The history of debt collection overlaps, therefore, with a history of debt . We have evidence of a succession of numerous edicts of amnesty in ancient times , which served a series of objectives: to limit abuses, to give new impetus to the economy, to prevent money and power from being concentrated in the hands of a few, becoming a threat to the power of the sovereign.
Already in the sophisticated Babylonian civilization, for example, a system of laws had been developed which on the one hand enabled creditors to collect debts and recover insolvent accounts but at the same time also protected to some extent the rights of debtors .
Similarly, Jewish tradition had also developed a legal doctrine that was algeria phone data intended to both ensure the recovery of credit and contain and mitigate the risk of insolvency and slavery.
The pittima
Dating back to the early Italian Renaissance are the tales, mostly folkloristic, in which the pìttima appears , a bizarre, petulant character dressed in red who was paid by creditors to stand guard over (and heavily annoy) the debtor.
The pittima chased the debtor without giving him any respite, to constantly remind him to pay his debt. Beyond the historical truth, which remains nebulous, it was probably a public entity , employed directly by the State to promote the regularity of payments, in a historical period in which it was essential to guarantee the success of exchanges.
The steward
In Bourbon Naples in the mid-nineteenth century, one of the issues that required the greatest commitment from the government was tax revenue, which was essential for the very survival of states with budgets in constant need of liquidity.
The “piantone” was born in this context. The defaulting taxpayer was forced to host in his house a minimum of two soldiers of the royal army, offering them food and lodging, for a maximum period of ten days based on the amount of the debt. It was a form of indirect sanction that was not necessarily intended to be punitive but had an effective deterrent effect (source: s tudioptf.it ).