Shane’s – The Pawn Shop, Inc

Pawnshop

by: Cultural-China.com

Pawnshops offer short-term loans on interest to borrowers. Citizens in straitened circumstances or businesses with a slow turnover would leave their clothes or gold, silver and house title deeds, as a pledge in order to borrow from the pawnshop an amount of cash lower in value than the collateral to meet emergencies. However, borrowers had to pay back the capital and interest, as well as redeem their articles within the time limit, or the pawnshop claimed ownership of the pledge. In olden days, those who ran pawnshops were either merchants rich in capital, or local authorities and courts.

This illustrated pawnshop sign is a standing black pillar, above which is a coated golden dragon-shaped carved crown. Under the dragon-head is a string ol coin models with a sewn square red silk pendant, implying that the wealth of inexhaustible capital flowed like water flowing from a dragon’s mouth.

China’s pawning business started at the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries. In the 12th century, pawn guilds were set up in some metropolises. The 19th and early 20th centuries saw the peak of the pawn trade, when Beijing alone was home to over 150 pawnshops.