Usury

Portuguese report to the Common Core of European Private Law volume on "immoral contracts". Report includes analysis of case scenarios on a range of issues, from sex work to surrogacy, from freedom to marry to inheritance issues, from suretyships to usury.

This paper investigates the double standard of brothers and others present in two economic activities, usury and opium trade. Nelson indicated that the double standard of brothers and others refers to the unification of brothers and others in tribes and the division of brothers and others in universe (3). I firstly introduce the concept of usury and the context of opium trade, and then argue that how do brotherhood and otherhood contradict with each other in usury, an act of money lending with interest, within the play The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare. I further analyze that the paradox of brotherhood and otherhood in the opium trade betrays the law of comparative advantage within the novel Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh. Finally, by explaining Adam Smith's opposing attitude towards colonialism, I demonstrate that opium merchants and colonial politicians selectively interpreted his idea of the invisible hand and then compare with The Merchant of Venice to argue that both Christians and Jews tend to selectively interpret the Bible as well to promote their own interest. Through exploring the contradiction of tribal brotherhood and universal otherhood, I assert that both Late-Renaissance Christians and Late-Modern colonists utilized the double standard of brothers and others as a tool to maximize their self-interest.

Like many early modern writers, Bradstreet attempted to accommodate the worldly to the spiritual.  The world of finance, agriculture, and genealogy are is both merged and set into conflict with the spirit in her father-poems.  The poems on marriage and motherhood sketch our further conflicts between worldly and heavenly values but reconcile these oppositions by imagining all realms and all distinctions as things transcended in the spirit.  "The Author to Her Book" disrupts this larger spiritual economy in which Bradstreet located all of her work.  The book becomes a child adrift in the world where it has a material value but owes no obligation to its mother, its only parent. Completely dissociated from the contractual bonds that originate in God the Father and that are enforced by the mother, his (re-)production can never ben redeemed and therefore will not maintain a spiritual connection to its origin.  She finally does not cast it aside as blasphemy, but sets it apart as a thing that exists in a universe parallel, if inferior, to the spiritual realm that encompasses all her other offspring.  This poem records the culmination of a secularizing trend within the poet's essentially spiritual thought, for is demonstrates how the domestic, the economic, and the theological--which Bradstreet understood as interrelated locations of the bond between parents and children--where beginning to come apart for her as separate but analogous realms.

"About the book:
Los resultados de las multiples investigaciones sobre pobreza coinciden en que un porcentaje importante de lo habitantes rurales se mantienen con la cuarta parte de lo que se ha calculado como el nivel minimo requerido para subsistir. En otras palabras, los pobladores rurales de mas bajos ingresos sobreviven sin contar con los medios materiales para hacerlo. En las paginas de este libro se analizan los medios no materiales involucrados en los manejos financieros a los que recurren estos y otros actores para salir adelante. "

Medieval Jews were perceived by their neighbors in two ways. On the one hand, as an integral part of the community, living among Christians, leading business or cooperating intellectually with them. Jewish philosophers were known and respected by Christian thinkers, like the Jewish medics - prized for centuries for their extensive knowledge and skills. On the other hand, the medieval Jew is a clever merchant, cunning moneylender that is gathering his fortune, follower a foreign religion - full of incomprehensible mysterious rituals. Although there was no shortage of sympathy, Jews were rather approached with distrust and distance. A perfect example of this is the ghetto, created in medieval times. Medieval Jew's pictures are multidimensional and very interesting. The article offers an attempt to present this diversity, discussing the Jew as a merchant, usurer, a resident of the ghetto, dissenter and a member of medieval society.

This article compares the historical transformation of the prohibition of usury in Christianity and the current disagreement in Islam over what forms of finance are forbidden by the prohibition of riba, now often interpreted to mean interest. It first sketches the controversy over riba in Islamic banking and economics. It then describes how the Christian understanding of usury evolved from any profit returned on a loan to merely exploitative lending. This article then identifies and considers divergences and correspondences between the substance, prompting causes, tenor, and method of development of these two debates. It concludes by suggesting some reasons scholars of religion and religious ethics may find this comparison useful, both when studying these specific traditions, and when reflecting on moral issues arising in modern finance.

