instead be able to take care of themselves or borrow money if they ended up in need.
The merchants deposited the most money. Many young women also saved – but not infrequently they were maids who had been ordered to do so by the tradesmen they worked for. The savings bank also had employees who knocked on the doors of account holders to collect their money.
Despite this ideological framework and idea of helping the poor, Göteborgs Sparbank (Gothenburg’s Savings Bank) functioned mainly as a business bank. Most of the people who borrowed money to keep their businesses going were tradesmen.