The composition of interest: The judaic prohibition

An interest charge is made up of an award for waiting known as the real rate of interest, a premium for risk and compensation for transaction costs. Where inflation exists the lender seeks further compensation. In order to understand the composition and evolution of different versions of the usury prohibition it is necessary to ask which components of an interest charge are prohibited by each version. The Judaic prohibition has two aspects which are of particular interest to business historians and students of usury. First, the general rule is that a reward for waiting is prohibited. This focuses on the time-based part of interest charge. Second, interest is prohibited because it amounts to placing a stumbling block before the blind. This focuses on the typical gullibility of the borrower confronted by a more expert, better funded lender. Economics confirms and enriches our understanding of these important aspects of the prohibition. They achieve this by increasing our understanding of two facts: first, that the borrower is a gullible individual subject to irrational and inconsistent behaviour; and, second, that this behaviour relates to the waiting aspect of interest which is proscribed in the prohibition. How far these insights apply to other civilisations' prohibition, particularly those which derive from the Judaic prohibition, merits further study; so also do the ethical lessons of the Mosaic rules for a globalised society based on capitalism.     

高利贷的危害与政策回应

金融危机导致国内大批中小企业资金链断裂,不少企业为了维持生存,解决一时资金周转困难,而不得不借高利贷以解燃眉之急.但是,高利贷犹如套在中小企业脖子上的"绞刑绳",原本许多经营正常的企业因为借高利贷而被迫关闭破产.因此,在金融危机的背景下,我们必须加强监管,严厉打击高利贷行为,鼓励企业抱团自救,向国家商业银行贷款,以度过困难阶段.     

Usury and Just Compensation: Religious and Financial Ethics in Historical Perspective

Usury is a concept often associated more with religiously based financial ethics, whether Christian or Islamic, than with the secular world of contemporary finance. The problem is compounded by a tendency to interpret riba, prohibited within Islam, as both usury and interest, without adequately distinguishing these concepts. This paper argues that in Christian tradition usury has always evoked the notion of money demanded in excess of what is owed on a loan, disrupting a relationship of equality between people, whereas interest was seen as referring to just compensation to the lender. Although it is often claimed that hostility towards ‘usury’ has been in retreat in the West since the protestant Reformation, we would argue that the crucial break came not with Calvin, but with Jeremy Bentham, whose critique of the arguments of Adam Smith, upholding the reasonableness of the laws against usury, led to the abolition of the usury laws in England in 1854. There has to be a role for law, whether Islamic or secular, in regulating financial relationships. We argue that by retrieving the necessary distinction between demanding usury as illegitimate predatory lending and interest as legitimate compensation, we can discover common ground behind the driving principles of financial ethics within both Islamic and Christian tradition that may still be of relevance today. By re-examining past ethical discussions of the distinction between usury and just compensation, we argue that the world’s religious traditions can make significant contributions to contemporary debate. Constant Mews is Director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Theology at Monash University. He holds PhD and Masters degrees in medieval history, and pursues research in medieval religion, thought and ethics. Ibrahim Abraham is a PhD student in the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, with degrees in religion studies as well as law. His research interests include religion and culture, fair trade, and human rights.     

探析校园贷之现金贷的问题与对策

近年来,校园贷主要类型——现金贷发展迅速,无抵押、放款快、借款方式灵活吸引了众多借贷者,而高额利息和普遍周转续贷(利滚利)的做法让借贷者背负了沉重的债务负担,发生不良贷款后个别平台所采取的非法、暴力催债导致恶性事件屡屡发生。因此,十分有必要对我国校园贷——现金贷存在的风险及问题进行分析,提出对现金贷的管控对策,加强对大学生、年轻人的金融消费教育和普惠金融教育,帮助他们树立正确的消费理念,做好人生的理财规划,规避现金贷风险。     

Institutional Usury and the Banks

Although usury is no longer widely discussed in economic discourse, the concept of usury is useful in explaining financial upheavals such as the recent and on-going crisis. The Scholastics began the study of interest with their teachings on usury, and Keynes brought the usury debate back into the discussions during the period around the Great Depression. Bernard Dempsey, a Jesuit economist, wrote a definitive assessment of scholastic theory in the early 1940s under the direction of Schumpeter. Dempsey developed his own theory of financial crises which he attributed to the presence of what he termed “institutional usury.” The recently implemented policy by the Federal Reserve of paying banks interest on reserves is examined in light of Dempsey's concept of institutional usury. The scholastic concept of the just price is used to analyze market power wielded by large financial institutions in the modern economy.     

The Death and Revival of Usury in China: An Institutional Analysis

The practice of usury has recently provoked an intense debate in China. While the practice is widely condemned, prominent figures have sought to legitimize it with economic analysis. The institutional competition between ancient usury and modern money and banking has persisted for centuries and seems far from ending. This article examines the institutional factors underpinning the revival of usury in China after a thirty-year stretch (1948–1978), during which the practice had virtually disappeared. The revival of usury is attributed mainly to a pattern of uneven development in China. Usury, by its nature, is a drag on economic productivity and a source of social discord. As China endeavors to achieve a more broad-based human flourishing, the practice of usury must be prohibited strictly once more.     

The economics of the Books of Moses

The Books of Moses contained economic precepts that made a twofold impact in the history of economic thought. First, Mosaic precepts shaped Israel's transition from a nomadic to a sedentary economy. This transition as such had parallels in many other societies, but Israel's case was unique in that Moses grounded economic precepts on theology. Second, Moses shaped conceptions of economics by Jews and by non‐Jews, in two ways: first, he laid a path for theologically derived economics that continued in Christianity and in Islam; second, he cast terms of reference for the right to own property that were dominant in Western economic thinking until the Enlightenment.     

Medieval or Modern? A Scholastic's View of Business Ethics, circa 1430

There are varying opinions about whether or not the field of business ethics has a history or is a development of more modern times. It is suggested that a book by a Dominican Friar, Johannes Nider, De Contractibus Mercatorum, written ca. 1430 and published ca. 1468 provides a basis for a history of over 500 years. Business ethics grew out of attempts to reconcile Biblical precepts, canon law, civil law, the teachings of the Church Fathers, and the writings of early philosophers with the realities of expanding economic activity. Nider's background is discussed as well as his book as an example of incunabula.Nider was one of the Scholastics who provided a link between Aristotle and later Reformation thinkers. In Nider we find caveat venditor as his moral guide to merchants as well as other surprisingly modern ideas such as justice in exchange; restitution for defective goods; the market as the final arbiter of value; and the importance of creating utility in products.     

金融深化是化解民间借贷危机的根本途径

以温州为代表的民间借贷危机的发生,折射出我国金融体制方面的制度性问题。金融压抑是民间借贷危机的根本原因,银行大企业集团等参与民间放贷对危机发生推波助澜,紧缩的货币政策是民间借贷危机爆发的导火索。金融深化是化解民间借贷危机的根本途径。民间借贷危机爆发,也倒逼金融体制要加快改革步伐,现在到了该放开金融领域进入和利率管制,打破现有银行垄断体制,建立由市场资金供求决定各种利率水平的市场利率体系的时候了。     

Conflicts of Interest? The Ethics of Usury

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.