Note 184-3 — Chapter IV

The high rate of interest in many countries at present may be thus accounted for. In the United States, during the last century, less than 8 per cent. was seldom paid. (Ebeling, III, 152.) According to M. Chevalier, Lettres sur l'Amérique du Nord, 1836, I, 59, the rate of interest in Pennsylvania was 6, in New York, 7, in most of the slave states, 8-9; in Louisiana, 10 per cent. In South Australia (1850) it was, with full security, 15-20 per cent. (Reimer, Südaustralien, 39.) In the West Indies, about the end of the last century, a strong negro might produce a revenue equal to one-fourth of his capital value. (B. Edwards, History of the British West Indies, II, 129.) In Brazil, the lowest rate of interest was at 9 per cent., and 12-18 per cent. was nothing unusual. (Wappäus, M. and S. Amerika, 1871, 1413.) In Cuba, for the government 10, for private parties, 12 to 16 per cent. (Humboldt, Cuba, I, 231.) In Potosi, in 1826, Temple got 30 per cent. interest on chattel mortgage, and from 2 to 4 per cent. a month was offered, while the rate of interest in Buenos Ayres amounted to 15 per cent. per annum. (Temple, Travels, II, 217.) In Russia, Storch, Handbuch,[TN 20] I, 262, speaks of 8-10 per cent. According to v. Haxthausen, it was, in the interior, never less than from 8 to 12 per cent. per annum; at Kiew and Odessa, 1¼, 1½ and 2 per cent. per month. (Studien, I, 58, 467; II, 495.) In Greece, the rate of interest on first mortgages is at least 10, on a second, 15-18 per cent. (Ausland, 1843, No. 82.)