Handbook for translators of Spanish historical ... - University Library

HANDBOOK FOR TRANSLATORS OF SPANISH HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
and other articles are accepted at pawnshops only with
usury.
The storekeeper takes security for three times the
amount of the loan. He makes a loan, for instance, of
ten pesos, when they ask him for a loan of twenty on an
article which costs forty. It is \inderstood, of course,
that half the loan is to be made in cash and half of it
in tlacos , that these are given at the rate of four for
half of one real , and that they return to the borrower
at tlie rate of five to one; thus the victim does not
remedy his situation; he merely converts into silver
coin his imaginary wood or copper money, which was
coined by the storekeeper, and which cannot circulate
elsewhere.
This monopoly makes it impossible for the povertystricken
people to seek necessities to satisfy their
hunger in establishments where better opportunities and
greater facilities are offered with reference to things
they desire or need. If one tlaco is spent for bread
out of one-half real, three tlacos are not used until
the store, where they were coined, has the articles or
merchandise for which they are to be spent. There is,
then, no other alternative but to make use of usurious
exchange for this worthless coin, thereby losing twentyfive
or fifty percent.
Worse still, tlacos are also subject to being left
without any value whatever, since, in case of the bankruptcy
of the storekeepers, there is no one to redeem
tiiem in circulation. The same is true very often in the
case of transfers of stores from one merchant to another.
Frequently the articles pawned are lost. Sometimes,
at the time such articles are to be redeemed, they are
shown to have greater amounts charged against them and
nothing can be done about it. These excessive charges
are always detrimental to the wretched owners.
Many effective and salutary measures have been issued
by all my predecessors to remedy this and other less
harmful effects resulting therefrom. Palliative remedies,
however, as a rule produce no other results than
to aggravate these evils of long standing to the grievous
point of making them incurable.
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