Note 194-4 — Chapter IV

Turgot considered that only the prêteurs à la petite semaine, pawnbrokers who loaned to hard-pressed people on the confines of the middle class and artisans, and the infamous characters who advanced money to the sons of rich men to spend in dissipation, still passed for usurers. Only the latter are injurious; not, however, because of the high rate of interest they charge, but because they help in a bad cause. (Sur le Prêt d'Argent, § 32.) According to Colquhoun, Police of the Metropolis, 167, there are women in London from whom the hucksteresses borrow 5 shillings every day and return them every evening with ½ shilling interest. Something analogous happens much more frequently in the country, especially in the loaning in kind of productive capital to poor persons. Thus, in Tessin, there are many "iron cattle" which the borrower is obliged to return at their original value, plus an interest of about 36 per cent. (Franscini, C. Tessin, 152.) On the Rhine, frequently as much as 200 per cent. a year, is stipulated for in such contracts. Morstadt, der N. Oekonom. Heft., IX, 727.