71. Fifth employment of capitals, lending on interest; nature
of a loan.
The possessors of money balance the risk their capital may
run, if the enterprise does not succeed, with the advantage of
enjoying a constant profit without toil; and regulate themselves
thereby, to require more or less profit or interest for their
money, or to consent to lend it for such an interest as the
borrower offers. Here another opportunity opens to the possessor
of money, viz, lending on interest, or the commerce of money. Let
no one mistake me here, lending on interest is only a trade, in
which the lender is a man who sells the use of his money, and the
borrower one who buys; precisely the same as the proprietor of an
estate, or the person who farms it, buys and sells respectively
the use of the hired land. The Latin term for a loan of money or
interest, expresses it exactly, usura pecuniae, a word which
adopted into the French language is become odious, by a
consequence of false ideas being adopted on the interest of
money.
