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USURY
A Scriptural, Ethical and
Economic View
BY
CALVIN ELLIOTT
PUBLISHED BY
THE ANTI-USURY LEAGUE
MILLERSBURG, OHIO
COPYRIGHTED 1902
BY
CALVIN ELLIOTT.
CONTENTS.
Page.
Chapter I--Definition 7
Chapter II--The Law by Moses 11
Chapter III--Usury and "The Stranger" 18
Chapter IV--David and Solomon 26
Chapter V--Denunciation of Jeremiah and Ezekiel 30
Chapter VI--Financial Reform by Nehemiah 36
Chapter VII--Teachings of the Master 42
Chapter VIII--Parables of the Talents and the Pounds 52
Chapter IX--Practice of the disciples 58
Chapter X--Church history 69
Chapter XI--Calvin's letter on usury 73
Chapter XII--Permanency of the prohibition 79
Chapter XIII--Our changed conditions 81
Chapter XIV--The American Revision 87
Chapter XV--Duty learned from two sources 93
Chapter XVI--Rights of man over things 97
Chapter XVII--Equal rights of men 102
Chapter XVIII--A false basal principle 108
Chapter XIX--The true ethical principle 115
Chapter XX--Wealth is barren 121
Chapter XXI--Wealth decays 132
Chapter XXII--The debt habit 138
Chapter XXIII--The borrower is servant to the lender 144
Chapter XXIV--Usury enslaves the borrower 146
Chapter XXV--Usury oppresses the poor 154
Chapter XXVI--Usury oppresses the poor--continued 160
Chapter XXVII--Usury oppresses the poor--continued 168
Chapter XXVIII--Usury oppresses the poor--concluded 174
Chapter XXIX--Usury centralizes wealth 180
Chapter XXX--Mammon dominates the nations 189
Chapter XXXI--Effect on character 206
Chapter XXXII--Ax at the root of the tree 219
Chapter XXXIII--Per contra; Christian Apologists 233
Chapter XXXIV--Per contra; Land Rentals 243
Chapter XXXV--Per contra; Political Economists 253
Chapter XXXVI--Usury in History 258
Chapter XXXVII--Francis Bacon 266
Chapter XXXVIII--Why this truth was neglected 272
Chapter XXXIX--Crushed truth will rise again 281
Index 293
TO MY READERS.
I beg the sincere and thoughtful consideration of this book by all its
readers. Please follow the argument in the order in which it is
presented. This is the way it developed in my own mind and led me,
step by step, irresistibly to its conclusions. Do not read the closing
chapters first, but begin with the "_Definition_." I believe every
candid reader doing this, and having a logical mind, will fully and
heartily concur in the condemnation of usury.
I hope these arguments will be fairly treated and justly weighed even
by those whose interests seem in conflict. I have simply sought the
truth, believing that "the truth shall make you free." It cannot be
that this or any truth is in real conflict with the highest welfare of
any man.
If any sincere friends of this truth are grieved that the argument is
so crudely and roughly stated, I can only say in excuse, that, so far
as I know or can learn from the great librarians I have consulted,
this is the first attempt ever made to fully present the anti-usury
argument, and I sincerely hope that others, profiting by my effort,
may be able to make it more effective.
THE AUTHOR.
CHAPTER I.
DEFINITION.
In the evolution of the English language, since the making of our King
James version of the Bible, many new words have been introduced, and
many old ones have changed their meanings.
In the nearly three hundred years the Saxon word "let," to hinder, has
become obsolete. It was in common use and well understood when the
version was made, but is now misleading. Thus we have in Isaiah 43:13:
"I will work and who will let (hinder) it?" Paul declared that he
purposed to go to Rome, "but was let (hindered) hitherto." Rom. 1:13.
Again we have in II Thess. 2:7: "Only he who now letteth (hindereth)
will let (hinder), until he be taken out of the way."
"Wot," to know, has become obsolete. Gen. 21:26: "I wot (know) not who
hath done this thing." Ex. 32:1: "As for this Moses, we wot (know) not
what hath become of him." Acts 3:17: "I wot (know) that through
ignorance ye did it."
"Prevent," from its derivation and use, meant, "to go before;" now it
means to hinder. Ps. 59:10: "The God of my mercies shall prevent (go
before) me." Ps. 92:2: "Let us prevent (go before) his face with
thanksgiving." I Thess. 4:15: "We who are alive shall not prevent (go
before) them who are asleep."
Charity, which now means liberality to the poor, and a disposition to
judge others kindly and favorably, was at that time a synonym of love,
and used interchangeably with love in the translations of the Greek.
This is especially noted in the panegyric of love, in the thirteenth
chapter of First Corinthians, and faithfully corrected in the Revised
Version, though some have felt that the beauty and especially the
euphony of the familiar passage has been marred. But the word charity
is no longer equivalent to love, in our language, and could not be
retained without perverting the sense.
Usury, when the version was made, meant any premium for a loan of
money, or increase taken for a loan of any kind of property.
Theological Dictionary: "Usury, the gain taken for a loan of money or
wares." "The gain of anything above the principal, or that which was
lent, exacted only in consideration of the loan, whether it be in
money, corn, wares or the like."
Bible Encyclopedia: "Usury, a premium received for a sum of money over
and above the principal."
Schaff-Herzog: "Usury, originally, any increase on any loan."
This was the usage of the word usury by the great masters of the
English language, like Shakespeare and Bacon, in their day, and is
still given as the first definition by the lexicographers of the
present.
Webster, 1890 edition: "Usury, 1. A premium or increase paid or
stipulated to be paid for a loan, as for money; interest. 2. The
practice of taking interest. 3. Law. Interest in excess of a legal
rate charged to a borrower for the use of money."
Interest is comparatively a new word in the language meaning also a
premium for a loan of money. It first appeared in the fourteenth
century, as a substitute for usury, in the first law ever enacted by a
Christian nation that permitted the taking of a premium for any loan.
The word usury was very odious to the Christian mind and conscience.
Interest was at the first a legal term, used in law only, and it has
always been applied to that premium or measure of increase that is
permitted or made legal by civil law.
In modern usage usury is limited in its meaning to that measure of
increase prohibited by the civil law. Thus the two words interest and
usury now express what was formerly expressed by the one word usury
alone. Interest covers that measure of increase that is authorized in
different countries, while usury, with all the odium that has been
attached to it for ages, is limited to that measure of increase that
for public welfare is forbidden by the laws of a state.
The distinction is wholly civic and legal. That may be usury in one
state which is only interest in another. The legal rates greatly vary
and are changed from time to time in the states themselves. If a
state should forbid the taking of any increase on loans, then all
increase would be usury, and there could be no interest; or if a state
should repeal all laws limiting the exactions of increase, then there
would be no usury in that state. Usury is increase forbidden by civil
law. Separated from the enacted statutes of a state the distinction
disappears. There is no moral nor is there an economic difference.
Blackstone says: "When money is lent on a contract to receive not only
the principal sum again, but also an increase by way of compensation
for the use, the increase is called interest by those who think it
lawful, and usury by those who do not."
The moral nature of an act does not depend on the enacted statutes of
human legislators, and the laws of economics are eternal. We must not
permit our views of divine and economic truth to be perverted by this
modern division of increase into legal and illegal. In order that the
whole truth may be now expressed in our language we must combine with
the old word usury the new word interest; then only will we have the
full force of the revealed truth. "Wherefore then gavest not thou my
money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own
with usury or interest?" It is rendered interest in the Revised
Version.
Throughout this discussion usury is used in its full old classical
meaning for any increase of a loan, great or small, whether authorized
or forbidden by the civil state.