say that is hot illegal; that you can buy up
paper at any price you please. So the law
can be evaded that way; and it is done every
day. You cannot stop it. But you do this
by fixing a certain rate of interest. Yon
drive honest men to invest their money in
stocks, which are more profitable, rather than
put that amount of money into the market
where the poor men can get it, and where the
rate of interest would range lower than it
does when you have it at a certain fixed rate,
As I said to my friend from Howard (Mr.
Sands) the other day, you put the poor men
into the hands of the sharpers, because hon-
est men will invest their money otherwise
where they can get more for it; and the
sharpers are the men who lend to the poor.
You throw the poor men into their bands
entirely, and they charge all the more for
being obliged to evade the law, and for faking
that risk. They have to pay men for taking
the risks of the law and evading it; and
they always have to pay more on that ac-
count.
I have stated what I know, that in the city
of Baltimore some of the first banks, not-
withstanding what the gentleman from How-
ard (Mr. Sands) may state about money not
going out of the State of Maryland at this
rate of six ) per cent. to go to New York for
seven, some of the strongest banks in Balti-
more have as much New York paper as they
care about discounting at seven per cent.
Some leading bank men tell me that they do
not care about doing any business in Balti-
more, and do not do anything except for their
own immediate friends, for their accommoda-
tion, because they find at their counters in
the morning as much New York paper at
seven per cent., and as good paper as they
can ask, as they can discount. And they are
sending money every day to New York, be-
cause the rate is seven per cent. there and six
per cent. here,
The argument of the gentleman from How-
ard that because men invest money in Mary-
land lands, and mines, &c., therefore money
is plenty here at six per cent., is no answer
to the fact that money is actually going to
New York at seven per cent. For suppose
that money is invested here; how long is it
going to remain here? it goes into the
hands of capitalists after it is brought here,
and finds its way right back to New York and
other places where the rate of interest is
higher. Although it may come here, it will
not stay here.
I will not detain the house longer. I shall
vote with great pleasure for the amendment
of the gentleman from Prince George's, be-
cause it does not raise the rate of interest,
but simply allows contracts to be made up to
ten per cent,, saying they shall not go beyond
that. It seems to me that that is as much
as we could ask upon this subject.
Mr. BELT. As I said a short time ago, |
this has always been a favorite subject of
study with me; and I had proposed to my-
self, in case there should be a debate upon it,
to deliver some remarks to the convention.
1 had prepared some minutes upon the subject,
with a view to discuss it in its historical
and financial aspects. But I did not expect
the subject to come up to-night, and not
having my notes here, and the subject having
rather gone out of my mind, and not having
at band the authorities I intended to quote to
the house in opposition to the views that 1
supposed would be advanced; and I have
abandoned the idea of addressing the con-
vention at any length; and will only make
one or two observations in reply to gentle-
men who have spoken.
The first impulse which I had to doubt the
scientific accuracy of the policy embraced in
the usury laws, was in considering the policy
embraced in what are known as free-trade
laws. It was in opposition to interference by
the State with the natural laws of trade, no
matter what the subject-matter of interference
might be. We all know that in the early his-
tory of the country, not only in other nations
but in our own, down to a period compara-
tively modern, the State interfered with all
subjects, not only moral subjects like religion,
but actually fixed the prices of articles; and
the most ridiculous laws formerly existed in the
colonies, until the light of political economy,
which appears never to have entered the
minds of some gentlemen, broke in and dis.
pelled the cloud, and the sumptuary laws
were repealed. It was my detestation of that
policy of unnecessary interference by the
State with matters of trade, that led me to
object to interference with money as much
as with anything else; with a bargain be-
tween you and me as to what we may choose
to do with our money on the one side or to
pay for it on the other; with a trade in mo-
ney, as well as with the sale of cattle, a
horse and carriage, or a house.
Arriving at an interest in this subject from
these general views, I may say that I found
them supported by every simple modern au-
thority of any weight, I believe, without a
single exception, from the time of Jeremy
Bentham to the present hour. Every one of
any weight, who has written either in the
interest of the strictly financial circles, or
who has written in the interest of what may
be called the commercial class, or who has
written, as many of them have, in the interest
of the agricultural part of the community,
in England and elsewhere, no matter in what
interest they have written upon political
economy, yet in relation to trade and finance
every single one of any weight has indorsed
the principle of the absolute freedom of trade
in money just as trade ought to be absolutely
free in reference to its exercise on other subjects.
I have never had any doubt on the
subject in my mind since I first became ac- |
