From King Billy to the Glasgow Trams. A brief history of government debt…

Governments often need more money than they can extract from their citizens or subjects. Centuries ago, the sovereign relied on loans at interest. This was called ‘usury’, but usury at that time carried no implication of extortionate rates of interest. It wasn’t until Jean Calvin decided that lending money at interest wasn’t a sin that such lending became acceptable amongst Christians. (Calvin thought a rate of 5% per annum was reasonable.) King William, at the end of the 17th century, …

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