endeavor to indemnify themselves from the danger of the pe- nalty by making that profit exorbitant." ' The lenders are also few, where the " profit allowed by law " is insufficient ; and if they " indemnify them- selves" by "making that profit exorbitant," they are "bad men." Yet the law in this case operates with much force to make them so.
£L Com., V. 2, p. 456.
MONEY HAS A MAEKET VALUE. 135 In Hindostan (where no rate is fixed by law), the customary price of money is ten per cent. In Russia, it is limited to twelve per cent. ; ia some of the Ger- man States, it is as high as twenty; in England, ^ve; and in the United States we have various rates, ranging from five per cent, upwards. Now of all these widely diflFering rates, what one is there that is , intrinsically more proper than another ? What evidences the propriety in each case, but the mutual convenience of the parties? In Holland, it is lawful for a man to take twenty in a hundred, " if he can get it ;" and yet money is plenty there at five and six per cent.