have borrowed.  The two services of which we are speaking are exchanged according to the law which governs all exchanges, the law of supply and demand.  The claims of James have a natural and impassable limit.  This is the point in which the remuneration demanded by him would absorb all the advantage which William might find in making use of a plane.  In this case, the borrowing would not take place.  William would be bound either to make a plane for himself, or to do without one, which would leave him in his original condition.  He borrows, because he gains by borrowing.  I know very well what will be told me.  You will say, William may be deceived, or, perhaps, he may be governed by necessity, and be obliged to submit to a harsh law.

It may be so.  As to errors in calculation, they belong to the infirmity of our nature, and to argue from this against the transaction in question, is objecting the possibility of loss in all imaginable transactions, in every human act.  Error is an accidental fact, which is incessantly remedied by experience.  In short, everybody must guard against it.  As far as those hard necessities are concerned, which force persons to burdensome borrowings, it is clear that these necessities exist previously to the borrowing.  If William is in a situation in which he cannot possibly do without a plane, and must borrow one at any price, does this situation result from James having taken the trouble to make the tool?  Does it not exist independently of this circumstance?  However harsh, however severe James may be, he will never render the supposed condition of William worse than it is.  Morally, it is true, the lender will be to blame; but, in an economical point of view, the loan itself can never be considered responsible for previous necessities, which it has not created, and which it relieves to a certain extent.

But this proves something to which I shall return.  The evident interests of William, representing here the borrowers, there are many Jameses and planes, in other words, lenders and capitals.  It is very evident, that if William can say to James,—­“Your demands are exorbitant; there is no lack of planes in the world;” he will be in a better situation than if James’s plane was the only one to be borrowed.  Assuredly, there is no maxim more true than this—­service for service.  But left us not forget that no service has a fixed and absolute value, compared with others.  The contracting parties are free.  Each carries his requisitions to the farthest possible point, and the most favourable circumstance for these requisitions is the absence of rivalship.  Hence it follows, that if there is a class of men more interested than any other in the formation, multiplication, and abundance of capitals, it is mainly that of the borrowers.  Now, since capitals can only be formed and increased by the stimulus and the prospect of remuneration, let this class understand the injury they are inflicting on themselves when they deny the lawfulness of interest, when they proclaim that credit should be gratuitous, when they declaim against the pretended tyranny of capital, when they discourage saving, thus forcing capitals to become scarce, and consequently interests to rise.