ABSTRACT
In its beginnings interest is a phenomenon either of international or feudal law. Within a tribal village, or clan community, there is neither interest nor lending, since transfers of value in consideration for a payment are unknown. The prohibition in the Torah against taking interest or usury from the brother rests partly on military and partly on religious grounds. The occasion for breaking through the prohibition against interest was provided by the loan of concrete property. In the Christian occident the need for credit for industrial purposes originally found expression rarely in the form of a loan with a definite interest but rather in that of an association. It was not the prohibition of usury by the church which was behind this arrangement, as much as the risk connected with oversea business ventures. At the same time, however, the opposition to usury on the part of the church increased in energy.
