An inquiry into quasi‐credit contracts: The role of reciprocal credit and interlinked deals in small‐scale fishing communities

In agrarian village societies beset with many hazards and uncertainties, people evolve various means of coping with risk. What is perhaps less known is that credit transactions can sometimes serve the function of reducing risk in such societies. This article is concerned with examining several insurance‐motivated credit arrangements in small‐scale fishing communities. A hunger insurance mechanism of ‘reciprocal credit’ and a system of interlinked contracts aimed at insuring against risks in the spheres of labour and marketing relations will be extensively dealt with. Moreover, the concept of ‘triadic’ relationships will be shown to have special relevance in the case of traditional insurance arrangements aiming at controlling problems of ‘moral hazard’.

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