...the legal rate of interest in Great Britain, for example, was feed so high as eight or ten per cent., the greater part of the money which was to be lent,...the use of money no more than a part of what they they are likely STOCK LENT AT INTEREST 299 to make by the use of it, would not venture into the competition,...

...market-price" (Wealth of Nations, ed. Cannan, I, 338). For if the rate of interest was not limited, "the greater part of the money which was to be lent,...alone would be willing to give this high interest." This, however, the State ought to prevent. And: "The act of navigation is not favourable to foreign...

...restriction of the maximum rate of interest to 5 per cent, on the ground that if a higher rate were current, "the greater part of the money which was to be lent,...alone would be willing to give this high interest A great part of the capital of the country would thus be kept out of the hands which were most likely...