Palazzo del Monte di Pietà and the Arco del Monte

Paul III approved the founding congregation in 1539, and Carlo Borromeo wrote its first rules. The Monte's first seat was at Banchi Vecchi; in 1585 Sixtus V bought it a building at the Coronari, which gave the vicolo and piazza di Monte Vecchio their names, and it moved here afterwards. From 1584 Gregory XIII made it the deposit bank for civil judgements and for the property of wards and widows. From 1611 Paul V allowed it to lend on agricultural security up to 2,000 scudi. Its cedole were declared payable to bearer from 1724 and circulated as a kind of paper money, and from 1749 it ran the papal mint. It had about a hundred staff in 1835, and the charitable function was split off with the Cassa di Risparmio di Roma in 1836. A Swiss detachment guarded it, and small pledges of up to 4 scudi were taken through rigattieri around the city.