# What was Ebenezer Scrooge's Job **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 7, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722 "2009-11-07T15:49:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nom\_de\_Plume](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/85f322/32.png) [@Nom\_de\_Plume](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nom_de_Plume)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/1 "2009-11-07T15:49:36Z")
I just saw the IMAX 3D film Disney’s A Christmas Carol. The movie referenced the office where Scrooge and Cratchett worked as being the ‘counting house.’ Did they provide mortgages or something. I remember reading the book when I was younger, but don’t remember if the issue was addressed. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/2 "2009-11-07T16:00:52Z")
> [@Nom\_de\_Plume](#): > > I just saw the IMAX 3D film Disney’s A Christmas Carol. The movie referenced the office where Scrooge and Cratchett worked as being the ‘counting house.’ Did they provide mortgages or something. I remember reading the book when I was younger, but don’t remember if the issue was addressed. I refuse to watch the Disney version on account of it being Disney and involving Jim Carrey. That said, Scrooge is certainly a moneylender in most versions of the story, as one of the things he tends to do after his reformation is forgive a lot of debts. That’s what the “Thank You Very Much” song is all about, after all. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/3 "2009-11-07T16:02:01Z")
I don’t remember if it’s in the book, but at least in a film Scrooge runs a ‘counting house’; which is a company’s accounting section. Since the business was independently owned, perhaps Scrooge was an accountant. But I don’t recall him doing accounting for other firms. It’s possible he was a money lender. In one scene he raises the price of corn (American: grain), and the buyers say that he will be left with a warehouse full of corn he can’t sell. Scrooge says that’s his concern, not the buyers’. So it sounds to me as if he was a commodities trader. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/4 "2009-11-07T16:07:53Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I don’t remember if it’s in the book, but at least in a film Scrooge runs a ‘counting house’; which is a company’s accounting section. Since the business was independently owned, perhaps Scrooge was an accountant. But I don’t recall him doing accounting for other firms. It’s possible he was a money lender. In one scene he raises the price of corn (American: grain), and the buyers say that he will be left with a warehouse full of corn he can’t sell. Scrooge says that’s his concern, not the buyers’. So it sounds to me as if he was a commodities trader. I think in the Albert Finney version(the musical) he is shown collecting payments on mortgages/notes he holds on various street vendors’ carts. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/5 "2009-11-07T16:08:45Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > I think in the Albert Finney version(the musical)… I don’t recall seeing that version. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/6 "2009-11-07T16:18:00Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I don’t recall seeing that version. [This one.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066344/) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/7 "2009-11-07T16:52:07Z")
> [@runner pat](#): > > I think in the Albert Finney version(the musical) he is shown collecting payments on mortgages/notes he holds on various street vendors’ carts. You misspelled “the greatest movie of all time,” **runner pat**. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/8 "2009-11-07T22:23:29Z")
The book never tells what he does, though it’s implied strongly he lends money and at a high rate of interest. So one is left to wonder since usuary wasn’t the thing back then, if Scrooge had a legal business and/or operated a “loan shark” type operation on the side. The book is pretty straighforward and it really doesn’t go into all the reason’s Scrooge is like he is. All the book shows is that he goes from being a realatively happy-go-lucky clerk to being more obsessed with money with each flashback visit. I’ve seen other versions attempt to pass Scrooge off as a product of his life, for instance, in one version I saw Scrooge’s father go to jail for not paying a debt, thus rationalizing Scrooges obsession with never being poor. The book is pretty straightforward though and doesn’t give as many details as most versions do ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/9 "2009-11-07T22:41:14Z")
> [@](#): > > I refuse to watch the Disney version on account of it being Disney and involving Jim Carrey. Are we thinking of the same movie? Mickey Mouse as Cratchett? Scrooge McDuck in the lead? Wasn’t that long before Jim Carrey’s time? ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/10 "2009-11-07T22:43:09Z")
That’s the old Disney version, of which I have fond memories. However, there’s another one coming out just now (in 3-D) that has Jim Carrey in it. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/11 "2009-11-07T23:09:44Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > That’s the old Disney version, of which I have fond memories. However, there’s another one coming out just now (in 3-D) that has Jim Carrey in it. No there isn’t. Robert Zemeckis never made a movie of The Polar Express, either. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/12 "2009-11-08T00:53:23Z")
The Alastair Sim version (the best ever) shows Scrooge and Marley buying up bankrupt companies at a fraction of their value. Presumably, the sold off the assets. There was also moneylending and trading commodities. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/13 "2009-11-08T00:56:27Z")
I like the George C. Scott version best. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/14 "2009-11-08T00:59:24Z")
I hereby decalre all versions to be the best, except for the ones that were the worst. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/15 "2009-11-08T01:07:20Z")
Dickens’ own father was thrown into debtors’ prison when Charles was just a young lad, bringing his childhood to a nasty and abrupt end and throwing him into the wonderful world of Victorian-era child labor. That probably influenced the story line quite a bit. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/16 "2009-11-08T02:46:01Z")
Scrooge and Marley was more or less a privately-owned bank that made loans at seemed fairly outrageous rates and terms. Seems as if it were perfectly normal for individuals to have to suffer with such terrible financial terms. But then, here we are with “payday loan” outfits charging 98% interest or worse. In their youth, the two worked for Fezziwig, who was a wholesaler and/or distributor. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/17 "2009-11-08T02:55:15Z")
Would the modern equivalent be a “finance company”? That is, a firm whose business is simply buying and selling financial instruments of all kinds- mortgages, bonds, etc.? I forget the source but in one movie I once saw a new guy asks “what does the company actually make?” and the reply is “we make money”. ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/18 "2009-11-08T04:13:43Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The Alastair Sim version (the best ever) shows Scrooge and Marley buying up bankrupt companies at a fraction of their value. Presumably, the sold off the assets. There was also moneylending and trading commodities. That version rules! It is a tradition for me and my wife to watch it alt least once before Xmas. That being said, I always wondered exactly what Scrooge’s business was. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/19 "2009-11-08T04:19:22Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > I hereby decalre all versions to be the best, except for the ones that were the worst. “It was the best of Dickens film adaptations, it was the worst of Dickens film adaptations…” ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722/20 "2009-11-08T04:31:16Z")
As usurers, were Scrooge and Marley Jewish? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-ebenezer-scrooges-job/516722.md?page=2)