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Show ITALY HAD FIRST PAWNSHOP From That Country the System Gradually Gradu-ally Spread Over the Rest of th Civilized World. The French call them monts-clc-plete, but no satisfactory explanation for this nomenclature is forthcoming. The es-tahlishment es-tahlishment of municipal pawnshops Id Franco was a'rtentled with more dlfll-culty dlfll-culty than was the case in other countries. coun-tries. It is from Italy that the Idea of municipal mu-nicipal pawnshops spread over the rest of Europe. A municipal pawnshop was set up In' Madrid In the year 1705, when, a priest with very little capital opened up as an "uncle." The system was tried at Avignon in 1077, but it was not until the year 1777 that Paria itself was provided with a mont-dc-piete. The national assembly upset the monopoly and the business passed into private hands. The extortions of the pawnbrokers in time led, however, to a demand for the ro-estuhlisluneut of the governmental institutions. Iu ISOfl Napoleon re-established the monopoly, regulating it by laws that are still In force. The interest charged amounta to about 7 per cent. In Paris the mont-de-pieto is In effect a department of the administration, but in the provinces It is a municipal monopoly. |