Aristotle: Petty Userers Avarice

Posted by admin on Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Aristotle Money Quote saying loan sharks as small operators earning fast money on quick transactions is hated – but the description sounds like some practices of the respected banking industry on a smaller scale and without a license. Aristotle said:
 

 

“The trade of the petty usurer is hated with most reason: it makes a profit from currency itself, instead of making it from the process which currency was meant to serve. Their common characteristic is obviously their sordid avarice” — Aristotle

 

In this quote, Aristotle is criticizing the practice of petty usury or lending small sums of money at interest. He argues that this type of money-lending makes a profit solely from the exchange of currency itself through interest payments, rather than engaging in the productive economic processes or trades that currency was originally created to facilitate.

Aristotle believed money was meant to enable the exchange of goods and services between parties, not to be used to extract profit from interest alone. He describes the petty usurers’ common trait as “sordid avarice”, meaning their excessive greed and craving for wealth leads them to profit in a way he sees as unnatural and against the intended purpose of currency.

Overall, Aristotle appears to be condemning petty usury as an immoral practice that makes money from money in a way detached from real economic activity, driven solely by the usurers’ insatiable desire for riches.