The Bank That Lends Against Cheese

In the hills of northern Italy stands a bank that will accept, as loan collateral, nothing more exotic than cheese: wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano. Its vault holds more than half a million of them, each one still the property of the local dairy farmer who made it, held by the bank only until the loan is settled and the wheel finally sells.

Katika vilima vya kaskazini mwa Italia kunasimama benki inayokubali, kama dhamana ya mkopo, kitu kisicho cha ajabu zaidi ya jibini: magurudumu ya jibini la Parmigiano Reggiano. Ghala lake linahifadhi zaidi ya nusu milioni ya magurudumu hayo, kila moja likiwa bado mali ya mkulima wa maziwa wa eneo hilo aliyelitengeneza, likishikiliwa na benki hiyo tu hadi mkopo ulipwe na gurudumu hilo hatimaye liuzwe.

Rather than wait years for a wheel to age properly and eventually sell, a farmer can hand it straight to the bank against a loan, and the bank advances a large share of its eventual value straight away, well before the cheese has finished maturing.

Badala ya kusubiri miaka mingi ili gurudumu liive vizuri na hatimaye liuzwe, mkulima anaweza kulipeleka moja kwa moja benki kama dhamana ya mkopo, na benki hulipa mapema sehemu kubwa ya thamani yake ya baadaye, muda mrefu kabla jibini hilo halijamaliza kuiva.

For as long as the loan runs, the bank ages and stores the wheels itself, checking each one regularly and rotating it like the custodian of a vast lending library built out of cheese, moving the older wheels forward as they near the day they are ready to sell. Once the cheese finally sells at full price, the farmer settles the loan, and the whole system starts again with the next harvest.

Kwa muda wote mkopo unaendelea, benki yenyewe huyaivisha na kuyahifadhi magurudumu hayo, ikikagua kila moja mara kwa mara na kuligeuza kama msimamizi wa maktaba kubwa ya kukopesha iliyojengwa kwa jibini, ikisogeza mbele magurudumu ya zamani zaidi yanapokaribia siku ya kuwa tayari kuuzwa. Jibini hilo hatimaye likiuzwa kwa bei kamili, mkulima hulipa mkopo, na mfumo mzima huanza tena na mavuno yajayo.