Borrowing money, secured by deposited goods, was first regulated in the Low Countries in 1600. Albert VII and his wife Isabella, governors of the Spanish Netherlands under Philip III, lowered the interest rate from to percent. They introduced the "monte de piedad" in 1618, and in a dozen years the institution was established in nearly all large Belgian towns. Interest was fixed at 15 percent before it was reduced and restored to almost the original rate. Some towns also had charitable funds for interest-free loans. Shortly after the "monte de piedad" was introduced in the Spanish provinces, prince-bishop of Liège Ferdinand of Bavaria followed the archdukes' example. The original rate was 15 percent, when the Lombard money-lenders had been charging 43 percent. The prince-bishop's "montes de piedad" were so successful that their interest rate did not exceed five percent until 1788, when it was increased by one-half percent.