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[–]magnora7 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Usury used to be illegal among Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

The Jews were the first to break this commandment, with the stipulation that interest could be charged on loans to goyim (non-jews).

This ability to lend and circumvent the religious laws, led to this whole trend of Jewish bankers lending to Christian kings and queens, which made the bankers fantastically wealthy because they basically had a monopoly.

Later Christians basically got rid of this law, so they can lend at interest. And Usury is defined originally as ANY interest, not just excessive interest.

Last Muslims have just started to get rid of this law. But they still have a very stringent finance system compared to the west, and have different ways of making money on lending money rather than interest, but in effect it's the same: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_banking_and_finance

This progression of usury explains a lot of world history, imo.

[–]Jesus 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes, Jews basically banned usury and put it into mosaic law to annul debts as jubilees. The Book of Jubilees has all the information on this, but the Catholic Church took it out of the canon.

The Jews were the first to break this commandment, with the stipulation that interest could be charged on loans to goyim (non-jews).

Yes, and no. Sumer did this before and in neobabylonia. But it was the Hillel sect of Judaism that allowed for usury to expand and progress. Jesus was very much against this.

I agree that the progressive of usury explains a lot of world history.