Money in the ancient world was
viewed very differently from what it is in the modern world. Aristotle’s
simple but powerful belief that “money was barren” and therefore interest was
unjust. This belief is found in various forms both in the Old and New Testaments.[i]
In the ancient world usury was not limited to charging
exorbitant interest rates on loans, which is how it is usually understood
today. Usury was synonymous with almost any sort of economic exploitation. Charging
excessive prices for goods, simply because they had become scarcer naturally or
by “engrossing” (buying
commodities in such quantities as to raise the price in market[ii]),
as well as any form of monopoly or foreclosure, were all deemed to be “usury.”[iii]
In the fourteenth century John Wycliffe preached, “It
was their vulnerability to usury that made men curse and hate it more than any
other sin.” The prohibition against usury was considered to be a matter of
protecting the everyday livelihood of the ordinary village craftsmen and small
farmers.
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