Interest and Usury - With Introduction by Joseph A. Schumpeter

In the case of money, we are dealing with something which is handled in our generation by methods that are extremely different from those in vogue a century or half a century ago. When tliere was a multitude of private banks, the system by which credit was issued may perhaps have been appropriate, but with the amalgamation of the banks, we have now reached a stage where something universally needed—namely money, or credit which does duty for money—has become in effect a monopoly. . . The private issue of new credit should be regarded in the modern world in just the same way in which the private minting of money was regarded in earlier times. The banks should be limited in their lending power to the amount deposited by their clients, while the issue of newer credit should be the function of public authority. This is not in any way to censure the banks or bankers. They have administered the system entrusted to them with singular uprightness and ability and public spirit. But the system has become anomalous, and, as so often happens when an anomaly has persisted through a long period of time, the result is to make into the master what ought to be the servant. THE REVEREND WILLIAM TEMPLE Archbishop of Canterbury London, September 26, 1942