Pawnshops (entry)

Categories / Economy/Finances and Credit
PAWNSHOPS, credit institutions granting loans against movable property. The first pawnshops were founded in St. Petersburg in 1729 as Emperor Peter the Great commanded that the Mint Office should grant interest-bearing loans against gold and silver items. The State Loan Bank, which was required to provide loans against valuables from 1754 and the St. Petersburg Loan Treasury also known as the Public Pawnshop opened in 1772 were the only two institutions granting small loans against personal items till 1790, except for private pawnshops. I. I. Betsky was in charge of drawing up regulations for loan treasuries and made a special report on pawnshops in 1767. The Petersburg Loan Treasury was initially located in the building of Novovoskresensky Convent and moved to Kazanskaya Street in 1811 to stay there for almost 100 years, finally relocating to 74 Fontanka River Embankment. The Company for Storing and Pawning Various Movables and Goods founded at 47 Gorokhovaya Street and later renamed into the 1st St. Petersburg Pawnshop charged different interest rates for granting loans and storing pawned goods. Private pawnshops sprang up in St. Petersburg in the late 19th century on the initiative and due to the efforts of entrepreneurs. The Society for Pledging Movable Property founded at 72 Moika River Embankment in 1869 opened 8 branches by 1917: Nevskoe, Liteinoe, Zabalkanskoe, Kolomenskoe, Znamenskoe, Panteleimonovskoe, Kamennoostrovskoe, and Vasileostrovskoe. The Petersburg Private Pawnshop founded at 17 Vladimirsky Avenue in 1870 had 7 branches by 1917: Nikolskoe, Petrogradskoe, Rozhdestvenskoe, Nevskoe, Kazanskoe, Vladimirskoe, and Panteleimonovskoe. The Petersburg Capital's Pawnshop opened at 14 Vladimirsky Avenue in 1888 had 2 branches by 1917: Vladimirskoe and Vasileostrovskoe. Finally, the Northern Pawnshop opened at 19 Vladimirsky Avenue in 1911 had 2 branches by 1917. The City Pawnshop was founded at 40 Voznesensky Avenue in 1899 with the initial fixed capital of 1 million roubles following the decision of the City Duma. After it was opened, private pawnshops decreased their interest rates making secured loans widely available. The City Pawnshop had 5 branches by 1917: Central Branch, Petrogradskoe, Moskovskoe, Liteinoe, and Kolomenskoe. While the major line of activity of pawnshops was granting loans in cash against movable property as their major activity, loan treasuries gave loans against gold, silver, and jewels only. The City Pawnshop and joint-stock pawnshops also accepted clothes such as dresses and furs, utensils, etc. as pledge collecting 12% on average apart from storage expenses and pledge insurance. The loan treasury offered the lowest interest rates of 6.11-6.32 % due to cheap credits granted by the State Bank and rather expensive pledges. The Petrograd Loan Treasury was liquidated on April 29, 1919, and all valuables were transferred to the State Depository of the USSR. All private pawnshops were municipalized and placed under the control of the Soviet of Public Services as decreed by the Presidium of the Petrograd Soviet on August 1, 1919. The City Pawnshop was closed down in November 1920. After the New Economic Policy was introduced, however, a decision was taken in September 1922 to establish another city pawnshop, which was opened at 72 Moika Embankment on March 2, 1923 as the Petrograd Communal Pawnshop and reorganised into a joint-stock company – the Leningrad City Pawnshop – in October 1924. The City Pawnshop granted loans against gold, silver, and other goods, furs, carpets, curtains, clothes, sewing machines, samovars, and utensils and accepted goods for storage. This pawnshop was reorganised into the Leningrad Communal Pawnshop according to the decision of the Presidium of the Leningrad Soviet on February 23, 1929. The pawnshop had 7 operating branches, 5 of them pawning clothes and taking them for storage, the other 2 selling overdue pledges. There were 5 offices operating in the city by 1940: Oktyabrskaya Office opened in 1923, Petrogradskaya Office — in 1926, Kuybyshevskaya Office — in 1929, Smolninskaya Office — in 1930, and Vasileostrovskaya Office — in 1931. Carrying on its activities during the siege, the pawnshop started developing actively in the post-war period, granting short-term loans to city residents. The former Petrogradskaya Office at 20 Bolshaya Pushkarskaya Street accommodated the Central (City United) Pawnshop according to the decree of the Executive Committee of the Leningrad Soviet of Working People's Deputies on February 22, 1960. Private institutions sprang up after 1991 to provide various credit services to city residents. There were over 70 pawnshop chains operating in St. Petersburg by 2002.

References: Историческая справка о ссудных казнах за все время их существования. СПб., 1912; Кириллов И. А. Ломбарды в России. Репр. изд. 1922 г. М., 1992.

A. L. Dmitriev. Betskoy (Betsky) Ivan Ivanovich
Peter II, Emperor
Bolshaya Pushkarskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 20
Fontanka River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 74
Gorokhovaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 47
Kazanskaya Street/Saint Petersburg, city
Moika River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 72
Vladimirsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 14
Vladimirsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 19
Vladimirsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 17
Voznesensky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 40
Историческая справка о ссудных казнах за все время их существования. СПб., 1912
Кириллов И. А. Ломбарды в России. Репринт. изд. 1922 г. М., 1992 City Duma
State Bank
Siege of 1941-44
1772