Chinese Sketches by Herbert A. Giles — Read

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.