Plutarch's Moralia (Holland)/Essay 20
THAT WE OUGHT NOT TO TAKE UP MONEY UPON USURY
THE SUMMARY
Plato, in his books of Laws, permitteth not one neighbour to make bold with another's water, before he have digged and sunk a pit so deep in his own ground that he is come to a vein of clay or potter's earth; until (I say) he have sounded thoroughly and found that the plot of ground is not apt to engender water, or yield a spring [for the said potter's clay being by nature fatty, solid and strong, retaineth that moisture which it hath once received, and will not let it soak or pass through]; but allowed they are, and ought to furnish themselves with water from others, when they have no means to find any of their own, forasmuch as the law intendeth to provide for men's necessity, and not to favour their idleness; even so there ought to be an ordinance and act as touching money; That it might not be lawful for those to borrow upon usury, nor to go into other men's purses (as it were) to draw water at their wells or pits, before they have cast about all means at home, searched every way, and gathered (as it were) from every gutter and spring, trying and assaying how to draw and come by that which may serve their own turns, and supply their present necessities. But now it falleth out contrariwise, that many there be who to furnish their foolish and riotous expenses, or else to accomplish their superfluous and chargeable delights, never serve their own turns, nor make use of those things which they have, but are ready to seek unto others, even to their great cost, though they stand in no need at all: for an undoubted and certain proof hereof, mark how usurers do not ordinarily put forth their money unto those who are in necessity and distress, but to such as be desirous to purchase and get that which is superfluous, and whereof they stand not in need; insomuch as that which is credited out and delivered unto him that borroweth, is a good proof and sufficient testimony that he hath somewhat to take to of his own; whereas indeed he ought (since he hath wherewith) to look unto it that he take not upon interest, and contrariwise, not to be credited nor to be in the usurer's book, is an argument that such an one is needy.
Why dost thou repair and make court (as it were) obsequiously to a banker or merchant? go thy ways and borrow of thine own bank, make a friend of thine own stock; flagons thou hast and pots, chargers, basons and dishes all of silver plate; employ the same about thy necessities, for to supply thy wants, and when thou hast disfumished thy table and cupboard, the gentle town Aulis, or else the isle Tenedos, will make up all again with fair vessel of earth and pottery which is much more neat and pure than those of silver; for these carry not the strong smell nor unpleasant scent of usury, which like rust or canker, every day more and more sullieth, fretteth and eateth into thy costly magnificence; these will not put thee in mind daily of the calends and new moons, which being in itself the most sacred and holy day of the month, is by means of the usurers become odious and accursed. For as touching those who choose rather to lay their goods to gage, and to pawn them for to borrow money thereupon and pay for use, than to sell them right out, I am verily persuaded that god Jupiter himself, surnamed Ctesius, that is. Possessor, cannot save them from beggary. Abashed they are to receive the price and value of their goods to the worth; but they be not ashamed to pay interest for the loan of money. And yet that wise and politic Pericles caused the costly robe and attire of the statue of Minerva, weighing forty talents in line gold, to be made in such sort, that he might take it off and put it on as he would at his pleasure; To the end (quoth he) that when we stand in need of money for maintenance of war, we may serve our turns therewith for the time, and afterwards put in the place again another of no less weight and worth; even so we likewise in our occasions and affairs, like as in the besieging of a city, ought never to admit the garrison of an usurer or enemy, nor to endure to see before our eyes our own goods delivered out for to continue in perpetual servitude, out rather to cut off from our table all that is neither profitable nor necessary; likewise from our beds, from our couches, and our ordinary expenses in diet whatsoever is needless, thereby to maintain and keep ourselves free, in hope and with full intent to supply and make amends again for it, if fortune afterwards smile upon us. Certes, the Roman dames in times past were willing to part with their jewels and ornaments of gold, yea, and give them away as an offering of first-fruits to Apollo Pythius, whereof was made a golden cup, and the same sent to the city of Delphi. And the matrons of Carthage shore the hair of their heads to make thereof twisted cords for to wind up and bend their engines and instruments of artillery in the defence of their country, when the city was besieged.
