[Footnote 194-3: Many laws seem to purposely permit this, inasmuch as they allow a rate of interest, higher in proportion as the position of the creditor is less respectable. Thus, formerly, in some places, the Jews might require higher interest than the Christians. Justinian allows _personis illustribus_ only 4 per cent.; ordinary private persons, 6 per cent.; money-changers, etc., 8 per cent. (L. 26, Cod. IV, 32.) On the other hand, according to the Indian legislation of Menu, the Brahman is obliged to confine himself to 2, the warrior to 3, the _vaysya_ to 4, the _sudra_ to 5 per cent. per month at most. (Cap. 8.)] [Footnote 194-4: _Turgot_ considered that only the _prêteurs à la petite semaine_, pawnbrokers who loaned to hard-pressed people on the confines of the middle class and artisans, and the infamous characters who advanced money to the sons of rich men to spend in dissipation, still passed for usurers. Only the latter are injurious; not, however, because of the high rate of interest they charge, but because they help in a bad cause. (Sur le Prêt d'Argent, § 32.) According to _Colquhoun_, Police of the Metropolis, 167, there are women in London from whom the hucksteresses borrow 5 shillings every day and return them every evening with ½ shilling interest. Something analogous happens much more frequently in the country, especially in the loaning in kind of productive capital to poor persons. Thus, in Tessin, there are many "iron cattle" which the borrower is obliged to return at their original value, plus an interest of about 36 per cent. (_Franscini_, C. Tessin, 152.) On the Rhine, frequently as much as 200 per cent. a year, is stipulated for in such contracts. _Morstadt_, der N. Oekonom. Heft., IX, 727.] [Footnote 194-5: Compare _J. J. Becher_, Polit. Discurs, 1668, 219; _v. Schröder_, F. Schatz- und Rentkammer, Bd. §§ 123, 133 ff. The first _montes pictatis_ were expressly intended to check the usury of the Jews. Thus, in Florence, in 1495, after the expulsion of the Jews, voluntary contributions were made to found a municipal loaning establishment. Similarly, _Tiberius_, Tacit. Ann., VI, 16 seq. _Count Soden_, Nat-Oek., IV, 57; V, 319, advises that all contracts for interest should be recorded in a public registry, under pain of their being held not actionable.] [Footnote 194-6: _Günther_, loc. cit., thinks that, in every contract in which the rate of interest is masked, its real rate should be expressed under penalty of invalidity. In addition to this, he would have those who have attained their majority put in full control of their fortune only after they had undergone an examination.