Through an analysis of the Scriptural treatment of usury, a constructive theological analysis of the question of the friend-enemy distinction as a political category, its relationship to a Christian conception of universalism as determined by being in Christ, and the nature of faithful citizenship is forged. This essay argues that usury is a paradigmatic instance of the friend-enemy distinction as defined by Carl Schmitt and as such is primarily a political act. The article closes by analysing Schmitt's reading of Jesus’ commandment to love enemies and suggests that after Christ, the friend-enemy distinction ceases to be political and becomes missiological instead. The implication of this missiological conception is then related back to the on-going question of usury.

The goal of the paper is to stimulate discussion about literary antisemitism in modern Slovak literature exemplified by one of its most notable writers, František Švantner (1912-1950). In line with the research trends in the Czech and German contexts, it draws attention to interconnections between literature and other discourses at that time, and the ambivalent nature of depicting Jews in literature, where negative stereotypes are combined with seemingly positive ones (literary "allosemitism"). The analysis of two selected novels and one novella reveals a modernized stereotype of the "Jewish usurer", which was present in Slovak literature from the early 19 th century. Under the influence of the rasist discourse the usurer stereotype was transformed into the parasite stereotype using the symbol of blood as the central metaphor. In the novel Nevesta hôľ / The Bride of the Ridge Švantner suggests the variant of vampirism, which is further developed in the novel Život bez konca / Life without an End in the sense of "racial impregnation", i.e. infection and contagion. In the novella Sedliak / The Peasant thematizing his personal experience with persecution of Jews during the World War II, the ambivalent nature of literary antisemitism is refferred to by questioning the victim status of the literary character, who he again portrayed by conforming to the parasite stereotype.

Social attitudes toward usury (here defined using the archaic meaning as the taking of interest on loans) have changed dramatically over the centuries. From antiquity until the Protestant Reformation, usury was regarded as an inherently evil activity. Today, with few exceptions, usury is met with moral indifference. Modern objections to usury are limited to protest against "excessive" interest rates rather than interest per se. With this change in focus, the very meaning of the term "usury" has also changed. Many early pronouncements against the taking of interest emphasized the plight of the poor, but ironically, the poor actually pay the highest rates of interest in the modern American economy. Despite the universality of usury, some socio-economic subcultures still manage to avoid the taking or giving of interest. Orthodox branches of both Judaism and Islam have maintained bans on usury throughout the centuries and up to the present time. This is especially interesting in the case of Judaism, given the popular cultural image of the Jew as usurer. Jewish free loan systems may actually offer a model for modern loan programs that can be designed to aid poor borrowers, who are frequently shut out of mainstream financial services.

This open-access book adopts a geopolitical perspective to analyse the rise of cryptocurrencies. Perspectives examined include Judeo-Christian perspectives, gambling, usury and the Book of Revelation.

Analysis also explores the notion of the deep state and one world global governance.

Geopolitical frameworks analyzed include American political economy, BRICS nations and China's One Belt - One Road economic plan.

Key words : cryptocurrency cryptocurrencies Book of Revelation gambling debt usury one world government

This report provides a brief overview of some of the arguments and historical factors that were significant during the evolution of the Church's views on usury.  Specifically, it surveys theoretical development in four areas—with regard to the classification of usury as a species of sin; the nature and function of money; the nature and function of loans; and the morality of business and finance more generally—and points out that this development arose in response to the need to assess and control the new and increasingly prevalent financial practices of the post-feudal era. This moral adaptation in the tradition was generated through a slow and decentralized process of case-by-case reflection and analysis performed by diverse actors within universities, religious orders, and in positions of governmental authority. Despite its decentralized and ad hoc nature this process was fairly cohesive due to a combination of the Roman Catholic Church’s authority and the academic and legal institutions in place at the time in Europe; involved parties acknowledged each other as dialogue partners across time and space, and often built upon or rejected each others’ arguments explicitly. This cohesion notwithstanding, the process was not a linear one, and its teleological nature is only clear in retrospect. Moreover, it was marked by controversy and heated disagreement, as would be expected of any period of moral discernment in which much is at stake—financially, socially, and for the Church, politically, morally and spiritually. This report concludes by discussing this, and summarizing features of this historical episode of moral discernment that may be important to consider from the vantage point of Christian churches today.