But we, as if we were ashamed of our own sufficiency and to stand upon our own bottoms, seek to enthral ourselves by gages and obligations; whereas it behoved us much more by restraining ourselves and reducing all to such things only as be profitable and good for us, of those needless, unprofitable and superfluous vessels which we have, after they be either melted, broken in pieces, or sold, to build a privileged chapel of liberty for ourselves, our wives and children. For the goddess Diana in Ephesus yielded sanctuary, franchise, and safeguard unto all debtors against their creditors who fled for succour into her temple. But the sanctuary indeed of parsimony, frugality, and moderate expense, into which no usurers can make entry, for to hale and pull out of it any debtor prisoner, standeth always open for those that are wise, and affordeth unto them a large space of joyous and honourable repose. For like as that prophetess which gave oracles in the temple of Pythius Apollo, about the time of the Medians' war, made answer unto the Athenian ambassadors: That God gave unto them for their safety a wall of wood; whereupon they leaving their lands and possessions, abandoning their city, and forsaking their houses and all the goods therein, had recourse unto their ships for to save their liberty; even so, God giveth unto us wooden tables, earthen vessels, and garments of coarse cloth, if we would live in freedom:
Set not thy mind upon steeds of great price,
And chariots brave in silver harness dight.
With clasps, with hooks, and studs by fine device
Ywrought, in race to show a goodly sight;
for how swift soever they be, these usurers will soon overtake them and run beyond. But rather get upon the next ass thou meetest with, or the first pack-horse that cometh in thy way, to fly from the usurer, a cruel enemy and mere tyrant, who demandeth not at thy hands fire and water, as sometimes did that barbarous king of Media; but that which worse is, toucheth thy liberty, woundeth thine honour and credit by proscriptions, writs, and open proclamations. If thou pay him not to his content he is ready to trouble thee; if thou have wherewith to satisfy him, he will not receive thy payment unless he fist; if thou prize and sell thy goods, he will have them under their worth; art thou not disposed to make a sale of them? he will force thee to it; dost thou sue him for his extreme dealing, he will seem to offer parley of agreement; if thou swear unto him that thou wilt make payment, he will impose upon thee hard conditions, and have thee at command; if thou go to his house for to speak and confer with him, he will lock the gates against thee; and if thou stay at home and keep house, thou shalt have him rapping at thy door; he will not away, but take up his lodging there with thee. For in what stead served the law of Solon in Athens, wherein it was ordained that among the Athenians men's bodies should not be obliged for any civil debt? considering that they be in bondage and slavery to all bankers and usurers who force men to keep in their heads; and that which more is, not to them alone (for that were not such a great matter), but even to their very slaves, being proud, insolent, barbarous, and outrageous, such as Plato describeth the devils and fiery executioners in hell to be who torment the souls of wicked and godless persons. For surely these cursed usurers make thy hall and judicial place of justice no better than a very hell and place of torment to their poor debtors, where after the manner of greedy geirs and hungry grisons, or they slay, mangle and eat them to the very bones:
And of their beaks and talons keen,
The marks within their flesh be seen.
And some of them they stand continually over, not suffering them to touch and taste their own proper goods; when they have done their vintage and gathered in their corn and other fruits of the earth, making them fast and pine away like unto Tantalus. And like as King Darius sent against the city of Athens his lieutenants-general Datis and Artaphernes, with chains, cords, and halters in their hands, therewith to bind the prisoners which they should take; semblably these usurers bring into Greece with them their boxes and caskets full of schedules, bills, handwritings and contracts obligatory, which be as good as so many irons and fetters to hang upon their poor debtors; and thus they go up and down, leaping from city to city, where they sow not as they pass along good and profitable seed, as Triptolemus did in old time; but plant their roots of debts, which bring forth infinite troubles and intolerable usuries, whereof there is no end, which eating as they go and spreading their spumes round about, in the end cause whole cities to stoop and sink, yea, and be ready to suffocate and strangle them. It is reported of hares that at one time they suckle young leverets and be ready to kinnule others that be in their bellies, and withal to conceive afresh: but the debts of these barbarous, wicked and cruel usurers do bring forth before they conceive. For in putting out their money they re-demand it presently; in laying it down they take it up, they deliver that again for interest which they received and took in consideration of loan and use. It is said of the Messenians' city:
Gate after gate a man shall here find,
And yet one gate there's always behind.
But it may better be said of usurers:
Usury here upon ursury doth grow,
And end thereof you never shall know.
