 The system was benevolent, with early "mounts of piety" established by popes lending money to the poor without interest if the money was covered by the value of the pledges.Similar systems began at Freising in Bavaria in 1198 and at Salins in Franche-Comté in 1350 (which charged 7.5% interest) and in London in 1361, where Michael Northburgh, Bishop of London, bequeathed 1000 silver marks for the establishment of a free pawnshop.These early efforts, like the later Italian ones, failed.