“ But the history of the world for centuries proves that a condition of war is Mammon's opportunity to foist a debt upon a free people and to increase the burden of those whose bonds he already holds.His ears are deaf to advice and reason, when material and commercial advantages are to be secured. He cares not for human suffering and shed blood, if riches can be increased. When concessions can be secured, and mortgages placed, and a people exploited with profit, the cry of suffering, the pleading for pity and the call for justice are all in vain. ”
Calvin Elliott
Summary
"Usury," a treatise by Calvin Elliott, examines the moral and economic consequences of lending money at interest, critiquing the exploitation embedded in debt and the accumulation of wealth. Through incisive analysis, Elliott explores themes of labor, human hardship, and the ethical duties tied to wealth, arguing that genuine prosperity arises from productive work rather than financial exploitation.
His work denounces the systemic strain imposed by lenders charging excessive interest, advocating for a reordering of priorities where human well-being, not profit, shapes economic systems. Elliott’s text resonates with 19th-century economic critiques, emphasizing that wealth, stripped of moral intent, becomes an instrument of oppression rather than advancement.
Quotes from Usury (Calvin Elliott)
“ His coffers may be filled with gold, and his barns bursting with grain and his stalls filled with fatlings, yet all this wealth is useless and lost, unless touched with the vital energy of an intelligent laborer. But his dependence and losses give him no right to the labor of another.He has no right, no just claim, to the services of another man, his equal. All his wealth cannot confer the right. Wealth is but a thing, in itself without rights, and can therefore add nothing to the rights of its owner. ”
“ God had the highest welfare of every man at heart when He prepared the earth for his abode and gave him dominion over it. And He yearned for his deliverance from a fallen estate when He gave him a revelation of His infinite redeeming love. The eye of God is upon each individual of the race, as upon every sparrow. He has in thought, in word and in works, not the favoring of one of an hundred, while the ninety and nine are crushed or neglected, but the happiness and highest good of every one of the hundred. ”
