Voyages and the first shares · 1100s–1600s
1462
The first charitable pawnshop
Franciscan friars in Perugia lend against pledged goods to undercut moneylenders.
Pawning is ancient: Buddhist monasteries in China lent against goods by the 400s, and medieval Lombard merchants ran pawnshops across Europe. In 1462 Franciscan friars opened a Monte di Pietà in Perugia that lent to the poor against pledged clothes, tools and jewellery at a low rate.
If the borrower didn't repay, the pledge was sold. The idea spread across Italy and later to France and Spain, and pawnshops still work the same way: the item is the collateral, so no credit check is needed.
💡 Why it made sense then
People with nothing but their belongings could borrow without a good name, and lenders were safe because they held the goods.
🎮 In Journey Shares
The city's pawn shop sells players' things on consignment for a daily fee, a cousin of the pawnshop's window of unclaimed pledges.
Ideas it gave us
- 🏦 Collateral
Collateral is an asset a borrower pledges to a lender, which the lender can take or sell if the loan isn't repaid.
- 🏦 Interest rate
An interest rate is the price of borrowing money, stated as a percentage of the loan per year. For savers it is the reward for lending their money to a bank.
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Practise with $10,000 in play money
Free. No real money involved.