92 



REPORT — 1841. 



Amount of capital in the Monte di Pieta department 



(in English money) £104,360 8 11 



Amount in actual circulation, 31st Dec. 1839 87,972 16 8 



Balance in hand £10,387 12 3 



The greatest amount lent in one sum £2,750 



The least 



Expense of management (98 persons being employed) 6,432 



Net profits ." 4,761 



The following return shows the state of the Banking department, which was joined 

 to the Monte di Pieta in 1589 : — 



Total amount lodged in 1839 £438,755 3 4 



Amount of drafts in 1839 407,536 15 10 



Increase of capital in 1839 £31,218 7 6 



The institution is divided into three departments, called Primo Monte, Second© 

 Monte, and Terzo Monte. The first and second are for the reception of goods on 

 which the amount borrowed does not exceed a scudo ( l*. Id.) ; the third is for ar- 

 ticles of higher value. The net profits for 1839 do not include a large class of the 

 borrowers, as the institution lends, without interest to tlie poor, sums not exceeding 

 a scudo; and to this class of borrowers 18,333/. Qs. Bd. was lent in the year 1839. 

 The expense of management does not include pensions which are given to about thirty 

 retired officers, and to the widows and orphans of such as have died in the service of 

 the institution. Officers are obliged to lodge five per cent, of their salaries for a re- 

 tired fund. After forty years of service they may retire on full pay, and on half pay 

 after twenty years of service. The poor are not the only persons benefited by this in- 

 stitution ; merchants, traders, and even crowned heads have taken advantage of it. 

 Among the articles in pawn, Mr. Porter saw a diamond-ring, a suite of pearls, a snufl- 

 box with a likeness of Louis XVIII. set in pearls, a coronation medal, and many 

 similar articles. He had been entrusted with the secret of the ownership, but of 

 course could not betray the confidence reposed in him. Not more than one-tenth of 

 this valuable description of property is ever sold, nine-tenths being the average of the 

 releases from the Terzo Monte. The government of the Monte di Pieta is entrusted 

 to a protector, who is the treasurer of Rome for the time being. Mr Porter gave a 

 brief account of similar institutions at Turin, Leghorn, and Genoa, but entered into 

 more detailed statements respecting the Mont de Piete at Paris. The following table 

 shows its operations for the year 1840 : — 



■When pawns are renewed, the goods are revalued, and the borrower is compelled 

 to make compensation for their deterioration. 



