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HIGH FINANCE
Part I
All Scripture references
are to the Anglicised New International Version (NIV-UK) unless stated
otherwise
But love your enemies, do
good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.
Then your reward will be
great, and you will be sons of the Most High,
because he is kind to the
ungrateful and wicked.
Luke 6: 35
NO
BIGGER THAN today’s decimal penny,
Britain’s oldest Roman coin is a silver denarius. It has been dated to several
hundred years BC and is one of over 5,000 found among a hoard unearthed at
Hallaton, Leicestershire. The cache also includes native British money. The
Celtic Corieltavi tribe struck their coins in gold, silver and bronze, examples
of which appear in the Hallaton collection. The single largest discovery of
coins in Britain was near Marlborough, Wiltshire, in 1978; it contained over
54,000 items.
Pennies
From Heaven
The
discovery of these treasure troves, drawn from the earth centuries after
burial, underscores the illusory value of riches, mouldering in the ground
unspent, reminiscent of the one-talent man of Matthew 25: 18 (‘dug a hole . . .
hid his Master’s money.’). Jesus exhorted His disciples to eschew earthly
fortune and instead to store up heavenly treasure (Matthew 6: 20):-
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth
and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
More
complex than self-sufficiency, in which individual families live off the land,
progressive civilisation requires a transactional interdependence between
communities. Where the particular employment of one segment of society excludes
it from providing its own food, it is necessary to exchange the value of one’s
labour with that of another’s, usually in some tangible form. Metals were used
in this way prior to coinage.
Gold,
silver and copper are rust-resistant, hold a universal value and thus became
generally accepted in transactions. Gold was in scarce supply and esteemed more
highly than other metals. When used in trade, metals were valued by weight.
See, for example, the beautiful account in Genesis 23, which records Abraham’s
negotiation with the Hittites for the cave at Machpelah in which to bury his
wife. Verse 16 reads:-
Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him
the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of
silver, according to the weight current among the merchants.
Herodotus
in his Histories makes reference to the coinage minted by Croesus of
Lydia in the sixth century BC. The Persian king, Darius I, issued gold darics
bearing his image, about the same time. A recognisable image of a state’s ruler
validated coins as genuine and allowed them to be accepted at face value,
without the necessity of weighing them. This imprint transformed the monetary
system.
Heads
. . . Or Tails?
The word
‘currency’ is derived from the Latin, currere, meaning ‘to run’,
suggesting that the medium is in perpetual exchange. A healthy circulation of specie
means that business is brisk and that the economy is lively with people buying
and selling. But not everyone can participate equally in a free market. The
distribution of currency is uneven and influenced by many factors.
Inequality
of wealth has created borrowers and lenders, with all the benefits and abuses
that flow from the imbalanced relationship between these two classes. The Old
Testament addresses the problem; indeed, God links the financial health of
Israel with its spiritual well-being in Deuteronomy 28: 13. If the nation
obeys,
The
LORD will make you the head, not
the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the
LORD your God that I give you this day and carefully follow
them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.
And, to
the contrary in vs. 43, 44,
The alien
who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink
lower and lower. He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be
the head, but you will be the tail.
The Old
Testament outlawed the charging of interest to fellow-Israelites, but allowed
for a reasonable rate when lending to others (Deuteronomy 23: 19, 20):-
Do not charge your brother interest, whether on money or
food or anything else that may earn interest. You may charge a foreigner
interest, but not a brother Israelite, so that the
LORD your God may bless you in everything you put your hand to
in the land you are entering to possess.
The
admonition was apparently intended to cultivate charity and generosity in the
heart of the lender. At the time, Israel was a largely agricultural economy and
any profit would be realised from cultivation of the land and the selling of
the produce. God promised to bless with prosperity those who followed the
righteousness of His laws (Deuteronomy 7: 11-13):-
Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and
laws I give you today. If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to
follow them, then the
LORD your God will keep his
covenant of love with you, as he swore to your forefathers. He will love you
and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb,
the crops of your land— your grain, new wine and oil . . . .
The
Christian World
Harking
back to the parable of the talents, although Jesus intended to teach a
religious lesson, the story suggests that Jesus Himself considered (modest)
interest on a business loan to be proper (Matthew 25: 26, 27):-
His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! . . . you
should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I
would have received it back with interest.’
The Roman
Catholic church forbad the charging of interest on loans made by its clergy. In
the fifth century the church widened the canon law to cover the laity, and
under Emperor Charlemagne in the ninth century exorbitant charges were ruled a
criminal offence. The ban continued into the Middle Ages.[fn1] However, these
restrictions tended to stifle innovation in finance.
The Jews
of Europe were not counted as citizens in many of the Gentile nations in which
they lived. Excluded from other professions, they became money lenders. As
skilful business men in their own right and disciplined to thrift by their
religious duties, a number of Jewish families became renowned financiers.[fn2] In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is
cast as the exacting lender who demands his just recompense (‘pound of flesh’).
The stage character was portrayed with the meanest features, to fit the
prejudices of Shakespeare’s audience. Regardless of their reputation, it was
the Rothschilds, Goldsmiths and other Jewish businessmen and financiers who
helped to make Britain wealthy.
To Be Continued
________________
NOTES
Citations to Web pages are correct as
of the dates retrieved, but sites may expire or be moved.
^[fn1] Wayne A.M. Visser and Alastair McIntosh, History of Usury
Prohibition (Accounting, Business & Financial History, 8:2, Routledge,
London, July 1998), pp. 175-189.
The article is available from the website of
Alastair McIntosh here:-
<http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/articles/1998_usury.htm> (retrieved 26
December 2011).
^[fn2] William of Malmesbury wrote of Jews coming to England with
William the Conqueror. A history of Jews in England is given in the Jewish
Encyclopedia under the entry for England. The unedited text of the 1906 Jewish
Encyclopedia is given online here:-
<http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/5764-england> (retrieved 26
December 2011).
_______________
Article copyright January 2012 by
ukbiblestudents.co.uk
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