Few probably among our readers have had much experience on the subject
of the present sketch--a Chinese pawnshop. Indeed, for others than
students of the manners and customs of China, there is not much that
is attractive in these haunts of poverty and vice. The same mighty
misery, which is to be seen in England passing in and out of
mysterious-looking doors distinguished by a swinging sign of three
golden balls, is not wanting to the pawnshop in China, though the act
of pledging personal property in order to raise money is regarded more
in the light of a business transaction than it is with us, and less as
one which it is necessary to conceal from the eyes of the world at
large. Nothing is more common than for the owner of a large wardrobe
of furs to pawn them one and all at the beginning of summer and to
leave them there until the beginning of the next winter. The
pawnbrokers in their own interest take the greatest care of all
pledges, which, if not redeemed, will become their own property,
though they repudiate all claims for damage done while in their
possession; and the owner of the goods by payment of the interest
charged is released from all trouble and annoyance.
Pawnshops in China are divided into three classes, one of which has
since the days of the T'ai-p'ings totally disappeared from all parts
over which the tide of rebellion passed. This is the _tien tang_,
where property could be left for three years without forfeit, and to
establish which it was necessary to obtain special authority from the
Board of Revenue in Peking. At present there are the _chih tang_ and
the _ssu ya_, both common to all parts of China, and to these we shall
confine our remarks. The former, which may be considered as the
pawnshop proper, is a private institution as far as its business is
concerned, but licensed on payment of a small fee by the local
officials, and regulated in its workings by certain laws which emanate
from the Emperor himself. A limit of sixteen months is assigned,
within which pledges must be redeemed or they become the property of
the pawnbroker; and the interest charged, formerly four per cent., is
now fixed at three per cent. _per month_. Before the license
above-mentioned can be obtained, security must be provided for the
existence of sufficient capital to guard against a sudden or a
fraudulent collapse. For any article not forthcoming when the owner
desires to redeem it, double the amount of the original loan is
recoverable from the pawnbroker. Should any owner of a pledge chance
to lose his ticket by theft or otherwise, he may proceed to the
pawnshop with two substantial securities, and if he can recollect the
number, date, and amount of the transaction, another ticket is issued
to him with which he may recover his property at once, or at any time
within the original sixteen months. Pawn-tickets are not unseldom
offered as pledges, and are readily received, as the loan is never
more than half the value of the deposit; and tickets thus obtained are
often sold either to a third person or perhaps to the pawnbroker who
issued them in the first instance. Formerly, when the interest payable
was four per cent. per month, it was a standing rule that during the
last three months in every year, i.e., the winter season, pledges
might be redeemed at a diminished rate, so that poor people should
have a better chance of getting back their wadded clothes to protect
them from the inclemency of frost and cold. But since the rate of
interest has been reduced to three per cent. this custom has almost
passed away; its observance is, however, sometimes called for by a
special proclamation of the local magistrate when the necessaries of
life are unusually dear, and the times generally are bad. The
following is a translation of a ticket issued by one of these shops,
which may often be recognised in a Chinese city by the character for
_pawn_ painted on an enormous scale in some conspicuous position:--"In
accordance with instructions from the authorities, interest will be
charged at the rate of three per cent. [per month] for a period of
sixteen months, at the expiration of which the pledge, if not
redeemed, will become the property of the pawnbroker, to be disposed
of as he shall think fit. All damages to the deposit arising from war,
the operations of nature, insects, rats, mildew, &c., to be accepted
by both sides as the will of Heaven. Deposits will be returned on
presentation of the proper ticket without reference to the possession
of it by the applicant." Besides this, the name and address of the
pawnshop, a number, description of the article pledged, amount lent,
and finally the date, are entered in their proper places upon the
ticket, which is stamped as a precaution against forgery with the
private stamp of the pawnshop. Jewels are not received as pledges, and
gold and silver only under certain restrictions.
The other class is not recognised by the authorities, and its very
existence is illegal, though of course winked at by a venial
executive. Shops of this kind, which may be known by the character for
_keep_, are very much frequented by the poor. A more liberal loan is
obtainable than at the licensed pawnbroker's, but on the other hand
the rate of interest charged is very much more severe. Pledges are
only received for three months, and on the ticket issued there is no
stipulation about damage to the deposit. No satisfaction is to be got
in case of fraud or injustice to either side: a magistrate would
refuse to hear a case either for or against one of these unlicensed
shops. They carry on their trade in daily fear of the rowdies who
infest every Chinese town, granting loans to these ruffians on
valueless articles, which in many cases are returned without payment
either of interest or principal, thereby securing themselves from the
disturbances which "bare poles" who have nothing to lose are ever
ready to create at a moment's notice, and which would infallibly hand
them over to the clutches of hungry and rapacious officials. The
counters over which all business is transacted are from six to eight
feet high, strongly made, and of such a nature that to scale them
would be a very difficult matter, and to grab anything with the view
of making a bolt for the street utterly and entirely impossible. In a
Chinese city, where there is no police force to look after the safety
of life and property, and where everybody prefers to let a thief pass
rather than risk being called as a witness before the magistrate, it
becomes necessary to guard against such contingencies as these. As
things are now, pawnshops may be considered the most flourishing
institutions in the country; and in these establishments many even of
the highest officials invest savings squeezed from the districts
entrusted to their paternal care.