Translation of the European Council for Fatwa & Research (Qaradawi, Bin Bayyah, Al-Judai, etc.) fatwa on mortgages for home-purchasing with Salah al-Sawi’s detailed response.  Includes analysis of classical fiqh and usul including Hanafi positions on riba in Dar al-Harb (“the Abode of War”), and Imam al-Haramayn Juwayni’s text al-Ghiyathiyyah.

Perrier, E., « L’usure, injuste aujourd’hui comme hier », Revue thomiste 121 (2021), 113-60.

Peu étudiée pour elle-même, souvent confondue avec d’autres propositions qui sont ses contemporaines, la doctrine de saint Thomas d’Aquin sur l’usure mérite pourtant d’être comprise. Comprise d’abord dans ce qu’elle affirme vraiment (l’usure est injuste de soi car elle vend ce qui n’existe pas) et comprise par rapport à ce qu’elle n’affirme pas. Comprise ensuite dans son actualité, car elle rend compte de l’épuisement du monde, du risque d’implosion du système financier et, pour partie, de l’érosion de l’amitié politique. Tout cela parce que l’usure fait de la consommation d’argent une activité rentable.

Abstract. — Aquinas’ teaching on usury is rarely studied for itself with the necessary attention it requires to be correctly understood, and as a result it is often conflated with its medieval counterparts. It needs first to be understood in what it states (usury is unjust in itself for it sells what doesn’t exist) and in what it doesn’t state (usury’s unfairness would rest on something else than itself). Second, it is just as topical as ever in our financially-driven times, in that it accounts for the draining of our world, for the financial system risk of implosion, and, partly, for weakening our political bonds of friendship. All of this because usury makes money consumption a profitable act.

Table des matières
1. Pourquoi l’usure dans les prêts d’argent est-elle injuste ?
a) Le juste, le juste naturel et le juste de soi
b) Les biens consomptibles
c) Les biens non consomptibles
d) La situation du prêt d’argent

2. L’usure dans l’ordre économique
a) Ce que signifie : l’usure est injuste de soi
b) Le domaine de l’usure
c) La variation du niveau général des prix
d) La vente du risque : entre usure et instrument financier
- Le risque de non-restitution
- La vente du risque en tant qu’usure
- La vente du risque en tant qu’instrument financier
e) L’économie de la dette et l’injustice de l’usure
- L’usure épuise le monde
- L’usure rend insoutenable le danger financier

3. La justice face à l’usure
a) L’usure et la vertu de justice
b) De l’usure, vous en aurez toujours

Although Murray Rothbard gave high praise to the economic teachings of Thomas de Vio Cardinal Cajetan, portraying him as proto-Austrian, this article argues that the reality is more complicated. Examining Cajetan’s three major economic works, On Monetary Exchange, On Charitable Pawnshops, and On Usury, it demonstrates that he could be in turn liberal, moderate, and conservative, depending on the particular context and question. It concludes that read within his own scholastic and pastoral approach, Cajetan may still have insights and contributions to offer the history of economics, but of a more mixed character than Rothbard’s portrayal.

