HARD UP

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 77, 11 January 1949, Page 4

HARD UP

PAWNBROKERS IN, BRITAIN (From Reuter's Correspondent). (By Airmail) LONDON. Britain’s pawnbrokers and moneylenders, plying the oldest trade in the country, are so hard up themselves now that many of them are going out of business. Before the war, 2672 pawnbrokers and 2725 moneylenders were officially registered throughout the. country. Now only 1800 pawnbrokers and 160 S moneylenders are still in business. They say the main reason is the improved standard of living for poor people, who were their most regular clients. Shortages of clothes and other materials once used to raise money have also accelerated the slump. “People have-more money now, or if they are out of work they are taken care of by National Insurance and National Health,” said the editor of the /‘Pawnbrokers Gazette,” L. Dawson, commenting on the decline. “Improved social services have meant a decrease in the number of poor class clients/” agreed the Secretary of the National Pawnbrokers Association, B. G. Paul. Pawnshops still in business . look more to the middle class families of Britain, as people with fixed incomes, in a world of rising prices, are now having to resort to moneylenders in emergencies. This trade is a. great change from the old days when most pawnbrokers round the country spent/ every Holiday issuing tickets for overcoats, blankets, watches and other personal effects sacrificed for a. lew shillings until, they could he redeemed the"next payday. That clothing and bedding trade had now almost disappeared to-day, pledges are more valuable items—jewellery, cameras, binoculars and works of art. Though the volume of business has dropped, the money value has not fallen correspondingly. Higher prices are placed on all goods now and rates ot interest for money lent have risen as well In the face of some hardship the pawnbroking and moneylending world still believes that its four thousand year old occupation is not finished yet: It has served many purposes in history. Amongst other services, it gives valuable help to the police of London’s Scotland Yard, notifying them of articles wanted as clues m eriminal investigations.