Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1852-03-17

in the track Of the Usurer, are calculated to
have an entirely different result. They
have, in fact, offered premium to the spoil
err And why is this so? Because, instead
oi Furnishing usurv as a crime, they do, in
fact, give TO the Usurcr every thing ,ha, is
valuable in his contract, by allowing him
to recover the full amount Of money loaned
by him, with the legal rate of interest, thus
giving him all the chances Of exorbiani usu-
rlous profits, and in no event subjec,ng
him 10 The risk of a forfeiture Of his con-
tract BY an act Of Assembly, passed not
many years since, believe The &C, of 1912,
chap. 1852, the whole law of usury has been
changed in this State. Instead Of making
the contract void, and subjec,ng the procur-
er OF usurous loan to Imprisonment, as
was the case under the wholesome statute
of Anne, always in force in this State, up
TO the period of this set of Assembly, the
Usurer can now enforce his contract, by re-
covering at least the amount loaned with
legal interest This surely operates as an
encouragement to the Usurer, for under any
circumstances he is to get back the amount!
loaned with legal interest; and any thing
beyond that rate, which he may happen TO
make, in spir. of speculation, is so much
clear gain 10 him.
The Convention being aware of this ex-
traordinary condition of the law of usury
in Maryland, and being DESTROYS to Gu. up
by the roots this entire system Of legalized
plumbers, determined TO incorporate in the
Constitution the provision against usury,
which ia the subject matter Of your cores
Pondent's communication. In doing this,
they have restored the law as j, existed un-
der the statute of Anne, and our own act Of
l7O4 chapter SO, prior to the passage Of the
late act Of Assembly referred to, with the ad-
dIlonal proviso, that it shall be the duty Of
the Legislature 10 prescribe such penal laws
as may be necessary - prevent it.
And here let me ask, 10 what subject,
within the whole range Of legislation, could
their special attention have been more pro-
perly called than this We have some
twenty or more incorporated Banks in the
are restricted from taking more than six per
cent. on loans made by them, under forfeiture
Of their corporate rights.
Is it doing equal justice to the Banks, to
allow other capitalists TO loan out their
moneys a. two and a half per cent month,
while you compel the Banks, to do so at
the rate only of six per cent. per annum
] know no. how The fact may be, but can
readily perceive that such a state Of things
might tempt the capidity of some Banking
institutions, and cause them to do tina, in
directly, which they cannot do directly
Although am free 10 declare that no such
evil practices as those of usurious lending
are resor,ed TO by any Of the Banks of
Maryland, yet as long as brokers, and shaw
ers, and men Of capital, who are in the habit
Of lending at usurous rates, are made d.
rectors in the Banks, and have controlling
power in directing the business Of those in
s'.u,ons, it is easy to foresee that very
large amount Of the legitimate business Of
those institutions, will be diverted from its
natural channel, and thus their capacity to
supply the general wants of trading COM
muni,y in great degree cursailed or des-
lroyed.
independently Of those injurious effects
of usury upon the incorporated Banking
capital Of the State, i. may be safely assert
ed, that wherever usury is allowed by law,
or rather whenever The rate Of interest is
no. regulated or restricted by law, money
will always command high price. know
there are class OF writer's who maintain a
contrary doctrine to this, and who contend
.ha, money, like everything else, will seek
ils own level, and be regulated, in its price,
by the ordinary standard Of demand and
supply. But the experience Of the world
has never shown this to be SO. n or, indeed,
can i! be SO in the nature Of things. Those
who mountain these opinions forget, as it
seems 10 me, that money is an article which
always is, and must be, in great demand,
and therefore, a, all times, the subjec, mat
ter Of high price, unless restrained by law
If money is scarce, then indeed, accord
ing to theory, i, must be high, but, say,
when it is ever so abundant, such are the
Of mans nature, and, such his
proclivilies 10 accumulation, either for pur-
poses of avarice, or ostentalion, that it will
never cease to be an objec. Of his most ar
dent aspirations. And, therefore, if money
were fit article Of traffic, and like all other
articles Of trade, regulated in lis price by
the relation which demand bears to supply,
| think it more reasonable to assume, that
it will always bear high price. But am
rather inclined to think that money is the
King of all traffic, and regulates its own
price, without reference TO any well settled
or well defined laws which are not the of
spring of lis own despotic power.
The truth is, sir, that capital controls the
world. 1t has its own will, and never Yields
10 the eyioencies Of It's own GREATNESS or