Households and small businesses are often confronted with funding gaps due to small-scale lending problems. Whereas existing research focused primarily on how rural areas addressed such problems, this paper determines what contributed to the success of urban help banks in the Netherlands (1848–1898). It considers how help banks’ lending mechanism, corporate governance mechanism, and historical circumstances lowered operating costs. The latter was crucial and depended on elites with philanthropic and practical considerations, who housed, staffed, and funded help banks at modest costs. This mix provides guidance to small-scale lenders, including microcredit institutions, to address funding gaps and tailor their services.

中文翻译：

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伸出援手：帮助荷兰的银行，1848 年至 1898 年

由于小规模贷款问题，家庭和小企业经常面临资金缺口。尽管现有的研究主要集中在农村地区如何解决此类问题，但本文确定了荷兰城市救助银行成功的原因（1848-1898）。它考虑了如何帮助银行的借贷机制、公司治理机制和历史环境降低运营成本。后者至关重要，依赖于具有慈善和实际考虑的精英，他们以适度的成本安置、配备人员和资助援助银行。这种组合为包括小额信贷机构在内的小规模贷款机构提供了指导，以解决资金缺口并定制服务。