I N T 
"The people of the ifhnd of Clazomene, after a war that 
tad exhaufted the public treafury, found that they were 
indebted to the difbanded foldiers the fum of 20 talent?, 
or 4500I. fterling; which being unable to raife, they paid 
them intereft, which they fixed at 25 per cent. Arijl. Cur. 
Reifo.mil. ii. 504.. Anacharfis, ch. lxxii. Intereft of money 
at Athens was 12 per cent, per annum, or rather one per 
cent, for every new moon ; but, as the laws of Solon did 
not prohibit ufury, fome perfons were known to receive 
more than 16 per cent, per month; and others, efpecially 
among the lower claffes, exacted every day a fourth part 
of the principal. The ufurers of our days, then, may 
bide their diminilhed heads. See Demof. in Aphop. Arifoph. 
i„-Nub. Plat.de Repub. Pheophrajl.CharaB. Anacharfis, ch.lv. 
Intereft of money is from 12 to 20 per cent, in the Eaft 
Indies at this day. . ' 
In general, the exorbitance or moderation of interelt, 
for the money lent, depends upon two circumftances ; 
the inconvenience of parting with it for the prefent, and 
the hazard of lofing it entirely. The inconvenience to 
individual lenders can never be eftimated by law's; the 
rate therefore of general intereft Ihould. depend upon the 
ufual or general inconvenience. This relults entirely 
from the quantity of fpecie or current money in the 
kingdom: for, the more fpecie there is circulating in any 
nation, the greater fuperflqity there will be, beyond what 
is neceffary to carry on the bufinefs of exchange and the 
common concerns of life. In every nation, or public 
community, there is a certain quantity of money thus 
neceffary; which a perfon w'ell lkilled in political aiith- 
metic might perhaps calculate as exailly as a piivate 
banker can the demand for running cafti in his own (hop : 
all above this neceffary quantity may be fpared, or lent, 
without much inconvenience to the refpeflive lenders; 
and the greater this national fuperfluity is, the more nu¬ 
merous will be the lenders, and the lower ought the rate 
of the national intereft to be ; but where there is not 
• enough, or barely enough, circulating cafh to anlvver the 
ordinary ufes of the public, intereft will be proportionably 
high; for lenders will be but few, as few can fubmit to 
the inconvenience of lending. So alfo the hazaid of an 
entire lofs has its weight in the regulation of intereft: 
hence, the better the fecurity, the lower will the intereft 
be; the rate of intereft being generally in a compound 
ratio , formed out of the inconvenience and the hazaid. 
And as, if there were no inconvenience, there fhould be 
no intereft but what is equivalent to the hazard ; fo, it 
there were no hazard, there ought to be no inteielt, fave 
only what arifes from the mere inconvenience of lending. 
Thus, if the quantity of fpecie in a nation be fuch, that 
the °-eneral inconvenience of lending for a year is com¬ 
puted to amount to three per cent, a man that has money 
by him will perhaps lend it upon good perfonai fecunty 
at five per cent, allowing two for the hazard run; he 
will lend it upon landed fecurity, or mortgage, at four 
per cent, the hazard being proportionably lefs ; but he 
will lend it to the ftate, on the maintenance of which all 
his property depends, at three per cent, the hazard being 
none at all. But fometimes the hazard may be greater 
than the rate of intereft allowed by law will compenfate. 
And this gives rife to the practice of bottomry, or rtjpon- 
denlia, of which we have juft fpoken undei the aiticle 
. Insurance. 
Upon the two principles of inconvenience and hazard, 
compared together, different nations have at different 
times eftablifhed different rates of intereft. The Romans 
at one time allowed centefmce, one per cent, monthly, or 
twelve per cent, per annum, to be taken for common 
loans: but Juftinian reduced it to trientes, or one-third of 
the as or centefma, that is four per cent, but allowed 
higher intereft to be taken of merchants, becaufe there 
the hazard was greater. So too Grotius informs us, that 
in Holland the rate of intereft was then eight per cent, 
in common loans, but twelve to merchants. Our law ef- 
■tablifhes one ftandard for all alike, where the pledge or 
VOL. XI. No. 743. 
