In the most simplistic terms, a Pawn Shop is a business that engages in collateral-based lending. Given this, it also sells items that have been left by borrowers and most Pawn Shops buy items outright for sale. The practice of collateral-based lending has been around since ancient times, but became a popular enterprise in Italy in the Middle Ages. In the beginning, pawning was practiced as an act of charity by the Franciscan Monks who lent money on tangible goods without charging interest. It has been reported that this enterprise was picked up on by the famous Italian banking family, the Medici's who then turned it into a for-profit business.
Pawn Shops have grown by leaps and bounds in the United States - especially in the last 5 years. We are very familiar with the famous Pawn Shop in Las Vegas depicted in the hit reality television show Pawn Stars. A Pawn Shop in Georgia is credited with the beginning one of the first online pawn shops and a Pawn Shop in Los Angeles recently helped police nab a burglary suspect by following the trail of stolen goods. And, if you're looking for a Pawn Shop in Florida you don't need to look far as the latest consensus shows Dade County Florida having more pawn shops than any other country due to the flailing economy. Pawn Shops are a fixture of the American business landscape and will surely continue to grow be so for centuries to come.
