Jeremy Bentham and the Usury Law (Classic Reprint)
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| Hersteller: | Forgotten Books (Rhode-Islander, Rhode-Islander) |
| Stand: | 2015-08-04 03:50:33 |
Produktbeschreibung
Excerpt from Jeremy Bentham and the Usury Law Mr. Bentham thus divides the subject. "In favor of the restraint opposed to the species of liberty I contend for, I can imagine but five arguments: "1. Prevention of usury. "2. Prevention of prodigality. "3. Protection of indigence against extortion. "4. Repression of the temerity of projectors. "5. Protection of simplicity against imposition." He then devotes several chapters of his book to the refutations of these five reasons, which are all that he can " imagine" in favor of the restraints proposed upon the loan of money. The substance of the second chapter consists in a successful attempt to show that there can be no such thing as usury in the absence of all previous legal restraint; - that usury is the excess over the rates established by law. This proposition might have been taken for granted. In the third letter Mr. B. proceeds to demolish the second reason which he "imagines" to be one of the reasons in favor of usury laws, the prevention of prodigality. He says, what in general is true, "that no man, prodigal or not prodigal, will ever think of borrowing money to spend, so long as he has ready money of his own, or effects which he can turn into ready money without loss." That if he is a prodigal "the usury law will not prevent him from spending what he has." And that after he has spent his all, "and has no security to offer, it will be as difficult to obtain money at an extraordinary rate as at an ordinary rate," and thus, therefore, the usury laws can be no protection to him. In his fourth letter he undertakes to show that the Indigent derives no beneficial protection from these laws, because, supposing him of sound understanding, he is a better judge than the legislature what he can afford to pay. The protection of simplicity forms the subject of the fifth letter, and is the only remaining reason upon which Mr. B. imagines the usury law to rest. He says, "Here, in the first place, I think I am by this time entitled to observe, that no simplicity short of absolute idiotism, can cause the individual to make a more groundless judgment than the legislature, who, in the circumstances above stated, should pretend to confine him to any given rate of interest, would have made for him." That even admitting the judgment of the legislature to be better than that of the individual, still the usury laws can be no protection to him, because there are many other ways by which a simple man may ruin himself, which the legislature has not protected him from, such as buying goods at exorbitant prices, buying more than he wants, and other similar cases. This ends the work of demolishing the five reasons which Mr. Bentham has imagined were the only reasons upon which the usury laws were based. Mr. Benthamt hen proceeds to an enumeration of the positive mischiefs of the usury laws. "The first I shall mention, is that of precluding so many people altogether from getting the money they stand in need of, to answer their respective exigencies. Think what a distress it would produce, were the liberty of borrowing denied to every body." I confess myself unable clearly to understand what the author means by this mischief. I believe it was never before pretended that usury laws lessened the quantity of money or prevented any one from borrowing. The second mischief is, that if any man is not permitted to borrow, he must sell his property at a greater loss than the extra interest would occasion. Here, again, he imagines that the usury laws prevent men from borrowing. Ab
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