The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-04-13 00:00:00

LETTER ♦I.

Stn—ln resuming the consideration of a Pawn-
broker's twotit. it is scarcely necessary to state, that
persens in the occupation can never invest all their
ocev ; they most keep n considerable portion of it
tiiwns by them, to answer eNpeeted contingencies.
And to you, who will do them the favour candidly
to reflect, it will be equally elisions, that, if the
goads which are left with them should even sell
fur the :mount they have beet' pledged 1)r, this
part of their capital has been as nnprodective as
that which had never been brought into circelation.
Neither will it escape your penetration. that, as the
; ledger has the power to compel the Pawnbroker
keepevery article .glean months. on :ill occasions
sy here this is done, turd the goods then left (which
:s the case twice out of three times with pledges
kept so long), he must of necessity lose an midi-
tonal unartvr of a year's interest. Iltit I have laid
too etress on this, becatee he certainly has sane ad-
'Adages on what is termed intermediate sums,
mid on goods redeemed within the month, which,
accurately estimated, about equalises this deficit.
Here then my statement rests. Without any
it‘agtreentine of hoses, withoet any concealment of
pains, a Pawnhreker's profit is now before you.
Threigh you I am proclaiming it to the world, and
to the world I may confidently appeal, whether
this renetnerutien is adequate to their labour, their
responsibility, and expense I Certain I am,
no man conversant with business would decide
criinst me. Comparing it vs ith the profits of other :
rs.fail trades, be must maintain its insufficiency. I
Accustomed to think that any article which was
Lot ght a mouth ago for a potmd, and sold this day
ter a guinea, has been rendered to the public on
terms of extreme moderation ; he would le as- I
tonished, if told he was advocating an allowance of
ntly ref- cent. interest, in a necessary of life ; and
f ~mend that fire Jar rent. oaf the extent of the ad-
santage. Yet the Lrger sum is the trite one, if r
caleuluted by a Pawnbroker's scale of profit. He
pe.rts with a pound for a month, for one-third part
et the gain I have stated, and when it reverts to
him, with four-pence profit, he is counted an
abominable usurer, for taking twenty per cent. in-1
truest on the money he advanced.
Dr. Franklin. who did not write on trade with- I
get understanding it, has laid it down as a maxim,'
• that five Millings turned, is six ; turned main, I
seven shillings and threepence." What would
be have said, had he been told a trade existed
where five shillings turned produces a penny;
1. rued again, five farthings more; and its posses-
sors held up to execration merely on account of their
esorbiteut genie I Would he not have affirmed
t'int five, two and a half, and one and a quarter,
per cent. meaut, in the common acceptation of the
...,rd, ono twentieth. fortieth, or eightieth part of a
triedred ; and that the man's heart was as bad as
argument, who' would multiply them by the
0!a%6 in the veer, only to charge a trader with
cueing three hundred and sixty-five times us much
wore profit as the term in its universal meaning
supposed to imply f Every candid mind. lam
cti:lsinced, will join in the conclusion, and that
yeti, fair, will admit this vox et pritterea tail;
for it is a sound, and nothing but a sound, which
hai brought on the trade so mush prejudice, and
is the origin of so much scandal : never was gronnd-
eel in truth, and has now received its perfect re-
'citation. lam not sanguine enough to carry my
ex:wctations further. Those who so vehemently
urged, and so little believed this sophism, are not
iiely to become converts to the truth they hate.—
They will be more apt to advert to another of
t':eir favourite am! equally fallacious tenets—that a
Pawnbroker inflhem excessive gains by turning his
t•orital two cr three times in the year. I have my-
seit been told, by those who should know better,
that this increases their profit in a duplex or triple
proportion. Let me intreat you to examine the
Leos. Pawnbroking is, to all intents and purposes,
the:minting under certain regulations. The man
who borrows fur a mouth, and redeems at the end
of rt. pays but a •month's interest—if he holds the
money a month and a half, two months'— three, or
env other period, the like regulation prevails: her-
riag then the trivial gain which it hits been allow-
ed redemption in the first month affords, what, I
would ask, but trouble does this receipt and re-in-
estment of a Pawnbroker's capital produce
As it is exactly sin:ilar, allow me to compare it
tr ith a banking concern. If the members of that
rufeesion lend nn hundred pounds on a note for
twelve months, they receive five pounds, as the in-
terest for it; but if they advance it on monthly bills,
thay can charge oil the expiration of each of them
but eight shillings and four pence; and consequent-
ly, though they have turned this part of their ca-
pital twelve times, and their labour has been in lb*
exit ratio, their profits have not experilrnced the
increase of one farthing..
wist to meet every objection I csa,pessibly
anticipate has caused this digression. r tliwet the
remarks it contains are not entirely irrelevant to
the subject we were considering; and that you will
return to it more firmly persuaded of the utter in-
adequacy of any Pawnbroker's profit—not in a
large way of business—to defray his nnavoidable
expense. But lest a doubt should still remain on
your Mimi, I beg leave to suggest the following re-
tlectiong:—That in the year 1745, their profit was
established by Parliament, at a monthly rate of
four-peace in the pound ; and that every subse-
quent Act of the Legislature has tended to diminish
that *Bowsaw. Here then is a business, whose
gains were parsimoniously apportioned to the ex-
penses of living in those days, left for the long pe-
riod ofsevaterv-etve YEAR/ to meet every addi-
tional tax svithout help, experiencing no favourable
change, and looking in vain for indulgence! I
am sure 1 am correct, in saying one-third part of the
money' it now requires would have maintained a
family then. Bread in the month that Bill was
rd 'was one shilling and sage* peace the ?ECK
a 7; git has since been one shilling and ten pence
Atpenny, sod is.aots mei shilling the aummata.
aye look at the insleetionoey too; art that' 130 d
lied, star ikalVdmi liatePuNds wef', then ho high