spectuses of various money-lenders. These documents are well known to
people who are probably poor, and not improbably foolish,.—or, shall we say, unfamiliar with business ? It must not be supposed, indeed, that the dishonesty is all on one side. The majority of persons who borrow money, not to use it in some legitimate business, but because they have exceeded their means, know very well that there is little prospect of paying it back. They get into the hands of the money-lender, and he squeezes them in a way in which they would certainly not squeeze them- selves. They find that they can do without many things which ordi- narily they would never dream of denying themselves. Possibly the money lender performs a useful function in this way. We do not mean to depreciate the value of Mr. Farrow's work. He has tackled a very disreputable and, we may say, noxious class of speculators, and has anyhow brought light into some very dark and dirty corners of life. There is "a list of money-lenders" on pp. 143-46 which is very curious reading; 60 per cent. is the usual figure of interest. (It is "5 per cent." in the prospectuses ; but the "per month" is understood. The usurers are Roman in their method without knowing it.) The maximum is 170 per cent ; the most moderate, 50 per cent. Here is an instance. A woman borrowed £30 on the security of a bill of sale. She paid £2 per month for five months. Finding that .£7 4s. 9d. of this had been taken for interest, and only £2 15s. 3d. paid off the loan, she offered to pay back the whole, but found that she now owed £37 6s. 9d. The interest that would have accrued was calculated and added. Briefly, she was required to pay £27 4s. 3d. for five months' use of £39. Might it not be possible to re-enact the Usury Laws in some modified shape?
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