Usury is the activity for which Jews have been so denigrated throughout history, and is the cause of the anti-Semitic prejudice that so often links them to money in the collective imagination. In reality, the Jews were led to the practice of usury by Christian society.
In 1215, the 4th Lateran Council, under Pope Innocent III, not only imposed a sign of recognition on the Jews to distinguish them from Christians, but also excluded them from guilds and public offices and forbade them from exercising any trade. He allowed them, however, the practice of usury, which he considered forbidden to Christians on the basis of the biblical prohibition to lend at interest to one’s brother (Leviticus 25:35-36).
Lending at interest therefore remained one of the few work possibilities allowed to Jews. After the battle of Agnadello (1508) also thanks to this activity, which helped the poor in their needs and at the same time replenished the Republic’s coffers, the Jews were able to settle in Venice, but only in the restricted area of the Ghetto.
The Serenissima regulated this stay with a concession (condotta) that was renewed with the payment of a tax that effectively deprived the entire community of what it had earned in previous years.
Thus the three pawnshops of the Ghetto were born. In 1573 the banks were reorganised: from a private body, they were contracted out to Jewish bankers controlled by a specially created magistracy. In 1677, a Christian scribe (at the community’s expense) was added to the pawnshop employees to supervise the loan transactions.
The pawnbrokers’ business was paradoxically unprofitable. First of all, lenders could not refuse a loan or postpone it for any reason; moreover, they had to abide by the interest rates imposed by the Serenissima, so that they often went from indebtedness to bankruptcy due to excessive exposure.
