But, as this expressed not the annual, but the _monthly_
interest, the true rate was, in fact, twelve per cent.; and that is the
meaning of _centesimae usurae_. Nor could money be obtained any where on
better terms than these; and, moreover, this one per cent, was exacted
rigorously as the monthly day came round, no arrears being suffered to lie
over. Under these circumstances, it was a prodigious service to lend money
at a diminished rate, and one which furnished many men with the means of
saving themselves from ruin. Pius then, by way of extending his aid as far
as possible, reduced the monthly rate of his loans to one-third per cent.,
which made the annual interest the very moderate one of four per cent. The
channels, which public spirit had as yet opened to the beneficence of the
opulent, were few indeed: charity and munificence languished, or they were
abused, or they were inefficiently directed, simply through defects in the
structure of society. Social organization, for its large development,
demanded the agency of newspapers, (together with many other forms of
assistance from the press,) of banks, of public carriages on an extensive
scale, besides infinite other inventions or establishments not yet
created--which support and powerfully react upon that same progress of
society which originally gave birth to themselves.
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