CHAPTER XXXVII.[ToC]
FRANCIS BACON.
From the short dissertation on usury found in the works of Bacon we learn that the taking of usury was a recognized evil and odious in his time.
It will be noticed that he eliminates risk from usury and sees that "In the game of certainties against uncertainties" usury is sure to win. It will be noticed also that he mentions only economic arguments against usury. He does not give ethical and moral reasons. He does not mention the want of sympathy for the poor and their oppression.
In his statement of the arguments in defence he implies that the usurer is less grasping than the man he knew who said "The devil take this usury."
This is the very opposite of the picture of the usurer given by his contemporary, Shakespeare, in his character, Shylock.
His specious argument for the regulation of the evil "For some small matter for the license" is familiar to modern reformers in connection with other sins. He speaks of the reduction of the usury rates as a general good and believes "It will no whit discourage the lender." Wrong-doers in all the ages have been ready to part with a portion of the profits of an unlawful business for the cover of the authority of the state.