Usury does not mean high interest. It means any interest, however low, demanded for an unproductive loan.

It is not only immoral but it is ultimately destructive of society. It has only been the rule of our commerce to take usury since the breakup of Europe following on the Reformation.

Usury will destroy our society, but meanwhile there is no escape from it. We are coming near the end of its maleficent action, not through awaking to its evils but because it is reaching the end of its resources.

The modern world is organized on the principle that money of its nature breeds money. A sum of money lent has, according to our present scheme, a natural right to interest.

In this essay Hilaire Belloc shows that principle is false in economics as in morals. It ruined Rome, and it is bringing us to our end.

Booklet. 20pp.