THE  PROVIDENT  LOAN   SOCIETY,                             35

make small loans to the poor. These institutions (existing in
many cities of Italy, Spain, Prance, Austria, Germany, Holland,
etc.) are under government or municipal supervision. They
advance money to anybody against wearing apparel and other
easily movable articles of daily use for not longer than one
year. The rate of interest is fixed just high enough to cover
the expenses connected with the .keeping of the pledges and
the regular running expenses (including a moderate return on
the required capital) necessitated by the rather laborious work.
Of course, the larger the capital of such an institution, and the
larger its business, the lower can be its interest charge, as there
is a certain minimum of salaries, and office rent, etc., which has
to be incurred, however small the transactions may be.

The countries cited above have all passed general laws, regu¬
lating the routine and charges of these public pawn institutions,
and there are some cities which actually do the business at a
loss, for which the citizens think they are largely compensated
by the good done.

King Frederick William of Prussia, in 1834, even went so far
as to authorize a Royal Loan Office at Berlin, " to remedy," as
he says in his edict, " a want which is generally recognized, and
as the municipality of Berlin has not yet found it in its interest
to establish a public loan office under its administration and in
accordance with the principles of my own ordinance of 1826."

To give an idea of the extent of the good which such an in¬
stitution can do, on a business basis, we give a few flgures' from
the Report of the " Mont de Piete," of Paris, for the year 1891
(this institution was originally opened in 1778, and has been
confirmed and upheld since that time by all the various gov¬
ernments that France has had).

PEANCS.

The "Mont de Piete" of Paris loaned in 1891 the amount of
about........................................................38,000,000

There were renewed from the previous year loans to the amount
of about ......................................................22,000,000

Making a total of................................60,000,000

or $12,000,000 —against the pledge of 2,300,000 different articles,
making the average loan less than 30 francs ($6).

It is the custom of this institution to give the borrower from

1 All figures in this sketch are approximate figures.