I N T 165 
fecurity itfelf is not put in jeopardy; left, under the ge¬ 
neral pretence of vague and indeterminate hazards, a 
door fhould be opened to fraud and ufury; leaving fpe- 
cific hazards to be provided againft by fpecific infurances, 
or by loans upon refpondentia, or bottomry. But, as to 
the rate of legal intereft, it has varied and decreafed for 
two hundred years paft, according as the quantity of fpecie 
in the kingdom has increafed by acceftlons of trade, the 
introduction of paper-credit, and other circumftances. 
The flat. 37 Hen. VIII. c. 9, confined intereft to ten per 
cent, and fo did the flat. 13 Eliz. c. 8. But as, through 
the encouragements givemin her reign to commerce, the 
nation grew more wealthy, fo, under her fucceffor, the 
flat. 21 Jac. I. c. 17, reduced it to eight per cent, as did 
the flat. 12 Car. II. c. 13, to fix; and laftly, by the flat. 12 
Ann, flat. 2. c. 16, it was brought down to five per cent, 
yearly, which is now the extremity of legal intereft that 
can be taken. But yet, if a contrail which carries inte¬ 
reft be made, in a foreign country, our courts will direct 
the payment of intereft according to the law of that 
country in which the contrail was made. Thus Iriftv, 
American, Turkifh, and Indian, intereft, have been al¬ 
lowed in our courts to the amount of 12 per cent, and 
more. For the moderation or exorbitance of intereft de¬ 
pends upon local circumftances; and the refufal to en¬ 
force fuch contracts would put a flop to all foreign trade. 
And, by flat. 14 Geo. III. c. 79, all mortgages and other 
fecurities upon eflates or other property in Ireland or the 
plantations, bearing intereft not exceeding fix per cent, 
lhall be legal; though executed in the kingdom of Great 
Britain: unlefs the money lent (hall be known at the 
time to exceed the value of the thing in pledge ; in which 
cafe alfo, to prevent ufurious contrails at home under 
colour of fuch foreign fecurities, the borrower lhall for¬ 
feit treble the fum fo borrowed. 
For the method of computing Intereft, fimple and com¬ 
pound, with ufeful Tables, fee the article Arithmetic, 
vol. ii. p. 172-175 ; and for calculating Life-annuities, 
fee Algebra, and Annuities, vol. i. alfo Complement, 
vol. iv. and Expectancy, vol. vii. 
Interest, in law, is commonly underftood a chattel 
real, as a leafe for years, See. and more particularly for a 
future term ; in which cafe it is faid in pleadings that one 
is poffeffed de interejfe termini. Therefore an etlate in lands 
is better than a right or intereft in them; though, in le¬ 
gal underftanding, an intereft extends to eftates, rights, 
and titles, that a man hath in, or out of,, lands, Sec. lo as 
by grant of his whole intereft in fuch land, a reverfion 
therein, as well as poffeflion in fee-limple, lhall pafs. Co. 
Lit. 345. Becaufe no livery of feifin is neceffary to a leafe 
for years, fuch leflee is not faid to be feifed, or,to have 
true legal feifin of the land. Nor indeed does the bare 
leafe veil any -eftate in the leffee, but only gives him a 
right of entry on the tenement, which right is called his 
interelt in the term, or interejfe. termini ; but when he has 
actually fo entered, and thereby accepted the grant, the 
eftate is then and not before veiled in him, and he is pof¬ 
feffed not properly of the land, but of the term of years ; 
the poffefiion or feifin of the land remaining Hill in him 
who hath the freehold. 1 Injl. 46. 2 Comm. 144. 
A mortgage is an intereft in land, and, on non-pay¬ 
ment, the eftate is abfolute in law, and his intereft is good 
in equity to entitle him to receive and enjoy the profits 
till redemption or fatisfaflion ; and on a foreclofure, he 
hath the abfolute ellate both in law and equity. 9 Mod, 
196. See Mortgage. 
INTERES'TING, adj. Engaging attention and intereft! 
INTERESTING, f. The ail of engaging as one in- 
terefted ; the ail of engaging another to take an intereft. 
INTERFaTMIN'EUM, /. in anatomy, the part of the 
body which lies between the thighs and the groin. Scott. 
INTERFEC'TION, /. [from inlerfcio, Lat. to kill. J 
The ail of killing. Bailey. 
INTERFEC'TOR, f. One that kills; a deftruilive 
planet. Bailey. 
U u 