And here withal in some sort they laugh at natural philosophers, who hold this axiom. That of nothing can be engendered nothing: for with them usury is bred of that which neither is, nor ever was; of that I say which never had subsistence nor being. Howbeit, these men think it a shame and reproach to be a publican, and take to farm for a rent the public revenues, notwithstanding the laws do permit and allow that calling, whereas themselves against all the laws of the world exact a rent and custom for that which they put forth to usury; or rather, to speak a truth, in lending their money they defraud their debtors as bankrupts do their creditors. For the poor debtor, who receiveth less than he hath set down in his obligation, is most falsely cozened, deceived and cut short of that which he ought to have.
And verily, the Persians repute lying to be a sin, but in a second degree: for in the first place they reckon to owe money and be indebted; inasmuch as leasing followeth commonly those that be in debt. But yet usurers lie more than they, neither are there any that practise more falsehood and deceit in their day debt books wherein they write, that to such a one they have delivered so much, whereas indeed it is far less; and so the motive of their lying is fair avarice, and neither indigence nor poverty, but even a miserable covetousness and desire ever to have more and more; the end whereof turneth neither to pleasure nor profit unto themselves, but to the loss and ruin of those whom they wring and wrong: for neither till they those grounds which they take away from their debtors; nor dwell in the houses out of which they turn them; nor eat their meat upon those tables which they have from them; nor yet clad themselves with their apparel of which they spoil them; but first, one is destroyed, then a second followeth after, and is allured as a prey by the other. And this is much like to a wild fire, which still consumeth, and yet increaseth always by the utter decay and destruction of all that falleth into it, and devoureth one thing after another. And the usurer which maintaineth this fire, blowing and kindling it with the ruin of so many people, gaineth thereby no more fruit than this, that after a certain time he taketh his book of accounts in hand, and there readeth what a number of debtors he hath bought out of house and home, how many he hath dispossessed of their land and living, from whence he hath come and whither he hath gone in turning, winding, and heaping up his silver. Now I would not that you should thus think of me, that I speak all this upon any deadly war and enmity that I have sworn against usurers:
For God be praised, they neither horses mine
Have driven away, nor oxen, nor yet kine;
but only to shew unto them who are so ready to take up money upon usury, what a villanous, shameful, and base thing there is in it, and how this proceedeth from nothing else but extreme folly and timidity of heart. If thou have wherewith to weld the world, never come into the usurer's book, considering thou hast no need to borrow. Hast thou not wherewith, yet take not money up and pay not interest, because thou shalt have no means to make payment.
But let us consider the one and the other apart by itself. Old Cato said unto a certain aged man, who behaved himself very badly: My friend (quoth he), considering that old age of itself hath so many evils, how cometh it to pass that you add thereto moreover the reproach and shame of lewdness and misdemeanour? even so may we say, seeing that poverty of itself hath so many and so great miseries, do not you over and above go and heap thereupon the troubles and anguishes that come of borrowing and being in debt; neither take thou from penury that only good thing wherein it excelleth riches, to wit, the want of carking and pensive cares; for otherwise thou shalt be subject unto the mockery implied by this common proverb:
A goat alone when bear unneth I may,
An ox upon my shoulder you do lay.
Semblably, you being not able to sustain poverty alone, do surcharge yourself with an usurer, a burden hardly supportable wen for a rich and wealthy man. How then would you have me to live? Haply some man will say: And dost thou indeed ask this question, having hands and feet of thine own? having the gift of speech, voice, and being a man, unto whom it is given both to love and also to be loved; as well to do a pleasure as to receive a courtesy with thanksgiving. Thou mayest teach grammar, bring up young children, be a porter or door-keeper; thou mayest be a sailor or mariner, thou mayest row in a barge or galley: for none of all these trades is more reproachful, odious or troublesome than to hear one say unto thee: Pay me mine own, or discharge the debt that thou owest me. Rutilius, that rich Roman, coming upon a time at Rome to Musonius the philosopher, said unto him thus in his ear: Musonius, Jupiter surnamed Saviour, whom you and such other philosophers as you are, make profession to imitate and follow, taketh up no money at interest: but Musonius, smiling again, returned him this present answer: No more doth he put forth any money for use.
