The first pawnshop, or "Mont-de-Piété," was created in 15th-century Italy to fight usury. The Mont-de-Piété and its pawn loan unquestionably became a fundamental pillar of social care. It promotes a charitable social economy and regards money as being at the center of all concerns for social and economical integration within a modernising society. It plays the role of a protective institution for wage earners subjected to pauperism and the social hazards of existence. The Mont-de-Piété allows wage earners to supplement their incomes by providing financial capacities when wages are low or uncertain. However the emergence of Social Welfare which stabilised incomes soon competed with the social financing provided by the Mont-de-piété. Thus institutionalised social policies brought a new light on the concept of social aid. 19th-century private and individualised social aid was gradulally replaced by public and global social welfare. Pawnbroking activities decreased significantly and soon the Crédit Municipal will assimilate the logic of banking institutions. However, toward the end of the 20th century the Mont-de-Piété institution comes up again and social microcredit progressively rises up in importance. Since the end of the 20th century, consequences of the liberal economic organization - such as social exclusion and banking exclusion - the Crédit Municipal activity has (re)developped and evolved. Nowadays, the Crédit Municipal is, just like the Mont-de-Piété used to be, an institution which allows for or facilitates social inclusion. In fact, the Crédit Municipal and its pawnbroking activities are re-establishing a new form of specific social protection.
