When Banks cut off lending businessmen went to the high-interest informal lenders figuring that a month or two later they'd get loans again to repay their other debts.

And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear.

Except for one or two places such as Zermatt and Chamonix, which had rapidly become popular, Alpine village tended to be impoverished settlements cut off from civilization by the high mountains.