Defence of Usury [16]
of the horse to part with it,(6*) or the want which the buyer has of it,(7*) its allowance is neither repugnant to the revealed law, nor to the natural law: but if it exceeds these bounds, it is then an oppressive jockey-ship:(8*) and though the municipal laws may give it impunity, they never can make it just. "We see, that the exorbitance or moderation of the price given for a horse(9*) depends upon two circumstances: upon the inconvenience of parting with the horse one has,(10*) and the hazard of not being able to meet with such another.(11*) The inconvenience to individual sellers of horses,(12*) can never be estimated by laws; the general price for horses(13*) must depend therefore upon the usual or general inconvenience. This results entirely from the quantity of horses(14*) in the kingdom: for the more horses(15*) there are running about(16*) in any nation, the greater superfluity there will be beyond what is necessary to carry on the business of the mail coaches(17*) and the common concerns of life. In every nation or public community there is a certain quantity of horses(18*) then necessary, which a person well skilled in political arithmetic might perhaps calculate as exactly as a private horse-dealer(19*) can the demand for running horses in his own stables:(20*) all above this necessary quantity may be spared, or lent, or sold, without much inconvenience to the respective lenders or sellers: and the greater the national superfluity is, the more numerous will be the sellers,(21*) and the lower ought the national price of horseflesh (22*) to be: but where there are not enough, or barely enough spare horses(23*) to answer the ordinary uses of the pubic, horse-flesh(24*) will be proportionably high: for sellers(25*) will be but few, as few can submit to the inconvenience of selling."(26*) -- So far the learned commentator. I hope by this time you are worked up to a proper pitch of indignation, at the neglect and inconsistency betrayed by the law, in not suppressing this species of jockey-ship, which it would be so easy to do, only by fixing the price of horses. Nobody is less disposed than I am to be uncharitable: but when one thinks of the *1500 taken for Eclipse, and *2000 for Rockingham, and so on, who can avoid being shocked, to think how little regard those who took such enormous prices must have had for "the law of revelation and the law of nature?" Whoever it is that is to move for the municipal law, not long ago talked of, for reducing the rate of interest, whenever that motion is made, then would be the rime for one of the Yorkshire members to get up, and move, by way of addition, for a clause for fixing and reducing the price of horses. I need not expatiate on the usefulness of that valuable species of cattle, which might have been as cheap as asses before now, if our lawgivers had been as mindful of their duty in the suppression of jockey-ship, as they have been in the suppression of usury. It may be said, against fixing the price of horse-flesh, that different horses may be of different values. I answer -- and I think I shall shew you as much, when I come to touch upon the subject of champerty -- not more different than the values which the use of the same sum of money may be of to different persons, on different occasions.
LETTER X Grounds of the Prejudices against Usury.
It is one thing, to find reasons why it is fit a law should have been made: it is another to find the reasons why it was made: in other words, it is one thing to justify a law: it is another thing to account for its existence. In the present instance, the former task, if the observations I have been troubling you with are just, is an impossible one. The other, though not necessary for conviction, may contribute something perhaps in the way of satisfaction. To trace an error to its fountain head, says lord Coke, is to refute it; and many men there are who, till they have received this satisfaction, be the error what it may, cannot prevail upon themselves to part with it. "If our ancestors have been all along under
LETTER X Grounds of the Prejudices against Usury.
It is one thing, to find reasons why it is fit a law should have been made: it is another to find the reasons why it was made: in other words, it is one thing to justify a law: it is another thing to account for its existence. In the present instance, the former task, if the observations I have been troubling you with are just, is an impossible one. The other, though not necessary for conviction, may contribute something perhaps in the way of satisfaction. To trace an error to its fountain head, says lord Coke, is to refute it; and many men there are who, till they have received this satisfaction, be the error what it may, cannot prevail upon themselves to part with it. "If our ancestors have been all along under