Preble County Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1857-1859, 1857-10-22
THE PRICE OF Monty.

this time. Seven per cent. per
is the legally established rate of int.
rest; but three per cent. a month is tho
rate established by the ~exigencies Of
trade. Take the country from one end
oft to the other, and you will find the
laws of trade knocking and defying the
laws of government in the same pre-
s%umptuous manner The statute book
forbids the lender to take more than i
fixed per ccntage; business commands
the borrower to give trade rates; the
borrower eagerly obeys trades sovereign
behssts, and the lender, in a spirit OF
accommodation, consents TO take double,
triple the legal rate, having a better
opinion of trade han Of the law.
When one community practically
abolishos its. laws against usury, the eff
feet upon the communities which con-
tinuo to enforce. them is to drain them
of the great bulk Of cash capital held for
loan; for the bears do not seek the
chestnut forests with more certainty in
-a- aHHN"Ea
the fall, than the money lender seeks
the localities which allow the highest
rates of interest to be taken.
In New Orleans on one side, and in
New York on the other, the law allows
a high rate ef interest to be paid: and
the consequence is that from ten to thir-
ty millions of Virginia cash capital are
constantly withdrawn from the Virginia
to be employed in those great marts of
and theatres of mammoth
speculation. .s.-F 81
AS if to render assurance doubly sure
AID to drive from the borders of u
State every dollar of cash capital held
in cntcrprisiuS hands, we have not only
laws prohibiting the lending of money
at a higher rate than six per cent, but
the lender of money is required to dis
gorge a large share of that pittnnce into
the treasures OF our State and corpora
tons. The consequence has been that
our cash capital, in which Virginia is
richer than any State in the Union, has
fed her borders with a precipitancy
such as that with which rats are suppos-
ed TO escape sinking ships and falling
barns, until she is as bcreft of her own
abundant and princely means, as Dives
became when he shifted off the mortal
coil and reached his abode beyond the
Gulf impossible.
We do not agree with those who, in
view of this sora-fight Of money from
Virginia under the operation of ~ruinous
legislation, are anxious to rush into the
opposite policy of abolishins the laws
against usury and allowing the largest
license of charge and payment in the
money lending and money borrowing
Of the commonwealth.
There is one great fundamental truth
lying at the bottom of our usury laws,
on which they were originally based,
and upon which the whole fabric of onr
policy against exhorbitant interest was
erected. The Common Law was a law
for frecho!dcrs, and held in superlativc
disdain the subordinate classes Of trades
men and Brokers'. The brokers were
disfranchised Jewsin the early day of
the Common Law, and the tradcsmen
Of the own were regarded as dirty dogs
little better han Jews. The freehold
ers were esteemed a superior order, and
it was only the class Of frccholders who
were allowed any voice or agency in the
government and in law making.
The frecholders were borrowers and
their manner of tillaSe was not such in
that early day as to afford a high rate
of interest, if any at all, on borrowed
money. Hence the jealousy of the law
and of the legislature against the hiring
of money on interest Or useys Six
per cent per annum would in-lthose
times have been regarded as a mon
strous extortion upon the lords of the
land, and would in fact have been ruiz
nous. @
Such was the original spirit of the
common LaW-Sucu the reason Oh us
statutes against usury; and that reason
has not ceased. The great fundamcn-
tai fact to which we have alluded as ly-
ing at the basis of the policy of the
statutes against usury is this, that the
profits Of the landed estItes OF the count
try do not adult of a higher rate of in
tcrest for money than six per cent per
annum-iudeed they do not justify thai
rate. Now, the primary duty OF a wise
and conservative government is to pre-
serve the stability of its agricultural in
terests. If. a rate of interest is allowed
to be charged the agricultural classes
and mortgaged upon their lands, higher
than agricultural profits will afford, the
permanent ownership Of landed proper
ty is destroyed, and the agricultural
class, the bona and sinew of the State,
which should be stable. u~nchangable,
~. 49, IL e-aJ .. IL