In the year 1730, the rate of interest was fixed by statute in Virginia at six per cent, upon all contracts;' but four years later it was reduced to five per cent., and this rate continued to be the law, through the different revisions and alterations of the statutes, until the passage of the Act of 1796, when interest Avas raised to six per cent. The last-mentioned act took effect on the first of May, 1798, and continued in force until the passage of the present act in 1819, when all the laws on the subject of usury were re- duced into one act. By this last act six per cent, is still the legal rate of interest, and every contract in ' Ddl. Dig. L. T., p. 105. Hartley's Dig., p. 496. ^ Rev. Stat. (1839), p. 366, edit. 1840.
which a higher rate is reserved is void ; and the lender receiving such usurious excess, is liable to a penalty of twice the debt to be recovered in a qui tarn action.^ In Wisconsin, parties to contracts are allowed by statute to stipulate for interest as high as ten per cent. \^ but if no rate of interest is specified, seven per cent, is prescribed by the statute. When a " Tate's Big., 318. Code of Vir., p. 576, edit. 1849. 11 Mat- thew's Big., 458, et seq., edit. 1857. Note. — This last section being penal, is construed strictly, and applied only wtere usury (in its full legal meaning) has been ac- tually taken. It is not enough that it is contracted for. The offence is incomplete unless the vsuri/ is taken. See opinion of Justice Carr in Spengler v. Snapp, 5 Leigh, 507. See also Turpin v. Poval, 8 Leigh, 102.
To constitute usury in the Courts of Virginia, there must be a borrowing and a lending with an intent to exact more interest than is allowed by law. The usurious intent is the gist of the matter. — {Price V. CampheU, 2 Call., 110 ; Childers v. Bean, 4 Eand., 406 ; Loyd V. Scott, 4 Peters, 205.) Thus a tacit understanding between i)orrower and lender, founded