Note 184-2 — Chapter IV

According to the Lex Visig., V, 5, § 8, the maximum rate of interest allowed on loans of money was 12½ per cent., and on other res fungibiles, 50 per cent. From the 12th to the 14th century, the Lombards and the Jews in France and England took generally (?) 20 per cent. a year. (Anderson, Origin of Commerce, a., 1300.) Philip V. of France, in 1311, fixed the rate of interest at the fairs in Champagne at 15 per cent. (a species of discount) at most, and at a maximum everywhere of 20 per cent. (Ordonnances de la France, I, 484, 494, 508.) The legal rate of interest in Verona, in 1288, was fixed at a maximum of 12½ per cent.; in Modena, 1270, at 20 per cent. (Muratori, Antiquitt. Ital., I, 894); in Bresica, 1268, at 10 per cent. (v. Raumer, Geschichte der Hohenstaufen, V, 395 ff.) Frederick II. wished to reduce it to 10 per cent. for Naples, but failed. (Bianchini, Storia delle Finanze di Nap., I, 299.) The tables of Cibrario, Economia polit. del medio Evo., III, 380, for 1306-1399, show for upper Italy interest to have been at 20, 15, 14, 10, and also 5½ per cent. About 1430 the Florentines, in order to moderate the enormously high rate of interest, called Jews to their city, and the latter promised not to charge over 20 per cent. (Cibrario, III, 318.) In the Rhine country, the Kowerzens, during the 14th century, took from 60 to 70 per cent., for which they had, however, to pay a heavy tax to the archbishop. (Bodmann, Rh. Alterthümer, 716.) Of Jewish maximum rates of interest, in the 14th and 15th centuries, see Stobbe, Juden in Deutschland während des M. Alters, 103, 110, 234 seq.; Hegel, Strassb. Chr., II, 977, 984.

The rate of interest usual in these countries must not however be calculated from the data furnished by these usurious rates and fixed rates of interest, simply. In Germany, the rate of interest promised by princes in the 13th and 14th centuries was usually 10 per cent. The Frankfort municipal loans made by Jews in the 14th century bore interest at the rate of 9, 11-2/3, 13, 18, 26, and even 45 per cent. (Kriegk, F.'s Bürgerzwiste, 343, 539.) The rate of interest in the purchase of annuities continually declined between 1300 and 1500, especially in the time of the emancipation of manual laborers. Old Base documents give, between 1284 and 1580, as the highest rate, 11-3/9, and as the least, 5 per cent. The latter became more and more usual later, especially in the sale of house-rents (Hauszins), so that in 1841 all annuities (Renten) might be canceled by a payment of their amounts multiplied by 20. Until the beginning of the 15th century, in the city, the rule was 6 to 7 per cent.; outside of it, 8 to 10 per cent. (Arnold, Geschichte des Eigenthums in den deutschen Städten, 222 seq., 227 seq.) According to the Bremen Jahrb. of 1784, 164 seq., the rate of interest in the case of Handfesten, in 1295, = 10 per cent., gradually sank: in the 15th century it was never over 6-2/3; after 1450, generally 5; in 1511 only 4 per cent. In 1441 ff., in Augsburg, people were satisfied with a business profit of 7-2/3 per cent., while the usual rate of interest paid by house-rent, etc. was 5 per cent. (Hegel, Augsb. Chr., II, 134 seq., 157.) Handsome tables in the rate of interest in the purchase of annuities for all Germany, from 1215 to 1620, give as the rule, 7 to 10, scarcely ever over 15 per cent., in M. Neumann, Geschichte des Wuchers, 266 ff. For the upper Rhine, compare Mone's Zeitschr., 26 ff. Among the Fathers of the councils of Constance and Basil 5 per cent. was considered equitable. Compare F. Hammerlin, 1389-1457, De Emtione et Venditione unius pro viginti. Russian interest at 40 per cent., according to the laws of Jaroslaw (ob. 1054 after Christ). Karamsin, Russ. Gesch., II, 47.