يهتم هذا البحث بدراسة مشكلة تكلفة رأس المال والصعوبات المرتبطة بها بهدف توضيح أهمية حساب تكلفة رأس المال فى المشروعات الاستثمارية لترشيد استخدام الأموال وتحقيق قدر متوازن من الاستقرار والاستدامة في المجتمع.
وتحدد إطار الدراسة في تحقيق فرض أساسي وهو: "أهمية عامل الوقت فى تكوين رأس المال واستخدامه وتنميته". وتم تحليل الفرض إلى عدد من التساؤلات قسمت فى مجموعتين، المجموعة التي قد تشكل عوامل سلبية لأهمية عامل الوقت، والمجموعة التي تؤكد أهميته. ومن تحليل إجابات المجموعتين توصلت الدراسة إلى صحة الفرض الأساسي وأنه لا خلاف بين أحكام الشريعة الإسلامية والمفاهيم العلمية في أهمية عامل الوقت فى تكوين رأس المال واستخدامه وتنميته، حيث تهتم الشريعة بعامل الوقت عند التصرف فى الأموال بفرض نسبة الزكاة من الأموال المدخرة سنويا ، وإباحة الكسب من البيع الآجل وهو زيادة نظير الأجل. كما استخدم لفظ البيع المباح عند التفرقة بينه وبين حرمة الربا بإعجاز قرآنى ليعبر عن الدافع والغاية لاستخدام رأس المال وهما وجهي العملة لكل أنواع الاستثمار، حيث يتحقق البيع الأرباح للمستثمر والإشباع للمستهلك في درجات متطورة من الإنتاجية والرفاهية للمجتمع.  وحرم الربا بسبب أنه مجرد تبادل نقد بنقد وزيادة دون مقابل من خدمات أو منافع للطرفين ويؤدي إلى انفصال دورة النقود وزياداتها عن دورة الإنتاج والاستثمار والبيع وإشباع الحاجات للفرد والمجتمع بما يعوق دافع الاستثمار ولا يحقق غايته. كما توصلت الدراسة إلى إمكانية تطبيق أحكام الإجارة فى الشريعة لاستخدام رأس المال النقدي فى المشروعات مقابل الخدمات والمنافع التي يساهم بها كعنصر من عناصر الإنتاج. ويحسب الأجر كتكلفة لكل رأس المال الممول للمشروع، سواء التمويل المخاطر بالملكية أو التمويل المؤقت بالاقتراض.  وتخصم تكلفة التمويل من الإيرادات مع كل التكاليف الأخرى قبل التوصل للربح. وبسبب الطبيعة التمويلية الخاصة برأس المال، لا تدفع تكلفته لأصحاب الأموال إلا بعد تحقق الإيرادات من البيع، ويكون للتمويل المؤقت الأولوية إذا لم تغطي الإيرادات كل تكاليف التمويل، وفى حالة الخسارة ترحل تكلفة التمويل لرأس المال المملوك والمؤقت إلى سنوات الربحية. وبحساب ودفع تكلفة رأس المال النقدي تقوم المشروعات النمطية التي تحقق إشباع الحاجات الحالية من السلع والخدمات والاستقرار للمجتمع. ويتحقق الربح من إدارة المخاطر في المشروعات الرائدة. واقترحت الدراسة تشكيل هيئة في مجتمعية بفروعها المتخصصة لتقييم نتائج الاستثمارات ومراقبة الحدود بين تكلفة رأس المال والربح الذي يكون من حق كل العناصر المتعاونة في تحقيقه بما فيهم حق رأس المال المخاطر وحق المجتمع.

Interest based financing is the bread and butter of the modern economy. It is a common practice in the modern economy to borrow money on interest to buy big ticket items, for example, house or car, or for new ventures. Even big corporations borrow money on interest for their projects and for their expansion.

Interest based economy, however, has become a bone of contention among Muslims. Some accept it as a necessity, some reject it completely, and some take it with a grain of salt. This is because those who are opposed to interest equate it with the term ‘Riba’, which has been declared haram in the Quran. The author, following the methodology articulated in his book titled “A Scientific Approach to the Quran”,  has analyzed the Quranic verses regarding ‘Riba’ and has explored where it falls in the modern financial matrix. His  analysis suggests the following:

• Comparing the Quranic definition of ‘Riba’ with the modern financing tools, interest and usury, suggests that ‘Riba’ is more in line with usury, exorbitant excess charged on loans. As such ‘Riba’ has been banned in the Quran.
• Nominal interest is comparable to the Quranic term ‘Bay’, where markup  is determined by the free market based on the law of supply and demand. Nominal interest financing should be allowed for middle class people who earn enough to pay for the mortgage.
• The poor and needy should not even be charged nominal interest rate. Instead they should be helped through ‘Sadaqah’, Zakah or through ‘Qardh-e-Hasana’ (benevolent loan).
• If due to unforeseen circumstances, an individual in the middle class falls below the poverty level, he/she should be accommodated.

The explanation given above seems to be consistent with the Quranic verses about ‘Riba’ (usury), ‘Bay’ (trade), and ‘Sadaqah’ (charity).

