Note 185-7 — Chapter IV

While in Paris the capital safely invested paid 2½ to 3 per cent., 57 out of 61 conseils généraux declared, in 1845, that the rate of interest on hypothecations, in their departments, was always over 5 per cent.; 17 estimated it at an average of from 6 to 7 per cent.; 12 at from 7 to 10; some said 12 and 15, and even 22 per cent. in the case of small sums loaned for a short time. (Chegarny, Rapport au Nom de la Commission de la Réforme hypoth., 29 Avril, 1851.) In Russia, at the beginning of this century, the rate of interest in the Baltic provinces was 6 per cent.; in Moscow, 10; in Taurien, 25; in Astracan, 30 per cent. (v. Schlözer, Anfangsgründe I, 102.) In 1750, in Naples, the rate of interest was from 3 to 5 per cent., in the provinces from 7 to 9 per cent. (Guliani, della Moneta, IV, 1.) In Trajan's time in Rome, 6; in Bithynia, 12 per cent. (Plin., Epist. VII, 18; X, 62.)