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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (30693)	5/25/2002 6:43:04 AM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 281500

One reason that the Lombards developed into the major bankers of medieval Italy is that they were originally Arrians. Oh, Nadine, you don't know what rapture I feel in the prospect of investigating the connections between the development of capitalism and the Arian heresy! Seeing that the Lombards were Germanic and lived in Northern Italy, I wonder about the connections between Protestantism and the Arian heresy. So many things to learn, so little time.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (30693)	5/25/2002 9:00:32 AM
From: Zeev Hed	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Nadine, actually, the Torah does forbid usury. However, usury is the taking of excessive interest. Not being a Talmud Scholar, I have no idea how the Talmud handles the quantitative side of usury. I would not be surprised if some of the talmudic arguments would have the elements of "risk" associated with the rate of interest charged (g). Interestingly, the Hebrew word, "Neshech" (usury), is derived from the word "bite" (like a dog bite). I would guess that later monotheistic cultures (such as Christianity and Islam) could not handle the "quantitative" sides of interest charging, and decided it is simpler to paint the issue in "black and white" and any interest on loans is forbidden. Our own culture, for some reason, easily accepts rates of 30%/year as non usurious. Go figure... Zeev