XXIII. Letter from Sir Henry Ellis, K.H., Secretary, to Hudson Gurney, Esq., V.P., accompanying a Scheme proposed in the Time of Charles the First for establishing a Mount of Piety in England

Extract

Few persons, generally speaking, are aware that establishments called Monti di Pièta, institutions for lending money at a moderate interest to necessitous persons upon pledges, have long existed in Italy. They originated in the fifteenth century, in consequence of the excessive usury of the Jews and Lombards, who sometimes went so far as to take an interest of twenty-five per cent. The earliest of these Institutions is believed to have been that at Fadua founded in 1491. Leo the Tenth soon after adopted the plan at Rome, as a public benevolent institution under the inspection of the Government.