用奶酪做抵押放贷的银行

在意大利北部的丘陵地带,坐落着一家银行,它接受的贷款抵押品,不过是一样朴实无华的东西:一轮轮帕马森干酪。它的金库里存放着五十多万轮奶酪,每一轮都仍然归制作它的当地奶农所有,银行只是替他保管,直到贷款还清,这轮奶酪最终售出为止。

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.

与其等上好几年,让一轮奶酪慢慢熟成、最终卖出,奶农可以直接把它交给银行来换取贷款,而银行会立刻预付其未来价值的大部分,远在奶酪熟成完成之前。

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.

在贷款期间,银行会亲自为这些奶酪熟成、储存,定期检查每一轮,像一座由奶酪构成的巨大借阅图书馆的管理员一样,把它们不断轮换,把年份较久、快到出售日子的那些往前挪。等奶酪最终以全价售出,奶农还清贷款,整个流程又随着下一季的收成重新开始。

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.