1. PLATO in his Laws[145] permits not any one to go and draw water from
his neighbor’s well, who has not first digged and sunk a pit in his
own ground till he is come to a vein of clay, and has by his sounding
experimented that the place will not yield a spring. For the clay or
potter’s earth, being of its own nature fatty, solid, and strong,
retains the moisture it receives, and will not let it soak or pierce
through. But it must be lawful for them to take water from another’s
ground, when there is no way or means for them to find any in their
own; for the law ought to provide for men’s necessity, but not favor
their laziness. Should there not be the like ordinance also concerning
money; that none should be allowed to borrow upon usury, nor to go
and dive into other men’s purses,—as it were into their wells and
fountains,—before they have first searched at home and sounded every
means for the obtaining it; having collected (as it were) and gathered
together all the gutters and springs, to try if they can draw from
them what may suffice to supply their most necessary occasions? But on
the contrary, many there are who, to defray their idle expenses and
to satisfy their extravagant and superfluous delights, make not use
of their own, but have recourse to others, running themselves deeply
into debt without any necessity. Now this may easily be judged, if
one does but consider that usurers do not ordinarily lend to those
which are in distress, but only to such as desire to obtain somewhat
that is superfluous and of which they stand not in need. So that the
credit given by the lender is a testimony sufficiently proving that the
borrower has of his own; whereas on the contrary, since he has of his
own, he ought to keep himself from borrowing.
2. Why shouldst thou go and make thy court to a banker or a merchant?
Borrow from thine own table. Thou hast tankards, dishes, and basins of
silver. Make use of them for thy necessity, and when they are gone to
supply thy wants, the pleasant town of Aulis or isle of Tenedos will
again refurnish thy board with fair vessels of earth, far more cleanly
and neat than those of silver. For they are not scented with the strong
and unpleasant smell of usury, which, like rust, daily more and more
sullies and tarnishes the lustre of thy sumptuous magnificence. They
will not be every day putting thee in mind of the Kalends and new
moons, which, being of themselves the most holy and sacred days of the
months, are by reason of usuries rendered the most odious and accursed.
For as to those who choose rather to carry their goods to the brokers
and there lay them in pawn for money taken upon usury than to sell them
outright, I do not believe that Jupiter Ctesius himself can preserve
them from beggary. They are ashamed forsooth to receive the full price
and value of their goods; but they are not ashamed to pay use for the
money they have borrowed on them. And yet the great and wise Pericles
caused that costly ornament of fine gold, weighing about forty talents,
with which Minerva’s statue was adorned, to be made in such a manner
that he could take it off and on at his pleasure; to the end (said
he) that when we shall stand in need of money to support the charges
of war, we may take it and make use of it, putting afterwards in its
place another of no less value. Thus we ought in our affairs, as in
a besieged town, never to admit or receive the hostile garrison of a
usurer, nor to endure before our eyes the delivering up of our goods
into perpetual servitude; but rather to cut off from our table what is
neither necessary nor profitable, and in like manner from our beds, our
couches, and our ordinary expenses, and so to keep ourselves free and
at liberty, in hopes to restore again what we shall have retrenched, if
Fortune shall hereafter smile upon us.
3. The Roman ladies heretofore willingly parted with their jewels and
ornaments of gold, for the making a cup to be sent as an offering
to the temple of Apollo Pythius in the city of Delphi. And the
Carthaginian matrons did with their own hands cut the hair from their
heads, to make cords for the managing of their warlike engines and
instruments, in defence of their besieged city. But we, as if we were
ashamed of being able to stand on our own legs without being supported
by the assistance of others, go and enslave ourselves by engagements
and obligations; whereas it were much better that, restraining our
ambition and confining it to what is profitable for us, we should of
our useless and superfluous plate, which we should either melt or sell,
build a temple of Liberty for ourselves, our wives, and our children.
The Goddess Diana in the city of Ephesus gives to such debtors as can
fly into her temple freedom and protection against their creditors; but
the sanctuary of parsimony and moderation in expenses, into which no
usurer can enter to pluck thence and carry away any debtor prisoner, is
always open for the prudent, and affords them a long and large space of
joyful and honorable repose. For as the prophetess which gave oracles
in the temple of the Pythian Apollo, about the time of the Persian
wars, answered the Athenians, that God had for their safety given them
a wall of wood, upon which, forsaking their lands, their city, their
houses, and all their goods, they had recourse to their ships for the
preservation of their liberty; so God gives us a table of wood, vessels
of earth, and garments of coarse cloth, if we desire to live and
continue in freedom.
Aim not at gilded coaches, steeds of price,
And harness, richly wrought with quaint device;
for how swiftly soever they may run, yet will usuries overtake them and
outrun them.
Take rather the first ass thou shalt meet or the first pack-horse that
shall come in thy way, and fly from that cruel and tyrannical enemy
the usurer, who asks thee not earth and water, as heretofore did the
barbarous king of Persia, but—which is worse—touches thy liberty, and
wounds thy honor by proscriptions. If thou payest him not, he troubles
thee; if thou hast wherewithal to satisfy him, he will not receive it,
unless it be his pleasure. If thou sellest, he will have thy goods
for nothing, or at a very under rate; and if thou wilt not sell, he
will force thee to it; if thou suest him, he speaks to thee of an
accommodation; if thou swearest to give him content, he will domineer
over thee; if thou goest to his house to discourse with him, he shuts
his door against thee; if thou stayest at home, he is always knocking
at thy door and will never stir from thee.
4. Of what use to the Athenians was the decree of Solon, by which he
ordained that the body should not be obliged for any public debt? For
they who owe are in bondage to all bankers, and not to them alone (for
then there would be no great hurt), but to their very slaves, who are
proud, insolent, barbarous, and outrageous, and in a word exactly
such as Plato describes the devils and fiery executioners to be, who
in hell torment the souls of the wicked. For thus do these wretched
usurers make the court where justice is administered a hell to the poor
debtors, preying on some and gnawing them, vulture-like, to the very
bones, and