Frédéric Bouchot, “Le gargotier” (innkeeper), 1844. The dialogue in the caption reads: “Be patient; aren’t all men brothers, and, in this capacity, don’t we all owe each other?”.

Featured on PDR in the essay The Art of Making Debts: Accounting for an Obsession in 19th-Century France

Being in debt was once an artful *promenade* — the process of eluding creditors through disguise and deceit. Erika Vause explores a forgotten financial history: the pervasive humor that once accompanied the literature and visual culture of debt.