The Placer herald., 1862-03-08
THE PLACER HERALD
AUBURN, MARCH 8, 1862.
USURY LAWS.

USURY LAWS.
This subject has recently been up IN our
legislature and been lightly touched upon
1t was formerly settled principle, that peo
pie should be protected against the rapacl'y
of the money lender, by severe laws against
exac,ing heavy rates Of interest When and
how this theory grew into practice, it is not
now of Importance to in1uire-the question
of interest being simply whether, under the
existing state of matters. such laws are ben
efcial or not. The more modern ilea is tha,
they are unne es>ary, injurious and tyranlcal.
1t is said, that men should be permitted to
make their own bargains, and to buy and
sell property in the market without restraint
by law, other than the necessities that trade
may institute, and that money is property,
and goes into market us horse or bushel
of wheat does; that a man will give for the
use of money just what its use is worth to
him and no more in short, that supply and
demand should govern the case.
We confess that looks, at first blush, quite
reasonable, but the premises upon which it is
founded are not true Money is in no sense
ordinarily applied in the exchange of property
1ntrinsicaly, neither gold nor silver are as
valuable as iron. There are times when The
market becomes overStocked with certain
articles of property. and they will bring no
price whatever, but when money is the most
plenty and is found in the hands of almost
every one in community. the rate of int rest
runs highest. Five, and even ten per cent
per month were moi uncommon rates in the
flush times of this State. There never is a
time when money is not in demand. There
are times when the securities offered are such
as to induce the holder not to part with it
there are times when it is not needed in such
large quantities, for the purposes of equaliz'
ing the exchanges of property as at others
and then for commercial purposes, it may be
said it is not in demand. AS property, it i:
at no time as valuable to us as what we ea
or wear-these are necessities-money Is
only made so in forming the standard of ex
change for these articles. If one has wheat
it may be exchanged for -four provided the
holder of the flour wishes the wheat, but il
he does not, then YOU must give in dollars
and cents, an amount equal to what by that
standard the -four is held at. And so too
if YOU desire a coat, YOU cannot pay for it in
wool, because the clothing merchant does
not produce the coat from the wool--yon
give him the difference between the raw
wool and the coat in coin, and sell the wool
to another party.
Without going further into illustration, ii
strikes us that it must be apparent that the
premises upon which this mordern philoso
phv is based are false. and if this is true, the
conclusions to which they, who advocate 1t
arrive, are exceedingly doubtful to say the
least of it. The value of gold and silver is
simply in the minds of men-it is in fact
true. 1t is like the diamond, esteemed for
its rariy-make it common, and the jndg'
ment of men will discard it for something
really more useful. The reasons given, for
a law, are often very foolish, whilst the law
is in fact the perfection of wisdom, ard al
though we NAV not have very satisfactory
causes recorded for the enactment of uSnry
laws in times past. it is certain that it has
been the settled policy for ages to practice
upon such theory. This practice of the
past is the best of wisdom, for it is the re
suit Of experience
We confess that our mind has changed
upon this subject We once believed in the
modern theorv-we believe this to be the
doctrine of a majority of the people Of this
State who think of the matter at all, but we
question the philosophy, and submit that
there are good reasons to doubt the modern
idea. The Legislature might do worse things
than to pass usury laws.