Now this Rutilius, who was an usurer, reproached the other for taking money at interest, which was a foolish arrogant humour of a Stoic: for what need hadst thou, Rutilius, to meddle with Jupiter Saviour, and allege his name, considering that a man may report the selfsame by those very things which are familiar and apparent? The swallows are not in the usurer's book, the pismires pay not for use of money, and yet to them hath not nature given either hands or reason, or any art and mystery; whereas she hath endued man with such abundance of understanding, and aptness to learn and practise, that he can skill not only to nourish himself, but also to keep horses, hounds, partridges, hares, and jays: why dost thou then disable and condemn thyself, as if thou wert less docible and sensible than a jay, more mute than a partridge, more idle than a dog, in that thou canst make no means to have good of a man, neither by double diligence, by making court, by observance and service, nor by maintaining his quarrel and entering into combat in his defence? seest thou not how the earth doth bring forth many things, and how the sea affordeth as many for the use of man? And verily as Crates saith:
I saw myself how Mycilus wool did card.
And how with him his wife the rolls did spin:
Thus during war when times were extreme hard,
Both jointly wrought, to keep them from famine.
King Antigonus, when he had not of a long time seen Cleanthes the philosopher, meeting him one day in Athens, spake unto him and said: How now, Cleanthes, dost thou grind at the mill and turn the quern-stone still? Yea, sir (quoth Cleanthes again), I grind yet, and I do it for to earn my living; howbeit, for all that, I give not over my profession of philosophy. O the admurable courage and high spirit of this man, who coming from the mill, with that very hand which turned about the stone, ground the meal and kneaded the dough, wrote of the nature of the gods, of the moon, of the stars and the sun! But we do think all these to be base and servile works; and yet verily, because we would be free (God wot), we care not to thrust ourselves into debt, we pay for the use of money, we flatter vile and base persons, we give them presents, we invite and feast them, we yield (as it were) tribute underhand unto them; and this we do not in regard of poverty (for no man useth to put forth his money into a poor man's hand), but even upon a superfluity and riotous expense of our own: for if we could content ourselves with those things that are necessary for the life of man, there would not be an usurer in the world, no more than there are centaurs and monstrous gorgons. But excess it is and daintiness which hath engendered usurers; like as the same hath bred goldsmiths, silversmiths, confectioners, perfumers, and dyers of gallant colours. We come not in debt to bakers and vintners for our bread and wine; but we owe rather for the price and purchase of fair houses and lands, for a great number and retinue of slaves, of fine mules, of trim halls and dining chambers, of rich tables and the costly furniture belonging thereto, besides other foolish and excessive expenses which we oftentimes are at, when we exhibit plays and solemn pastimes into whole cities for to gratify and do pleasure unto the people; and that upon a vain ambition and desire of popular favour; and many times we receive no other fruit of all our cost and labour but ingratitude.
Now he that is once enwrapped in debt remaineth a debtor still all the days of his life; and he fareth like to an horse, who after he hath once received the bit into his mouth, changeth his rider eftsoons, and is never unridden, but one or other is always on his back. No way and means there is to avoid from thence, and to recover those fair pastures and pleasant meadows out of which those indebted persons are turned; but they wander astray to and fro, like to those cursed fiends and malign spirits whom Empedocles writeth to have been driven by the gods out. of heaven:
For such the heavenly power first chas'd down to the sea beneath;
The sea again up to the earth did cast them by and by;
Then afterwards, the earth them did unto the beams bequeath
Of restless sun, and they at last sent them to starry sky.
Thus fall they into the hands of usurers or bankers, one after another; now of a Corinthian, then of a Patrian, and after of an Athenian;[1] so long, until when all of them have had a fling at him, he become in the end wasted, eaten out and consumed with usury upon usury, for like as he that is stepped into a quagmire must either at first get forth of it, or else continue still there and not remove at all out of one place; for he that striveth, turneth and windeth every way, not only doth wet and drench his body, but mireth it all over and bewrayeth himself more than he was at first with filthy dirt; even so they that do nothing but change one bank for another, making a transcript of their name out of one usurer's book into another's, loading their shoulders eftsoons with new and fresh usuries, become always overcharged more and more; and they resemble for all the world those persons who are diseased with the choleric passion or flux, who will not admit of any perfect cure to purge it at once, but continually taking away a certain portion of the humour, make room for more and more still, to gather and engender in the place; for even so these are not willing to be rid and cleansed at once, but with dolour, grief, and anguish pay usury every season and quarter of the year; and no sooner have they discharged one, but another distilleth and runneth down after it, which gathereth to an head; and so by that means they are grieved with the heartache and pain of the head; whereas it behoved that they should make quick dispatch, and give order to be clear and free once for all; for now I direct my speech unto those of the better sort, who have wherewith above their fellows, and yet be nicer than they should be; and those commonly come in with such-like words and excuses as these: How then; would you have me unfurnished of slaves and servants? to live without fire, without an house and abiding-place? which is all one as if he that were in a dropsy and swollen as big as a tun, should say unto a physician; What will you do? would you have me to be lean, lank, spare-bodied and empty; and why not? or what shouldest not thou be contented to be, so thou mayest recover thy health and be whole again? and even so may it be said unto thee? Better it were for to be without slaves than to be a slave thyself; and to remain without heritage and possession, that thou mayest not be possessed by another.