Bulgakov’s psychological and spiritual evolution can be reckoned as representative for his entire generation. Moving from Marxism to Idealism and finally conceiving his best known theory, namely Sophiology, he was considered by many one of the most influential and sometimes controversial Orthodox thinkers of the 20th century. The theory of Sophiology, his most disputed premise which lies at the center of his theological vision, is considered “a systematic attempt to work out the basis on which political action and policy could be seen as philosophically – and, eventual, theologically - legitimate” . If we reflect on our present cultural and political context we will find a renewed relevance in studying the evolution of Bulgakov’s theological and politic thought, due to the similarities of both periods. Just like in the last turn of the century, we also face issues of legitimacy of the political action, a new cultural paradigm and an economical crisis.

This is a final draft. This article was published in Upstart Crow: A Shakespeare Journal 30 (2011): 18-41.

"The subject of deep controversy in the late 1500s, usury was a necessary fact of life during this era of burgeoning mercantilism, despite attempts to condemn and outlaw the commercial practice. As Lawrence Danson explains, “[f]armers needed to borrow to buy seed for next year’s crops; merchants needed to borrow to buy merchandise; and . . . without the incentive of interest, the flow of capital would dry up.” Indeed, the heavily indebted Bassanio of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice reflects the financial situation of two-thirds of the Elizabethan peerage including Sir Philip Sidney, the Earl of Essex, the Earl of Leicester, the Earl of Southampton, and Queen Elizabeth. Not only did the aristocracy sustain itself through moneylending, the business of theater itself relied upon borrowed capital. Shakespeare’s company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, had to borrow money at high interest rates to build both the Theatre and the Globe. The law responded to these economic realities when Parliament in 1571 legalized moneylending at interest rates below ten percent, essentially the reinstatement of an Act of 1545.
Nonetheless, usury was universally denounced based on ancient and biblical interdictions that it was “against nature for money to beget money.” As Danson observes, the “scarcely perceived divergence between the economic realities that demanded the growth of credit and the economic theory that condemned it produced exacerbating tension,” if not gross discrepancies. As a commentary on English practices of usury, The Merchant of Venice underscores the hypocrisy underlying the morally condemned practice. Though usury was “a trade brought in by the Jews, now perfectly practiced almost by every Christian and so commonly that he is accounted but for a fool that doth lend his money for nothing,” the irrational equivalence of moneylender and Jew was indestructible: as Danson explains, “since in theory the business of making barren metal breed more metal was inimical to the right-minded Christian, then ipso facto the usurer must, despite the attest of eyes and ears, be Jewish,” literally and/or figuratively. The hypocritical practices of usury often involved, as Merchant depicts, a convenient scapegoating of the Jew while turning a blind eye to Christian usurers. Since the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290, the usurers were of course English, most famous among them “a restricted circle of great London merchants, men who first made their money in overseas or retail trading and who then turned to the money-lending business.” The Merchant of Venice reveals how England sustains the commercial practice of usury through English moneylenders while maintaining the moral high ground by scapegoating the fictive Jew....""

SOMMARIO: 1. Le sopravvenienze usurarie alle Sezioni Unite.-1.1. (…) limiti e confini di una fattispecie.-2. L'usura prima delle Sezioni Unite: una morfologia dei rimedi.-3. L'usura dopo le Sezioni Unite: la pretesa abusiva e la buona fede.-3.1. (…) Uso del diritto: la regola.-3.2. (…) Abuso del diritto: l'eccezione.-4. Le pretese usurarie abusive: un'ipotesi di sopravvivenza della fattispecie?-4.1. Ipotesi di pretese usurarie abusive; 5. Pretese usurarie abusive ed oneri eventuali.-5.1. (…) I caratteri di una categoria.-5.2. (…) Una proposta risolutiva. ABSTRACT. Il saggio analizza la fattispecie dell'usura sopravvenuta alla luce delle conclusioni rag-giunte dalla sentenza a Sezioni Unite della Corte di Cassazione. Dopo una breve ricostruzione del dibattito in dottrina e in giurisprudenza, vengono raccolti gli spunti offerti dalla decisione per de-finire alcune ipotesi di pretese usurarie abusive come possibile sopravvivenza del fenomeno. In conclusione viene ipotizzata una nuova categoria di sopravvenienza, definibile " usura sopravve-nuta pattizia " e ne viene delineato un possibile trattamento giuridico in relazione alle regole e dei principi del sistema. The essay analyzes the impact of the decision of Italian Court of Cassation about the problem of the " usura sopravvenuta " (usury during the contract's fulfilling). After a brief recall of the debate in literature and jurisprudence, the argumentation on which the decision in based, will be the starting point to define possible hypothesis of an abusive claim of usury rate. In conclusion the aim is to introduce and regulate a new category of supervening in contract, that we can define as " usura sopravvenuta pattizia " (supervening usury in the frame of contract), due to the rules and principles of the Italian legal system.

