Usury
Usury is a term which originally was used to denote the charging of interest, but is also used to express the charging of excessively high interest rates. Usury is derived from the Latin term usura which means "money paid for use".[1] One of the first commentaries on usury[1] can be found in Aristotle's Politics where he expresses his disdain for the practice by saying:
The most hated sort, and with the greatest reason, is usury, which makes a gain out of money itself, and not from the natural use of it. For money was intended to be used in exchange, but not to increase at interest. And this term usury, which means the birth of money from money, is applied to the breeding of money, because of the offspring resembles the parent. Wherefore of all modes of making money this is the most unnatural.
See also: Interest
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk. "Capital and Interest: History and Critique of Interest Theories", 1959, page 10,167.