lord of the fee. No action could be maintained on any promise to pay for the use of money, because of the unlawfulness of the contract. Whilst the common law thus condemned all usury, Parliament interfered, and made it lawful to take a limited amount of interest. It was not upon the theory that the legislature could arbitrarily fix the compensation which one could receive for the use of property, which, by the general law, was the subject of hire for compensation, that Parliament acted, but in order to confer a privilege which the common law denied. The reasons which led to this legislation originally have long since ceased to exist; and if the legislation is still persisted in, it is because a long acquiescence in the exercise of a power, especially when it was rightfully assumed in the first instance, is generally received as sufficient evidence of its continued lawfulness." 1 But, of course, this reason furnishes no justification for the present existence of such laws. In the light of modern public opinion, the lending of money on interest is in no sense a privilege, and no law can make it so. The biblical injunction against the taking of interest, and the fact that the original money lenders of Europe were Jews; in other words, respect for the teachings of the Bible on the subject, and hate for the despised Jew, probably combined to bring the usury laws into being. In the Middle Ages, the Jew had no rights at all. Every recognition of his natural rights was a privilege. Suffice it to say, that on no satisfactory grounds can usury laws be justified. But their enactment has so long been recognized as a constitutional exercise of legislative authority, and the fact that they become dead letters as soon as enacted, render it very unlikely that the courts will pronounce them unconstitutional, however questionable legal writers and authorities may consider them. Mr. Cooley says that the usury laws are "difficult to defend 1 Field, J., in Munn v. Illinois, 94 U. S. 136; 10 Bac. Abr. 264. 1 on principle; but the power to regulate the rate of interest has been employed from the earliest days, and has been too long acquiesced in to be questioned now." I differ with the learned judge in his opinion that long acquiescence in such laws precludes an inquiry into their constitutionality; but will readily accede that the easy evasion of them makes it unimportant whether they are questioned or not, except that it may be considered as highly injurious to enact any law which is not or cannot be enforced, in that the successful defiance or evasion of a particular law tends to lessen one's reverence for law in general. Free trade is an § 95. Prevention of Speculation. undoubted constitutional right. Every man has the constitutional right, not only to determine with whom he will have business dealings, and to whom he shall offer his goods or his services, but he also has the right, in most cases, whether he shall offer them to any one at all. He may refuse, without giving any reasons, to sell his goods or to tender his services. He cannot ordinarily be compelled to do either. The only exceptions that suggest themselves, are cases in which the right of eminent domain is exercised,2 and those in which the State in the emergency of war makes forced sales of the property of private individuals for war purposes, and all cases of compulsory performance of duties to the State. In all other cases a man cannot lawfully be compelled to part with his property, or to render services against his will. Circumstances may conduce to make a particular business a virtual monopoly in the hands of one man or one partnership. But I apprehend that he cannot for that reason be subjected to police regulation. Because one man has the capital wherewith to buy up all the corn or wheat in our great Western markets, and to cause in con 1 Cooley's Principles of Const. Law, p. 235. See post, § 121. sequence a rise in the values of these commodities, does not justify State interference with his liberty of action, any more than would the police regulation of the whole capitalist class be permissible. And yet this one man occupies an economical position, differing only in degree from the capitalists as a class. The same qualities and characteristics which enabled him to become a capitalist, will urge him to make the most of the wealth he has accumulated or inherited, and he will so manipulate it as to increase its returns if possible. Each successful increase in the returns from capital, increase the price of the commodity, in the manufacturing or preparation or handling of which the capital has been invested. It is only in extraordinarily abnormal cases that any one man can acquire this power over his fellow-men, unless he is the recipient of a privilege from the government, or is guilty of dishonest practices. The remedy for the first case, in a constitutional government is to withhold dangerous privileges, or if the grant of them is conducive to the public welfare, to subject their enjoyment to police regulation, so that the public may derive the benefit expected and receive no injury. In the second class of cases, a rigid prosecution of dishonest practices will be an efficient remedy. The common law did not recognize this view of a right to be free from police regulation, in the matter of trade. While the general right to buy and sell without let or hindrance was recognized, certain sales were held to be illegal, and punished as misdemeanors, which are exceedingly common at the present day, and, if not legal, are acknowledged by the commercial world as legitimate transactions. These were sales, known at common law by the names, forestalling, regrating, and engrossing. Says Blackstone: "The offense of forestalling the market is an offense against public trade. This, which (as well as the two following) is also an offense at common law, was described by statute 5 and 6 Edw. 6, ch. 14, to be the buying or contracting for any merchandise or victual coming in the way to market; or 2 dissuading persons from bringing their goods or provisions there; any of which practices make the market dearer to the fair trade. Regrating was described by the same statute to be the buying of corn or other dead victual, in any market, and selling it again in the same market, or within four miles of the place. For this also enhances the price of provisions, as every successive seller must have a successive profit. Engrossing was also described to be the getting into one's possession, or buying up, large quantities of corn or other dead victuals, with intent to sell them again. This must, of course, be injurious to the public, by putting it in the power of one or two rich men to raise the price of provisions at their own discretion. And so the total engrossing of any other commodity with an intent to sell it at an unreasonable price is an offense indictable and finable at the common law." In Russell on Crimes, these offenses are stated as follows: "Every practice or device by art, conspiracy, words, or news, to enhance the price of victuals or other merchandise, has been held to be unlawful; as being prejudicial to trade and commerce, and injurious to the public in general. Practices of this kind come under the notion of forestalling, which anciently comprehended, in its significance, regrating and engrossing and all other offenses of the like nature. Spreading false rumors, buying things in the market before the accustomed hour, or buying and selling again the same thing in the same market, are offenses of this kind. Also if a person within the realm buy merchandise in gross, and sell the same in gross, it has been considered to be an offense of this nature, on the ground that the price must be thereby enhanced, as each person through whose hands it passed would endeavor to make his profit of it." As stated by Blackstone, these acts are no longer recognized by the American criminal law as 1 4 Bl. Com. 154. 21 Russ. Crimes (Grea. Ed.), 168. offenses against the public, or as being in any way illegal. The purchase of merchandise, or any other commodity, that may be the subject of sale, expecting a rise in the price, in other words, speculation, is legal, whether the buyer intends to sell again, in gross, or in retail. A man has a constitutional right to buy anything in any quantity, providing he use only fair means, and set his own price on it, or refuse to sell at all. Where one man, acting independently, does this, he can be only considered guilty of a wrong to the public, when he secures the possession of these things by the practice of fraud, or endeavors by false reports to enhance the price of a commodity which he offers for sale. These are distinct acts of fraud or deception, and it is proper for the law to declare them illegal. Further the law cannot go. Mr Bishop, in discussing these common-law offenses, denies that regrating, as distinguishable from forestalling and engrossing, can be considered a criminal offense in this country, but he recognizes the other two offenses, in a modified form. In respect to forestalling, he says: "In reason, the essence of the common law, on the subject of forestalling, considered distinct from engrossing and regrating, seems to be, that, whenever a man, by false news, or by any kind of deception, gets into his hands a considerable amount of any one article of merchandise, and holds it for an undue profit, thereby creating a perturbation in what pertains to the public interests, he is guilty of the offense of forestalling." As stated by Mr. Bishop, the common law in making a criminal offense of forestalling is no more open to constitutional objection than the punishment or prohibition of any other act of fraud or deception. But Mr. Bishop's position, in regard to engrossing, is not as free from criticism. He says: "Whenever a man, for the purpose of putting things, as it were, out of joint, and obtaining an un 1 1 Bishop Crim. Law, § 970. * 1 Bishop Crim. Law, § 968. |