Η εργασία αυτή έχει ως στόχο να αναδείξει τους βασικούς άξονες του φαινομένου της τοκογλυφίας σε σχέση με την Εκκλησία όπως αυτό λάμβανε χώρα την περίοδο του ύστερου Μεσαίωνα. Να επεξεργαστεί ποιοί την ασκούσαν και για ποιούς λόγους. Ακόμα, ποιά είναι η ιδεολογία που αναπτύσσεται στους κόλπους της κοινωνίας και της Εκκλησίας για το φαινόμενο και ποιοί οι τρόποι αντιμετώπισής της τοκογλυφίας. Ποιοί παράγοντες καθορίζουν κάθε φορά τη στάση της Εκκλησίας απέναντι στην τοκογλυφία και αν η θεωρία της ταυτίζεται με την πρακτική της. Αν όχι, ποιοί είναι οι κοινωνικο-οικονομικοί λόγοι που οδηγούν σε αυτό το αποτέλεσμα.

À partir de l’étude de deux documents conservés aux Archives du Vatican, cet article reconstitue le déroulement d’une enquête judiciaire lancée en 1338 par le pape Benoît XII au sujet de malversations financières imputées à l'évêque de Sienne Donosdeo de’ Malavolti. Les deux documents sont des fascicules de recollectiones, c'est-à-dire des rapports (rédigés par des membres du personnel de la Curie, probablement des clercs de la Chambre apostolique) qui analysent et synthétisent le contenu des actes rapportés à l’issue d’une inquisitio effectuée à Sienne. Ces recollectiones sont ici resituées dans la typologie des sources produites par les affaires d’excessus prelatorum à partir du pontificat d’Innocent III. Leur examen éclaire les méthodes bureaucratiques de traitement des dossiers judiciaires à la Curie, mais aussi les modalités de mise en œuvre de la procédure inquisitoire par les agents de la papauté au début du XIVe siècle, ainsi que la place de l’enquête dans le gouvernement centralisé de l’Église à cette époque. L’affaire offre un bon exemple des nouvelles stratégies rendues possibles, pour les acteurs des sociétés locales, par le développement des justices inquisitoires souveraines. Il s’avère en effet que l’enquête pontificale fut suscitée par des dénonciations émanant de la famille siennoise des Piccolomini, qu’une guerre privée opposait alors à celle des Malavolti depuis plusieurs années.

The conventionally defined concept of Spending in God's Way or Zakat has a very narrow focus. It is deemed to be a charity to poor and needy people and for some shariah-defined purposes at a measly rate of 2.5% of wealth. If we, however, carefully analyze what the Quran directs us to do in this regard, we find that Zakat is a much broader concept not only in terms of the amount in which it needs to be paid, but also  in terms of the range of its coverage of targeted people and purposes and the ways in which it needs to be dovetailed with public taxation and spending for a host of welfare activities. The essential purpose of the Zakat system is not to perpetuate a beggars' class in society, but to bring about an egalitarian balance in the distribution of material and financial resources.

The treatise „Contra malos divites et usurarios” (Cracoviae, 1512) was the first of the renowned Polish anti-usurious texts which was not written by a university professor but by an official of the royal administration. Stanisław Zaborowski focuses, especially, on the problem of land of the royal domain given by kings to great landlords as a pledge, with harm to res publica. He applies the late medieval conciliarist notions to the issue of royal power. Nevertheless, the text diverges from the medieval thought. Zaborowski’ discourse does not focus on demonstrating the rightness of the anti-usurious principles but rather on convincing the readers to follow them in life. The argumentation is ‘addressed’ more to the will than to the reason; it focuses on the vice of avarice, more than on the Seventh Commandment; the author emphasizes the virtue of charity, more than on the virtue of justice. Anti-usurious Zaborowski’s thought made a part of his political vision. His discussed treatise is closely related with his more renowned Tractatus de natura iurium et bonorum regis. In „Contra malos divites et usurarios", the problems of public debt and forced loan are of crucial importance. At present Marcin W. Bukała is preparing the critical edition of the treatise.

