Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/125

LOANS ON INII:I:I:ST. 109 happy state, rather a distressed man soliciting aid, than a solvent man capable of making and fulfilling a contract; and it' he can- not find a friend to make him a free gift in the former character, he will not, under the latter character, obtain a loan from a stranger, except by the promise of exorbitant interest, 1 and by the fullest eventual power over his person which he is in a condition to grant. In process of time a new class of borrowers rise up, sans autre danger quc dc perdre ce gage. Aussi le peuple a-t-il plutot dc la reconnoissancc pour ces petits usuriers qui le secourent dans sou bcsoin, quoiqu'ils lui vcndent assez cher ce sccours." (Memoire sur les Prets d'Argent, in the collection of CEuvres de Turgot, by Dupont de Nemours, vol. v, sects, xxx, xxxi. pp. 326, 327, 329, written in 1763.) 1 "In Bengal (observes Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, b. 5, ch. 9, p. 143, ed. 1812) money is frequently lent to the farmers at 40, 50, and 60 per cent., and the succeeding crop is mortgaged for the payment." Inspecting this commerce at Florence in the Middle Ages, M. Depping observes : " II semblait que 1'esprit commercial fiit inne chez les Florentins : dejk aux 12me et 13me siecles, on les voit tenir des banqucs et preter de 1'argent aux princes. Us ouvrirent partout dcs maisons de pret, marcherent de pair avec les Lombards, et, il faut le dire, ils furent souvent maudits, comme ccux-ci, par leurs debiteurs, a cause de leur rapacite'. Vingt pour cent par an e'tait le taux ordinaire des preteurs Florentins : et il n'e'tait pas rare qu'ils en prissent trente et quarante." Depping, Histoire du Commerce entre le Levant et FEurope. vol. i. p. 235. Boeckh (Public Economy of Athens, book i, ch. 22) gives from 12 to 18 per cent, per annum as the common rate of interest at Athens in the time of the orators. The valuable Inscription (No. 1845. in his Corpus Inscr. Pars viii, p. 23 sect. 3) proves, that at Korkyra a rate of 2 per cent, per month, or 24 pei cent, per annum, might be obtained from perfectly solvent and responsible bor rowers. For this is a decree of the Korkyra?an government, prescribing what shall be done with a sum of money given to the state for the Dionysiac fes- tivals, placing that money under the care of certain men of property and character, and directing them to lend it out exactly at 2 per cent, per month, ndthi.r more nor less, until a given sum shall be accumulated. This Inscrip tion dates about the third or second century B. c., according to Boeckh's conjecture. The Orchomenian Inscription, No. 1569, to which Boeckh refers in the passage above alluded to, is unfortunately defective in the words determining the rate of interest payable to Eubulus : but there is another, the Thersean Inscription (No. 2446), containing the Testament of Epikteta, wherein the annual sum payable in lieu of a principal sum bequeathed, is calculated a, 7 percent; a rate which Botckh justly r?gards as moderate > ,onsiderc& in reference to ancient Greece,