The Harvest of Ruskin

by John W. Graham

“You may not at the first glance see where the fallacy lies: (the writer of the story evidently counts on your not seeing it at all).

“If James did not lend the plane to William, he could only get his gain of a plank by working with it himself, and wearing it out himself. When he had worn it out at the end of the year, he would, therefore, have to make another for himself. William, working with it instead, gets the advantage instead, which he must, therefore, pay James his plank for; and return to James what James would, if he had not lent his plane, then have had—not a new plane, but the worn-out one. James must make a new one for himself, as he would have had to do if no William had existed; and if William likes to borrow it again for another plank, all is fair.

“That is to say, clearing the story of its nonsense, that James makes a plane annually, and sells it to William for its proper price, which, in kind, is a new plane. But this arrangement has nothing whatever to do with principal or with interest.”

I fear Ruskin is wrong. He forgets a sinking fund for depreciation. His error lies in supposing that a plane can be used for a year, and worn out, for no return but a plank. If planes only last a year and are of advantage, their value in use is equal to that of the cost of a plane plus a plank, plus some more. That is, the cost of making a plane is less by a plank and more than the benefit a workman can get out of it before it is worn out, after paying for his labour. The benefit in a year to the user is more than plane plus plank, or William would not go on. That is the point of the service of all capital, intelligently used.

William has to pay his tax of a plank per annum because he is not beforehand with his needs. He gets the advantage of the plane every year twelve months before he can afford to make it; and the advantage of being in advance of his needs goes to James. The element of Time is everything. A plane at the beginning of a year is of more service than a plane you have to wait for till the end. Ruskin begins his sequence of time on December 31st of the first year, avoiding the whole point. And the position of William is therefore not unfair; though it is one to be avoided.

There is little to be added of the nature of argument; though Fors is scattered over with allusions to the subject, and discussions with many correspondents are printed in full.[95]

These, and many other shorter passages,[96] consist largely of intuitive prophetic assertion of the sinfulness of interest, even the slightest. Much space is occupied by criticisms of the author’s own practice in living on the proceeds of Bank Stock, and his very cogent replies thereto. They amount to an admission that the doctrine does not fit the present time. There are impressive accounts also of the miseries of usury-ridden countries like India, and of the folly of borrowed capital. But there is no light thrown on how business is to be conducted without it: there is nothing immediately practical.

The array of authority against usance for money is weighty and of ancient date.

Lev. xxv. 35-37: “And if thy brother be poor and powerless with his hands at thy side, thou shalt take his part upon thee, to help him, as thy proselyte and thy neighbour; and thy brother shall live with thee. Thou shalt take no usury of him, nor anything over and above, and thou shalt fear thy God. I am the Lord, and thy brother shall live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money for usury; and thou shalt not give him thy food for increase.” (J. R. translated from LXX.) Exodus xxii. 25 and Deuteronomy xxiii. 19 are similar in purport. Psalm xv. refers to the man “who putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent”; as being a fit person to abide in the Lord’s tabernacle, and dwell in His holy hill. Here we have the taking of interest running parallel with the corruption of the high trust of the judicial bench. Ezekiel xviii. 8, 13, 17 is contemporary with Leviticus, and is practically the same voice, representing Jewish opinion on the resettlement of the State after the Captivity. Here usury is classed with every abominable wickedness.

In these Jewish passages it was the taking of interest from a brother Hebrew that was forbidden. This limitation to the profitable use of capital may have early led the Jew capitalist to the permitted Gentile outlet; and have caused him, in lending to the outside world, to carry with the act a spice of uncharitableness and conscious ill-will. These passages are a testimony to the extraordinary cohesiveness and patriotic consciousness of the restored nation. Such a proviso of itself is both cause and consequence; it leads to further isolation from others.