The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-05-18
AGAINST USURY.
THE REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE
PARIS MONT Oh PETE.
Checking the ExtOrtiOns of Pawnbro<ers
by System of Small Public Loans
"A Fixed Rate of Interest AL
lowed - Security.
[Chicaeo News.l


How to escape paying usuriOus interest
and forfeiture of goods is a question that
deeply concerns thousands of the very
poor and other thousands of the needy
better classes, who, having no other re-
source, are compelled to support and
maintain a system of usurY that in this
city alone, TO say nothing of the entire
country, annually drain millions of dol
lars from the poorer classes to fatten and
enrich the usurers. There is an oppor
Eunity for charitable and philanthrOpic
minds to devise plan whereby poor peo-
pie may obtain small loans and yet escape
usury, extortion, and contiscation of their
property. There is chance for legisla-
tors to devise a system which will be of
more benefit to the poor than all of the
appropriations for charitable institutions
combined.
British philanthropists and statesmen
have already turned their attention to this
subject, and an effort is being made in
England to establish small public loan
system similar to the mont de piete of
France WI ich for many years has been
one of the greatest blessings ed, Dyed by
the poorer classes of the French people.
Even the Chinese are ahead of their sup
posed more enlightened AID English neigh.
bors in the matter of relieving the poor
from the curse of usury. In China there
is in operation very ancient system IN
der the direction of civil dignitaries, by
which the poor may negotiate loans upon
personal securities at a rate of interest
varying from 2 to 3 per cent. Even back
ward hussia has a system of loans to the
poor at per cent interest while in
America the rate is from 125 to 500 per
cent In fact the pawnbrokers and money
lenders regulate their own rates, and by
various devices evade all laws intended to
check usury.
ID = L. n411 -,
the Rue des Blancs MonteauX, and there
are two large branches, one in the Rue
Bonaparte and the other in the Rue de Ia
RoQuette. The mont di piete of Paris
was opened Jan. !, 171S, and authorized
in 1919 10 make loan guaranteed by the
hospital general 1t was closed during
the revolution, but the usurious rates
charged by money lenders during the
reign of terror caused its reopening in
1903 to be hailed with joy by the poor.
In 1881 it was placed urder charge of an
administrative council, and in 1851 all
mont di piete were placed under the su
perintendence of a select committee Be
sides the main bank and the branches
there are in Paris over thirty agents ap.
pointed by the administration scattered
over the city. The mont di piete makes
advances of from francs upward az
rate fixed in 1854 at Il per cent per an
mum In 1873 the rate was D per cent,
and it varies a trihe with the money
market
No money is advanced except upon
securities, the value of which is deter
mined by appraisers. On articles of gold
and silver, such as watches, rings, etc,
four-fifths of the value is advanced, and
upon other articles. such as furniture and
wearing apparel two thirds of the value
A receipt for the article is given the
owner, who must prove identity in order
- III redeemed
cles are sold at public sale at the end of
fourteen months and the surplus money,
if any, is paid to the owner if applied for
within three wears. The annual receipts
and expenditures of the Paris mont di
piete for several years were respectively
about 80, 600, 600 francs, with balance OF
23O. 900 francs per aunum in favor Of the
institution. Last year the loans and
profits were largely Increased.
The poor patrOniZe the mont di piete in
the largest numbers when times are hard.
The largest number of applications for re-
demptions are made Saturdays and Just
before New Year 5 and Easter. There are
now about fifty mont iii pietes in rance,
with q capital of about 60, 900, 900 francs,
making loans of about 20, 600, 900. There
are five entirely supported by charity at
which the loans are gratuitOus. Holland,
Belgium and Germany have mont oil
pietes. which are of immense bene-
lit to the poor. In Germany the
rate during the Franco Prussian
war went up to 10 and u
Der cent but is now being gradually
diminished. The mont di piete was first
established in continental Europe, and its
object was to deliver the needy from the
usurious charges of the Jewish and Lom-
bard money lenders. One is said TO have
been founded in the year 1900 a. Pressing
Bavaria, by charitable association under
the sanction of Pope Innocent III, but 1t
is more generally believed that the first
mont di piete was established in Ierugia
in the latter half of the 18th century and
derived its name from Monte di .'iea, the
hill upon which it Was situated
Modern Poetry.
New Albany Ind) Ledger.l
Much modern poetry ought to be &C