PAWN'BROKING (Du. pand, Ger. pfand, Fr. pan, a pledge). The business of lend ing money on pawns or pledges appears to have been carried on in England by certain Italian merchants or bankers as early at least as the reign of Richard I. By the 12th of Edward I., a messuage was confirmed to these traders where Lombard-street now exists; the name being, according to Stow, derived from the Longobards who used to congre gate there for blisiness purposes. Subsequently, these merchant adventurers became known generally by the name of Lombardens. Their wealth became proverbial. Among the richest of them were the celebrated family of the Medici; from whose armorial bear ings it is conjectured that the pawnhroking insignia of the three balls have been derived. The bankers of Lombard-street appear to have exercised a monopoly in pawnbroking until the reign of Elizabeth. The trade is first recognized in law by the act 1st James I. c. 21. In the perilous days of Charles I. the goldsmiths were very frequently chosen as the custodiers of plate and money; which circumstance seems to have suggested to them the profitable business of lending on pawns and discounting bills. From this time, the oppression and extortion often exercised by brokers has continued to attract much public attention and discussion; and an effort has been made, both in England and on the con tinent, to obviate the evil by the establishment of what arc called Monts de Pietit, the ob ject of which is to advance small sums to the very poor at a moderate interest, See Moxvn DE MIETi. In England, after many abortive efforts, a Mont de piete office was started in 1708; but in 1731 it came to a disastrous end. The bubble mania of 1824-25 gave rise to a similar scheme. In this instance upwards of £400,000 was subscribed; but the undertaking miscarried and the capital was lost, A. similar fate attended the Irish Monts de Piete, of which there were eight in 1841. In 1848 they had all disap peared except one, which lingered to 1853; when it also expired. It would thus seem hopeless to attempt to establish a pawnbroking office in England on any other footing than au ordina7 commercial one. The cause of failure will befound to lie, generally,
in the great difficulty of conducting a commercial undertaking on charitable principles, with sufficient energy and ability to compete successfully with others originating in the ordinary motives which lead men to engage in trade.
It hardly admits of dispute that the pawn-shop, in its practical working, is an evil— necesaary, may be, but still evil; and the having recourse to it is strongly to be dis couraged. There are, doubtless, cases where men arc driven to pawn their goods from causes which are not discreditable, and which do not render it certain that they are on the road to ruin; but such cases are rare exceptions to the general rule. Besides making borrowing too easy, and thus encouraging the fatal• habit of anticipating income, the pawn-shop is, in nine cases out of ten, the to the drinking-shop. Even where the one does not directly lead to the other, it generally does so in the end. That "borrow ing dulls the edge of husbandry" applies with a force increasing in a geometrical ratio asewe descend in the scale of society. Admitting, however, that with all its tendency to demoralize, pawnbroking is, in many cases, of value in tiding over unforeseen pecuniary difficulties, it is sufficient to say, that so long as improvidence prevails among large classes of society, and so long as even the most prudent arc liable to unforseen accidents, the accommodation of the pawnshop is to a certain extent a necessity, and like other demands of the public will continue to be supplied. Nor are those who supply this demand to blame, any more than the caterers for many other expenses which economists pronounce to be wasteful. The fault, where there is a fault, is in those who borrow, not in those who lend. The legislature, accordingly, instead of trying to put down pawnbroking, has wisely confined itself to putting it under stringent regulations so as to prevent as far as possible its abuses.