Name of Object:

A moneylender's kit

Location:

Bucharest, Romania

Holding Institution:

National Museum of Romanian History

 About National Museum of Romanian History, Bucharest

Date of Object:

First half of the 19th century

Description:

In the first half of the 19th century, before the first banks were founded in Wallachia and Moldavia, moneylenders were the ones who dealt with money loaning and with currency exchange, in an economy which did not have yet a national coin. In Romanian they used to be called "zarafi", a term borrowed from the Turkish language. Most of them were Greek, Armenian and Jewish. They often travelled abroad to buy money, one of their main destinations being Istanbul.

Type of Object

Balance with weights

Citation of this web page:

"A moneylender's kit" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2026.
https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;AWE;rm;21;en

MWNF Working Number: RO 021