428
Interest on loans.
No further profit to be made.
A General Book to be kept, and entries made, and numbered.
A supplemental book to be kept for articles not of Chinese manufacture or use.
ORDINANCE No. 11 OF 1858.
Pawnbrokers, &c.—Offences.
8. Over and above the principal monies lent upon any goods or chattels, pawned or pledged with the lender, he may demand, receive, and take from the person applying to redeem the said goods or chattels, before re-delivering the same to such person, interest upon the said principal monies for the month, and every fractional part of a month, after such rate as shall have been agreed upon at the time of the making of the said loan; which said principal monies and interest shall be taken in full satisfaction of all charges for or incident to the loan to which the same relate; yet so as that the first month's interest shall be deemed to be due on the first day of the first month, unless redemption be applied for within the first three days thereof.
9. Every such loan shall be bonâ fide made without deduction out of the amount expressed to be lent, and no profit or interest over and above the rate aforesaid shall be on any pretext received or demanded.
10. Before any monies shall be advanced on any such loan as aforesaid, the lender thereof shall enter or cause to be entered in a book, to be by him kept for that purpose, and to be called "The General Book," a fair, true, and regular statement of the nature and description, and also of the actual condition, of the goods or chattels upon which the said loan shall be made, and of the exact amount in value of the said loan, and of the exact rate of interest thereon, and of the name, description, and abode of the borrower, and of the number (if any) of the place and the name (if any) of the street of such his abode (distinguishing him, if the occupier of his place of abode by the Chinese characters
and by the English letter O, and if only an inmate thereof by the Chinese characters
and by the English letter I); and also of the like particulars (distinguished in like manner) of the name, description, and abode of such other person (if any) as the said borrower shall represent to the said lender to be the true owner of the said goods and chattels; and lastly, of the day of the English month and year upon which the said loan shall be made: yet so as that, before any of the said entries shall be made in the said book, the said lender shall to the best of his ability ascertain from the said borrower the truth thereof respectively: And every loan, the particulars whereof shall have been so entered as aforesaid, shall be numbered in the said book from number one progressively to the end of the month as they are received in pawn: exempli gratiâ, the first pledge that is received in pawn after the commencement of this Ordinance shall be numbered one, the second two, and so on progressively until the end of the now instant month of July; and the first pledge that is received in pawn in the month of August next, shall be in like manner numbered one, and the second two, and so on progressively until the end of that month: And the like regulation shall be observed in every succeeding month for ever after.
11. If any of the said goods and chattels shall consist of articles, not of Chinese manufacture, and not especially adapted for Chinese use, the said lender shall, immediately before or immediately after entering such particulars as aforesaid in the said General Book, make a second and separate entry of the same tenor in another book, to be kept by him for that purpose, and to be called "The Supplemental Book."