The Law of Pawn Agreement through the Lens of History and Economics

The pawn agreement, usually the contract for indigent and impoverished people, in desperate need for money, in a position only to offer the remaining items (usually valuables such as jewellery or watches of value), is the subject of this legal and historical, but also sociological analysis of this contribution. In going beyond the stereotype of this fascinating contract, in this contribution the pawn agreement is discussed beyond the traditional borders of the Europe of the Middle Ages and the Mounts of Piety. Furthermore, a comparison is traced with antecedents of Roman law, via a diachronic analysis (Roman law) which pushes this research beyond the black letter of law. Therefore, the pledge, and its sui generis version of the pawn, the pledge relating to items that are not fungible, is discussed from a new perspective, which leaves also room for meditating on how and why the regulation of this contract may be so different in various jurisdictions, yet it may be also so convergent in some fundamental pillars, despite the centuries elapsed. A final lesson that can be learned from the perusal of this contract is that an “ancient contract” such as the pawn agreement may be so efficient and so successful also because the role played by regulation as always been the outcome of a right balance between tradition, history and society, on one hand, and new cogent rules and regulations and hyper-regulation, on the other hand.