Hearken a little to the talk that was between two geirs or vultures as the tale goes; when one of them disgorged so strongly that he said withal; I think verily that I shall cast up my very bowels: the other being by, answered in this wise: What harm will come of thy vomiting so long as thou shalt not cast up thine own entrails, but those only of some dead prey which we tare and devoured together but the other day; semblably every one that is indebted selleth not his own land, nor his own house; but indeed the usurer's house and land of whom he hath taken money for interest, considering that by the law the debtor hath made him lord of him and all. Yea, marry, will he say anon; but my father hath left me this piece of land for mine inheritance: I wot well and believe it; so hath thy father left unto thee freedom, good name, and reputation, whereof thou oughtest to make much more account than of land and living. He that begat thee made thy hand and thy foot; and yet if it chance that one of them be mortified, he will give a good fee or a reward to a chirurgeon for to cut it off. Lady Calypso clad Ulysses with a vesture and robe scenting sweet like balm, yielding an odour of a body immortal, which she presented unto him as a gift and memorial of the love that she bare unto him; and thus he did wear for her sake; but after that he suffered shipwreck and was ready to sink, being hardly able to float above water, by reason that the said robe was all drenched and so heavy that it held him down, he did it off and threw it away; and then girding his naked breast underneath with a certain broad fillet or swaddling band, he saved himself by swimming, and recovered the bank: now when he was past this danger and seemed to be landed, he seemed to want neither raiment nor nutriment: and what say you to this? may not this be counted a very tempest, whenas the usurer after a certain time shall come to assail the poor debtors and say unto them: Pay:
Which word once said, therewith the clouds above,
He gathereth thick, and sea with waves doth move:
For why? the winds anon at once from east,
From south, from west, do blow and give no rest.
And what be these winds and waves? even usuries upon usuries, puffing, blowing, and rolling one after another; and he that is overwhelmed therewith and kept under with their heavy weight, is not able to swim forth and escape, but in the end is driven down and sinketh to the very bottom, where he is drowned and perished together with his friends, who entered into bonds and became sureties and pledges for him.
Crates, the philosopher of Thebes, therefore did very well, Who being in danger and debt to no man, only wearied with the cares and troubles of housekeeping, and the pensive thoughts how to hold his own, left all and gave over his estate and patrimony, which amounted to the value of eight talents, took himself to his bag and wallet, to his simple robe and cloak of coarse cloth, and fled into the sanctuary and liberties of philosophy and poverty. As for Anaxagoras, he forsook his fair lands and plenteous pastures: but what need I to allege these examples? considering that Philoxenus the musician, being sent with other to people and possess a new colony in Sicily, and having befallen to his lot a goodly house and living to it, enjoying (I say) for his part a good portion wherewith he might have lived in fulness and plenty; when he saw once that delights, pleasures and idleness without any exercise at all of good letters reigned in those parts; Pardie (quoth he), these goods here shall never spoil and undo me, but I will rather (I trow) make a hand and havoc of them; leaving therefore unto others his portion that fell unto him by lot, he took sea again and sailed away to Athens. Contrariwise, those that be in debt are evermore sued in the law, become tributaries and very slaves, bearing and enduring all indignities, like unto those varlets that dig in silver mines, nourishing and maintaining as Phineus did the ravenous winged harpies: for surely these usurers always fly upon them, and be ready to snatch and carry away their very food and sustenance; neither have they patience to stay and attend times and seasons; for they buy up their debtor's corn before it be ripe for the harvest; they make their markets of oil before the olives fall from the tree, and likewise of wine: For I will have it at this price (quoth the usurer); and withal the debtor giveth him presently a bill of his hand for such a bargain; meanwhile the grapes hang still upon the vine, waiting for the month of September, when the star Arcturus riseth and sheweth the time of vintage.
- ↑ Or Corinthian again.