國家與典當：戰後臺灣公營當舖的發展系譜

State and Pawn: The Genealogy of the Public Pawnshops in Postwar Taiwan

本文主要以臺灣公營當舖的歷史發展為背景，探討國家在邊緣金融裡的制度安排，如何影響民眾在典當信用的日常生活的實踐。一般認為臺灣戰後各地公營當舖的出現，主要是1950年代初期，政府為回應金融壓抑政策下，避免民眾被民營當舖高利所剝削而設立，以安定社會秩序。但是本研究發現邊緣金融不只具有補充正式金融不足的功能，亦具有政治上的功能與目的。國家刻意壓低公營當舖的利率，以嘉惠當時以軍公教佔多數的持當人，並限制民營當舖執照，以退伍軍人優先申請，形成一個特殊的商業團體。國家在戒嚴時期積極介入典當市場，到金融自由化／民營化時期消極退出的過程，表面上看似經濟考量下的結果，其實整個典當市場一直以來是鑲嵌在家父長制的政治安排。延續這種制度安排的路徑依賴，本研究進一步指出，1990年後全省公營當舖消失的後果是，由民營當舖業者所主導修訂的當舖業法，讓僅存的北、高二市公營當舖處於制度上不利地位，公營當舖被迫做更多的市場考量，對抵押品的收受有著更多的限制，讓更多經濟上的弱勢者被拒於公營當舖門外。

This study aims to explore the public pawnshops in Postwar Taiwan and interpret the institutional arrangement of the state in the fringe finance. In respond to the financial repression policy in early 1950s, the public pawnshops were established so as to avoid the private pawnshops exploits the public with high interest rate, which in another way, stabilized the social order. However, this study found that fringe finance not only complemented the function of formal financial inadequacy, but also had political functions and purposes. The state deliberately depressed the interest rate of the public pawnshops in order to benefit the armed forces and the public officers, who were the majority of the borrowers, and limited the amount of private pawnshops, giving the licenses mainly to the veterans, forming a particular business group. During the martial law period, the state had an active interference in the pawn market and withdrew during the financial liberalization period. It seemed to base on economic considerations, yet the entire pawn market had always been embedded in the patriarchal political arrangements. This study further points out that the consequence of the decreasing of the public pawnshops after 1990 was that the Pawnshop Act, mainly amended under the lead of the private pawnshop representatives, put the remaining two public pawnshops in Taipei and Kaohsiung on an unfavorable institutional position as they are forced to take more market considerations and are limited by the types of collaterals, turning their back to more economically-disadvantaged groups.