"The canon Usurarum voraginem (VI 5.5.1), promulgated in 1274 at the Second Council of Lyon, called for the expulsion of foreign usurers and threatened recalcitrant authorities with excommunication and interdict. This article argues that the expulsion provision was indebted to contemporary French royal legislation for its contents and wording, rather than to any prior tradition within canon law. The case of Usurarum voraginem is therefore a rare example of direct influence of ius proprium on the ius canonicum. As seen from the dozens of surviving commentaries on the canon from the thirteenth through the mid-fifteenth century, Usurarum voraginem not only spurred canonists to debate its reach and implementation, but also led them to engage with current discussions of citizenship and foreignness. Finally, the article examines how the canon came to provide justification for expelling not only Christian usurers, but their Jewish counterparts as well.

Der Kanon Usurarum voraginem (VI 5.5.1), der 1274 auf dem Zweiten Konzil von Lyon verkündet wurde, rief zur Vertreibung fremder Wucherer auf und drohte aufsässigen Obrigkeiten mit Exkommunikation und Interdikt. Dieser Artikel vertritt die Auffassung, dass sowohl der Inhalt als auch der Wortlaut des Aufrufes zur Vertreibung der Wucherer dem zeitgenössischen französischen königlichen Recht und nicht den bereits bestehenden Traditionen des kanonischen Rechts geschuldet ist. Demzufolge ist der Usurarum voraginem ein seltenes Beispiel des direkten Einflusses des ius proprium auf das ius canonicum. Wie Dutzende aus der Zeit des 13. bis zur Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts erhaltene Kommentare zum Kanon bezeugen, bewegte der Usurarum voraginem die damaligen Kanonisten nicht nur dazu, die Anwendung und die Tragweite des Kanons zu erörtern, sondern auch dazu, sich mit dem Status des Bürgers und des Fremden auseinanderzusetzen. Darüber hinaus untersucht der Artikel, wie der Kanon Usurarum voraginem zur Rechtfertigung für die Vertreibung sowohl christlicher als auch jüdischer Wucherer herangezogen wurde."

Véase el quinto ensayo de _DE REYES A LOBOS_: El autor sostiene que _Don Quijote_ de Cervantes puede leerse en clave económica, y que contiene lecciones sobre la importancia de la libertad política y monetaria. A través de un análisis pormenorizado de distintos episodios de la obra, el artículo presenta el modo en que aparecen conceptos como la Ley de Gresham, la inflación, la teoría subjetiva del valor, el control de precios y la usura. La obra cervantina comparte la misma visión económica de la Escuela de Salamanca, y en última instancia este trabajo demuestra que _Don Quijote_ busca mover a la reflexión sobre los problemas que ocasionan las prácticas económicas que se dirigen en contra de la libertad individual.

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Saggio già edito in «Cristianesimo nella storia» 25 (2004) 55-98. Attraverso lo spoglio della documentazione proveniente dall'Archivio dell'ospedale di Santa Maria della Scala l'A. studia le forme di azione pastorale portate avanti nei confronti degli usurai che comportavano la restituzione dei «malacquisti». Si registra un profondo coinvolgimento dell'episcopato nelle fasi della restituzione, con la precoce adozione di disposizioni che solo con il secondo concilio di Lione del 1274 vennero adottate e uniformate. Si sottolineano poi gli stretti rapporti intercorsi tra l'ospedale senese e la classe dei mercatores proprio al riguardo della gestione finanziaria di queste restituzioni

In recent years, months, and days, Muslim “fundamentalists” or extremists excel in one thing – terrorism and violence. The recent spate of terrorist attacks and sectarian violence and atrocities has probably no parallel in modern history. Hardly a day passes by when we do not hear of a bomb blast or some form of violence taking place in some corner of the globe – Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, or some part of the developed world - with a toll of human life and immense human suffering. It is lamentable but undeniable that Muslim extremists are orchestrating much of this violence. This violence is due to the rise of religious fanaticism or fundamentalism among Muslims. But how do we combat this growing menace? How can we have real Islamic revival where there is peaceful religious co-existence and harmony? This article is an attempt to shed some light on this critical question.

