Origins

The origins of pawnbroking can be traced back over 3,000 years to the Chinese, and it is pawnbroking we have to thank for the discovery of the Americas - Christopher Columbus' voyage was funded largely by the proceeds from pawning Queen Isabella of Spain's jewels! The industry as we know it today, however, can be traced back to fifteenth-century Italy when the noble Medici family was a dominant financial power.

When the family split in two, one half became bankers and the other, pawnbrokers. The pawnbroking side of the family took with it half of the family crest, which incorporated the now instantly recognisable sign of the pawnbroker, the famous three gold balls. It should come as no surprise that the origins of banking and pawnbroking are so closely entwined - pawnbroking is, after all, simply another form of banking.

In Britain in the latter stages of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century there were nearly as many pawnbrokers as public houses, lending money on anything from bed linen and cutlery to the most famous of all father's 'Sunday best' suit. If pawnbroking had earned itself an unfair reputation in the past, there is no doubt that its image has changed enormously over the past twenty years or so.

Many customers now prefer this convenient form of High Street borrowing, due to many banks turning their backs on consumers during hardship brought on by the credit crunch.

Pawnbroking Today

Today's pawnbroking customers range widely. Certainly, they are ordinary people, who may wish to borrow a small sum of money for a short period of time. Other customers use this service to fund building projects or other large plans.

Very much like an overdraft is used the service can be a real 'tide me over' until payday situation. With more and more people paid monthly the pressure on managing short-term cashflow became more difficult.

Pawnbroking customers pledge property that they own and consider the loan simply turning their goods temporarily back into cash as they once were.

In other words customers feel they are simply, in effect, borrowing from themselves. No fuss, no favours, no extending or creating unsecured credit with the threat of negative credit ratings or 'blacklisting' as it is known if the loan is not repaid. Fully secured, straightforward and transparent and from themselves.

No wonder so many customers and regulatory bodies see pawnbroking as 'just another way of borrowing money'.