Pawnbroking across the Known Realms

The fee rune is perhaps the oldest and most well-known across all the kingdoms and provinces of man. It is universally known as the symbol for pawnbrokers. It is believed to have be born in the dissolution of the Vyrum civilization by former servants and slaves selling the goods of their absent masters. The practice of pawnbroking is to offer secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral.

The practice is strictly the province of the free born yeomanry, as no gentleman and no nobleman would consider such a practice seemly. It is through the practice of pawnbroking that some common man have amassed fortunes to rival the great lending houses. While unseemly, it is undeniable that the better born have availed themselves of pawnbrokers services more than any other class, and for obvious reasons. There are even reports of kings pawning their crowns and scepters to fund military excursions.  

The items having been presented as collateral are called pledges. The most common type of pledges are jewelry, gem stones, musical instruments, coins, gold, silver, weapons, armor, books and objets d'art. The amount that is universally loaned on an item is half of its resale value (often half of the price of the item when it is purchased new except in the case of items which appreciate in value). The loan is typically made for a period of 4 weeks, at which point, the owner can pay 110% of the loaned amount and see the safe return of his property. Barring that, he can extend the loan for another four weeks by simply paying 10% of the loan value.

Unlike other lenders, the pawnbroker does not seek to make right on a defaulted loan. Since he retains possession of the collateral, and simply offers it for sale to recoup any losses.

The Coin Barns of the Oxmen

The common name for those buildings in use by the most popular banking system in Erenth, the Coin Barns are administered by a peculiar society in league with Church in Westrun, and are under the protection of the famed Oxmen. The Coin Barns are the clearing houses for most writs the world over. They charge a 1% fee for those transactions.

Deposits and withdrawals can be made at locations in

• Peakshadow
• Wanderhalt
• Bolden
• Menea
• Treft
• Laketon
• Watersedge
• Balduren
• and Rath in Westrun;
• Old Darios in the Free Provinces;
• Byza and Tradepost (Sabaha) in Southrun;
• and the Imperial City of Shu in Eastrun.

The Coin Barns will take any deposit of any coinage. Withdrawals can be made at any location, but they are not allowed until a 90 day waiting period has elapsed. After that initial waiting period, amounts can be withdrawn on any Firesday, after notice has been given on the previous Moonsday.

For some, the greatest service that the Coin Barns offer is to vouchsafe (by the honor of the Oxmen) the average size of their depositors accounts per annum. Far from being seen as a breach of privacy, this actually allows nobility and other institutions to determine how credit worthy their potential customers and trade partners are.

The Bank of Aqilia

The Bank of Aqilia is a lending house in the Free Province of the same name that has been traditionally managed by the House of Agnolo. In ages past there were several of these institutions, Aqilia is one of the only ones that remain and certainly the largest and most well-known. It has survived by its extremely prudent underwriting policies and by buying out its healthiest competitors.

The world over, it is the primary competitor of the banking system managed by the Church of Westrun, and it is very much unlike it in one respect -- usury. Where the Oxmen simply charge fees for deposits and for the handling and clearing of various writs, the Bank of Aqilia makes its profits by charging interest on the loans that it underwrites. Repayment is assured by the longstanding policy of the Bank to hire adversaries and fund competitors of those nobles who are delinquent payers.

The current manager of the bank is Lord Jacen Agnolo.

Its magister is Perfetti.

Its chief of sages is Lynet.

The Bank of Aqilia is valued by the Oxmen at 687 gold bars.