That it should have once been conceived unlawful to exact interest for the loan of money, will not appear surprising, when it is considered, that at an early period the occupations by which a man could support his family were neither so numerous nor so productive as in modern times. As money, therefore, was at that time sought to remove immediate necessity, those who advanced it were influenced by benevolence and friendship. But on the extension of trade, arts, and manufactures, money lent produced much more than what was adequate to the borrower's daily support, and therefore the lender might reasonably expect from him some remuneration. To the lending of money upon interest, according to the earliest accounts, succeeded the practice of establishing funds for the relief of the needy, on condition that they could deposit any thing equal in value to double the sum borrowed, for which they were to pay no interest. But as, on the one hand, the idea of exacting interest for the loan of money was odious to the members of the Catholic church in general, and as, on the other, it appeared proper and even necessary to pay interest for money to be employed in commerce, the pontiffs themselves at length allowed the lending-houses to take a moderate interest; and in order not to alarm the prejudices of those to whom the measure was obnoxious, it was concealed under the name of being paid pro indemnitate, the expression made use of in the papal bull.

It appears that lending-houses, which gave money on the receipt of pledges, at a certain interest, are by no means of recent date; for many houses of this description, in Italy at least, were established in the fifteenth century, by Marcus Bononiensis, Michel a Carcano, Cherubinus Spoletanus, Antonius Vercellensis, Bernardinus Tomitano, and others.

The lending-house at Perugia, established by Barnabas Interamnensis, was inspected in 1485 by Bernardinus, who augmented its capital, and in the same year established one at Assisi, which was confirmed by Pope Innocent, and visited and improved by its founder in the year 1487. He likewise established one at Mantua, after formidable opposition, having procured for it the sanction of the pope. The same person also founded lending-houses at Florence, Parma, Chieti, and Piacenza, in doing which he was sometimes well received, whilst at others he frequently met with great opposition. A house of this kind was established at Padua in the year 1491, and another at Ravenna, which were approved of and confirmed by Pope Alexander VI.

Long after the period here referred to, lending-houses were established at Rome and Naples; that of the former city having been opened in 1539, and that of the latter probably in the following year. A lending-house was established at Nuremberg in Germany about 1618, the inhabitants having obtained from Italy the regulations of different houses, in order to select the best. In France, England, and the Netherlands, lending-houses were first known under the denomination of Lombards. Similar institutions were formed at Brussels in 1619, at Antwerp in 1620, and at Ghent in 1622.

Although such houses must be allowed to be of very considerable utility under certain circumstances, especially when interest is not allowed to be exorbitant, yet they were always odious in France. One was however established at Paris in 1626, in the reign of Louis XIII., which the managers next year were obliged to abandon. The mont de piete at that city, which has sometimes had in its possession forty casks full of gold watches that were pledged, was established by royal authority in the year 1777, as we learn from the Tableau de Paris, published at Hamburg in 1781.