For the poor, there was one place they would more or less have the chance to visit at some point in their lives: the pawnshop.
It was an industry with a terrible reputation, because some pawnshops often preyed on people in desperate circumstances, like Borgin and Burkes.
Though it did not hang up a pawnshop sign, it was essentially the same. The Dark Lord's mother, Merope, had brought Slytherin's Locket, worth a fortune, to sell, yet Borgin and Burkes had given her only ten Galleons.
Pawnshops in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries accepted everything. At the high end were jewelry, silverware, and tapestries. There were quite a few such places in Paris, the City of Flowers. Wealthy men would not usually hand beautiful women cash directly; they would give them expensive jewelry. If the women did not like it, they could pawn it for money. At the low end were bedding, farm tools, and craftsmen's tools. This was actually beneficial to the poor, since ordinary poor households possessed only daily necessities, not artworks or decorations—let alone jewelry like Slytherin's Locket.
The little match girl froze to death in the street, relying on the hallucinations brought by the flames to join her grandmother in heaven.
One year, a cold wave struck Paris, and many poor people froze to death. French pawnshops distributed the pawned warm clothing, quilts, scarves, and coats free of charge.
Artists also supported themselves through pawning before becoming famous. Monet had been destitute in his youth and had also shared an inseparable connection with pawnshops.
After taking power, the Paris Commune cleared out those pawnshops.
A besieged Paris had no use for idlers. Tools had to be distributed to skilled workers capable of labor.
At the same time, the Paris Commune stood as guarantor and returned those items