THE HISTORY OF COMMERCE
levied arbitrarily for state or religious purposes. The other was a loan in the ordinary sense of the term. With regard to the latter, it is seen that already in the eighth century professional money-lenders existed, and that legislative attempts were made to prevent usury. Thus the law forbade a rate of interest higher than twelve and one-half per cent in sixty days, or seventy-five per cent in a year, and also provided that under no circumstances should the total payment on account of interest exceed the principal. The result of the latter veto was that debts remaining unpaid after four hundred and eighty days ceased thenceforth to carry interest. If a debtor failed to repay a loan, he had to become the servant of the creditor, and probably for that reason officials and nuns were not allowed to borrow under any circumstances. Fire, in those early days, was regarded as a calamity not involving any responsibility. Thus if a borrowed article was burned while in the possession of the borrower, no duty of making compensation devolved on him, and the same principle held in the case of goods stolen with violence, though to have lost a thing by common robbery did not cancel the obligation of recouping the lender. All damage done to an article while in the hands of a borrower had to be made good, as also had its loss, but the death of a borrowed animal, if due to natural causes, did not entail any responsibility. The law further provided that in assessing damage or
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