It is to be hoped that the above exposition of the mediæval doctrine on usury will dispel the idea that the doctrine was founded upon the injustice of unearned income. Far from the receipt of an unearned income from money or other capital being in all cases condemned, it was unanimously recognised, provided that the income accrued to the owner of the capital, and not to somebody else, and that the rate of remuneration was just. The teaching on partnership rested on the fundamental assumption that a man might trade with his money, either by using it himself, or by allowing other people to use it on his behalf. In the latter case, the person making use of the money might be either assured of being paid a fixed remuneration for his services, in which case the contract was one of _locatio operarum_, or he might be willing to let his remuneration depend upon the result of the enterprise, in which case the contract was one of _societas_. In either case the right of the owner of the money to reap a profit from the operation was unquestioned, provided only that he was willing to share the risks of loss. But if, instead of making use of his money for trading either by his own exertions or by those of his partner or agent, he chose to sell his money, he was not permitted to receive more for it than its just price--which was, in fact, the repayment of the same amount. This was what happened in the case of a _mutuum_. In that case the ownership of the money was transferred to the borrower, who was perfectly at liberty to trade with it, if he so desired, and to reap whatever gain that trade produced. The prohibition of usury, far from being proof of the injustice of an income from capital, is proof of quite the contrary, because it was designed to insure that the income from capital should belong to the owner of that capital and to no other person.[1] Although, therefore, no price could be paid for a loan, the lender must be prevented from suffering any damage from making the loan, and he might make good his loss by virtue of the implied collateral contract of indemnity, which we discussed above when treating of extrinsic titles. If the lender, through making the loan, had been prevented from making a profit in trade, he might be indemnified for that loss. All through the discussions on usury we find express recognition of the justice of the owner of money deriving an income from its employment; all that the teaching of usury was at pains to define was who the person was to whom money, which was the subject matter of a _mutuum_, belonged. It is quite impossible to comprehend how modern writers can see in the usury teaching of the scholastics a fatal discouragement to the enterprise of traders and capitalists; and it is equally impossible to understand how socialists can find in that doctrine any suggestion of support for the proposition that all unearned income is immoral and unjust. [Footnote 1: See Rambaud, _op. cit._, p. 59.]