Careful Wives

The following is from October 1833:

"A few days previous to the deceased of the wife of a tradesman in Boston which occurred a short time ago, she gave her husband her keys. After the funeral, in looking over the drawers, to his great surprise he found three hundred sovereigns which she had put by unknown to him"

This hoarding of cash by wives unknown to their husbands was not uncommon. Indeed, I have seen it many times.  It has to understood that prior to 1882 It was very hard for married women to own and control their own property and money,and these rights were only equated to those of men in 1926. But, men were responsible for their wife's debts. This was the case until the Sex Equality Act of 1975. This meant that many Banks required women to get their husband's signed consent to open a current account or to have a loan. In banking this inequality was even in employment where upon getting married women had to give up their jobs. This sort of discrimination needs to be understood especially in arguments about pensions as women aged about 67 or more today were significantly disadvantaged. It is telling that the above quote was heralded by the Boston Auxiliary Tract Society as the laudable actions of a dutiful Christian wife. This was a very safe middle class view in a largely affluent town and ignored the fact that such savings were not possible for lower income households. Indeed if you experienced low income or even poverty it was largely regarded as a "deficiency of character". Such views of bothering people of different fortune, background, class or experience would fit in perfectly with the social media of today.

The need to hoard for a rainy day was key to wives providing security and resilience for both themselves and their families. However,  I have also seen it in one other significant group of people.

Many years ago I was dealing with an Indian client who originated in Uganda. His wife had died suddenly and afterthe funeral he started to discover cash that over many years he had given her to spend hoarded away, some in expired notes. The total was over £40,000. Now this posed a problem, as with a substantial amount being in expired notes how was he to process this. Expired notes are not too much of an issue for they can usually be exchanged at their face value pound for pound at your Bank, but the amount was. This is because if you suddenly exchange or pay into your Bank the Bank has a duty to establish  the source of funds and that this is not money laundering. This relies upon the Bank knowing and understanding its customers, nowadays not so easy as the bank customer relationship is usually distant and impersonal. In this case I was able to explain the situation and the money was able to be paid into the customers account.

However, what is interesting is what stimulated this behaviour. In my childhood I remember the Ugandasian refugees escaping African Nationalism entering Britain. There were similar, less public exits from Kenya, but not as ruthless as Idi Armin's regime which basically robbed Asians of possessions, jewelry and cash as they boarded the planes for the UK. Some had African friends and connections that helped them smuggle possessions out of the country, but frequently these too were lost. The simple fact is that when you have experienced loss if your home and your every possession by force the fear of it happening again can make you hoard cash.

I have seen this need for portable wealth with Dutch people that experienced the Nazi occupation with them seeing expensive Swiss watches, jewelry and a small supply of gold Krugerrands as essential portable  wealth. I also encountered it with the child of a German Jew that  had the past etched into their family view of the world.

Finally there is one other group that has tended to hoard, abused women. I had an old colleague whose father wad a chronic gambler. When he won he was "generous" to his wife buying her jewellery and clothes. But when he lost he failed to pay bills and put the household in jeopardy. She coped with this uncertainty by getting him to buy items that could be easily sold or pawned at value and tried to squirrel away as much cash as she could for the times of loss. Her mum told me gambling was the worst addiction as unlike alcohol or drugs it received no recognition and no help.

Most of us have experienced lives of relative calm and certainty, but those that haven't are heavily influenced by the power of hoarding cash for a rainy day.