Mount of Piety - History

History

This fifteenth-century institution originated in Italy and was developed in cities as a reform against money lending, an early form of organized charity.

The public office was organized and operated by the Catholic Churches and offered financial loans at a moderate interest to those in need. The organizing principle, based on the benefit of the borrower and not the profit of the lender, was viewed as a lesser evil than money lending. The organization of the Monte di Pietà depended on acquiring a monte, a collection of funds from voluntary donations by financially privileged people who had no intentions of regaining their money. The people in need would then be able to come to the Monte di Pietà and give an item of value in exchange for a monetary loan. The term of the loan would last the course of a year and would only be worth about two-thirds of the borrower’s item value. A pre-determined interest rate would be applied to the loan and these profits were used to pay the expenses of operating the Monte di Pietà.

Such organizations spread throughout the continent of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, a credit to the preaching of Franciscans and their condemnation of usury, with later support by both Dominican preachers and humanist intellectuals of the fifteenth century.