De pandhuishouder had echter ook een heel nuttige functie. Het pandjeshuis
verstrekte aan de kleine zelfstandige en aan de arbeider het kasgeld om zijn werk te
kunnen doen en de periode tussen opdracht en uitbetaling te overbruggen.
Men kan niet zeggen, dat Dickens die nuttige functie niet heeft gezien. In een artikel
My Uncle, dat hij samen rnet W.H.Wiils schreef in Household Words van 6 december
1851 staat o.a.:
My Uncle's immense variety of separate transactions in London alone during
the year 1849 was twenty-four millions..... my Uncle is, in a small way, on a large
scale, a banker...,. It is not difficult to illustrate the working of this kind of banking
transactions by numerous examplesTake the case of Phelim O'Shea. A wet
week or a defaulting brickmaker has thrown Phelim O'Shea temporarily out of
employment, and his stock of cash is inadequate to meet his current expenses.
Yet, although without money, he is not without means. He has a coat - a loose
blue coat, long in the cuffs, with a swallow-tail, and brass-buttons rubbed black in
the centre. He converts that coat into a bank deposit, and My Uncle advances
him a sum of money, which enables him to meet contingent demands, until fine
weather or plenty of bricks shail set him up again. In like manner, Mrs.Lavers, the
char-woman, is short of shillings; but she has a fender; so, her neighbour the
washerwoman, has no money at ail, but is thanks to My Uncle, a capitalist while
she possesses a flat-iron. Biddle, the boot-closer, has been rather idle during the
early pari of the week, and is proportionately pressed for lime at the end of it. He
works as hard as he can all Saturday, yet he has finished his job only in time to be
too late to take it home; for at nine his employer's premises are closed. Money he
must have; so he takes some of the boots to My Uncle; and, on Monday, redeems
them with the money he lias been paid for (he rest of ihem.
Dickens kende deze economisch zo nuffige functie van het pandjeshuis we! degelijk,
maai in zijn romans en schets (Sketches hy öoz) wil hij alleen de 'road to Poverty'
zieri. Omdat hij zelf alleen die weg heeft bewandeld of om Ie drama liseren? Of om
beide redenen?
dBoodsc. h a ppers
"Are there any people here, who run on errands and so forth?"
"Outside, do you mean?" inquired Mr.Roker.
"Yes. I Mean who are able to go outside. Not prisoners."
"Yes, there is," said Roker. "There's an unfortunate devil, who has got an friend
on the poor side, that's glad to do anything of that sort. He's running odd jobs, and
that, for the last two months. Shall i send him?"
"if you please," rejoined mr.Pickwick, "Stay; no. The poor side, you say? I should
like to see it. I'll go to him myself."
Bleak House geett cle functie van verpanden kernachtig weer als bij de dood van
Hawdon in een oud valies wordt gevonden: "a bundie of pawnbrokers' duplicates,
those turnpike tickets on the road to Poverty".
The Pickwick Papers: Mr.Pickwick ontdekt de Poor Side, als hij eigenlijk op zoek is
naar iets anders. Hij vraagt Mr.Roker:
