Monte di Pietà
Monte di Pietà ( Italian for “Mountain of Mercy”) were pawn shops in the late Middle Ages and early modern times that gave the poor small loans against a deposit and low interest rates .
precursor
As Mons ( Latin mountain , plural montes , from the "accumulated" deposits) banks in the Italian cities were referred to, which paid out interest in return for a deposit of money. On the one hand, they served to finance the community and, on the other hand, they enabled people with little wealth to earn regular income. The first facility was built around 1300 in Florence and then in other Italian cities.
In England , the Bishop of London , Michael Northburgh, founded a bank in 1361 that lent money against pledge without interest. However, this model was unsuccessful and the capital was quickly used up.
Working method
In contrast to the Montes, the Monti di Pietà were not profit-oriented, but worked benevolently. You should provide help to the poor in financial distress. The capital of the Monti di Pietà was raised through foundations and collections. The loan was granted against pledges such as jewelry, clothing or equipment and was charged with interest. These rates of interest were low, but not undisputed among theologians (see ban on interest ). Due to the high cost, not all institutions worked successfully.
Their institution goes back to the Franciscans and turned against " usurers ", especially against Jews and Lombards . Marco di Matteo Strozzi , a Franciscan, advocated in his sermons the Monti di Pietà as a means to drive Jewish moneylenders out of the cities. However, this goal was not achieved because the two systems had different customers. Out of shame, some customers avoided the Monti di Pietà, whose lending was not discreet enough for them.
history
The first Monte di Pietà was founded in Perugia in 1462 , and several others followed in various Italian cities. These were independent of each other. At that time the Monti di Pietà were founded by Franciscans as pawnshops in order to support poor and needy people financially, while the banking families of the time, such as the Medici or the Strozzi , mainly devoted themselves to the credit and exchange business related to the commodity business. The Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena , founded in 1472 as Monte di Pietà in Siena, is the oldest bank in the world that still exists. Other foundations were in Orvieto in 1463 , in Viterbo in 1471 , in Bologna in 1473 , in Savona in 1479 , in Milan in 1483 , in Mantova , Assisi , Brescia and Ferrara in 1484 , in Vicenza in 1486 , in Forli in 1510 , in Naples in 1539 .
In France , a Monte di Pietà was founded in Avignon in 1610 by the Congregation de Notre-Dame de Lorette . This lasted until 1791. In Paris , a Monte de Pietà opened in 1637, which was built by the founder of the Gazette de France , Théophraste Renaudot.
See also
literature
- J. Mees: Montes . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 6, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-7608-8906-9 , column 796 f.
- Martina Spies: Fire insurance, orphan and credit funds at East Swabian imperial monasteries before secularization and their dissolution (series of publications on Bavarian history 151, Munich 2007). ISBN 978-3-406-10747-4 .
