In more modern times the pawnbroker often has a sullen image. We don’t realize the importance that the pawnbroker played in the extension of consumer credit. In fact, without the pawnbroker, many famous works of art and novels would never have been published. The pawnbroker was the agent that advanced sums of money for supplies for artists and others to carry out their work, among other things.
The English term of ‘my uncle’ as a euphemism for the pawnbroker dates back to the middle of the seventeenth century. Among the first recorded pawnbroker operations are the one in Berwick in 1598 and Stony Stratford in 1624. By 1707, The Charitable Corporation was founded to conduct pawnbroking on a large scale in England. By 1731, around the time when the Common Council of the City of London was asking the Government to dissolve the corporation, the Charitable Corporations cashier and another official vanished with and undetermined amount of money. All that was known for certain was that only £30,000 of the original £600,000 was all that remained.
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© 2006 Myvesta.org.uk
The English term of ‘my uncle’ as a euphemism for the pawnbroker dates back to the middle of the seventeenth century. Among the first recorded pawnbroker operations are the one in Berwick in 1598 and Stony Stratford in 1624. By 1707, The Charitable Corporation was founded to conduct pawnbroking on a large scale in England. By 1731, around the time when the Common Council of the City of London was asking the Government to dissolve the corporation, the Charitable Corporations cashier and another official vanished with and undetermined amount of money. All that was known for certain was that only £30,000 of the original £600,000 was all that remained.
Subscribe to this blog feed for more stories on the history of the pawnbroker.
© 2006 Myvesta.org.uk