482 A. D. 1660. 



' into the port of London, or elfewhere, L3 within nine months after im- 



* porting ; and of every ton of all other wines L4. The importer to 



* give fecurity for payment. Yet if any of thofe wines fhall be re-ex- 

 ' ported within 12 months after, then the aforefaid additional duty fhall 



* be returned ; and the importer, paying ready money, fhall be allowed 



* 10 per cent difcount. 



* Provided, that the prifage of wines, or prife-wines, fhall pay no ton- 

 ' nage, cufloms, nor fubfidy, in virtue of this aft, nor of any thing 



* therein contained.' [12 Car. II, c 4.] 



As the lafl redudion of interefl from eight X.0J1X per cent was enabl- 

 ed by an ufurped power, the prefent parliament could not confiftently 

 take direct notice of it by way of confirmation, though in efFe6t they 

 do it by the preamble to the ad, [c. 1 3] that none fhall take above L6 

 for the loan of an hundred pounds for a year ; thus exprefled : ' and 

 whereas, in frefh memory, the like fall from 8 to 6 in the hundred, 

 by a late conftant pradice, hath found the like fuccefs to the general 

 contentment of this nation, as is vifible by ieveral improvements : 

 and whereas neverthelefs it is the endeavour of fome at prefent to 

 reduce it back again in pradice to the allowance of the ftatute ftill in 

 force,' (i. e. to 8 per cent) ' to the great difcouragement of ingenui- 

 ty and induflry in the hufbandry, trade, and commerce of this na- 

 tion : be it therefor enaded, that from and after the 29th of Sep- 

 tember 1660, none fhall take above 6 per cent, as above, and that 

 all bonds and alTurances whatever made after the time aforefaid, for 

 payment of any principal money to be lent or covenanted to be per- 

 formed, upon, or for any ufury, whereon there fhall be referved or 

 taken above the rate of L6 in the hundred, fliall be utterly void ; 

 and the taker of any higher interefl or ufury, fliall forfeit for every 



* fuch offence the treble value of the money fo lent, &c.' [12 Car.. 

 Jh c. 13.] 



. Two things are worth remarking in this ad, viz. firfl, that the word 

 ufury was ftill the legal term for the lawful intereft of money ; fecond- 

 ly, that it does not take the leaf! notice of the unlawfulnefs, in point of 

 religion or confcience, or the fin of taking ufury or intereft for the loan 

 of money, as has been exprelTed in the preceding ads for redudion there- 

 of. Upon this redudion, Sir Jofiah Child remarks, as he alfo did in 

 'treating on the two former redudions, that in about 20 years after the 

 like redudion by the rump parliament in 1651, notwithftanding the 

 long civil wars and the great complaints of the deadnefs of trade, there 

 are more men to be found upon the exchange now (1688) * worth 

 Li 0,000 than were then worth Liooo ; and that L500 fixty years be- 



* His Brief obfervattor.s concerning trade and intereft of money were fii ft publiftied in 1 688, 410. He. 

 made a (hort nddition to it in the fame year, and by degrees his judicious writings on commerce have 

 fwcllcd to a liveable 8vo vo'.umc, vf. 



