Page:History of Greece Vol III.djvu/177

ROMAN LAW OF DEBTOR AND CREDITOR 16l was known of this power having been ever carried into effect, but the law was understood to give the power distinctly. It is useful to have before us the old Roman law of debtor and creditor, partly as a point of comparison with the antc-Solonian practice in Attica, partly to illustrate the difference drawn in an early state of society between the claim for the principal and the claim for the interest. See the Abhandlung of Von Savigny in the Transactions of the Berlin Academy for 1833, pp. 70-103; the subject is also treated by the same admirable expositor, in his System des heutigen Romischen Rechts, vol. T, sect. 219, and in Beilage xiv, 10-11 of that volume. The same peculiar stringent process, which -was available in the case of an action for pecunia certa credita, was also specially extended to the surety, who had paid down money to liquidate another man's debt -, the debtor, if solvent, became his addictus, this was the actio dcpensi. I have already remarked in a former note, that in the Attic law, a case analogous to this K-as the only one in which the original remedy against the person of the debtor was always maintained. When a man had paid money to redeem a citizen from captivity, the latter, if he did not repay it, became the slave of the party who had advanced the money. Walter (Geschichte des Romisclien Rechts, sects. 533-715, 2d ed.) calls in question the above explanation of Von Savigny, on grounds which do not appear to me sufficient. How long the feeling continued, that it was immoral and irreligious to receive any interest at all for money lent, may be seen from the following notice respecting the state of the law in France even down to 1780 : "Avant la Revolution Franchise (de 1789) le pret a inte'rct n'etait pas e'galcment admis dans les diverses parties du royaume. Dans les pays de droit ecrit, il etait permis de stipuler 1'inte'ret des dc'niers prete's : mais la jurisprudence des parlemens resistait souvent a cet usage. Suivant le droit commun des pays coutumiers, on ne pouvait stipuler aucun inte'ret pour le pret appele en droit mutuum. On tenait pour maxime que 1'argent ne pro- duisant rien par lui-meme, un tel pret devait etre gratuit: que la perception d'interets etait une usure : a cct egard. on admcttait assez generalcment les principes du droit canonique. Du reste, la legislation et la jurisprudence variaient suivant les localitcs ct suivant la nature des contrats et des obliga- tions." ( Carette, Lois Annote'cs, ou Lois, Decrets, Ordonnances, Paris 1 843 ; Note sur le Decret de 1'Assemble'c Nationale concernant le Pret et Inte'ret. Aotit 11, 1789.) The National Assembly declared the legality of all loans on interest, " suivant le taux determine par la loi," but did not then fix any special rate. " Le decret du 11 Avril, 1793, defendit la ventc ct 1'achat du numeraire." "La loi du 6 flore'al, an in, de'clara que 1'or et 1'argcnt sont marchandiscs ; raais clle ft>t rapporte'e par le decret du 2 prairial suivant. Les articles 1905 et 1907 du Code Civil permettent le pret 11 inte'ret, mais an taux fixe ou aatorise par la loi. La loi du 3 Sept. 1807 a fixe' le taux d'inte'ret a 5 pel cent, en matiere civile et a 6 per cent, en matier? commerciale." VOL. III. Hoc.