Tallymen

The first advertisement for credit was placed in 1730 by Christopher Thorton, who offered furniture that could be paid off weekly.

From 18th century until the early part of the 20th century, Tallyman sold clothes in return for small weekly payments. They were called “Tallymen” because they kept a record or tally of what people had bought on a wooden stick. One side of the stick was marked with notches to represent the amount of debt and the other side was a record of payments