Historical evolution of pawn

Pawnbroking is one of the oldest industries in human beings, and it can be called the originator of modern financial industry and the predecessor of mortgage bank. China is one of the earliest countries in the world where pawnbroking activities took place and pawnbroking industry was formed. According to textual research, China's pawnbroking industry sprouted in the Han Dynasty, began in the Shouku of Buddhist temples in the Southern Dynasties, flourished in the Tang and Five Dynasties, was established in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, declined in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, was banned in the 1950s, revived in the contemporary reform and opening up, and experienced the historical ups and downs of 1600 years.

1978 Pawnshops resumed business after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee. 1995 The Ministry of Public Security promulgated the Measures for the Administration of Public Security in Pawnshops (Order No.26 of the Ministry of Public Security). 1In April, 1996, the People's Bank of China promulgated the Interim Measures for the Administration of Pawnshops, making it clear that pawnbrokers are non-bank financial institutions and the pawnbroker industry is supervised by the Ministry of Public Security. After 2000, in order to meet the requirements of financial system reform, with the consent of the State Council, the People's Bank of China transferred the pawnshop as a special industrial and commercial enterprise to the former State Economic and Trade Commission for centralized management. In August of 20001year, the former State Economic and Trade Commission formulated and promulgated the Measures for the Administration of Pawnshops (Order No.22 of the State Economic and Trade Commission) according to the development of the pawnbroker industry. After the institutional reform in 2003, the Ministry of Commerce was responsible for the supervision of the pawnbroker industry. In 2005, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Public Security issued the Measures for the Administration of Pawnshops (Order No.8 of the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Public Security (2005)), which came into effect on April 1 2005. The Measures for the Administration of Pawnshops (Order No.22 of the State Economic and Trade Commission) and the Measures for the Administration of Public Security of Pawnshops (Order No.26 of the Ministry of Public Security) shall be abolished at the same time.

In the Qing Dynasty, pawnbroking extended from cities to rural areas and became an important lending organization all over the country. At the time of Kangxi, according to the tax data, there were at least 20,000 pawns in China. During the Qianlong period, there were six or seven hundred pawnshops opened by officials and people inside and outside Beijing. After the Opium War, due to the increasing poverty of people's livelihood in urban and rural areas, the pawn industry was divided into different levels, such as pawn, pawn, pledge, pawn and pawn.

The largest is the pawnshop, which has more capital, long redemption period and light interest. It accepts real estate and movable property as collateral, and there is no limit to the amount of mortgage. Pawnshops only accept chattel mortgage, and there is a limit on the amount of payment; Once again, it is a quality store (called quality in Shanxi and Anhui, and squeezing in Guangdong and Fujian); Pawnshops are the smallest, with the shortest redemption period and the highest interest. Due to the increasing amount of taxes and donations collected by the Qing government, the share varies according to the scale of business. In order to reduce the burden and get rid of the restrictions of pawnshop rules, the new pawn is called quality pawn shop or pawnshop, and part of the original pawn is renamed pawn shop, so it is difficult to distinguish the boundaries.

In addition, there is a kind of so-called "Daidang", also known as "Daisui" or "Jiedian", which is mostly located in towns and villages, such as a branch of big pawn, called "Bendai"; Signing a contract with a pawnshop to operate the pledge agency business is called "customer agency". Borrowers go to pawn shops to borrow money, mainly to meet the urgent needs of family life, but also for small-scale operation of individual small producers or farmers' production.

When borrowing money, you must first send it to the physical inspection as a pledge, and the pawnshop will pay a "pawn ticket", which will indicate the price of the goods and collateral as a voucher for the pawnshop to redeem the collateral when it expires. In order not to be recognized by outsiders, pawn tickets are written in special fonts. When things are new clothes, they must be written as old clothes or marked as "tattered"; Write copper and lead for gold and silver as usual; For utensils, use the word "waste". According to the nature of collateral and the scale of pawn shops, the loan term, loan amount and interest level vary from place to place. The term usually ranges from six months to two years. Most of the loan amount is about 50% of the collateral value. If it cannot be redeemed at maturity, it will become a "dead pawn" and the collateral will be confiscated by the pawnshop.

According to the official regulations of the Qing Dynasty, the pawn interest should not exceed three points per month, but in fact it is greatly exceeded, and the interest should be calculated monthly. In a few days, plus January interest. Pawnshops also exploit pawnshops in the way of "light out and heavy in" or "full in at a discount" while collecting money and paying. Lending cash is only paid at 94% discount, 95% discount or even 10 discount, and the customer must pay in full when redeeming, and the interest is calculated at full cost; In addition, there are various additional costs. Moreover, the smaller the value of collateral, the shorter the redemption period and the highest interest, so the poor working people are also the most exploited. Pawnshops in towns and villages also use grain as capital or collude with large hoarders to carry out speculative manipulation activities such as grain lending and trading, and farmers have to bear physical losses and import and export price differences. The cruel exploitation of the pawnbroking industry aroused the resistance of the broad masses of people. Although the government protects and supports pawn shops, incidents such as looting and burning pawn shops still occur from time to time.

In the early days, pawnbroking was mostly wholly owned, with capital ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands. It is almost a specialty of Shanxi-Shaanxi merchants (commonly known as Shanxi-Shaanxi gangs) and Huizhou merchants. Feudal officials and aristocratic bureaucrats also regarded it as a favorable place for floating capital. The Ministry of Interior has opened more than a dozen official pawn shops in Beijing, and local governments have also set up their own pawn shops through officials. Treasury and local treasury often allocate some official funds to dealers to earn interest, which is called interest-bearing bank, and the interest rate is about 78% to one point. It is not uncommon for big bureaucrats and businessmen to invest in pawn for profit. Xu Gan, the minister of punishments in Kangxi dynasty, once handed this silver to Chen, a cloth dealer, to operate a pawn; The Qianlong dynasty was a college student in Shenyang, with 75 pawn shops; During Guangxu period, there were more than 20 pawnshops in comprador Dashanghu, which operated in different provinces.

Pawnshops embody the capital activities of usury in the trinity of bureaucrats, landlords and businessmen. The deposit of official funds with interest was once a powerful pillar of this usury activity; General pawnbrokers can also issue their own bank notes and banknotes as credit instruments, so their loan amount (commonly known as "shelf capital") far exceeds their own capital. Later, the official bank opened, the business between banks developed, and the official deposits decreased. With the support of banks and banks, the original pawn shops and pawn shops gradually declined. In the 14th year of Guangxu (1888), about 7,000 people pawned in various provinces outside Beijing, much less than in the previous period. 19 12 years, the number of registered pawns in China decreased to more than 4,000. The number of pawn shops is increasing, and the focus of business is gradually shifting from cities to towns.