great stand of trade. The second is, that were it not for this easy borrowing upon interest, men's necessities would draw upon them a most sudden undoing; in that they would be forced to sell their means (be it lands or goods) far under foot;[1] and so, whereas usury doth but gnaw upon them, bad markets would swallow them quite up. As for mortgaging or pawning, it will little mend the matter: for either men will not take pawns[2] without use;[3] or if they do, they will look precisely for the forfeiture. I remember a cruel monied man in the country, that would say, The devil take this usury, it keep us from forfeitures of mortgages and bonds. The third and last is, that it is a vanity to conceive that there would be ordinary borrowing without profit; and it is impossible to conceive the number of inconveniences that will ensue, if borrowing be cramped. Therefore to speak of the abolishing of usury is idle. All states have ever had it, in one kind or rate, or other. So as that opinion must be sent to Utopia.[4]
- ↑ Under foot. Below standard value.
- ↑ Pawn. Surety, pledge. "Do you hear, sir? we have no store of money at this time, but you shall have good pawns; look you, sir, this jewel, and that gentleman's silk stockings." Ben Jonson. Every Man in his Humour. iv. 7.
- ↑ Use. Interest.
"Me, therefore, studious of laborious ease,
Not slothful, happy to deceive the time,
Not waste it, and aware that human life
Is but a loan to be repaid with use,
When He shall call his debtors to account,
From whom are all our blessings, business finds
E'en here."
Cowper. The Task. Book III. The Garden.
- ↑ Utopia. 'Nowhere,' in Greek; an imaginary island which is the seat of an ideal commonwealth in Sir Thomas More's political romance of the same name. It was published in Latin, in 1516, and entitled, De Optimo Reipublicae Statu, deque Nova Insula Utopia.
