Mount of piety

Similar institutions were established in the colonies of Catholic countries; the Mexican Nacional Monte de Piedad is still in operation.

The concept of Mount of Piety was first developed in 15th-century Italian cities as an early form of organized charity, intended as a reform against money lending and the related sin of usury associated with Cahorsins and Lombards.

[2][3]: 205 The public office was organized and operated by the Catholic Church and offered financial loans at a moderate interest to those in need.

[4] The organizing principle, based on the benefit of the borrower and not the profit of the lender, was viewed as a benevolent alternative to the loans provided by moneylenders.

He left a set of memoirs that outlined his goal to rid the city of Jewish money lenders and to replace them with Christian pawn shops which allowed the poor to acquire cheap credit.

[14] The founder was Wenceslas Cobergher, who went on to establish fifteen such institutions in different towns in the Spanish Netherlands in the years between 1618 and 1633, financed by the provision of annuities in return for direct capital investment.

[15] Prior to this date the provision of consumer credit was largely in the hands of Lombards whose loans were at high rates of interest.

The actual space of the "Monte di Pietà was regarded as a pious and religious house" and therefore stage plays, dances, games and other festivities were forbidden.

[24] One of the most creative strategies that preachers used in Florentine to acquire more capital for their “monte” was to declare Palm Sunday as a day for donations in the form of alms.

[26] Some scholars hypothesize that members of the artisan class and widows would freely give some money towards the “monte” upon hearing a sermon condemning usury and proclaiming the need to help the poor.

For example, Monna Margherita da Poppi of 1497 gave 40 lire to the Monte di Pietà as part of her sentence in a legal matter.

[citation needed] Since the purpose of the Monte di Pietà was to combat usury, there were clear guidelines regarding the operations of the organization.

It was designed to aid less fortunate people by providing an alternative to the socially unaccepted Jewish money lending system.

The Montepío was a mutual, agnostic, and government-controlled institution established by craftsmen or lesser standing professionals to care for members' needs when disabled or rehabilitating.