The Parliament of North Germany has abolished all laws against
usury. The majority of Germans have long been aware that a legal maximum for money is as absurd as a legal maximum for coals or corn, but the landowners have a notion that it enables them to borrow money on mortgage cheap. The Jews, they say, unless restrained by law, will cheat them, poor innocent country folk ! and they have actually-carried a clause in the Act providing that a mortgage on land may always be paid off at six months' notice, written agreements to the contrary notwithstanding. The effect of this very funny arrangement will be, that every land- owner who borrows money will have to pay an extra per-centage because the law enables him to break his word. The secret of the contest is, we imagine, that city capitalists in Germany, as else- where, are gradually ousting the old proprietary, who are sore in consequence.
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