Abstract: At the turn of late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, the civil habits of private lending were very complicated, with lots of differences at different regions. Lending rates were related with such market factors as loan term, loan amount, loan target, money supply tightness situation, and other factors. With a monthly interest of 30% as a limit, there were zero interest rate, low interest rates, and high interest rate. The loan guarantee took such forms as the middleman, housing, land, grain, livestock, and even wives and daughters. The fulfillment of debt had such forms as interest adding to the principal, interest not adding to the principal, returning the principal without interest, returning the principal after paying the interest, asking for allowance, paying the debt by amortization by all the possessions, sharing the possessions among all the creditors, and signing written pledges promising to pay back when becoming rich or prosperous. Among them, some belong to objectionable practices and should be abandoned; some belong to public order and fair practices, so they are worth being learned from. It is rather helpful to carefully sort out such civil habits of private lending, so as to regulate and guide the order of private lending in today’s society.

Key words: late Qing Dynasty and early ROC; private lending; civil habits