In India, during the nineteenth century, there has come to pass a confusion scarcely less disastrous in industrial matters than that of modern Europe. India's village industries have been destroyed, and the wealth of the country drained away by economic exploitation. Just as in Europe our best thinkers are going back to the Monasteries and Guilds, in order to find the true strength and inspiration of the industrial life of "Merrie England" (as Medieval England is rightly named) so, I fully believe, there was once an industrial life in India which was joyous and wholesome-a life in which agriculture and spinning and weaving went hand in hand together, and the whole country was self-supporting as it shared in a common prosperity.

It is surely to this life of India, which drew its inspiration from the joyous religious idealism and devotion of the past, that we must go back for guidance to-day, rather than to the modern industrial life of Europe, which Western sociologists themselves are seeking to surmount and supersede.

CHAPTER IV

THE MEDIAEVAL WORLD

THE SIN OF USURY

WO important economic doctrines had been in

TWO

herited by the Middle Ages from the Early

Church. These were the doctrine of the "just price" (justum pretium) and the doctrine of the “sin of usury." The former regulated sales and bargains; the latter made the taking of interest on loans impossible for a Christian. These two doctrines were practised with great tenacity throughout the Middle Ages. They have only broken down in modern times.

In the throes of the present class warfare between labour and capital, which has been often hardly less ruthless than actual war, it may be of great service to study these two doctrines over again very carefully and thoroughly in order to find out if they offer any solution for our present industrial and commercial internecine struggles.

In order to obtain a background for these two doctrines themselves, it may be well to refer to certain flagrant examples of modern capitalistic exploitation which I have recently been investigating. I have not finished my enquiry, and therefore it will not be fair to mention the names of the business firms concerned. But

I can guarantee that the instances which I am about to present are not at all unusual in modern industrial undertakings. I have been told that they are well within the region of present day practice in our great cities, whether in New York, or Tokio, or London, or Calcutta, or Paris.

The former of the two cases is that of a modern capitalist, who is said to have bought up all the bricks in the neighbourhood of one of the greatest cities in India, and then, having obtained the monopoly, to have raised immediately the price of building material by 200 per cent.

Let us look a transaction like that squarely in the face. We know how, during the present housing crisis in Bombay and elsewhere, the one immediately necessary step to be taken is to create room for expansion in order to relieve the congested slum districts. Most vital moral issues depend on this being done quickly, for immorality breeds in slums. Yet, in the very face of this urgent social demand, here is one individual who can hinder the whole of that necessary building expansion, and hold it up indefinitely by clever manipulation of the money market. Such a man is considered supremely lucky by his neighbours if he succeeds in effecting his object. There appears to be nothing disgraceful in it. On the contrary, his new wealth brings him a thousand fresh admirers. But, if

we read the parable of Christ aright, God is saying to him, all the while

"Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee."

Surely the Christian Gospel has something more than a passive acquiescence to offer as its message to the world, when faced with reckless moral anarchy such as this I have described.

I will take my second example from the jute trade. It has been recently reported to me that a certain firm in Calcutta started business before the war and was only moderately successful. The shares had slowly risen from 100 to 145, and the rate of interest had slowly risen also. The price paid for the jute to the cultivator had also risen side by side with the prosperity of the jute business. At the outbreak of war, the cultivator could obtain 13 rupees 8 annas per maund for his jute. So far nothing abnormal had happened. But during the war and after the war the expenses of the jute cultivator had rapidly increased, and therefore, in justice, he should have received more money in return for his labour. Indeed, in order to live at the same rate as before the war, he would need to spend at least twice as much money. He ought, therefore, to be getting something like twentyfive rupees per maund for his jute. But, as a matter of fact, the opposite of this has taken place. In the years 1914-1920 the jute shares in this company went up from 145 to 1160.

The interest paid on the capital invested in the company went up from 15 per cent. before the war to 160 per cent. But the price paid to the jute cultivator went down, from 13 rupees 8 annas before the war to six rupees in the year 1920.

This requires to be examined more in detail, if the moral dislocation of the whole thing is to be realised in all its enormity.

The cultivator of jute is usually an illiterate and ignorant peasant. He has developed, as yet, no faculty for organization. It is therefore as easy as possible for the money-lender, the middle-man, the jute broker, the capitalist, the speculator on the stock exchange, and others, to exploit him. This ignorant and illiterate peasant cannot be made immediately clever enough to counteract the unscrupulous formation of "rings" and

corners" and " combines," which keep down the price of labour for the cultivator. The dice are all loaded against him. Even the Government unwittingly helps the predatory powers which batten themselves and grow fat upon the peasant's weakness. For Government publishes, from time to time, elaborately accurate forecasts of the jute crop, and the figures given are worked out by the jute magnates to serve their own monetary advantage when they rig the market.

Let us look a little more closely still at the inarticulate peasant himself. He has to work in the fields during the monsoon, often standing waist deep in the