Did you know that pawnbroking is civilizations oldest financial institution and that pawn loans can be traced as far back as 3,000 years to ancient China, early Greece, and Rome? And today, many laws concerning pawning in western nations are derived from the Roman imperial law while China’s imperial courts oversaw the business.
One can easily see that pawning proved valuable to these ancient cultures because as the Greek and Roman empires influence and culture expanded, pawnbroking arrived with it.
Even the Roman Catholic church, which had prohibitions against charging interest on loans, made exceptions for pawning as it appears that Franciscans were permitted to begin pawning during the middle ages.
Pawn brokerage arrived in England with William the Conqueror in 1066. In 1338, Edward III pawned his jewelry to raise money for an impending war with France, and King Henry V did much the same in 1415. In France, Crusaders pawned their land holdings to monasteries and diocese for money to fund, outfit, and transport their armies to the Holy Land.
Pawn brokering has existed and thrived for thousands of years because it works. In fact, it works as well today as it did 3000 years ago. Want to know more about this ancient and practical mean of borrowing and lending money, stop by your local pawn shop. Somethings never grow old.