The Mughal exchange economy can be visualised as comprising twin circles of cash and credit. In the first, transactions were conducted in currency money (metallic and non-metallic) consisting of fresh imports and pre-existing stocks. In the second, payments were deferred to prefixed dates using credit instruments. The circles of cash and credit grew in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, possibly more in the latter. This paper is about a unique professional group, the ṣarrāfs, whose members engaged themselves in both these circles. They were essentially assayers and moneychangers who operated in the market or worked for a client (state, village community, members of the ruling class, merchants), or carried out both functions at the same time. The possession and handling of cash enabled them to diversify their operations, the most important being banking. As bankers, the ṣarrāfs accepted deposits on interest, gave commercial and consumption loans, and transferred money from one place or person to another through bills of exchange (hundī) and book entries (giro). The ṣarrāfs facilitated the movement of money and merchandise also by covering risks on payment of premium (inland, marine and credit insurance).

Si analizza la prassi della restituzione testamentaria delle usure, attraverso un campione di testamenti bolognesi dei secoli XIII e XIV, provenienti dagli archivi conventuali di S. Domenico e S. Francesco e oggi conservati presso l'Archivio di Stato di Bologna

Theories of choice, and their legal consequences, dramatically differ based on whether they are premised on rational or boundedly rational actors. This chapter describes the interactions between, and the regulatory implications of, three types of uncertainties that the selection of an adequate theory of choice (a more behavioral or a more rational one) is exposed to. First, I suggest that Knightian uncertainty obtains in many regulatory areas concerning the distribution of degrees of rationality between regulatees. In recent years, this has been described as the "knowledge problem" of behavioral law and economics. This chapter argues that the best regulatory response to the knowledge problem is to frame regulation as a problem of decision making under uncertainty. Second, with the rise of machine learning, it is arguably becoming ever more possible to estimate the level of bias, or even entire rationality quotients, of individual regulatees. This may convert uncertainty into risk and opens the potential for, but also the pitfalls of, personalized law. Third, however, even Big Data analytics only offers a snapshot of a distribution of rationality at one moment in time. As recent economic analyses have suggested, however, behavioral heterogeneity can evolve over time in unpredicted ways that may lead to unforeseen consequences, leading to economic complexity. Arguably, this calls for a greater role of standards, as opposed to rules, in regulating environments with dynamic behavioral heterogeneity. Examples discussed in the three types of uncertainty include first-degree price discrimination in the digital economy; usurious lending; and blockchain environments. Across all these examples, the chapter focuses on the normative implications of different types of uncertainty. In the end, theories of choice can help us make normative trade-offs more transparent, but they cannot replace the value judgments, and normative discourses, that guide the balancing of the involved interests.

La presente tesi è dedicata alla questione della proibizione dell'interesse nell'Islam. Il lavoro è diviso in tre capitoli. Nel primo vengono analizzate le fonti del diritto musulmano, da cui vengono derivate le diverse definizioni di ribā. In particolare ci si sofferma sulle quattro sūre in cui si ritiene che la ribā venga proibita, nonché sui più importanti ḥadīṯ. Nel secondo vengono descritte le conseguenze che questa proibizione ha avuto sull'economia contemporanea. Viene illustrato il funzionamento di alcuni contratti interest-free, e delineati i tratti fondamentali dello sviluppo dell'industria finanziaria islamica. Nel terzo vengono presentate le obiezioni alla proibizione dell'interesse, nonché le critiche che sottolineano le incoerenze dell'Islamic Banking and Finance (IBF).

In 1305, the usurer Jehan Bierenghier wrote his will on a chirograph or "charte-partie". He appended to this will a list of his 590 debtors. The aim of this appendix was to refund the usuries that he unduly had asked from his borrowers. In this paper we analyse the clientele of Bierenghier, encompassing a wide scope of the urban society in Tournai. We show that far from being a "simple" provider of petty credit, Bierenghier was a successful businessman involved in the supply of the city markets (grain and wood, most notably). Furthermore, by granting the most sizeable restitutions in money to debtors belonging to influent middling groups such as thriving fish merchant, the financier built an important business network between the surrounding countryside and the city of Tournai.