According to the Pawn Management Measures (Order No.8 of the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Public Security, which came into effect on April 1 2005), the so-called pawning refers to the act of pawning pawns as pawns' movable property and property rights or pawns as pawns' real estate, paying a certain percentage of fees, acquiring pawns, and paying pawns' interest, repaying pawns and redeeming pawns within the agreed time limit.
The form of loan with physical mortgage, engaging in usury exploitation, generally refers to the general term for operating pawnshops, pawnshops and other profit-making institutions, also known as quality warehouse, warehouse release and shop release.
In the Qing Dynasty, pawnbroking extended from cities to rural areas and became an important lending organization all over the country. At the time of Kangxi, according to the tax data, there were at least 20,000 pawns in China. When Qianlong was in Beijing, there were six or seven hundred pawnshops opened by officials and people inside and outside Beijing. After the Opium War, due to the increasing poverty of people's livelihood in urban and rural areas, the pawn industry was divided into different levels, such as pawn, pawn, pledge, pawn and pawn. The largest is the pawnshop, which has more capital, long redemption period and light interest. It accepts real estate and movable property as collateral, and there is no limit to the amount of mortgage. Pawnshops only accept chattel mortgage, and there is a limit on the amount of payment; Once again, it is a quality store (called quality in Shanxi and Anhui, and squeezing in Guangdong and Fujian); Pawnshops are the smallest, with the shortest redemption period and the highest interest. Due to the increasing amount of taxes and donations collected by the Qing government, the share varies according to the size of the business. In order to reduce the burden and get rid of the restrictions of pawn shops, merchants later set up new pawns, which were called pawn shops or pawn shops. Some of the original pawns were renamed pawn shops, and the boundaries were difficult to distinguish. In addition, there is a kind of so-called "Daidang", also known as "Daisui" or "Jiedian", which is mostly located in towns and villages, such as a branch of big pawn, called "Bendai"; Signing a contract with a pawnshop to operate the pledge agency business is called "customer agency".
Borrowers go to pawn shops to borrow money, mainly to meet the urgent needs of family life, but also for small-scale operation of individual small producers or farmers' production. When borrowing money, you must first send it to the physical inspection as a pledge, and the pawnshop will pay a "pawn ticket", which will indicate the price of the goods and collateral as a voucher for the pawnshop to redeem the collateral when it expires. In order not to be recognized by outsiders, pawn tickets are written in special fonts. When things are new clothes, they must be written as old clothes or marked as "tattered"; Write copper and lead for gold and silver as usual; For utensils, use the word "waste". According to the nature of collateral and the scale of pawn shops, the loan term, loan amount and interest level vary from place to place. The term usually ranges from six months to two years. Most of the loan amount is about 50% of the collateral value. If it cannot be redeemed at maturity, it will become a "dead pawn" and the collateral will be confiscated by the pawnshop. According to the official regulations of the Qing Dynasty, the pawn interest should not exceed three points per month, but in fact it is greatly exceeded, and the interest should be calculated monthly. In a few days, plus January interest. Pawnshops also exploit pawnshops in the way of "light out and heavy in" or "full in at a discount" while collecting money and paying. Lending cash is only paid at 94% discount, 95% discount or even 10 discount, and the customer must pay in full when redeeming, and the interest is calculated at full cost; In addition, there are various additional costs. Moreover, the smaller the value of collateral, the shorter the redemption period and the highest interest, so the poor working people are also the most exploited. Pawnshops in towns and villages also use grain as capital or collude with large hoarders to carry out speculative manipulation activities such as grain lending and trading, and farmers have to bear physical losses and import and export price differences. The cruel exploitation of the pawnbroking industry aroused the resistance of the broad masses of people. Although the government protects and supports pawn shops, incidents such as looting and burning pawn shops still occur from time to time.
In the early days, pawnbroking was mostly wholly owned, with capital ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands. It is almost a specialty of Shanxi-Shaanxi merchants (commonly known as Shanxi-Shaanxi gangs) and Huizhou merchants. Feudal officials and aristocratic bureaucrats also regarded it as a favorable place for floating capital. The Ministry of Interior has opened more than a dozen official pawn shops in Beijing, and local governments have also set up their own pawn shops through officials. Treasury and local treasury often allocate some official funds to dealers to earn interest, which is called interest-bearing bank, and the interest rate is about 78% to one point. It is not uncommon for big bureaucrats and businessmen to invest in pawn for profit. Xu Gan, the minister of punishments in Kangxi dynasty, once handed this silver to Chen, a cloth dealer, to operate a pawn; The Qianlong dynasty was a college student in Shenyang, with 75 pawn shops; During Guangxu period, there were more than 20 pawnshops in comprador Dashanghu, which operated in different provinces. Pawnshops embody the capital activities of usury in the trinity of bureaucrats, landlords and businessmen. The deposit of official funds with interest was once a powerful pillar of this usury activity; General pawnbrokers can also issue their own bank notes and banknotes as credit instruments, so their loan amount (commonly known as "shelf capital") far exceeds their own capital. Later, the official bank opened, the business between banks developed, and the official deposits decreased. With the support of banks and banks, the original pawn shops and pawn shops gradually declined. In the 14th year of Guangxu (1888), about 7,000 people pawned in various provinces outside Beijing, much less than in the previous period. 19 12 years, the number of registered pawns in China decreased to more than 4,000. The number of pawn shops is increasing, and the focus of business is gradually shifting from cities to towns.
At present, the management of registered pawn shops is very strict, and it needs to be approved by the Ministry of Commerce, which will approve and issue a pawn business license. After receiving the Pawnshop Business License, the applicant shall apply to the public security organ of the local people's government at the county level for the Pawnshop Special Industry License within 10 days. After receiving the Special Trade License, the applicant shall apply to the administrative department for industry and commerce for registration within 10 days, and can start business only after obtaining the business license.
The minimum registered capital of a pawnshop is 3 million yuan; Engaged in real estate mortgage pawn business, the minimum registered capital is 5 million yuan; The minimum registered capital of those engaged in the property right pledge pawn business is100000 yuan. The minimum amount of registered capital of a pawnshop is the paid-in monetary capital of shareholders, excluding physical objects, industrial property rights, non-patented technologies and land use rights.
Pawnshops shall establish and improve the following safety systems:
(a) Check the system for receiving, updating and redeeming documents (photos);
(2) pawn inspection and storage system;
(3) The wanted investigation and verification system;
(4) Suspicious reporting system;
(five) equipped with security personnel system.
The building and operating facilities of the pawnshop shall conform to the relevant national safety standards and fire regulations, and shall have the following safety precautions:
(a) set up video equipment in the business premises (video materials shall be kept for at least 2 months);
(2) The business counter is equipped with protective facilities;
(3) Setting up storage warehouses and safes (cabinets and warehouses) for pawn goods that meet the safety requirements;
(4) setting an alarm device;
(five) doors and windows set up protective facilities;
(six) equipped with necessary fire control facilities and equipment.
Pawnshops with the following conditions may set up branches across provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government):
(a) engaged in pawn business for more than three years, the registered capital of not less than 654.38+0.5 million yuan;
(two) the last two years of continuous profit;
(3) It has no record of illegal business operations in the last two years.
Pawnshops should allocate not less than 5 million yuan of working capital to each branch.
The total working capital of each branch of a pawnshop shall not exceed 50% of the registered capital of the pawnshop.