The Invention of Solidaristic Credit

The history of solidaristic credit, which still characterizes at present microcredit's system, has ancient origins dating back to the fifteenth century. In fact the pawnshop ("Monte di Pietà"), an institute that still operates today in many cities, originated at the end of the fifteenth century. Tailoring the type of credit to each client's individual needs, the medieval pawnshops helped people to obtain credit they would normally have been denied ad a regular bank.