[Footnote 184-3: The high rate of interest in many countries at present may be thus accounted for. In the United States, during the last century, less than 8 per cent. was seldom paid. (_Ebeling_, III, 152.) According to _M. Chevalier_, Lettres sur l'Amérique du Nord, 1836, I, 59, the rate of interest in Pennsylvania was 6, in New York, 7, in most of the slave states, 8-9; in Louisiana, 10 per cent. In South Australia (1850) it was, with full security, 15-20 per cent. (_Reimer_, Südaustralien, 39.) In the West Indies, about the end of the last century, a strong negro might produce a revenue equal to one-fourth of his capital value. (_B. Edwards_, History of the British West Indies, II, 129.) In Brazil, the lowest rate of interest was at 9 per cent., and 12-18 per cent. was nothing unusual. (_Wappäus_, M. and S. Amerika, 1871, 1413.) In Cuba, for the government 10, for private parties, 12 to 16 per cent. (_Humboldt_, Cuba, I, 231.) In Potosi, in 1826, Temple got 30 per cent. interest on chattel mortgage, and from 2 to 4 per cent. a month was offered, while the rate of interest in Buenos Ayres amounted to 15 per cent. per annum. (_Temple_, Travels, II, 217.) In Russia, _Storch_, Handbuch, I, 262, speaks of 8-10 per cent. According to _v. Haxthausen_, it was, in the interior, never less than from 8 to 12 per cent. per annum; at Kiew and Odessa, 1¼, 1½ and 2 per cent. per month. (Studien, I, 58, 467; II, 495.) In _Greece_, the rate of interest on first mortgages is at least 10, on a second, 15-18 per cent. (Ausland, 1843, No. 82.)] [Footnote 184-4: _Nebenius_, Œff. Credit, I, 55.] [Footnote 184-5: Only in this particular instance is what _Ricardo_ so frequently insists on true, viz: that the rate of wages can be increased only at the expense of the profit of capital, and _vice versa_.] SECTION CLXXXV. HISTORY OF THE RATE OF INTEREST.--INFLUENCE OF AN ADVANCE IN CIVILIZATION.